Currently trialing Notezilla

Notezilla is a sticky notes program on steroids. By Conceptworld, it’s available for the cost ($30). For this price, you get advanced features such as tags, checklists, reminders, alarms, lists, text edits, a catalogue of notes in various categories (called a notes browser) and the ability to link the note to your desktop, a document or a webpage (via a URL input).

It’s this linking function which originally brought Notezilla to my attention. I can browse through a website, and write up a quick note on it, then link to that webpage. Next time I open that page again, there the note is - right on top. I can therefore annotate any web pages I want with my own notes. The notes themselves are kept in the Notes Browser also, so I can enter there to see which notes are associated to webpages themselves.

My chief interest in Notezilla came about with the linking to documents function. As I attempt a full edit / redraft of my initial very rough draft of a piece of work, having the ability to link notes to the document being read is extremely desirable. Previously, if printed out, this would have been a shaft of real-life sticky notes and scrawls in the margin - although that manual way will still do me well in the future. But with Notezilla, I can also do this electronically.  

Notezilla will stick to a window, or document open (or several) and sits easily with my Writing Application, Liquid Story Binder, by allowing an association to individual documents (stored as RTFs) within LSB. However, the notes can only be associated to a full document - not a bookmark or heading within that document. This means that for a large novel draft, for instance, you might need to keep the notes per chapter or scene to make more sense of them.  Or be careful about annotating each note with Page Number and other references if dealing with a very large document such as a full draft.

Although this limitation creates the need to organise and reference your notes for larger documents, the multiple stickiness and tags feature may make up for this. Not only can I assocate a note or idea to my draft document but to the folder / directory the word document is found in. On opening the folder I will be associated with all the notes from the document itself. Or I can search for these, via tags I may have used. I can then open the document in edit mode within LSB and associate the notes through various chapters or individual files.

As I am still within trial of Notezilla, I am of two minds whether the $30 fee is worth it for the functions I may use. I have noted that I use Notezilla daily for lists and reminders now - and have categorised the many working projects for myself, including not only my writing / drafting projects but scrapbooking projects, school life and personal / home life reminders and lists. It’s good for To Do Lists under all these different categories also - and shopping lists under each can then be found with a simple search for a shopping list tag, and amalgamated when I do go out for a shopping trip.

Not only is it a relevant note taker - available instantly to me when I need it, but it appears to be taking the place of a good little Personal Information Manager for my daily PC life. I also appreciate the ability to skin my notes, and to provide some text formatting, particularly in bolds and italics. You can input live weblinks inside a note also. Combined with the sticky windows / document links feature, Notezilla seems an excellent resource when doing research also. Freeware sticky note programs have frustrated me in the past without this facility, and Notezilla will certainly make me happy with these features.