Overview
Light Note is a new concept of writing and managing notes. The aim of Light Note is to have an easy and useful interface for computer users. The note doesn't necessary have to be just a few lines of text. Appointments, reminders, tasks, contacts, secret information can all be treated as notes. Light Note is the future for all these necessities in a single interface.
Note: You need to un-install any older version to install the new version. Your notes will be imported automatically.
Introduction
Writing notes is a common task when doing any type of work with a computer. A note app should not be so heavy like a word processors nor should it be too simple like Notepad. I think Microsoft did not design Notepad for use with notes. Many third party Notepad like apps are available. Most of the time we don't find applications which help write simple notes. We may not want to run an application like MS-Word for the purpose. So we use Notepad or similar products. If the content of the note is not good enough then we may not feel like saving it. Even if we save it, filename is another problem. I feet writing notes in a document editing software is not always useful. I needed a Notepad like application which is useful then Notepad. Most of the time I write notes in Notepad and close it without saving it. Even if I save it, I hardly re-open it. Sometimes I look for a note I’ve written earlier but fail to locate it. So I wrote Light Note 1.0 and released it. I got a huge response and requirement requests from the users of Light Note 1.0. So I released Light Note 2.0, which is more useful, user friendly, and a more powerful note application.
What's new in Light Note 2.1?
- Bug Report: User can send any type of bug report to the author from Light Note
- Bug Fixed: Some of the major bugs have been fixed in Light Note 2.1
- Light Note Manager: User can open Light Note Manager from the Start menu
- Uninstall Light Note: User can uninstall Light Note from the Start menu
What's new in Light Note 2.0?
- Auto Save: Saves a note automatically if the note is modified by the user. User may choose not to auto save from the Options.
- Version Control: Light Note manages version history of notes. Every time a saved note is opened, it will save in a new version. The user can view the version history from the Light Note Manager. The manager will inform the user how many versions are available for the note. The user can view any previous version of the note from the note history. The user can also rollback to any previous version.
- Auto Delete Empty Note: Light Note deletes empty note automatically.
- Note Status: Light Note saves the status of the note when it is saved and opens with the last status it was saved. If Light Note closes without closing the note, then the opened notes will be re-opened next time. If the note was collapsed, then it will be opened with a collapsed status. It will return the status of the tool bar the user last used.
- Tool Bar: Light Note provides a complete editing tool bar. It also supports editing with the menu. The user can select a font with a color from the the font menu.
- Always On Top Button: Always on top is a useful option in Light Note. In Light Note 2.0, it is a button at the top of a note.
- E-Mail: Light Note facilities the user to mail a note with the default email client.
- Send To Light Note: Light Note installer will add a link of Light Note 2.0 in the Send To menu so that the user can open any document by sending it to Light Note.
What are the additions in Light Note 2.0 compared to similar products?
- Version control: It manages version history automatically.
- Auto save: It saves a note automatically if the note is modified.
- Delete empty note: It deletes empty notes from the file system.
- It maintains note status: An opened note will be found opened the next time you run Light Note 2.0.
- It saves notes without informing the user.
- It makes the user not to worry about the location of note files.
- It provides a manager to manage all notes.
- It is a single-tone application which manages all notes.
- Light Note can be made to be always on top.
- Light Note can be made transparent.
- It can be collapsed and expanded to maximize the working area while working with other applications.
- Automatic resizing according to the text.
- Send a note to Outlook Note.
- Send a note to Outlook Task.
- Send a note to the default e-mail client.
- Centralized management of notes from the system tray menu.
- And many more….
How to use Light Note 2.0
If you install Light Note 1.0 and run it, you will get an icon titled Light Note 1.0 in your system tray.
Create New Note: To create a new note, you have four choices...
- Double click on the system tray Light Note icon.
- Right click on the system tray Light Note icon. A context menu will display the options. Click New Note in that menu.
- Click on the icon of an opened Light Note. A context menu will display the options. Click New Note in that menu.
- In an opened note, press Ctrl+N to create a new note.
Open an existing note: To open an existing note, right click on the system tray Light Note icon and go to the Notes menu and click on your expected notes. Or open the Light Note Manager from the system tray context menu and double click on the note you want to open. If your note is not in the database, then double click the light and file explorer will open it with Light Note 1.0 and add to the database.
Options: You can set initial options like always on top, transparency, and always send to Outlook from the context menu.
Find: To find a text in Light Note, press Ctrl+F.
Note Theme: To change note theme, check the appropriate theme in the system tray context menu.
Light Note Manager: Click on the Light Note Manager to manage your light note. You can delete any note or open by double clicking on the note.
Show History: Click the Show History button to view the version history of a note.
To rollback, select the version you want to roll back and press the Rollback button. To view any version of the history, double click on History or select the version and press the View button.
Light Note Menu: To get the Light Note menu, click on the left side icon in your light menu.
Transparency: To make your light note, click on the icon->View->Transparency. A transparency slider bar will help you make your note transparent.
Collapse and Expand: You can collapse/expand the note by clicking on the collapse/expand icon or from the menu.
Send To: Sometimes we may feel to save a note in Outlook note or may be we want a note to be a task or e-mail. In Light Note 1.0, you can send your light note to Outlook Notes, Outlook Task, and e-mail to the default e-mail client. It will save the note to Outlook as a note or task according to your choice.
Code used from Codeproject articles
I used some code from other CodeProject articles. These articles are listed below...
- Busy Bar by TeeBee303: http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/BusyBar1_0.asp
- Sticky Window by Tutu: http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/stickywindows.asp
- Splash Screen by Tom Clement http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/prettygoodsplashscreen.asp
Thanks to the authors for the articles.
