Quasi Post-It note utility?

[barney]

Folk,

Back in the days of 98/98SE, I had a small utility that let me make quick notes about documents in almost any application.  If I was on a Web page, I'd store a comment - that comment would be resurrected if I revisited that page.

If I was reading a PDF and made notes, they would be would be recallable the next time I opened that PDF.

Same thing applied for almost every application I opened.  It even recalled notes I'd made on specific emails, whether Outlook, Pegasus, or HotMail.

It didn't work on every application, just on most ... I think it used the window title to identify notes, but not certain of that.

When I upgraded to Win2K, the little app came right along & worked just fine, to my surprise and delight.

Somewhere in the process of upgrading to XP, the app got lost in the shuffle, and I'd forgotten the name  .

Does anyone know the name of that little app, or perhaps know of one with similar functionality?

Basic functionality would be

• local storage
• small footprint
• automatic date/time (on/off selectable)
• adjustable font, colours, etc.
• editable after save
• printable list, selectable/sortable by tag(s) (preferred, but not required)
• portable (convenient but not requisite)

With the exception of portability, that's the list of capabilities that I recall.

The way it worked
While resident, it would place another element in the title bar of the active application, just to the left of the minimize symbol.  When that element was clicked, it would open a note window with existing notes, if any for that particular document, otherwise empty.  The note window had three options; Save, Cancel, Delete.  From the app itself, you could view notes, edit notes, print notes sorted/selected by tag, configure note appearance, export notes (also selectable by tag), or exit the app.

That's all I can recall about it.  It was extremely useful for quick product reviews, document suggestions w/o doing direct edits, & general brainstorming.  It was also great for keeping track of suggestions/corrections to my VB/database applications.  I suspect it was coded with VB or Turbo Pascal/Delphi, but don't know that to be factual.

Anybody recall this little app?  Or, perhaps, know of something similar?

[JavaJones]

That sounds like an incredibly cool and useful tool. I'd love to know about a similar app today as well.

- Oshyan

[cmpm]

Found two that may be it.

One free, I had to read the features, and it says it can be done.

http://www.zhornsoft...ickies/download.html

And this one for $20 claims the ability.

http://www.conceptworld.com/QNP/

[barney]

JavaJones -
Incredibly useful is right - saved my butt more than once when I was doing local development @ MCI.

cmpm -
Thanks.  The $20 app (QNP) has been updated to NoteZilla - with another sawbuck tacked on.  Worth it if it performs.

Downloaded the trial version - 30 or 45 day trial - and also the Stickies from the 1st link you provided.  Testing the Stickies app now ... kinda clunky interface, but it does seem to perform as advertised.  I've established notes for an email in Gmail, a Web site, and a script in Komodo.  Each disappears when I change focus or change documents, albeit response seems somewhat slow.

I'll keep plugging away, get a better read on performance and functionality, then post my results back here.  Figured I'd give Stickies a week, then do the same for NoteZilla.  I'd prefer free, of course, but NoteZilla's price is not outrageous if it outperforms Stickies.  'Preciate the links, btw:  hadn't run across either app in my searches ... maybe I need to take a course in search?

[joby_toss]

Quote from PowerPro's help file:

showing Notes when specified programs or documents are active

You can arrange for notes to be shown only when a program or a document is the foreground window. To do this, you first check "Show !captionlist category matching active" on the Setup >Advanced >Notes. You should then restart PowerPro. You then have to create and assign a special category for notes you want to depend on the active window.

The category name must start with an exclamation mark (!) and take the form:  !captionlist  where the caption list is set to match the programs or documents for which the note is to be shown.

Document matching assumes the document name is placed in the window caption and the caption list is used to match that caption. Use a + instead of an * for the caption wildcard (since categories are stored as folder names and Windows does not allow * in folder names).

For example, notes with category:  !=winword,=notepad
would appear whenever MS Word or Notepad programs were active.

For example, notes with category:  !Microsoft excel+mysheet.xls
would appear only when a caption starting with Microsoft Excel and ending in mysheet.xls appeared on the active window.

Gotta love PowerPro!  

Edit: maybe this forum link will help too.

[barney]

PowerPro is nice for a lot of things, but it's a bit clunky for this purpose.

While using the app, I'll never know what window I'll be dealing with until it's there.  If it's not in the PowerPro list, I'll have to take time - that I might not have - right then to add it.  I've also seen times in the past when PowerPro had difficulty identifying some windows.

Although, the Stickies app that I'm testing right now has some of that clunkiness, as well.  In order to attach a note to a window, it must be selected from a list produced by a right-click menu.  Would be much better if I could just select Attach from the menu, then click the window to which the note should attach.

Also would be nice if the note would attach to the document, not the note, i.e., the note would show up on a web page regardless of the browser used.  As it is, the note seems to attach to the browser/page combination.

[Dormouse]

Both Stickies and NoteZilla work well and do what they say; both can be used as portable progs. Both have pretty responsive developers, so you can always approach them with suggestions. It's just a question of checking which you prefer, whether Notezilla is worth the cost if you do prefer it.

[rjbull]

barney,

I currently use Magic Notes which is $19.95, mostly as I've been using it for years.  Recent versions can attach to specific windows, but I haven't tested this feature much.  The main thing I don't like about MN is that every note is a hidden window, so if you lose some other window and have to go and find it, you're apt to have horse's work to do so.

Tom Revell who wrote Stickies is very helpful, so it's worth contacting him.  And, as you're a DC charter member, DC discounts are available to you.  The "Specials" page still lists the 30% discount on Notezilla as active.  Notezilla has had some happy comments on DC in the past.

I'd be interested to hear if you ever do find your original application, though.

[barney]

Sorry I took so long to get back to this.

I've been using Stickies.  After a rather stupid question to the author, I've found it to do almost everything I want.

Sidebar:  RTFM is incomplete ... it should be RATFM, with the A standing for All  .

Stickies offers the * wild card character for the attachment, so with a bit of judgement, I can see the same note attached to a Web page in any browser, in any IDE or editor.  This is a Godsend when I'm editing PHP or CSS script and don't quite recall why I wanted to make a change, or, perhaps, all the changes that need to be made.  Since it pretty much fulfills my needs, I've not bothered to test anything else.  That may happen in the future, but for the nonce, Stickies works for me.

Oh, yeah, it can be made portable, so working on Web script on another machine is feasible.

[app103]

I am a big fan of Notezilla and use it as an auxiliary hard disk for my brain. My whole life is stored in it and I automate a lot through it.

There is a lot of info about it if you search the forum, including a review, a DC members only discount, and my story about how I came to use it.

It was one of the best software purchases I have made in years.

For a comprehensive list of all the sticky notes applications that exist for Windows, take a look here.

[rjbull]

Notezilla [...] a DC members only discount

-app103 (February 01, 2010, 04:02 PM)

Bits du Jour have a Notezilla discount (41%) on Tue. 9th. Feb.