^^ Ahahaha. Very droll. Apparently unintended humour.
...Ignored/missed the point in 2009, and again in 2013.

@app103: I'm sorry, but you're not that unique. I had exactly the same problem in XP - my auto-hide Task Bar is on the LHS of the screen and about 2½ inches wide. I too lurved that flashing alarm, which was why I didn't use NoteZilla (which, I must say, otherwise seemed to be pretty good). I used Stickes instead - a great piece of software.   

Never mind. Hang in there. It's like maturing a good cheese: These things take time.

...Do you have any suggestions so that we can disable taskbar flashing button and at the same time not miss the reminder popup window...

No, not really. I am not a prospective or actual user of NoteZilla. As you said to @app103:

...Ok. We have only your request for this option. We will wait for some more demand for this option...

I would suggest you continue to "wait for some more demand for this option". That way, you might never need to fix it or offer that option.

I once went into a cake and biscuit-maker's shop in the UK and asked "Could I buy some gingerbread men biscuits?"
I was told "No. We don't have much call for that sort of thing."
I left the shop without buying anything, utterly confused.

^ I think you are missing the point. Never mind.

Well, when given the choice between spending $20 to upgrade Notezilla or $10 to upgrade my old 3M Post-It Digital Notes, if I am going to have to wait till v9 or beyond to get rid of the annoying taskbar button flashing, I'll upgrade 3M and use it only for my notes that have alarms. It doesn't force taskbar button flashing on me and it has a much nicer alarm manager.

Over all, Notezilla is still the better product and I'll be happy to upgrade when the annoyance is fixed. I'd rather not run 3M at all or give them another dime, but necessity rules.  

Adding this feature is not a problem. It is a minor change. But by disabling the taskbar flashing button, you might miss the reminder popup window completely. Because Windows XP onwards, another program is not allowed to interrupt the active program. This is the reason the flashing button was added by Microsoft. Do you have any suggestions so that we can disable taskbar flashing button and at the same time not miss the reminder popup window.

I am not saying to take the flashing feature away. I am only asking for an option to disable the flashing. And you don't have to set that as the default. Allow the user to decide how they want it. Those that really want it disabled would be more likely to take the risk that they may miss seeing the popup. Besides, we always have alarm sounds to catch our attention, too. 

But in case you want to know, here is how 3M does it:

They use an animated tray icon (and no annoying taskbar activating balloon notification thingie) instead of an automatic popup window.



At the same time, it plays an alarm sound.

If the user does not click the alarm tray icon within a user configurable time (I have it set for 30 mins), it plays the sound again. It keeps repeating this till the user clicks that icon. (so, for me, that would be every 30 mins)



When the user does click the icon, it brings up the alarm manager where they see a list of ALL alarms scheduled, with icons in the left column to mark the alarms that are currently due, which ones are snoozed, etc.

Unlike Notezilla, there is no dismissing of one alarm popup window, only to have another and then another pop up after, if multiple alarms are due at the same time. It's all handled in the same window at the same time.

The alarm manager also shows the entries in the order of when alarms are scheduled to go off, so it is easy to see what and when the next alarm will be. The user can easily click any entry in the list to see the actual note and/or change the scheduling for it. And the user can manually open the alarm manager at any time, from an entry on the program's tray icon menu.



A good alarm manager was a feature I had hoped you'd consider adding for v8 of Notezilla. I am willing to wait for that for that feature in v9, to allow you plenty of time to do it nicely. I am not going to suggest you copy 3M's exactly, because I have the confidence that you'll do yours, even better.

I promise, if you take care of the flashing issue in the next version, I will purchase it. Take your time...don't rush with a quick fix on my account.

I too was annoyed by the flashing alarm. However, I was annoyed with Microsoft and XP; I don't understand why Conceptworld should be hold responsible. If a feature request was sounding like "please help me to live with XP", and not like "it is your fault that XP is annoying me!", one could maybe hope to win the case...

But it is his fault and not the fault of Microsoft or XP. He is the one making the FlashWindowEx API call that is overriding my OS defaults. He chose to use that API call. Neither Microsoft nor XP forced him to type that into his IDE. I do not normally use software where the developer acts like he knows what is good for me better than I do and overrides my OS defaults, with no option to disable that kind of behavior. If he gave the option to allow the popup window to behave according to my OS settings, it wouldn't lock the taskbar in its fully extended position like it does.

Microsoft even has a whole section on notification etiquette. This is what they had to say about flashing the taskbar:

Use taskbar button flashing sparingly to demand the user's immediate attention to keep an ongoing task running. It's hard for users to concentrate while a taskbar button is flashing, so assume that they will interrupt what they are doing to make it stop. While flashing a taskbar button is better than stealing input focus, flashing taskbar buttons are still very intrusive. Make sure the interruption is justified, such as to indicate that the user needs to save data before closing a window. Inactive programs should rarely require immediate action. Don't flash the taskbar button if the only thing the user has to do is activate the program, read a message, or see a change in status.

My complaint about the flashing that he added is just a reminder of how right Microsoft is about it being very intrusive.

But I like his software...a lot...which is why I paid for it, use it, have no plans on uninstalling it, and am willing to give him a chance to fix it. But I will not hand him another dime until it's fixed, when I feel like I am being pushed into to paying for an alternative while I am waiting for him to fix it. This is an annoyance that I will not live with for another few years, one way or another, even if it means taking matters into my own hands and using an alternative for just the notes that have alarms. I am sorry, but that's how I feel about it.

But it is his fault and not the fault of Microsoft or XP. He is the one making the FlashWindowEx API call that is overriding my OS defaults. He chose to use that API call. Neither Microsoft nor XP forced him to type that into his IDE. I do not normally use software where the developer acts like he knows what is good for me better than I do and overrides my OS defaults, with no option to disable that kind of behavior. If he gave the option to allow the popup window to behave according to my OS settings, it wouldn't lock the taskbar in its fully extended position like it does.

-thank you for the explanation, April. Of course I never knew. Sorry I wrote as if I did.

@app103

Thanks a lot for the details.

But it is his fault and not the fault of Microsoft or XP. He is the one making the FlashWindowEx API call that is overriding my OS defaults.

Sorry, I didn't know there was a way to override the defaults. Please do explain how to overrid the defaults so that we can follow the standards. This is better than providing an app specific option. Please do email directly to support [at] conceptworld [dot] com, so that we don't fill this thread with conversations not beneficial to others.

@rgdot

I always thought a better solution would be for the sticky note (containing the reminder/assigned the alarm) itself to pop up. Never used NoteZilla kind of surprised it doesn't have this option (or does it?).

Yes, in the new version Notezilla popups up the sticky note. But Windows does not allow other programs to interrupt. So, we flash the taskbar button.

Thanks everyone

Regards,
Gautam Jain

BTW, I will be sticking with Notezilla 7, mainly because you have taken away my ability to send notes over my network. Now you want me to use a paid subscription service just to be able to send a note to a computer in my own home network.

That'll never happen here!

Jim

Quote

because you have taken away my ability to send notes over my network. Now you want me to use a paid subscription service just to be able to send a note to a computer in my own home network.

Well, the subscription comes with lot of other things. If it is your own computer, you don't have to send sticky notes back and forth. Subscription comes with syncing of sticky notes between your computers so that you have the same copy of sticky notes everywhere. Plus, when you have the subscription, you create/access sticky notes from any smart-phone such as iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android etc.

I am certain that will be a welcome addition for some users; doesn’t do anything for me though.

In order to take several bigger steps in future, we have had to take couple of steps backwards. If you look at the whole picture, you will learn several benefits of the new model.

But I don’t have to do so right now, correct? I can keep running NZ7?

Subscription is free for the first year. So one has nothing to lose. It is win-win.

And the subscription cost thereafter?

Doggone... I lost Piky Suite when you decided to kill that off a year or so ago, and RecentX just became stale - I don’t think there has been an update of much significance for a few years now. Just making it work in OS and browser updates. RecentX had become a bit of a CPU hog when indexing so I had to abandon that. After Notezilla 7 becomes extinct I will not be using any of your programs. 

Thank you.

Jim

I haven't upgraded Notezilla because I have no interest in an online subscription.
I understand vendors being attracted to the idea because it gives them an extra income stream, but the other side of that coin is that users have an extra cost.

I much prefer any cloud synchronization to be done through cloud storage (Dropbox, Box etc) - or Google Calendar for reminders, etc. The only exception I make is Evernote, which has a different function and which has a free account so you never have to pay. Android/iOS apps would be good if they optionally synchronised with an online database (though I have found that the Android stickies I use all use handwriting, which I have found more convenient).

Agree completely with app103's recommendations for improvements to the reminders feature.

Thanks Jim & Dormouse,

Yes, we will be adding the local network feature. When we commit it in public, we surely add it. Just that it sometimes get delayed.

Dormouse, weeks after we announced Notezilla 8, we made the cloud subscription free for 1 whole year. So when you upgrade to the new version, for 1-year you can sync sticky notes with the cloud & access them from phone without paying anything.

You may want to again review the new features added in the Notezilla 8 - http://www.conceptworld.com/Notezilla/WhatsNew

Regards,
Gautam Jain

Here it is! We just released a new build of Notezilla 8 that will let you send sticky notes instantly to another computer across local network (LAN). This feature does not depend on the Notezilla.Net cloud service.

You can download latest Notezilla 8 from here: http://www.conceptworld.com/Notezilla
Short video tutorial about how it works is here: http://youtu.be/pFYVUVqJUT8

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Regards,
Gautam Jain