Danny Gorog22 July 2007, 3:00 PM
Are you looking for a better notes application on your Mac than Stickies? You've come to the right place.
If you're like me and constantly have a need to jot little notes down throughout the day you'll no doubt be disappointed with the default notes app in OS X, Stickies.
Whether it's the Stickies dashboard widget or the standalone application, taking notes on virtual 'post-its' isn't very satisfying. In fact Stickies is one of those apps that Apple hasn't really bothered doing very much with since 1984.
Hopefully, Apple will right its notes mess when it releases Leopard in October and fully integrates notes in to Mail (and also with the iPhone). Until then, however, there are some other great apps on the market that can help you keep your random jots in check.
SideNote
SideNote is a shareware notes app that I've been using for a few months and really like. It's unobtrusive but always there. It's perfect for when you need to jot down a quick bit of information.
SideNote docks to either edge of your screen and appears when needed. You can set it to appear on mouse over, or by using a global key combination (I've set mine to Option + Apple + O).
SideNote lets you colour code your notes, and even print or email them as well. Unfortunately Spotlight doesn't search the contents of the notes, so you'll need to remember when you put information into SideNote.
 SideNote, docked to the left-hand side of my screen |
 Notes view |
Yojimbo
Yojimbo is a more feature-rich notes applications from BareBones software (makers of other great apps like Mailsmith and BBEdit) that is billed as letting you 'keep all the small (or even large) bits of information that pour in every day organized and accessible.'
Yojimbo lets you store lots of different sorts of information like images, PDFs and text in your notes, and all your Yojimbo information is also available via Spotlight.
BareBones has even baked in .Mac Sync Services that let you keep multiple Yojimbo databases in sync. Lastly, Yojimbo notes are sync-able via the excellent Mark/Space Missing Sync programs as well, which means they can be synced to many different types of smartphone including Blackberries.
 Yojimbo's main view |
Mori Mori is another full featured notes app that follows the split view Mail style interface. In a similar vein to Yojimbo, notes can store rich information and are Spotlight searchable.
Mori however, takes organisation to another level and actually lets you build mini-databases by letting you specify additional fields of information.
Mori uses Apple CoreData technology so it's fast and scalable, but unlike Yojimbo it doesn't sync to any smartphones.
 Mori has a clean, familiar interface and uses Apple CoreData technology so is scalable. |