Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Cool tools, Productivity
Sidenote keeps your notes on the side
So for quite a while now I've been using nothing more complicated than TextEdit to keep a list of what I've got on my plate any given day -- I stuck an "Untitled" text file in the top corner of my screen, and just kept it open all the time. But I wasn't quite satisfied with that -- at the end of the day, I still had this text file open, I never remembered to save what was in there, and it just wasn't as elegant a solution as I wanted. Wasn't there anything I could keep open as a memopad, that was smart enough to save itself and slide out of the way when I didn't need it?A friend recommended Sidenote, and it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for -- like the Quicksilver Shelf (which I'm using religiously nowadays) it sits in drawer on the side of your desktop, can be pulled open momentarily (either with the mouse or a hotkey) and then slides right back out of view when you're done. Just like TextEdit, it allows for a nice variety of text formatting, and unlike TextEdit, it saves in a repository rather than a file. I only use one note so far, but there's functionality for multiple notes in there as well.
We last mentioned Sidenote way back in 2005, and since then it's been upgraded to 1.7.3, and streamlined a few already streamlined features. Very nice and easy app -- for the purpose, it was exactly what I needed. It's available as donationware from developer Pierre Chatel.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
grandmaschineseapple said 7:11PM on 6-19-2008
Is it possible to have sidenote show up on all ones spaces?
Reply
Narkeeso said 7:25PM on 6-19-2008
In the space preferences you can assign any app to display on every space or on an assigned space. Very useful and a very good way to keep your apps organized.
Brandon Martinez said 1:05AM on 6-21-2008
Just as a note, related to the spaces, add *the finder* to all spaces. You'll have to find it under core services (or something or another), but it is immensely helpful!
grandmaschineseapple said 11:21AM on 6-21-2008
Wow, thanks so much. Those are both actually super helpful!
Tannerozzy said 11:45AM on 6-22-2008
I'm confused. Why would you add finder to every space? Wouldn't that be the same as just not adding it to a specific space?
And has anybody noticed the latest leopard build doesn't like spaces as much as it used to. I've always had iChat in space 1, browser in space 2, and could hotkey between them and instantly be typing in both. Not anymore. Now when I switch a Space the menu bar goes to Finder instead of iChat or Safari :(
Anybody else getting this, or know what's up?
Michael Narciso said 7:31PM on 6-19-2008
Thanks for sharing this Mike. Sidenote will easily become one of my most used apps for years to come. I hope they add syncing for the iPhone.
Reply
Blaktornado said 8:52PM on 6-19-2008
Wow. Excellent! I love it!
Thanks for sharing :D
This is a really nice application :) One of the many applications that makes Macs so nice to use :)
Reply
Rhywun said 9:13PM on 6-19-2008
Neat - I think I prefer this approach over Stickies.
Reply
Jeremy Applebaum said 9:27PM on 6-19-2008
By far one of the coolest apps I've used in a while - I'll definitely be using this all the time.
Thanks!
Reply
Mark P said 9:55PM on 6-19-2008
Hi,
Does anybody have an alternative to FishPad (or the even older SmartPad)? The version I have now is a PPC binary and quite slow/instable on my intel mac. Thanks!
[FishPad/SmartPad is a little app that consists of only a text field with unlimited pages and a search bar, extremely fast and easy to keep all sorts of notes, passwords, phone numbers, ID numbers etc etc]
Reply
Steve said 10:02PM on 6-19-2008
I've used sidenote for 3 years now - it's exactly what I wanted, a great big endless note with room for everything in it. Never even considered that I had a 3 year old version and that it might be cool to upgrade - it works so transparently, how could it be even better? But I dl'd the upgrade anyway, just to see what's new.
Reply
G said 11:05PM on 6-19-2008
Is there a way to edit tab stops? That would make it perfect.
Reply
Mark said 2:47AM on 6-20-2008
I've been using Stickies for exactly that purpose up until now so will give this a go and see how this compares.
Reply
Antagonist said 3:48AM on 6-20-2008
Try out Circus Ponies Note Book (www.circusponies.com afaik)
I just started using it and it's better than just a textpad or side note program. I suppose it's not really as hideable as sidenote or stickies, but it sure is better for taking notes with.
Reply
Sharvil said 3:48AM on 6-20-2008
The problem with Sidenote is that it gets a little annoying after a while. It pops open when you accidentally roll your mouse over and it is a big memory hog.
Also, I could not find a way to search through those notes (and they pile up fast)
Reply
brett said 6:26AM on 6-20-2008
I like SketchBox best. But sidenote is pretty cool.
Edgies is good, but it costs money, so, meh.
Reply
eric f. said 8:29AM on 6-20-2008
Don't forget about the totally free xPad. it auto saves as you type, and offers all kind of cool stuff in the toolbar like highlighting text and striking out text.
Reply
adaml said 9:47AM on 6-20-2008
Here's a "sidenote" (see what I did there?):
When selling a product, make sure to spell "which" correctly as seen in the screenshot for the help file.
Reply
Matthew said 10:25AM on 6-20-2008
I've tried Sidenote many times in the past, but the killer for me was always having no Spotlight integration. Don't know if that had changed.
I also was frustrated because I use three macs—home, laptop and work. And I was always looking in my "different" Sidenotes to try and find something I jotted down.
For me, the perfect solution is Evernote. I was lucky enough to be one of the early beta invitees, so I've been using it a while now. No matter what machine I make a note on, it syncs to all of my computers. I can access all the notes from any browser on any computer. There's even an iPhone interface! And, most importantly for me, it's perfectly integrated with Spotlight.
Here's the link. And no, I'm not associated with them in any way.
http://evernote.com/
Reply
Onlooker said 12:56PM on 6-20-2008
If you want to see what else you can do with Sidenote, read the review I posted some time ago:
http://darkknowledge.info/page2/page4/page0/page0.html
Reply