stickies

Give documents dynamic sticky notes with A.nnotate

This afternoon I've been playing with a real fun annotation tool (at least fun compared with Microsoft Word). It's called A.nnotate, and it's one of the simplest tools I've come across, letting you add small (or very large) notes, corrections, or scribblings that float on top of the document like little widgets.

By default the notes are anchored to where they've been put on the document, but you can simply move them about, or sort them on a one-page listing that will organize them by time or who wrote them.

Power users will get … Read more

Stuck on Stickies

There's not much need for a sticky notes program if you've got a desktop widgets manager. If you don't, though, the alternatives can be as frustrating as a real-life sticky note that just won't stick. Some are shareware that hide their best features behind the registration wall, and others are low-end freeware that can be buggy. Stickies is different, combining the best and most important features that you could want in a notes program, with the glory of being free to use.

The program's main feature, the sticky note, can be customized on nearly every … Read more

Take note with Notesake

Although there are lots of freeware and pay-to-play note-taking programs, there hasn't been a note-killer, a single note-taker that makes you sit up and take notice. While scouring the Web for this elusive-but-essential tool, Notesake shines as a robust tool designed for the college lecture hall but useful for a myriad of purposes.

Take note! A virtual sticky notes roundup

Like their real-world counterpart, a quickly jotted digital sticky note placed prominently on the desktop can be just the reminder or inspirational message you need. And it won't bulk up the landfill when you trash it.

Software sticky notes are simply movable widgets that contain text, and even the simplest possess some font, color, and formatting customization. Most of the apps I looked at let you add alarms, sounds, and hot key shortcuts. The more advanced programs are surprisingly powerful, adding sophisticated synchronizing features and management platforms to track notes and reduce desktop clutter.

Not all the sticky notes products are free (NoteZilla) , and not all the paid products are good (StickyNote). Here are six popular studs and duds you should take note of.… Read more

Fleck: bouncing sticky notes on any Web site

Fleck is a free Web annotation tool for marking up blogs, Web sites, and social networking profiles with little sticky notes. The service launched late last year as a Firefox-only tool and has since added compatibility with Internet Explorer. Fleck, like other annotation tools, can be a dead-simple way to collaborate and leave visual feedback for others without the hassle of software or the complexity of more advanced business collaboration tools.

Managing annotations with Fleck is very simple. Just plug a URL from any Web site into Fleck.com and you're ready to go. You can create and move … Read more

BlogRovr plugs you into your favorite blogs, even when you're not reading them

I reviewed ActiveWeave's sticky-note service, called Stickis, in November. I liked the concept but said the site had "user interface features to work through," and that it could "stand to lose some of its advanced features." The team at ActiveWeave apparently got the message, since the company's new product, BlogRovr, is just as interesting as Stickis but also a lot simpler. And, therefore, more useful. (By the way, there's a quote from my Stickis review on the BlogRovr home page. Unsurprisingly, it's not one of the above.)

Here's the BlogRovr concept: … Read more

Trailfire: More-evolved Web stickies

Trailfire, like the recently-launched ActiveWeave Stickis, lets you attach notes that other people can see to Web pages, and then link your notes together in a trail, like a old-fashioned Web ring. The product has been out since August, but at Demo 07 the company will show how it has evolved its product in a few smart ways.

Users can now leave comments on annotations, making them nice jumping-off points for focused discussions. Also, each "trail" gets its own Web page as a "trailhead." That's so Google will pick up the trails and index them. … Read more