14 DAY TRIAL // As I am a bit unorganized in my everyday life, I am used to leave sticky notes all around my desk, monitor and not only, as my fridge door gets full of them too. It looks a bit unaesthetic, but I have to confess they are very useful indeed. The bad part of these paper notes is the fact that you can't attach them an alarm to make you aware of the deadline that is about to expire.
An electronic solution to the above mentioned problem comes from Alta Softworks via Alta Sticker and it is very similar to the paper one. From the beginning, I have to tell you that it is not freeware and its trial period is limited to 15 days. On the other hand, easiness is the main characteristic of this application as it doesn't take more than 20 seconds to set up a screen reminder, attach a visual and audio alarm and roll it up or aside onto your screen.
First time when you use it, there will be a few important shortcuts for the program displayed on the desktop that will help you organize (yourself and the program) much better. Unfortunately, if you want to find them again, it will look like they have dissipated for good. Don't worry, as you can retrieve all hotkeys from the Help menu provided by the application.
Nothing major is going to attract your attention except for a new icon in system tray. On double clicking it, a sticky note will appear on the screen and you can type in whatever your boss is telling you on the phone in that very second.
For you not to forget about it, the next logical step is to enable an alarm so you can see the note blinking when the time set has reached the limit. In case you will not be around the computer at that time, set a sound alarm to accompany the note before it expires. The only accepted audio format is WAV, so make sure you have some files of this type around. An alarm can expire after 1 or 5 notifications, every 5 or 10 minutes, after 1 hour or never. Select the Blink tray icon and center screen (for sticky note location) checkboxes and you are done. For your convenience, don't forget to roll it up or on a side of your screen, to help you maintain a clear appearance of computer's desktop.
It is possible to delete (Close All) all notes if you get too many of them or they can be hidden from user' view. The application may be set to run at Windows startup or have a default sound so there will be no need to browse again for a WAV file.
As for text customization, the font's name, style, size and color may be chosen. If you are not able to find anything nice among the preset colors, try to define one yourself. Check what colors are available for your sticky notes or choose the default one. Transparency and Shadows can be adjusted from the Screen menu (Windows XP), but are unavailable in Vista operating system even if registered. You receive confirmations regarding program or sticky notes closure, or when you exit from one that has an active alarm. To reset to previous values, press the Default button. You can arrange the notes from the desktop ordered in cascade, tile them top and bottom or side by side.
If you want to see all the sticky notes, you have to open the Alta Sticker Manager. From here you can open a new sticky note, show or close specific ones and set up their order on the screen. The status column will tell you which are visible and which are hidden from view. You can reset the alarm for a selected note or set a new one.
As for assistance, Help menu is present and answers all the questions you may have. I am not sure if it's quite necessary, as it is not an extremely complicated application. When you discover a bug, you are more than welcomed to send a report containing details to the developer, via "Bug report option" from within the "?" menu.
The Good
Alta Sticker is a handy and easy-to-use software that reminds you all the jobs you have to do over the day, week or month. An unlimited number of sticky notes can be rolled up quietly on a side of the screen and you will be alerted by alarms (when set) when the time is reached. The text is customizable by changing the font, size, type and color.
The Bad
Once you finish writing a sticky note, it cannot be overwritten on mouse click and you have to use only the editing menu or the shortcut. The default color cannot be user-defined, as well as with the whole color range of the notes. The alarm sound is still being played (large WAV files) even when the note is closed. The posts stay on top of all other applications and this may be quite annoying.
Hiding a note is a faulty option, as is doesn't work all the time and CTRL+H shortcut is deleting the message you have just written. There are major discrepancies about the program's functionality within XP and Vista operating systems (Shadows and Transparency not working for the latter, even if registered).
The Truth
A really good idea with the visual and audio alert. The sticky notes can be nicely rolled up at one side of your desktop. It has some faulty features for different Windows OSs and some of its functions (hide, edit) are not working properly. It is indeed a handy software but the price is way exaggerated. Personally, I thought it is going to be free, or at most it will cost me a couple of bucks as a "gift" for the developer, but definitely not 25$.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
