Cute Reminder Review

There are many reminder tools in the market, so why bother testing another one? Because a lot of them pledge much more than the original idea (an electronic Post It) and end up becoming too cumbersome to use. So, I decided to give CuteReminder the benefit of doubt and test it.

Downloading and installing it went smoothly: just 1.73 Mb to download and 3.4 Mb of hard disk after installed. That was a good sign. Also, the installation steps and options were clear and simple, limited to the usual directory and start menu selections.

In less than a minute the software was installed and ready to run. It starts with a nice short Introduction showing its main features and how to use them, bringing the user up to speed. The Introduction can be replayed any time later from the Help menu.

The software stays out of your way until you need it: it has a Quick Start Panel that only pops up once you pass the cursor over the visible thin colored bar, which can be positioned on any edge of your screen. The Quick Start Panel allows you to create Reminders, Notes and Ideas, and to access the Control Center.

Reminders are like Post It Notes with an alarm clock: you write whatever you want, establish when you want to be reminded defining the date/time or using one of the pre-defined periods, and the reminder will pop up when it is due. It also has a “recurring” feature in case you want to be reminded on a regular basis, but that option (“Advanced”) is only available at the Control Center (only design weakness I found). On Advanced you can also automate some tasks when the due time is reached, such as create a mail note, execute a program or navigate to a web address. This is really a good and well thought feature!

Notes are like simple Post It Notes. You write them down and they become visible on the desktop, once you close or minimize your applications. The nice thing about Notes is that you can change their colors, opt to have them always on top, group or tile them.

Ideas are similar to Notes, except that they become visible only at pre-defined intervals, which you can adjust to your preference.

The “heart” of the software is the Control Panel. There you can create, edit or delete any item. You can also change your Preferences, including skins, colors and notification sounds, check your History, perform a search, etc.

The Help has good documentation of the software, written in a very easy way to understand.