Communication is a very important tool, especially if you work in a multi office building and you need to send someone a message. You can try the phone, but this may be out of the office. You can also try instant messaging, but this type of software is forbidden in most offices.

You need a nifty tool that will also make the message look good and organized. For that, there are a dozen applications available for download, but the one that drew my attention is called ShixxNOTE. The program is developed on the coast of the Adriatic Sea by Mavel. The price for such an application begins from $15 for five licenses.

The interface of ShixxNOTE is practically inexistent, as when you open the application you will see only the note window where you can write your messages, ideas or notes. At a first sight, one would think that the developer has created a joke, but if you get "creative" and start right-clicking around you will notice the possibilities offered by the program.

I will begin with the options available at right-clicking the title bar. I have to tell you first that the title of the note is by default the current calendar date. The first option in there is font related and you get to change the font, style, size and script. Next in line is the color title text color changing option and the palette in there can be customized to your taste. Do not be fooled by the Title Color option, as it will change the hue of the title bar only.

Format option allows the user to "polish" the title text a little and you can choose between quite a few options (Bold, Italic, Underline, Regular, increase/decrease font size, arrange to the left/right or center the text or make the selected text upper or lowercase).

Changing the title text is made by choosing Edit title, but if you want the title to be the current calendar date then select Set date title. Roll up function wraps the whole note into the title bar.

Right-clicking right inside the note will open up a much larger menu containing the usual font formatting options in the title menu plus paragraph formatting and bullet style, and some other features I am going to explain.

File menu allows the user to open a previously saved note from the computer, save the note as .rtf, .doc or .txt, or save it as a picture (.bmp or .jpg). Theme menu gives you the opportunity of changing the "skin" of the "interface". You may not notice, but the note actually has a slim border which can be removed/added by selecting the Remove/Set border option.

An option that I really liked is Set Alarm. You can write a message and set an alarm to alert you to a certain time. The cherry on top of this is that you can set the date, and make it recur every day, week or month. You can also choose to alert you by playing a sound or by simply popping up on your desktop.

Another impressing feature is that you can set an expiration date or amount of time for the note, so that it does not get annoying enough for you to go postal on the one that sent it or on yourself.

But the best feature is Send Note To. Choosing it will open up a new window that displays all the computers in your Network Neighborhood. To send the message to more than one person, without adding them to the Note Recipients every time, you can create groups. Of course, for the message to be received all the recipients have to have ShixxNOTE installed on their machine. But if the software is not present on the recipients' computers, the software will use Windows messaging service and still send it. The message will contain sender's IP, name, name of the user or the email so that the recipient knows who is the note from.

Exporting the notes will actually save them on your computer in ShixxNOTE format (.shx).

The Good

The software impressed me with its flexibility and multitude of options.

The Bad

Sending the note as Anonymous did not work when the software sent the message via Windows Messaging System. And even if the recipient had Windows Messaging disabled, the software still announced me that the message was sent.

The Truth

I really liked the software, especially when I learned that I can use it without restriction during the trial period.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: