Up Installation Upgrading FAQ Version History


Table of Contents

  1. What is needed to run Sticky Notes?
  2. How do I create a note?
  3. How do I edit a note?
  4. How do I change a note's color?
  5. How do I resize a note?
  6. How do I delete a note?
  7. How do I edit a color scheme?
  8. What is a hook?
  9. What is a 'Process' hook?
  10. What is a 'Specific' hook?
  11. How do I specify a process or specific hook?
  12. How do I figure out which process is which?
  13. Is there a way to modify the fade settings?
  14. Why does Sticky Notes slow down my computer so much?
  15. Where did my note go?
  16. Is there any way to have more/less color schemes?
  17. Why won't my color scheme select from the menu?
  18. How do I edit a note that I can't see?
  19. Why can't I attach a note to the My Computer and My Documents windows?
  20. Why do notes sometimes stay when I switch to My Computer, My Documents, or to the Desktop?
  21. Why can't I attach a note to a second monitor?
  22. What does 'Clean Memory' do?
  23. When does Sticky Notes save my notes, color schemes, and settings?
  24. What did you use to create Sticky Notes?
  25. Is the source code available?
  26. Why would I donate money?

What is needed to run Sticky Notes?

Any Windows computer that has the .NET Framework v 1.1 installed. If the program errors when you try to start it the most likely culprit is that you either don't have the .NET Framework installed or you don't have v 1.1.

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How do I create a note?

Right-click on the tray icon and select 'New'

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How do I edit a note?

Right-click on the note and select 'Edit'

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How do I change a note's color?

Right-click on the note and move your mouse over the 'Color' menu until the list of possible color schemes appears.  Then select the color scheme that you want to apply to the note.

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How do I resize a note?

Right-click on the note and select 'Resize' and then drag the border of the note.  When you are done just right-click and select 'End Resize'.

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How do I delete a note?

Right-click on the note and select 'Kill' and then select 'Yes' when it asks you if you really want to kill the note.

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How do I edit a color scheme?

Right click on the tray icon and select 'Colors' and then double click on a color scheme to edit.

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What is a hook?

It is what the note is stuck to.

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What is a 'Process' hook?

A process is a program, use this hook if you want to attach a note to something like Internet Explorer.

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What is a 'Specific' hook?

A specific hook uses the text on the title bar of a window, this hook would be used if you wanted to attach a hook to a specific web site (since the site URL is usually displayed on the title bar).

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How do I specify a process or specific hook?

First start the program (and if you plan on doing a specific hook get the program title bar to read whatever it is you want to hook it to, such as going to the web site or opening the document). Then create or edit the note that you want to hook, select the desired hook mode, and click 'Edit Hook' to edit the hook. The next window will list all the processes or windows (depending on the hook mode), merely select the process or window title to hook the note to.

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How do I figure out which process is which?

A process name will be the name of the main .exe or .dll file that is being executed. An easy way to find out what the .exe file name is for a process is to right click the shortcut that you use to start the program and look at the settings (the .exe name will be listed, just look for that in the process list without the .exe extension).

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Is there a way to modify the fade settings?

Fade can be turned off or on, merely click 'Fade' on the tray menu.  Fade speeds cannot currently be modified, however.  If this feature interests you please let me know.

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Why does Sticky Notes slow down my computer so much?

There are a few known potential reasons:

  1. The program you are using keeps switching processes. If this is the case Sticky Notes has to continually recalculate which notes to display which can cause slowdown. This has happened to me in a game before, however it is a rare problem. While running the application you will need to turn off Sticky Notes to increase performance.
  2. You have semi-transparent notes. One or two notes with an opacity less than 100% appears to work fine but the greater the number of semi-transparent notes the more the program seems to crawl.  Unfortunately, I am not responsible for the Windows.Forms library that allows me to draw windows to the screen, so I cannot do anything about this. To greatly increase performance switch all notes to 100% opacity. This does not seem to be nearly as much of an issue with version 1.1 of the .NET Framework, and is one of the main reasons Sticky Notes is now using v 1.1 of the framework.
  3. The notes fading in and out can use a significant amount of the processor if there are a large number of notes fading at once.  This is also linked to the windows forms library from Microsoft, and appears to not be as much of an issue in v 1.1 as well.
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Where did my note go?

Step one in finding a note is always to right-click the tray icon and hit 'Show All'.  At that point there are two possibilities:

Your note is there but not showing up when it's supposed to.

  1. Check the hook.  Make sure you have it set to the right hook type, and that for specific hooks that the window reads exactly as it's supposed to.  Something to keep in mind, some programs change their title bar text depending on whether or not the file you're viewing has been saved (SharpDevelop adds a * to the end, which messed up one of my hooks).  Also culprit could be something like Paint Shop Pro which might display other information in the title bar as well (like magnification and current layer).
  2. Currently, that's the only thing I can think of.  If the hook is exactly correct (and you even re-did it and it still wouldn't appear) please let me know.

Your note isn't there.

  1. Do you have fade disabled?  If you have fade off then 'Hide All' and 'Show All' may not necessarily work.  The notes should display for the correct windows, however.
  2. Have you just recently lowered the resolution of your desktop?  If you have and you had the note in a far corner, it may be there but be off the screen.  You will need to change your desktop resolution back, move the note to a better location (the center of the screen works well), and then set the resolution back the way you had it.
  3. Have you just upgraded to a new version of Sticky Notes and not run the Upgrade program?  If so you may have corrupted your install of Sticky Notes.  Typically some notes will still remain, but an easy way to tell if this has occurred is to see if the text, position, etc of those notes is correct or if they have random extra or erroneous information.
  4. If you had a note selected (just moved it, edited, etc...) and then you hit Alt-F4, since the note is technically just a standard window this would close it.  However, once you did this as soon as you clicked on another window Sticky Notes would error, so you really wouldn't have time to wonder where your note had gone.
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Is there any way to have more/less color schemes?

Not in the current version.  If this feature interests you please let me know (personally I only use three or four out of the ten as it is).

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Why won't my color scheme select from the menu?

To work correctly all color schemes should have different names.  Otherwise the program doesn't know which of the color schemes to choose and picks the first one it comes to in the list, which may or may not be the one you have edited.

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How do I edit a note that I can't see?

Right click the tray icon and select 'Show All' and then right-click and edit the note like you normally would.

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Why can't I attach a note to the My Computer and My Documents windows?

Why do notes sometimes stay when I switch to My Computer, My Documents, or to the Desktop?

These two questions are related. For some reason the built in 'My Computer' and 'My Documents' (and all locations that you can get from those locations) do not return a window handle, so currently there is no way for Sticky Notes to know if these windows are being viewed.  This will be fixed if I happen to run across a different way of accessing the current window (if any users know please let me know).  For now this is a known issue, an easy way to update the sticky notes is to click the start menu, click again so the start menu closes, and then re-select the window you were working in.

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Why can't I attach a note to a second monitor?

The note docking code currently only allows the notes to be attached to a single monitor, let me know if this feature interests you.

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What does 'Clean Memory' do?

This forces the .NET Framework to clean up all of the extra memory that it is currently using. If you check the amount of memory being used before and after you click this you may find that it helps and you may find that it doesn't do anything (it depends mostly on how many notes and such that you have open at the time). Some have mentioned Sticky Notes' memory usage as a concern. Since I am not responsible for the way the .NET Framework deals with memory I have done what I can, which is to force the framework to clean up what it can.

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When does Sticky Notes save my notes, color schemes, and settings?

Sticky Notes saves whenever it is closing.  If you have just entered some important information please click 'Save' on the tray icon menu so that it saves your note in case of computer crashes or power outages, etc.

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What did you use to create Sticky Notes?

I used Microsoft's free .NET Framework SDK (command-line compiler).  Sticky Notes was coded in C# using the free IDE #Develop (SharpDevelop) which I highly recommend to anyone interested in C#.  I used Paint Shop Pro for the logo and icon.

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Is the source code available?

You will have to contact me. I will naturally want to know what you plan to do with the source, but for personal projects or curiosity, yes, it is freely available.

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Why would I donate money?

I am one who uses free programs because they're free.  I do understand, however, that there are people who want to donate money to support a program that they like (I suppose I don't fall into this group since I can't really donate what I don't have...) and that they would be willing to pay for.  I suppose the main reasons to donate would be to let me know you like the program, and to encourage me to continue to write fun freeware programs.  If you like the program but don't want to donate money I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd take a minute or two and just let me know that you like Sticky Notes.  Also, if you're wondering what a good amount to donate is...I don't know either.  Whatever you want to donate, whatever the program's worth to you, it doesn't matter to me if you want to give me a dollar or fifty.  Either way, I hope you enjoy Sticky Notes, and if you do then tell others about it too!  My goal here is to get my name out, money isn't the focus.

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Copyright © 2003 Aaron Mady. All rights reserved.
Revised: August 13, 2003 .

God Bless!