5.7. Attaching Files/Folders
Starting from v1.6, 7 Sticky Notes offers a neat attachment feature! The attachment capabilities of 7 Sticky Notes includes attaching of single or multiple files, including e-mails, and folders with Linking and Embedding modes, full drag-and-drop usage, file icons previews and thumbnails for images, and extremely easy and cool look!

First and foremost, let's explain how both the attachments methods work:

1. Linking Mode:

In this mode, the attached file will only be a link reference to the file you dropped. It is like a shortcut link. For example, this means that if the file is a Word document "document.doc" and is located
in "E:\Work\document.doc", then the attached file shown at the note will be pointing exactly at this file. If you remove the attachment from the note in this case, all what will happen is that the note will have the link deleted, and the file will still be there.

2. Embedding Mode:

This mode, on the other hand, means that the file will be literally "inside the note". In other words, the file will be copied into the note, and will be there as long as the note lives. For example, lets take the previous example for the file "document.doc" located inside "E:\Work\document.doc". If you attach this file to the note in Embed Mode, then 7 Sticky Notes will copy this file into a special storage folder of the program, thus creating a duplicate (copy) of the file, and will then refer to this file, instead of the original file "E:\Work\document.doc". This means that, even if you delete the file "E:\Work\document.doc", the file embedded at the note will still be there, because they aren't the same file anymore. The storage folder where the embedded attachments are kept is located inside the 7 Sticky Notes folder at Windows' AppData directory, but you can change it if you want, at the Synchronization Options of 7 Sticky Notes.

Ok, so now you should be asking, how do I use these 2 methods, and, more importantly, how do I attach the files after all? Well, it is in fact very easy, all attaching actions are done by drag-and-drop, and the selection between "Link" and "Embed" modes are done by pressing the CTRL or SHIFT keys. This means that, to attach a file or folder, all you have to do is grab it from its location (a folder, or the Desktop, for instance), and drag it over the note. Once you drag the file/folder over the note, you will instantly see that the "Attach Pad" is showed, indicating that it can be dropped, and, depending on which key you are pressing, the drag mouse icon changes accordingly to show that the file/folder will be linked or embedded.

This is how a simple file drag-and-drop step-by-step looks like:
1 First, you have the file at the Windows Desktop and the note visible
2 Now drag the file over the Note. You will see that the "Attach Pad" will show up.
3 Now press "CTRL", and you will see that the drag icon changes from a to a , showing that the attachment mode now is "Embed".
4 And this is the final result of what you will see if you link the first attachment and embed the second one!

But, besides inserting files as attachments, 7 Sticky Notes also offers you the ability to insert files and images directly into the notes, using the same drag and drop capability, integrating attachment and inserting into one single mouse action. The table below shows the behavior of the drag-and-drop for all available combinations:

Note State Drop Area File Type Keys Action
Not Editing Any part (Body, Attach Pad, etc) All types of Files or Folders Nothing or SHIFT Link File(s)/Folder(s)
CTRL Embed File(s)/Folder(s)
Note under Editing Text Body Text, RichText, Microsoft Office Document, Image Files Nothing Insert into text body *
SHIFT Link File(s)
CTRL Embed File(s)
All other file types and Folders Nothing or SHIFT Link File(s)/Folder(s)
CTRL Embed Files(s)/Folders(s)
Attach Pad Any file types and Folders Nothing or SHIFT Link File(s)/Folder(s)
CTRL Embed File(s)/Folder(s)
Editing or Not Any part (Body, Attach Pad, etc) E-mails Any Key Embed File(s)/Folder(s)
* Only all files (no folders) and with the same type (images, texts, etc). Otherwise, the files/folders will be attached.

Additionally, if you have the "Show preview for attachments when available" option enabled at the Visual Effects Options, all attached images will be shown as a small thumbnail. The images below show how the image thumbnail preview looks like, and also an example on how the image inserted into the note using the drag-and-drop would look like:
  Image Attached
   image Inserted
Every attached file or folder is also completely interactive, just like if they were in Windows Explorer. This means that if you double click a File/Folder, it will be opened, and if you drag it from the note into another folder, it will be copied there!

Additional Attachments Functions:

And at last, there are a couple of extra functions for the attachments that allows you to (1) re-define the link of a linked attachment, or (2) delete any attachment. These functions are described below:

Delete an Attachment: If you would like to remove any attachments, just (1) click on it to have it selected and then press the "DEL" key, or (2) right click the attachment, and click the "Delete" menu item, as is showed at the image below. Just note that, if the attachment is embedded into the note, it will be permanently deleted, so be sure of is what you want!


Re-Link a Linked Attachment: It is possible also to re-define the link of a linked attached file or folder. This is useful if you have chosen the wrong file/folder, if you moved the file/folder and want to correct the link, or if you just want to link to a different file/folder. This function is available through a right click menu, visible only if you right click a linked attachment, like is showed at the image below:

Once you click the "Re-link attachment" menu, a dialog is open to allow you to re-define the link. Note that is not possible to change the attachment type between file and folder. This means that if the linked attachment is a file, then the dialog will only allow you to select a file, and if the linked attachment is a folder, then the dialog will only allow you to select a folder.