14 DAY TRIAL // If you are always taking notes, putting them all over your desk and, eventually, move them into your first desk drawer, then StickyBrain is a program for you. Designed to be an information manager for those little tidbits that don't fit or belong anywhere else, this program makes it easier than ever to find and access your notes. I am using the term notes loosely... you can use StickyBrain to hold phone numbers, passwords, images and just about anything else.
A familiar look and feel The main looks and works like a crossover between Safari and Mail. Your notes are organized in folders and subfolders which are displayed in a drawer to the right of the main window. Beside each folder and subfolder we can see the number of notes inside, in a manner that is very similar to the way Mail displays the number of unread messages. The Main window itself is very much like Mail, with the list of notes in the upper half and the current note view/edit below it. You can have multiple notes opened in tabs without having several windows opened. Although at first it might seem that the tabs only contain different notes in the view/edit part of the window, each tab also has different folder list settings.
You are free to customize folders and notes as much as you like, from the icon in the drawer to the look of each new note that is created in that folder. For each note you can set a background color, texture, or image for a note; add a calendar; add a checkbox in any of the eight styles, or select from three window styles, including a Sticky-like window style with adjustable transparency.
Searching is nice and fast, and when you select any note from the search results, StickyBrain automatically jumps to the first occurrence of the search keyword and highlights it. Also, you can link notes to one another so that when you select one, it highlights the linked notes using a defined color. The link window through which you set links and find linked files, if they are not visible in the note listing, is simple enough to use, but is awkward to keep around and switch to.
For each note you can set an alarm which can be either a one-time deal or a persistent one that stays on screen until you deal with it. The alarm, when it goes off, presents you with a window of the note, the date and time of the alarm and the options to either dismiss the alarm or snooze for a number of minutes / hours / days of your choosing. Also, notes can be attached to addressbook contacts, and, since alarms can be attached to notes, you can practically link alarms to your contacts.
Cram everything in there The domain where StickyBrain excels is information transfer. Whether you want to get something out of it or want to get something inside, the programs offers a host of possibilities. You can import text or RTF (Rich Text Format) files, other StickyBrain files, or Stickies and images can be inserted into notes with the Image Browser. This Image Browser is perhaps the most badly designed, borderline useless and unintuitive part of StickyBrain. On one hand, you can only import images in the iPhoto library and clip art which comes either with other products from the developer or as stand-alone products. I cannot say I am against a company promoting their products, but the choices you are being given here are so limited they are practically non-existent. My second qualm is with the way the images are handled. The Image browser gives us a horribly pixelated preview of the image which we have to scale to the size we want before dropping it into the note. I am not surprised that the program cannot resize picture, but the way they tried to work around the problem is truly sad. Even if you were able to approximate the size you want the imported image to be, the constant repositioning of the thumbnails makes it impossible to actually exert precision, since the thumbnail you are currently looking at is horribly pixelated and constantly changing its position.
Take notes and search through notes anywhere, anytime Fortunately, StickyBrain works best from outside the application. Anything you want to add you can send directly to a note using the contextual menu, the services menu or shortcuts you can define. The program doesn't even need to be running in order to do this. It's great to just select what information you need from a website or a text document or an image and send it directly to a note. Websites retain their placement and do not become a garbled mass of letters and images, and rich text formating is also kept intact. Grab everything without any hassle and sort it out later. Furthermore, FlashNote and QuickNote also function even without StickyBrain open, so you can write your own notes and search through existing ones right from the middle of whatever you were doing.
On the export side of things, StickyBrain can export one or more notes as individual files or a combined plain text or RTF file, and can even synchronize with your .Mac account, Palm OS device, or iPod.
The Good A great program to keep all your notes in, superb grab and search features that function from any other program, even when StickyBrain is not open. Familiar interface and work flow, and many features that will help you keep your notes under control.
The Bad The Image Browser is more likely to hinder than help, and also I don't understand why new notes have to open as a separate window and not as a new tab. Some users might not like the fact that the program never asks before saving changes to a note.
The Truth A great freeform way to work with your notes. Has some limitations but fortunately these poor design choices will rarely bother us because of the great grab features.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
