Contents I

Table of Contents
Part I Welcome 5
1 Installation
................................................................................................................................... 6
2 Uninstallation
................................................................................................................................... 6
3 Getting...................................................................................................................................
Started 6

Part II Note 8
1 How to...................................................................................................................................
(note) 11
Send note to another
..........................................................................................................................................................
com puter 12
Set/rem ove note's
..........................................................................................................................................................
passw ord 13
Roll/unroll note
.......................................................................................................................................................... 13
Pin/unpin note..........................................................................................................................................................
to/from w indow 13
Adjust note's ..........................................................................................................................................................
appearance 14
Adjust note's ..........................................................................................................................................................
schedule 15
Make a note "speaking"
.......................................................................................................................................................... 17
Work w ith tags.......................................................................................................................................................... 17
Work w ith linked
..........................................................................................................................................................
notes 18
Insert im ages.......................................................................................................................................................... 18
2 Note groups
................................................................................................................................... 19

Part III Preferences 20

1 Appearance
...................................................................................................................................
page 21
How to (appearance)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Allow transparency
......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Hide note's.........................................................................................................................................................
toolbar 23
Use custom .........................................................................................................................................................
fonts 23
Show scrollbar
.........................................................................................................................................................
in note's editor area 24
Hide "Delete"
.........................................................................................................................................................
button 24
Change appearance
.........................................................................................................................................................
of "Hide" button to "Delete" button 25
Hide "Hide".........................................................................................................................................................
button 25
Change bullets
.........................................................................................................................................................
indent 26
Change margins
.........................................................................................................................................................
for skinless notes 26
Change common
.........................................................................................................................................................
font 26
2 Skins page
................................................................................................................................... 27
How to (skins) .......................................................................................................................................................... 28
Sw itch betw .........................................................................................................................................................
een skinless and skinnable mode 28
Get more skins
.........................................................................................................................................................
online 29
Change default
.........................................................................................................................................................
size of skinless notes 29
Change default
.........................................................................................................................................................
background color of skinless notes 29
Change default
.........................................................................................................................................................
caption font of skinless notes 30
Create skinless
.........................................................................................................................................................
notes w ith random background color 30
Invert text color
.........................................................................................................................................................
for skinless notes 30
Roll/unroll notes
.........................................................................................................................................................
by double click on caption 31
Change note's.........................................................................................................................................................
w idth to fit the caption w idth w hen it's rolled 32
3 Schedule
...................................................................................................................................
page 33
How to (schedule)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 34
Allow sound
.........................................................................................................................................................
alerts 34

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

I
II PNotes Help (version 9.2)

Enable visual
.........................................................................................................................................................
notification 34
Track overdue
.........................................................................................................................................................
reminders 35
Leave alarmed
.........................................................................................................................................................
note on it's original position 35
Add/remove .........................................................................................................................................................
sound alerts 36
Set date and
.........................................................................................................................................................
time formats for scheduling 36
Set default.........................................................................................................................................................
voice for text-to-speech 38
Overdue Rem..........................................................................................................................................................
inders 38
4 Docking
...................................................................................................................................
page 40
How to (docking)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 41
Set custom.........................................................................................................................................................
skin 41
Set custom.........................................................................................................................................................
size 42
Set custom.........................................................................................................................................................
background color 42
Set custom.........................................................................................................................................................
caption font 43
Inverse docking
.........................................................................................................................................................
order 44
Change distance
.........................................................................................................................................................
betw een docked notes 45
5 Behavior
...................................................................................................................................
page 46
How to (behavior)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 47
Save all unsaved
.........................................................................................................................................................
notes on program exit 47
Silently save
.........................................................................................................................................................
notes on program exit 48
Show confirmation
.........................................................................................................................................................
dialog before note's deletion 48
Save notes.........................................................................................................................................................
w ithout confirmation w hile hiding 49
Be w arned.........................................................................................................................................................
w hen note is deleted automatically from Recycle Bin 49
Force new .........................................................................................................................................................
note to stay on top of other w indow s 50
Use relational
.........................................................................................................................................................
notes positioning 50
Hide notes .........................................................................................................................................................
marked as "Completed" 51
Show big icons
.........................................................................................................................................................
on PNotes Control Panel 51
Not include.........................................................................................................................................................
notes in the system list of opened w indow s 52
Keep notes.........................................................................................................................................................
visible w hile hovering over "Show Desktop" button 52
Set system.........................................................................................................................................................
tray icon double click behavior 53
Set new note's
.........................................................................................................................................................
default name convention 53
Set length of
.........................................................................................................................................................
default note's name 54
Set length of note's text show n in "Content" column at PNotes Control
Panel ......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Determine the
.........................................................................................................................................................
period after w hich notes w ill be deleted from Recycle Bin 55
Autosave notes
......................................................................................................................................................... 55
6 Protection
...................................................................................................................................
page 57
How to (protection)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 58
Encrypt notes
......................................................................................................................................................... 58
Hide system .........................................................................................................................................................
tray icon 58
Backup previous
.........................................................................................................................................................
version of note before saving 59
Make full backup
.........................................................................................................................................................
w ithout prompting for file name 60
Hide content.........................................................................................................................................................
for passw ord protected notes 60
Include notes
.........................................................................................................................................................
from Recycle Bin in local synchronization 61
Setup computers
.........................................................................................................................................................
for automatic synchronization 61
7 Diary page
................................................................................................................................... 63
Diary .......................................................................................................................................................... 64
How to (diary).......................................................................................................................................................... 64
Customize .........................................................................................................................................................
look of "Diary" group 64
Add w eekday
.........................................................................................................................................................
name to diary note's name 65
Define how.........................................................................................................................................................
diary's "pages" from previous dates are show n 66
Reverse order
.........................................................................................................................................................
of diary's "pages" 66
Set naming.........................................................................................................................................................
format of "pages" 67
Set number.........................................................................................................................................................
of diary's "pages" show n under "Diary" menu 67

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

 Contents III

8 Network
...................................................................................................................................
page 68
How to (netw ork)
.......................................................................................................................................................... 68
Include notes
.........................................................................................................................................................
from Recycle Bin in synchronization 69
Synchronize.........................................................................................................................................................
notes on program start 69
Save notes.........................................................................................................................................................
before synchronization 70
Enable notes
.........................................................................................................................................................
exchange 70
Save notes.........................................................................................................................................................
before sending 71
Do not show.........................................................................................................................................................
notifications about received notes 71
Show received
.........................................................................................................................................................
note after double click on notification baloon 72
Show "Incoming"
.........................................................................................................................................................
group after click on notification message 72
Do not play.........................................................................................................................................................
sound w hen new note arrives 73
Do not show.........................................................................................................................................................
notification w hen note is sending 73
Immediately.........................................................................................................................................................
show received note 74
Hide note after
.........................................................................................................................................................
sending 74
Do not show.........................................................................................................................................................
contacts in context menu 75
Set up FTP.........................................................................................................................................................
account properties 75
Add, modify.........................................................................................................................................................
and remove contacts / groups of contacts 76
9 Misc page
................................................................................................................................... 78
How to (m isc).......................................................................................................................................................... 79
Run program.........................................................................................................................................................
on system start 79
Show PNotes.........................................................................................................................................................
Control Panel w hen program starts 79
Check for new
.........................................................................................................................................................
version of program w hen program starts 80
Hide notes .........................................................................................................................................................
fluently (effects) 80
Play sound.........................................................................................................................................................
w hile hiding note (effects) 81
Manually check
.........................................................................................................................................................
for new version 81
Set your preferred
.........................................................................................................................................................
brow ser 82
Add, modify.........................................................................................................................................................
or remove tags 82
Add, modify.........................................................................................................................................................
or remove search providers 83
Add, modify.........................................................................................................................................................
or remove external programs 84

Part IV PNotes Control Panel 85

1 Preview
...................................................................................................................................
Pane 88
2 How to...................................................................................................................................
(Control Panel) 88
Hide/show colum
..........................................................................................................................................................
ns in list view 89
Manage list of..........................................................................................................................................................
available groups' icons 89

Part V Hot Keys 90

1 Forbidden
...................................................................................................................................
Hot Keys 91

Part VI Spell checking 92

Part VII Program password 93
Part VIII Searching 94
Part IX Show/Hide options 97

Part X Manual local synchronization 97

Part XI Command Line 98

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

III
 IV PNotes Help (version 9.2)

Part XII Credits 99

Index 0

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

 Welcome 5

1 Welcome

Managing your day-to-day life is not an easy job to do. There are so many things to do -
housekeeping, shopping, children... and what about your cousin's birthday which you always forget or
important ’phone numbers? Undoubtedly your working place is covered with dusty yellow (or blue or
pink) sticky notes. If so - PNotes is right for you. Throw the physical stickies away and replace them
with virtual ones on your desktop.

Here are some PNotes features:

· Ease of use - no installation, just unpack the downloaded archive to any location and run PNotes.
exe.
· Portability - PNotes does not require installation, it can be started from any drive (fixed or flash) and
leaves no traces on host computer after finishing.
· Scheduling - use various schedule types to be reminded about significant events by many different
ways. Using this feature you may just hide notes and don't worry, you'll be notified in time.
· Speaking notes - instead of sound files you may force the notes to speak with you reading their text
aloud - isn't it a cool feature?
· Notes' exchange over local network - keep in touch with your colleagues and friends.
· Overdue notes tracking - stay alerted even with overdue reminders.
· Tags - add any number of predefined tags to each note for further searching and sorting.
· Password protection - prevents unauthorized access to program.
· Encryption - allows all your notes to be stored as encrypted files, so nobody could read their content,
even in case you lose your USB stick.
· Password protection for single note/group - protect your notes even more strongly.
· Synchronization - local or on-line via FTP protocol - always stay synchronized.
· Ability to pin notes to selected window - all you need appears in time.
· PNotes Control Panel - this is your central command post. All management is put into effect here.
· Groups - divide notes into groups of your choice, create new groups and subgroups, control all by
mouse click or drag-and-drop.
· Diary group - special group of notes with its own settings, which allows you to maintain diary-like
set.
· Formatting - format and design each note as you wish, using all the advantages of rich text
formatting.
· Skins - there is a variety of skins for PNotes but if you wish, you can run the program in skinless
mode, in which case you can stretch notes to any reasonable size.
· Transparency - you can set notes’ transparency level from opaque to fully transparent. If you enable
this feature each note can have its own transparency level.
· Images - you can add images to notes, making them more expressive.
· Smilies - besides image files, the set of predefined smilies is at your disposal.
· Docking - dock your notes to any side of the screen, forcing them always to be straightened and look
like a panel.
· Searching - search for (or replace) text fragments in all notes, including hidden or in each separate
note, or find notes with specified title, or notes modified within specified interval.
· Quick search in web - select any word or phrase in note and search for it in web using you preferred
search provider.
· Favorites - access intensively used notes by a single click.
· Custom fonts - use your custom fonts which are not installed on current machine.
· E-mailing - send notes via e-mail as mail body text or as attachment to any target with PNotes
running and open attached note on target machine.
· Recycle Bin - you decide how you want to delete the unneeded note: completely or send it to
Recycle Bin with ability to restore it later.

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 6 PNotes Help (version 9.2)

· Backing up - you decide whether to make backup copies for changed notes and what is the
deepness of backup levels. Also you can manually make a full backup copy of all notes (and restore
from it of course).
· Internationalization - PNotes is fully Unicode supported and translated into many languages.
· Other features - of course there are many other unmentioned features in program, but I suggest you
to discover them by yourself, these are delights of any new program, aren't they?

I hope you will enjoy using PNotes as much as I enjoyed creating it!

1.1 Installation

Installation from ZIP archive

Just place PNotes folder wheresoever you want on your hard disk or flash drive. It is absolutely portable
application, which does not require any additional settings in registry and does not leave behind any
traces in registry as well.
Installation from other installers
Proceed accordingly to installer instructions.

Tip: if you are on Windows Vista or Windows 7 under restricted account - install it into root folder ("C:\"),
instead of "C:\Program Files" (x32 system) or "C:\Program Files (x86)" (x64 system) in order to avoid
UAC conflicts.

1.2 Uninstallation

Uninstallation of program installed from ZIP archive

Remove PNotes folder.
Uninstallation of program installed from another installers
Proceed accordingly to uninstaller instructions.

1.3 Getting Started

When you start PNotes it places itself into system tray and allows you to interact with it either by right-

click on its icon and choosing one of pop-up menu items, or by using your own hot keys.

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

 Welcome 7

Available pop-up menu commands are:

· New Note - creates new note.
· Load Note - loads note from .pnote file.
· New Note From Clipboard - creates new note and pastes clipboard's content into it.
· Diary - shows list of Diary "pages".
· Preferences - brings up Preferences dialog.
· Control Panel - brings up PNotes Control Panel window.
· Hot Keys - brings up Hot Keys dialog.
· Show/Hide - shows/hides notes by several criterions.
· Save All - saves all notes.
· Backup/synchronization - allows to perform full backup, restore from full backup and
synchronize notes local or via FTP.
· Reload All - reloads all currently visible notes
· Docking (all notes) - allows you to dock all visible notes to any side of screen or undock them.
· Switch On (All Notes) - applies high priority, read-only mode, complete mark, roll status and

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 8 PNotes Help (version 9.2)

always-on-top status to all notes.

· Switch Off (All Notes) - removes high priority, read-only mode, complete mark, roll status and
always-on-top status to all notes.
· Search - allows to choose one of search options: Search In Notes, Search by Tags, Search By
Date.
· Favorites - shows your favorites notes.
· Password - creates, changes or removes program password.
· Lock Program - so-called "boss-key", allows you to hide all program windows quickly by one
click or one hot-key pressing (recommended). To use this function you should protect the program
with password.
· Run - runs external program.
· Language - allows you to change the user interface language.
· Help - brings up help window or redirects you to online help page, accordingly to your settings.
· About - brings up about dialog.
· Support PNotes Project - Thankfulness is not a sin :)
· PNotes Homepage - redirects you to pnotes.sourceforge.net
· Exit - ends program.

2 Note

It is clear that note is a basic element of PNotes. Depending on your choice, made on Skins page of
Preferences dialog, it can be skinnable or skinless.
Each note consists of three areas: header, text area and footer.

Header of note includes note's caption and two command buttons, which allow you to hide or delete
current note.
In case of skinnable note notifications marks will appear elsewhere on note (depending on note's skin)
, if note has been changed, scheduled, locked, has a high priority, marked as complete
task, password-protected or pinned to other window. For skinless notes these notification will be
displayed at note's footer .
All these icons are clickable, i.e. click on some of them will toggle current state (e.g. high priority or
pinned status), or show schedule dialog, or save changed note.

Text area is an area you type your text in. Right mouse button click somewhere in text area will show
pop-up menu for note's text operations:

© 2013 Andrey Gruber

 Note 9

Menu item Shortcut Description

Undo Ctrl+Z Undoes last text operation
Redo Ctrl+Y Redoes last text operation
Cut Ctrl+X Cuts selected text
Copy Ctrl+C Copies selected text
Pastes text from clipboard
Paste Ctrl+V
into note
Copies selected text
Copy As Plain Text
discarding any formatting
Pastes text from clipboard
Paste As Plain Text into note discarding any
formatting
Opens submenu with text
Format --- formatting options, identical
to note's toolbar
Opens submenus

Insert ---
which allow you to insert
pictures, smilies and date/
time stamp
Opens submenus

Spell Checking ---

which allow you to set spell
checking preferences and
add dictionaries
Find Ctrl+F Brings up Find dialog
Finds next occurrence of text
Find Next F3
fragment
Replace Ctrl+H Brings up Replace dialog
Performs web search for
Search with: selected text using specified
search provider
Selects all text in note's text
Select All Ctrl+A
area

Footer of note (usually, but not necessary, it may be any other part of note's surface) includes toolbar
(visible only on active note) and, in case of skinless note, sizing grip, allows you to resize the note.
Note's toolbar includes 12 buttons (explained in table below) and gives you
unrestricted formatting abilities.

Button Shortcut Description

Applies specified font to
Font
selected text
Font Size Applies specified font size to

© 2013 Andrey Gruber