14 DAY TRIAL // Everybody uses notes. They are part of our everyday life. They are used in different circumstances and in various ways. Some call them "post-it", while others call them "sticky notes" but they are just small pieces of paper we write something down on. Or, we can use the more advanced version, the modern Freebie Notes.
They are produced by Power Soft and they are free. The developer gives you three versions of the application: Dynamic Notes and Power Notes. As you probably hinted by yourselves the two versions are not free and their price ranges from $14.95 for the Dynamic to $19.95 for the Power release.
The small application amazes with its flexibility in options and features. We cannot say that it has an interface as the 230x50 window that shelters all the actions can hardly be called a main window.
The software is not something never seen before, but it has a series of options that you do not encounter in everyday free applications. The holiday "theme" it is equipped with does nothing else but remind you of the Christmas that is to come in less than a month. The option for adding a new note is composed of multiple tabs designed to offer you all the flexibility you need.
As soon as you finish writing down the note you can proceed to set the display position on the desktop or set the Quick Alarm. The Actions tab allows you to schedule a program to start when the time comes. If you are not sure of the software's power you can test the action and see if the response will be the desired one.
The Alarm Wizard lets the user set the start and end date of the alarm. This means that the alarm is recurrent and setting the alarm at a certain hour of the day at system startup or once a day is possible. As Freebie Notes is free, it comes with a number of limitations. Thus, in Quick Alarm Settings the options that will not function will generate the "Incorrect (this sticker will never be shown)" message in red. But you can set the program to alert you about a note at a certain time or on a certain date or, at every startup of the computer.
The Options menu of the application contains four tabs, one for the general settings of the software, one for the text parameters, one for other actions and settings like selecting the sound pathe the application should play when reminding you, and the last tab is the Bout of the software.
Freebie Notes can be configured to start with Windows and be minimized at startup. Sometimes you may not notice the alert (you are away from the computer or just close it and forget the next minute) and the developer has thought of adding a Time Between Reminders option that allows you to set the frequency of the alerting. On Windows 2000 and XP you can set the note transparency (minimum/maximum level and speed).
As expected, the Text Parameters let you configure the text editor. Thus, the background color and text font can be modified according to your needs. The header and text of the notes is also configurable so you can customize it the way you want or suits you. The Notes editor will display all the notes you have stored in the application.
If you remember by any chance that you have reminders or if you want to modify them in some way, you can open the scheduled tasks window and make the necessary changes.
The Good
The application is free and you will never have to pay a dime for using it. It is actually useful for forgetful persons. It will act exactly like a sticker and once the time comes it will "glue" to your desktop on top of all the other currently open windows.
The Bad
I wish I were not misled with the display of all the features that were not available in the free version. Of course this can be remedied by setting the application to display only the free version active features.
Some of the users may have some problems with distinguishing the icons in the main panel, because only by hovering the mouse over the buttons will you learn what that icon does (due to the tooltips).
The Truth
Nice application. Small, but pretty powerful once you change the alarm sound. It is small and efficient and it will alert you at the exact time. I liked the option of starting it minimized with Windows. This way, it will always be active and ready to remind you of some task.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
