New Software and Applications Like NoteTab and Google Sidebar Offer Users Convenience, Speed and Other Attractive Features

chillibreeze writer — Aditya Kuber

Word Processors are a dime-a-dozen so finding one that stands out from the crowd is quite a task. Especially, given the changing requirements of today’s computer users. Just what are these requirements? Put simply, the software needs to be light in size, fast, have a lot of features and then some!

One software package that does fit the bill is NoteTab. It’s downloadable in three formats and the Pro version is a paid-for one that costs about $30 (US). What makes this stand out from other word processors is the fact that it allows tabbed browsing. Further positives in its favor are the fact that it works like Notepad and is just as fast.

One thing I would like to clarify here is that this is no MS Word and advanced functions that one had come to expect with a package like Word are not available here. However, some of the newer functions that MS Word cannot offer have been built into this.

HTML Coding

There are a lot of people who want to do some coding but end up using a half-good HTML editor. These editors may not always have a CSS stylesheet editor or may be pre-formatted templates or not even have the option of creating a template. However, NoteTab does.

That’s what really sets it apart from the crowd. The program starts up almost instantaneously and there is no waiting period involved. Moreover, most HTML commands are available at a click. So creating a web page is no more than a few clicks.

The software provides an extensive library of commands and actions that one would use routinely in HTML editing. All you need to do is find the right one and double-click on it. It blends in perfectly with the earlier code.

Another important aspect of a web page today is the CSS stylesheet and NoteTab lets you create one on your own. You can tweak to it last detail. So there you have it, your own web page! You could even convert HTML to XML.

Sample Code

Perl, Gawk and other such scripts are probably Latin to the uninitiated. But with NoteTab, they are, once again, a click away.

Not just these scripts, NoteTab also allows users to integrate other things such as looping demos, inserting multiple HREF fields, inserting files and so on into their web pages.

But Isn’t This A Word Processor?

I almost forgot. You can also use this to type in English! It offers control over the fonts, their sizes, has a spell checker, allows you to link to other files or places within a file, create styles for your edited text and inserts page and line breaks.

In fact, the line break is something that is again better suited to an HTML environment. Say you want all the text to break at 70 characters. You can set the software to do just that and without showing an erroneous break in the sentence, the length of the lines would break automatically at 70 characters.

There is also a ‘Utilities tab’ at the bottom that lets you do a lot of things like convert something from Celsius to Fahrenheit or Miles to Kilometres or Pounds to Kilograms, which has its uses!

Utility

It’s good that the software has tabs. It’s bad that it has too many of them. If you are anything like me, you could well have about 8-10 files open at any given point in time. These are visible in tabs on the top. Add to this the tabs at the bottom that control the left ‘Assist’ pane and these are enough to be a visual disaster!

User Interface and its ease of use is perhaps the only aspect this software loses out on. In terms of functionality, it is as stable as a house. Download the trial and give it a whirl. Warning: Can be addictive (thereby costing $30!).

Google On The Side

Google’s omnipresence is boosted further. Look to your right and they’re there!

Quite seriously, Google is everywhere. Look left, look right, look down, look up, it is there. It is as omnipresent as a computer today and why not? To further enhance its case of ubiquity, they have recently released the Google Sidebar. Look right!

The sidebar combines all the features you may want to have available at a glance. There’s an e-mail reader that will display the most recent e-mails received either in your GMail account or the POP mail client (like Outlook or Outlook Express). It even offers a preview of these e-mails. The slider buttons provided with every individual window push out the chosen “mini-window” to display more information about a particular item.

The next most useful thing here was the Scratch Pad. Just click in the empty space and type away! The advantages are obvious. If you are on a phone call, pen and paper are normally never at hand. It’s basically Murphy’s laws at work! But with this, you would no longer have to worry. Again, the slider buttons are available making scrolling and searching easier. The length is adjustable and I guess it runs right to the bottom of the earth! Well, virtually!

Google Talk, the latest IM to hit cyberspace also finds a spot here and is neatly integrated within the space. You can choose to see only the online contacts or the one you are chatting with. A quick click of the ‘Options’ and you can set this the way you want it to be. The drawbacks of Google Talk is what restricts the functionality, but it is also what keeps it lean, helping it integrate easily into this sidebar.

The Quick View window is another good addition since it lists the most recently visited or opened Web sites or files. This can have great advantages especially when you open attachments or random files and then forget where they are saved. Admit it, you forget! Once again, the list runs virtually to the bottom of the earth!

Other customizable window options include News, fed through Google News, and What’s Hot (on the Internet; fed again through Google News). Both these windows are RSS readers of sorts and let you keep a tab on the latest happenings around the real and virtual worlds!

Beyond this, if you still have some more place left on your monitor, you could add some more windows like Weather (not yet customizable beyond the US, but it’s happening soon!), photos from your computer that keep changing like a slideshow, stock updates and web clips.

Did we also mention that there’s a search tool at the bottom? It’s for desktop search and Web search as well. So, without having to open a browser window, you can now start searching. The main worry with this is whether Google is recording data and tracking the movements you make using its tools. This has long been a fear of all Google users and the super integration further fuels the doubts.

Is this convenient? To some extent, it is. The types of windows provided are good as is the idea. But the layout could have been better. Perhaps, tabbed, within one window. There’s a simple reason I say this: real estate. On an average, most computers have 14- or 15-inch monitors and something like this seriously compromises on the viewing area. Moreover, it’s a static window for the better part and tabbed would have been the way to go.

On the whole, for a one-look idea of what’s up, this is a good tool.

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Aditya writes for chillibreeze.

>> Read more articles written by our chillibreeze staff and writers network:

1. Chillibreeze Top Rated Articles
2. Articles related to Content and Outsourcing
3. NRI and Expat Articles
4. Travel Writing
5. Book Reviews and Interviews
6. Various Articles from the Chillibreeze Network
7. Tutorial Index for great resources
8. Product Reviews Index