Software Gadgets

To understand my need for this program, you have to understand that I have no sense of time when I'm working at my computer and that I type by the hunt and peck method (so I am normally looking at my keyboard as I type instead of the screen). My lack of time sense when I'm busy at the computer makes a reminder program a wonderful idea. The only problem is most reminder programs take the focus away from what you are working on when they pop up their reminder. I would be busily typing along only to look up at the screen and realize that a couple of hundred characters had gone into a black hole because a reminder window had popped up and taken the focus away from my editor. I tried and deleted a number of reminder programs due to this problem. I had just about given up when I stumbled upon Stickies.

Stickies doesn't bill itself as a reminder program, but as a program for creating little "post-it" type notes on your screen. However, you can set notes to appear at a set time -- just like a reminder program -- but the notes do not take the focus when they appear. My wife was pleased as she no longer had to interrupt me (and get nasty body language for doing so) to remind me to do various chores.

Stickies has a number of other features, however, and has proven useful to me in its intended "post-it" note function as well. Here is a list of the program's main features from the Stickies web site:

* Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed, even through reboots
* Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons may be changed, and styles saved. Stickies can be resized.
* Stickies can snap to each others edges to keep them lined up
* Stickies can be transferred from one machine to another either over a TCP/IP network connection, or by using an SMTP mail server or MAPI client:

o Hierarchical friends list, which may be automatically transferred from other friends
o Play a sound file on receive
o Signature for transmitted or emailed stickies
o Favourite friends, and custom lists can be made

* Stickies can be hidden for a certain period, until a specified date and time, or to wake every day, week or month, to act as reminders.
* Stickies can have alarms set to ensure you notice them at a point you choose
* Stickies can be transferred to and from your Palm or PPC PDA.
* International language support
* Stickies is small and simple, it writes to a single text file, and does not touch the registry
* ...and Stickies is completely free!

Stickies is even more useful with the Stickies Store addon in the Tools section of the Stickies web site. If you right-click a sticky when Stickies Store is installed, you'll see an extra menu item at the bottom of the menu, "Store sticky". This will transfer the sticky into the Stickies Store, which will then ask you to give it a title if it doesn't already have one, and choose a category in which to place the sticky. Stored stickies can be sorted, and can be printed, searched and sent back to Stickies. This allows you to store stickies that you don't want displayed on your screen for later use. This is great if you are taking notes on web sites, for example. Stickies and Stickies Store make a useful free-form database.

Rating: 4 Stars
Operating System: Windows
License: Freeware
Price: Free
Version Reviewed: 5.2a
Web Site: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/index.html
See Screenshots