You've done a good job on this mod. Here's my personal wish list, if you're going to keep developing.
1. Left-align the title by default, so it matches the rest of the User CP, if someone wants it centered, they can edit the template.
2. Use the "raised" panel around the textarea, with the "save" button below the panel, so it better matches the User CP.
3. With the fluid width setting, make the textarea 95% wide instead of 100%, to give a bit of a margin on the sides.
4. At the bottom (beside the increase/decrease size links-- so it doesn't take more space), tell the user the max # of characters allowed in the notepad.
5. Add an onchange javascript handler to the textarea, and show the user how many characters are in the textarea, while they're typing. You can also stop accepting input when the limit is reached. Drop me a PM if you want the JS code for this.
6. Make the whole "personal notepad" block collapsible. See below.
7. Cache the template. Add $globaltemplates[] = 'personal_notepad'; to a plugin on the cache_templates hook.
That's all for now

And thanks again for your work.
Make a collapsible box:
Code:
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="180">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="thead">
<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('MYBOX')"><img id="collapseimg_MYBOX"
src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_MYBOX].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
TITLE HERE
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody id="collapseobj_MYBOX" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_MYBOX]">
<tr>
<td class="alt1" nowrap="nowrap">CONTENTS HERE</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
see also
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=119931