[Update] Stickies 5.2b

[CoMa]

Stickies
http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

It is a computerised version of post-it notes

Main features:
- Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed,
even through reboots
- Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons
may be changed, and styles saved. Stickies can be resized.
- Stickies can snap to each others edges to keep them lined up
- Stickies can be transferred from one machine to another either
over a TCP/IP network connection, or by using an SMTP mail server
or MAPI client:
--- Hierarchical friends list, which may be automatically transferred
from other friends
--- Play a sound file on receive
--- Signature for transmitted or emailed stickies
--- Favourite friends, and custom lists can be made
- Stickies can be hidden for a certain period, until a specified date
and time, or to wake every day, week or month, to act as reminders.
- Stickies can have alarms set to ensure you notice them at a point
you choose
- Stickies can be transferred to and from your Palm or PPC PDA.
- International language support
- Stickies is small and simple, it writes to a single text file, and
does not touch the registry
- ...and Stickies is completely free!



v5.2b
Changes
+ Stickies backup file stickies.bak is saved at one hour intervals,
starting with one hour after Stickies has been started. In the event
of data loss in the main file, the user has up to an hour to recover
data from the backup.
+ The Stickies data file is only written at computer shutdown/log off
if there are any unsaved changes, rather than always being saved
at this comparatively busy time.
+ If the stickies.ini file is found to be less than 10 bytes in size at
startup, and the backup file is found to be larger than 10 bytes,
the backup will be loaded instead of the main data file. A message
is displayed which will be improved for the next full release.

This release is concerned with making the Stickies data file more stable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

v5.2a
New features
- Alt-enter in the friends dialog opens the properties of a friend
- ed2k:// paths accepted for double-clicking in a sticky
- Alternate SMTP server ports are now possible: "servernameort",
eg "mail.company.com:2525"
- The sleep dialog remembers the last used values used

Fixes
+ Will now "Close on send" when sending to just one favourite friend
+ All shortcut sleep values on the sleep menu now behave themselves
+ Options for "Ask" and "Always send mail" now work correctly
from everywhere
+ Stickies now set as transparent correctly at startup
+ Single black pixel in top-left of mail sent (envelope) icon removed
+ Calling up the friend edit box in the Friends dialog clears the
type-to-search buffer
+ Able to book out friends lists from the server without requiring :52673
on the end of the server address
+ Uses localised "(local)" string when setting a default title when
not using English
+ "Show preview of sticky text in balloon" now correctly set when
Networking is off
+ "Associate .sti files with Stickies" box correctly updated following
an error modifying the registry
+ Always-On-Top correctly set at startup when stickies "woke" while
app wasn't running

Changes
+ Server password dialog is now centered to desktop, not to the sticky
+ Error text when Stickies can't read its data file updated
+ Windows Vista beta 1 directory paths now set, so that data is stored
in the profile rather than with the executable

This release is mainly concerned with bug removal, and making Stickies
more stable. It adds a few useful new features however. It's hoped this
will be the final minor release before v6 of Stickies.







--

Regards
CoMa

http://hubbabub.deviantart.com/

 

[John Corliss]

Stickies
http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/

It is a computerised version of post-it notes
(clipped)

I've been using this program for a long time. In fact, the version on my
computer is 2.3! (guess it might be time to update, although the version
I have does everything I want.) I originally spent quite a bit of time
trying out several Post-it type programs, and this was the one I
eventually settled on. Highly recommend it.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

 

[schrodinger's cat]

I've been using this program for a long time. In fact, the version on my
computer is 2.3! (guess it might be time to update, although the version
I have does everything I want.) I originally spent quite a bit of time
trying out several Post-it type programs, and this was the one I
eventually settled on. Highly recommend it.

This would be my program of choice in this category as well, except for
the alarm behavior which brings every open note to the front of the
screen, not just the one which has the alarm set, so you have to try to
figure out which one of many notes is the one you set the alarm for.
After staying with it through several versions hoping that this would be
corrected, it finally became so annoying that I discontinued using
Stickies and went back to ATnotes, even though I much prefer the
scheduling options of Stickies.

 

[Doc]

This would be my program of choice in this category as well, except for
the alarm behavior which brings every open note to the front of the
screen, not just the one which has the alarm set, so you have to try to
figure out which one of many notes is the one you set the alarm for.
After staying with it through several versions hoping that this would be
corrected, it finally became so annoying that I discontinued using
Stickies and went back to ATnotes, even though I much prefer the
scheduling options of Stickies.

That bugs me as well, but, you can make the note that triggers the alarm
'jiggle' to stand out.

 

[John Corliss]

This would be my program of choice in this category as well, except for
the alarm behavior which brings every open note to the front of the
screen, not just the one which has the alarm set, so you have to try to
figure out which one of many notes is the one you set the alarm for.
After staying with it through several versions hoping that this would be
corrected, it finally became so annoying that I discontinued using
Stickies and went back to ATnotes, even though I much prefer the
scheduling options of Stickies.

Have you tried emailing Tom at:

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/contact.html

I'd bet he'd listen to your suggestion.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

 

[schrodinger's cat]

Have you tried emailing Tom at:

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/contact.html

I'd bet he'd listen to your suggestion.

This issue was posted on his forum by another user at least six months
ago, and Tom has unfortunately chosen to completely ignore the question.
Even looking at his list of the features he has announced for version 6
does not indicate that he plans to address it. I think I understand the
problem - I believe Stickies is an MDI construct with a single ini file
holding all the notes. It would probably require a major rewrite to fix
this issue, and I certainly don't expect Tom to do that. It is what it
is - a program that many people find extremely useful as designed, but
which doesn't quite satisfy my criteria. Actually, neither does ATnotes,
which has a different idiosyncrasy which also drives me nuts, so I
continue to search for the "perfect" sticky notes program.

 

[schrodinger's cat]

That bugs me as well, but, you can make the note that triggers the alarm
'jiggle' to stand out.

Actually, I used the Sleep function for reminders far more often than
the alarm, because the scheduling options are much more flexible in that
mode, and when a sleeping sticky which is set to be on top wakes up it
brings all other open stickies to the front as well. The behavior also
occurs whenever you create a new note, whenever you edit an existing
note's settings, and whenever you simply right click on the tray icon in
order to select an option.

 

[John Corliss]

This issue was posted on his forum by another user at least six months
ago, and Tom has unfortunately chosen to completely ignore the question.
Even looking at his list of the features he has announced for version 6
does not indicate that he plans to address it. I think I understand the
problem - I believe Stickies is an MDI construct with a single ini file
holding all the notes. It would probably require a major rewrite to fix
this issue, and I certainly don't expect Tom to do that. It is what it
is - a program that many people find extremely useful as designed, but
which doesn't quite satisfy my criteria. Actually, neither does ATnotes,
which has a different idiosyncrasy which also drives me nuts, so I
continue to search for the "perfect" sticky notes program.

I sent him an email, but you're probably correct about the program.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

 

[schrodinger's cat]

I sent him an email, but you're probably correct about the program.

If he replies to your email please post his response. I'd be curious as
to the answer.

 

[John Corliss]

If he replies to your email please post his response. I'd be curious as
to the answer.

Here ya go:
________________________________________
It's interesting to see that Stickies raises such in-depth discussion!
I wonder what else is said about it, that I never get to hear

The quotes you mail raise a number of points. The first is the one
under discussion. I don't consider the issue to be an "issue" to be
honest. To me it's a very minor point, and certainly nothing I've ever
seriously looked at changing. Why? Well, I guess because the way it
works is just fine for me. I have at any time a number of stickies on
the screen, and I like being able to click on any one to call them all
to the front. The point of the program is to remind you, so if you get
more reminders than you were planning for, that can only be good, right?

That I guess is the main reason – it works for me, and it's freeware,
you don't have to run it, etc. However, there are other reasons – one
of which is that I can't create an option for everything that people ask
for. There are some things I have to make an "executive decision"
about, and this is one. Another reason is that very few people have
raised this point, so it's very low on the list of things to look at. I
also don't know how to separate out the windows. If I understand the
terminology correctly, it's not an MDI interface, but a bunch of
overridden CDialogs, containing an extended CRichEditCtrl, all owned by
the task-tray icon. How the data is stored isn't relevant to the
presentation. I am after all a self-taught coder, and so when you don't
fully understand one point of Windows (and of course the subject matter
is huge) there's not much I can do but read what I find on the Internet
to learn. My time is limited – if it were a commercial product maybe I
could afford to spend my days coding, but I have to go to work like the
rest of us

When an alarm triggers, you can set the app to jiggle the window, and to
flash the border. That's not easily confused with other static notes,
so I guess your correspondent means something different?

I do always reply to email, but sometimes I don't answer forum
questions. Rather than be an actual forum for discussion, the place
tends to instead be just another way for people to ask for support. I
guess to that end it depresses me a little – I'd rather hear chat about
the app – but maybe to encourage that I shouldn't go on there every day
and answer queries all the time! So no, I don't always answer forum posts.

Anyway, your guy is quite fair in the end – he recognises that Stickies
is freeware, that many people are happy with it, but he's not, and as a
result of that he just doesn't have to use the app. That's the right of
every potential or actual reason, and he realises there's no reason to
just bellyache. Maybe you could forward this mail to him, and I can use
you to pass on my hope that he finds an app which works as he likes – if
push comes to shove, he could do what I did, and write my own! That way
he can be sure it works just as he wants! Competition is a healthy
thing, so I'm actually sad that ATNotes died. It was the one true
competitor, if you discount non-freeware, and I do.

Hope this clears some stuff up – please do quote any of this you'd like
to, and sorry if I came across as ranting a bit No-one ever writes
and says to me "Hey Tom, tell me all about how you feel about Stickies".

HTH,
Tom
________________________________________

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

 

[John Corliss]

If he replies to your email please post his response. I'd be curious as
to the answer.

Here's a second reply from Tom that I know you'll be interested in:
_____________________________________________

Addendum: Sitting playing with the code today, I've put in an option for
what your guy is looking for, I think, so if you do continue to
contribute to the thread (which I've just looked up) then maybe you
could let him know that for the next release at least, my note taking
app might be one step closer to what he's looking for
_____________________________________________


--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett, Doc (who uses sock puppets)
or Roger Johansson, for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial
software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware,
spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.

 

[schrodinger's cat]

Here's a second reply from Tom that I know you'll be interested in:
_____________________________________________

Addendum: Sitting playing with the code today, I've put in an option for
what your guy is looking for, I think, so if you do continue to
contribute to the thread (which I've just looked up) then maybe you
could let him know that for the next release at least, my note taking
app might be one step closer to what he's looking for
_____________________________________________

John, thanks for following through on this, and thanks to Tom for even
taking the time to fool around with an issue that is obviously not
important to the vast majority of his users. I will follow the
development of Stickies with great interest. As I mentioned in another
thread, while the alarm function does indeed have the "wiggle" option to
emphasize the note which needs attention, in fact I didn't use the alarm
nearly as much as the sleep mode (because of the sleep mode's extensive
and excellent scheduling options), and when a sticky wakes up from
sleeping it doesn't wiggle, thus making it difficult to quickly
differentiate which note just woke up from among the several notes which
simultaneously pop to the front of the screen. I appreciate Tom making
the effort to look into this, and I will certainly check out the next
version of Stickies. Heck, I'd even be willing to give up background
color gradients, a feature I've become quite fond of in ATnotes, if he
is successful in modifying this behavior.