Most applications fall into set categories and their functionality is known almost entirely by looking at what kind of program you are dealing with. Web browsers, mail applications, text editors, image editing, everything is familiar and readily recognizable. Then there are those few programs that defy these rules and break outside the pattern in such a way that it is next to impossible to clearly place them in any old category. Mental Case is one such application, which like its name implies does things in a crazy new way.

What it does
Mental Case is a crossover between a note taking application and a personal trainer of sorts. Made specifically for those people who find themselves taking mental notes but never remembering them at the appropriate time, this program is a learning aid that gets everything right.

Working with it
Mental Case works with Mental Notes, which are similar to the flash cards that are a popular learning aid. Notes can contain just about any information whatsoever, be it text or image and they can be used for any number of purposes. To organize things, the application also lets you create Mental Cases in which to store the various notes and can be used as a basis for the Slideshow learning sessions.

The anatomy of a mental note is quite simple. Each can have a prompt or a question and the main content, much like the two sides of a flash card. Besides text, you can also assign images to either of the two parts, but only one image per each. Besides this actual information that makes up the note, the application will also keep track of the note’s history and learning options. You can thus make reversible notes that can be used in either order, a learning schedule to determine how often the note should come up and the duration that the prompt and main content should be displayed. When looking at the note details, you can also see how often a note has been presented and make adjustments to its history, either advancing or moving back your progress with it as needed.
Besides the obvious question and answer approach, these notes can also be used for just about anything, from remembering people’s names and phone numbers, to memorizing what to do in certain situations you might encounter, such as a person having an asthma attack. Mental notes are deceptively simple, with infinite applications.

Mental Cases are virtual folders where you can organize your notes. The notes themselves are not kept inside the cases and any note can be added to any number of cases and removed from them without actually getting rid of the entire note. Besides names, cases can have preference overrides, letting you easily change if notes within are reversible, their learning schedule and display length. This will only apply to the notes viewed as part of the case, not altering the setting of the individual notes themselves.
Unfortunately, cases are rather dumb entities that you have to manually add content to. There are no smart cases that automatically update their content based on customizable criteria, so upon creating a new note, you will have to manually add it to any and all relevant cases.

Note taking
Creating notes is rather simple, just a matter of adding the relevant content to the prompt and main areas. The standard settings should be fine for the vast majority of notes and even when they are not, all the settings are right there. In the case of visual aid, you can get images into both areas of a note in many ways. Either take a snap with the built in camera, drag to select an area of the screen to capture or simply browse to the image you want. It is all very simple.
Besides creating notes elaborately through the application, you can also achieve the same thing quickly and on the fly, by using the menubar item. This lets you add notes without leaving the application you were working on and you can go back to them at any time in order to polish them up. Alternatively, the preferences let you assign custom keyboard shortcuts to achieve the same effect.

Send in the slides
While Mental Case will let you see all your notes in its interface, this is not the intended method for interacting with them. The way to truly use this program is through its lesson slideshows. This will present each note in turn, and for each individual note, the prompt and main content. The program will remember all lessons you take, the slides you have seen and can make all the necessary changes to ensure that you see the notes as much as you need to as per your preferences.
The slideshow itself is a very compelling experience, being both highly customizable and very good looking. You can mix and match themes, transitions for notes, transitions for prompts, the color and opacity of the background and even the size of the slideshow. The only thing that is really missing is the ability to customize these settings for each individual case.

The Good
A great way to take and remember notes and one of the best flash card learning systems out there.

The Bad
Cases are a bit too simple lacking both the ability to auto update their notes and individual slideshow preferences.

The Truth
This application is not for everyone and those who never take little notes either on paper, or thought will not find any use for it. For those who need a reminder every once and again, or people who like flash cards in general, this is a must have.

Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge: