Sticky Pad

All too often applications meant to make our lives easier turn out to be confusing and frustrating time-wasters. Sticky Pad, we're pleased to say, is one of those rare programs that sets out to be helpful and succeeds admirably.

We've all used real sticky notes to write reminders, and Sticky Pad replicates the paper notes in the most intuitive way possible. Double-clicking on the program's icon in the system tray brings up a new note, which you can resize by dragging its corner. The notes offer a surprising number of features: you can customize the background and text colors, and there's a variety of fonts. You can also change the text alignment, adjust the opacity of the notes, and pin them to the desktop so that they're always visible. Sticky Pad also does something its real-life counterpart never could: it allows users to set reminders that hide until the specified time. Need to remember to call your mom at 2:00 p.m.? Just set a Sticky Pad reminder and go about your business, secure in the knowledge that the note will pop up (and play a sound of your choosing) when the time comes. The program's Help file is brief but intuitive. Overall, we're quite impressed with this program and feel that it really accomplishes what it set out to.

Sticky Pad is free to try, but notes can't be saved in the trial version. The program installs desktop icons without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We highly recommend this program to all users.