Notez

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on May 04, 2009

Note taking is an important aspect to many computer users' lives. A program needs to be quick, efficient, and only visible when needed. Notez claims to be all of those things and more for the modern note maker, but we found its features to be fairly standard.

This freeware embeds itself into your tray for quick access. The note's interface is that of a traditional yellow sticky note with a few buttons and a scrolling bar at the top. The note can quickly and easily be written in the body of the sticky. The buttons are a bit surprising: one activates the alarm and the other three represent when you want to be reminded (1 hour, 3 hours, 24 hours) and the scrolling bar is a countdown to that reminder that can be slid and reset.

Notez also offers a basic set of options like changing the note color, font, and dialing in a more exact time for the alarm to sound. The program works well at taking messages and reminding, but we were not ecstatic about it overall. Making multiple notes took a right click on the tray icon instead of the desktop note. In addition, users right click the tray icon and scroll through some choices in order to view previously written notes since the desktop is difficult to sort through. However, these mild irritations aren't enough to discourage our use of Notez. It's a simple, functional download that should be perfect for users seeking a basic notes program.