FreeText

FreeText lets you save nearly any type of information in one place without having to take the time to create and save a file. FreeText doesn't even have a Save As option; you just open it and start typing or adding content. While it's easy to use, and there are benefits to an easily accessible tool to capture ideas on the fly, we weren't all that impressed with its organizational capabilities.

The program installs easily and opens to a small, clean interface that looks more like Notepad than Word, although in addition to the File menu above the text editing window, there are icons to insert graphics, tables, and comments. You don't need to open a new file to get started. In fact, as with saving the files you create, that's not even an option. FreeText automatically saves whatever you enter in one file. If you exit the program, it just goes to the Taskbar, but you can set it to always stay on top. All your information is ready and waiting for you when you launch the program again. It was easy to add any of the items to the text window, including images in nearly any format, and there are six basic icons, from a check mark to a star that you could add with one click. The one organizational tool, Logic Frame, lets you nest other Logic Frames inside each or place them, individually. These frames have titles and the content can be collapsed so you see only the titles. While helpful, multiple frames and other items could still lead to a confusing structure. There aren't any options to change the font or font color or any other formatting options.

FreeText works as promised, but while it offers options that other text editors don't, it seems to lack the additional organizational tools that would make it useful for folks with lots of ideas or notes. If you like the idea of having one file that's always available, it might be worth a try, and there's no cost for trying this free program.