[DaveMorton]

While it's not a tool that's specifically designed for use in the creation/editing of AI entities, StickyPad is a handy way to jot down thoughts, code snippets, messages, or whatever else you need to "write down", without the hassle of either finding a pen and paper, or of opening a text editor, typing whatever (or pasting from the clipboard) you need.

StickyPad has the following features:

• a multiple tab interface for keeping things separate
• "Drag and Drop" functionality, which Notepad doesn't
• the ability to customize tab names, background and text colors, to individualize each tab
• automatically saves each tab's contents on close, or through a save button that sits on each text tab
• options to shrink when focused on another app/window, or to remain full sized
• remembers it's position, along with any customized color settings per tab

I've tested it on both Windows XP and on Windows 7. When run on 7, there's a bug that makes the options tab's background color transparent, but switching from the options tab back to any of the text tabs and back restores the color. Since my dev IDE is on my XP box, it's hard to locate the problem, as I have to make my changes at my desk, then walk over to the kitchen to test it on the 7 box. I'll find the problem, however, and correct it, but it will take some time.

StickyPad can be found on my Downloads Page, along with several other apps and such that I've created over the years. Feedback, of course, is always welcome.

[Freddy]

Nice work Dave.  As I am sure you have noticed we have a broad range of interests here and any useful tools are welcomed - we are not strict about staying on topic. May I suggest you attach a screen shot - sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

I tried to install on WIndows 7 (64 bit)  but I get an error message...

[DaveMorton]

Thanks, Freddy. I've been alerted to the presence of a problem with the self-extractor file not working on some systems, so I removed that file, and uploaded the MSI file, instead. That should eliminate any installation difficulties, though the install process isn't as cool.

Below, I've attached some screenshots to show off various aspects of the app.
The first shows the Options tab, which is the only tab that can't be removed. The second shot shows what StickyPad looks like when it's not "in focus" (there's an option to prevent StickyPad from reducing it's size). The third shot shows a newly created tab, along with some new text.

[Data]

This is a neat idea GCC, if I didn’t have Win7 I would use it for sure, I couldn’t really find anything as good as yours when I had XP but it’s a feature I use all the time now in 7, yours does seem to have more options than the Win 7 one, so easy just to copy and paste to a notepad kind of thing on your desktop when your working and another reason to have a high resolution, i.e. to have plenty of gadgets on screen all the time.

Question when you close down your PC does it automatically save what’s on the pad like in the Win 7 one?

[DaveMorton]

I'm actually not sure, Datahopa, as I've never tried that. But since the tabs get saved during the main form's formClosing event, I'm certain that it should. I'll test it, and let you know.

[DaveMorton]

I've tested StickyPad's auto-save feature, both on shutdown/restart, and on logout. Both saved the text contents as expected, which is nice to know, since that's the intended action, even if I never thought of the possibility that it wouldn't.

[edit]
Of all the apps I've written so far that emulate certain Vista/7 functionality in XP, I think this one is the best so far. The desktop clock and wallpaper switcher, while both functional, lack certain features that would add "polish" to them, and thus do their respective jobs only poorly. As my skills with VB.net increase and improve, perhaps I'll revisit the other apps, and try to refine them some more. I especially want to add some sort of transition effect to the wallpaper switcher. I'm just not sure how to go about it.
[/edit]

[Data]

Good to know it saves automatically, well this gets a thumbs up from me, I reckon I use the Win 7 one a few times every day, its just there when you need to quickly save something from the clipboard, extremely handy and a tool I wouldn’t be without anymore.

5 Stars