Desktop Notes & Contacts

We like this simple application that allows you to add and view notes and a contact list on the fly, and not just because it's free. Desktop Notes and Contacts' floating tabs sit discreetly in the upper-right corner of your screen. They're accessible in a click but don't get in the way when you're not using them.

The two tabs are aptly named Notes and Contacts. A simple text editor is found under the first, and it offers basic formatting options for font style, size, and color, and for setting alignment. Notes are saved in RTF format. In the second, names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses are displayed in alphabetical order by last name. Filtering options help you find a specific contact, and the e-mail addresses are clickable for easy loading in your default e-mail program.

There aren't a lot of bells and whistles with this open-source freeware application, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It does what it promises to do, efficiently and effectively, and anyone can use it.