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Great WPF Applications #8: NoteScraps

  • Articolo

I love this little application: it's a joyous example of how the subtle use of WPF can add greatly to an application experience.

NoteScraps is a handy little tool for jotting down little nuggets of unstructured information - when you're on the phone and someone needs to give you a reference number or an email address, when you're just jotting down a short list of to-do items, when you're just scribbling down a quick reminder. You can launch it with a keyboard shortcut or directly from the system tray, and then you simply start typing to create your note.

This application is 100% WPF and managed code: you can download a shareware version from their website, or just watch a Camtasia demonstration of how its used.

Here are a couple of things that I really like about the way the application is done:

  • The notes are slightly rotated - not enough to make reading awkward, but just enough to add a more casual look to the application;
  • The notes size to content: there's no manual management to be done for the layout;
  • As you type characters into the Find field,the notes that don't contain the search text snap out of the way and the others animate back together in an appealing manner: the animation really helps you see what's going on in an inductive manner. It just feels polished.

Try it out - it's a fun little app!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 10, 2007
    Well , nice interface but definitely a memory monster.

  • Anonymous
    February 11, 2007
    Yup, running it on Vista RTM and it's slow. It would have been cool if it was a group of "gadgets" on the desktop (basically the main application being transparent, or just something on the system tray, and notes being on the desktop...ready to be brought to front via shortcut key). Search, organization is pretty cool.

  • Anonymous
    February 12, 2007
    post it notes is a similar app in the WPF sdk and the whole desktop is your workspace.

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2007
    Very similar to another product that I have used, but I still like OneNote the best. I did see a small bug (undocumented feature) within the trial version. It says you can only have up to 10 notes until purchased. If you put something in the find field that does not exist (ie. "QZ"), then you can add as many notes as you want. Once the find field is cleared then you can see all your notes. I agree that the find feature is very nice.

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2007
    Tim Sneath is doing a series of posts about great WPF applications , and his #8 caught my eye Great WPF

  • Anonymous
    February 14, 2007
    Tim this is sweet - thanks for sharing. the search within the app, does that use Vista's underlying search? I hadn't realised it was extensible in that way and if so, assume Times Reader is simply doing the same thing? Steve

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2007
    The search within NoteScraps doesn't use Vista; it's just a basic text filter.

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2007
    The New York Times reader on the other hand does integrate with search in Windows. You use the same COM interface that our other search products have historically used (Site Server, Index Server, Sharepoint Server) - specifically IFilter. Check out http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms691105.aspx for more details.