Odds and Ends, Part One: Sticky Notes, Magnifier, and Bluetooth File Transfer

Andrew Cunningham | Oct 12, 2009 | Comments

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We all know that Windows 7 has a lot of new features, large and small – some of those, like WordPad and Paint, merit a close look and some in-depth analysis. Other improvements are more subtle, often slipping through the cracks – this post (and its follow-up later in the week) looks to shine the spotlight on a few of the little features of Windows 7.

Sticky Notes

Sticky Notes is a great tool for those of you who, like me, have a monitor that always has post-its hanging off of it everywhere.

Straddling a line between Gadget and application, Sticky Notes puts up one lone note on your desktop where you can write anything you want.

Thanks for the reminder

Clicking the plus sign (or typing Ctrl+N) will give you a new sticky note, and you can have as many as you want. Pulling on the lower right-hand corner will, of course, resize the note.

A busy day

Since Sticky Notes runs as a standard application and not a Gadget, you can bring your notes to the front by clicking on their icon in the Taskbar – they fade from view if you use Aero Peek.

I personally think these would work better as a Gadget – I’d like to be able to keep these on the desktop and view them with Aero Peek as happens with the Clock and the other Windows 7 Gadgets. Still, Sticky Notes is a useful application in spite of that shortcoming.

Magnifier

This is a handy little accessibility feature that is especially useful for hard-of-sight users, or users trying to read PDFs or other documents with small text on a low resolution screen.

The Magnifier

It’s a very small program, and when it hasn’t been interacted with in awhile it shrinks to a small, semi-transparent magnifying glass until it is needed again.

The Magnifier when idle

Magnifier works in three main modes. First is Full Screen mode – this mode magnifies the entire screen to your specified zoom level – moving the cursor around will magnify different parts of the screen.

It's hard to tell from the thumbnail, but this screen has been magnified

The second mode is Lens mode, which literally turns your pointer into a “lens” that magnifies anything you pass it over.

Lens mode

The last mode is Dock mode, which enables you to put a “lens” anywhere on the screen. The view in the docked lens follows your cursor around.

Dock mode

Bluetooth File Transfer

The last feature we’re going to look at today is the Bluetooth File Transfer utility, which will let you share files between Bluetooth-enabled devices without the hassle of setting up a network share or putting it on a flash drive or emailing it.

You can find the tool under Accessories in the start menu. When you open it, it will ask you whether you’ll be sending or receiving the files, an easy enough question to answer.

The receiving computer will now begin waiting to be contacted by the sending computer, and the sending computer will display a list of devices to which it can connect.

Select a device

Single click to select a device. Security-minded users will want to check the “Use Authentication” box, which will prompt the receiving computer to generate a pairing code – only when that code has been typed into the sending computer will the file be sent. Unchecking the “Use authentication” box will remove this step, but any Bluetooth-enabled device could potentially intercept the file.

Now, click Next a couple of times until the file transfers – the time this takes will, of course, depend on the amount of data being transferred and the strength of the Bluetooth connection. Once the file has transferred, the receiving computer will ask you where you’d like to save it.

Where should it go?

Once you’ve selected the file’s new home, you’re all done!

Those are the features we’ll be covering today. Come back tomorrow for an in-depth look at the Snipping Tool, the Math Input Panel, and the Calculator!

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