What is 7 Sticky Notes?


Well, as you may have already noticed, 7 Sticky Notes is a desktop sticky notes program ;)

It all started when I begun searching for a free alternative for Windows Vista's notes. Something similar to Windows 7 notes, but with more features.

After trying almost every desktop notes softwares available around the internet, I realized that there weren't really good free notes softwares out there that were at the same time reliable, simple, with useful features and with convincing and realistic notes looks.

So, as I've always enjoyed programming, I decided to start a new project and make my own desktop notes program.

Since the beginning, the goal for the software was to make a professional-looking desktop notes software with as realistic notes graphics as possible. Putting it in another words, the goal was to make a very well finished program, simply because if it is good and is well designed, you would completely enjoy using it and would feel enthusiastic about continuing to use it, eventually getting rid of all the paper notes once and for all!

So I started working.

Well, I can say that I enjoyed very much the first steps of the project and, after the first version was ready and "usable", I liked it so much that I decided I would make it available online to whoever anywhere in the world wanted to download it!

 

The name


But, before putting it out there, it needed a name. And needed to be a good name. It should be something easy, catchy, that had a reason, and explanation, that would also help identifying it easily, that had some personality, and, of course, that wasn't already taken. Well, not easy!

So, after some good thinking I ended up naming it "7 Sticky Notes", building this website, and all started from there. Well, but now you must be asking: but after all why you called "7 Sticky Notes"? Is there a reason for this the "7"? Well, I get this question eventually from 7 Sticky Notes users, and what I say is: yes, and there are indeed a few reasons :)

The first and I think most important reason for the "7" is to simply help people remember it easier. "7" is really a catchy name. Be in the nice compressing software 7-Zip, the very successful Windows 7, or just the "Baby Name Seven" created by George Constanza in Seinfeld      , it is catchy :)

  The second reason was because of 7 Sticky Notes' inspiration in the default app of Windows 7. As you might know, Windows 7 has a Sticky Notes app, it looks nice but it is too simple, and I wanted to do something better. As you know 7 Sticky Notes is completely free, so it depends basically on users and others helps by recommending it, and so a great alternative to let it reach the many people looking for "Windows 7 Sticky Notes alternatives" was to call it "7 Sticky Notes".

Now, the third one was purely regarding name availability. There are several Sticky Notes apps out there, and I wanted to call it "Something Sticky Notes" or "Something Notes". It had to have its function, what it does, in order for people to know what it is right away. Although I always work to make 7 Sticky Notes step over the crowd with a much better product than other Sticky Notes apps, when it comes to communicating it, a name saying what it does would help a lot in the beginning, and so I kept the "Sticky Notes" in the name.

Another reason - not very strict now because during its development 7 Sticky Notes received a feature that allows users to create its own themes - is because of its default themes choices. There are by default 7 default themes in 7 Sticky Notes, and so this was also added to the list.

And lastly, but not least! People say "7" brings good luck!! So there I had a last good reason to choose it, and then "7 Sticky Notes" was born :)

The Technical Stuff


Currently 7 Sticky Notes is built using classic and good VB6.0. VB6 code is very fast to implement, to deliver (RAD), and to run, plus it is vastly documented and very popular all over the world, providing all what is necessary to build 7 Sticky Notes, including API calls and object oriented programming. Not to mention the low cost, since 7 Sticky Notes is free, this counts, a lot.

Of course, I could make it using .NET, but 7 Sticky Notes was created to be light and fast, and I believe that for now the .NET framework can be too heavy and bloated for older computers and low-performance PCs, like Netbooks and Tablets. Even for newer machines, a 400MB to run a 10MB App seems too much. I do plan to migrate 7 Sticky Notes to .NET in the future though, but I will wait a bit so I am sure everyone can run it smoothly. As for the OS, 7 Sticky Notes is fully compatible and works great for all Windows starting from 2000, which means Windows XP, Win 2000, Win Vista, Win 7, Windows Server, and Win 8, both 32 and 64 bit versions.

The Building Blocks


In order to provide a professional and greatly finished result, 7 Sticky Notes uses a few great third party and also free libraries that are very much worth mentioning for their awesome help. These are Inno Setup for the setup package, TimoSoft Controls from TimoSoft-Software for the Unicode support, and IssProc Inno Setup extension from rlByte Software for the "file in use" detection.

Inno Setup is used to compile the 7 Sticky Notes setup package, and it is a great setup package builder created by Jordan Russell. I want to give Jordan the credits because Inno Setup allowed 7 Sticky Notes to have a top-level installing package without having to build it ground up. One of the best things of Inno Setup is its ability to provide a professional and customizable setup package with a very fast learning curve. Also Inno Setup is constantly under development, making Inno Setup my choice for the setup package compiler of 7 Sticky Notes.

TimoSoft Controls are used to allow Unicode support for key elements of the software, so people that use extended languages such as Georgian, Polish, Greek, and others can use 7 Sticky Notes in their native languages. The controls from TimoSoft-Software are free, fully compatible with all necessary Windows versions, constantly updated, and build to perfection both in integration and access. Not to mention the great support from TimoSoft and the large choices of other controls, made my decision to use them!

IssProc extension is used to allow light, user friendly "file in use" extension for Inno Setup, used specifically when you try to update or uninstall 7 Sticky Notes with the program running. This allows a nice touch for the 7 Sticky Notes installer and a very friendly and professional look, and the guys at RLByte must be thanked for providing this great library for free for free projects like 7 Sticky Notes.

Free as in "free beer" and in "free speech"


7 Sticky Notes is completelly free and there are NO limitations on the number of notes you can create or of any other kind. Also as it was fully developed by me I assure that there are no spyware, adware or any other junk-ware in it (I also hate junk-ware). It also does not use the windows registry by default and has a very small footprint (only a few files), making it very transparent for the user.

You may use it at your work to remember e-mails, calls, meetings, appointments, reports, tasks. At home to not forget birthdays, bills to pay, things to fix, things to do, grocery to make. At school to always meet deadlines on papers, homework, tests. And also on every other thing you want, like taking your car to the carwash, going out with friends, family, girlfriend, that great concert you cannot miss, etc, etc, etc!

 

7 Sticky Notes can be used freely by anyone and you may give it to your friends, talk about it and recommend it on your website, use it at your work or any other use, as long as, please, you don't sell it and as long as you maintain my authorship. To see 7 Sticky Notes' usage License Agreement, please click here

As I enjoy so much building 7 Sticky Notes as time goes by I will constantly include more and more features. Please return to this website to see new improvements!