Virtual Sticky Notes for a Neat Desktop

It’s paperless!

Well, if you happen to be one of those who love a neat desktop or the environment, then you could have a go at trying virtual sticky notes.

These are software applications that allow you to put a note on your display just as you would a Word document or presentation---no paper, no gum, and you can get rid of them by just hitting the ‘delete’ button.

There are a number of options (paid and free) available, but one of the most popular is Zhorn Software’s Stickies. It is a mere 950 KB download (from http:// http://%20www.zhornsoftware.co.u%20k/stickies/download.html ), installs smoothly on all versions of Windows, and is free.

Once installed, Stickies parks itself in the QuickLaunch bar. If you want to put a new Stickie, just double click on the Stickies icon and start typing your message on the Sticky that pops up. If you want to look at older ones or tweak configurations, go for a right click.

You can have all kinds of fonts and skins from the traditional yellow to shocking pink, if such is your inclination. Also tweak able is just how opaque you want the Stickies to be and whether you want them to always be visible or disappear the moment you click outside them.

And of course, unlike traditional sticky notes which restrict you to a pitiful scrap of paper, here you can make the Sticky as large as you wish!

It's more than just sticky business

These Stickies also do stuff that the normal paper ones cannot. For instance, you can tag them to a particular document or file, so that they show up only when that particular document of file is opened. You can also send them across to other people over the local area network or by using email.

You can even use them as alarms, asking them to pop up at a certain time say, as a reminder for an appointment. You can even transfer Stickies to handheld devices, provided they run Pocket PC and Palm OS. What’s more, Stickies is supposed to be a relatively safe piece of software.