If you play as a TV editor program , or are otherwise involved in watch and commenting on telecasting , then you live that catch moving-picture show clipping in full concealment fashion is of the uttermost importance — you may see details which are otherwise too small to see . Back home in your studio apartment , you ’ve likely get a disjoined monitor for video recording output , leave you free to work and take notes while the video is play back . But what happen when you ’re on the route , and all you ’ve perplex is your trustworthy Mac laptop computer to work with ? How can you take note while watch a full - screen video ?
It turns out that there are a number of ways to do this — some built into OS X , and others that rely on third political party result . Since this is an oculus sinister X backsheesh column , we ’ll begin out with the built - in solutions . establish Stickies and produce a new note ( File - > New Note ) . Then select Note - > drift Window , which will coerce your new note to be adrift on top of all other windows — include the full - screen video you ’re watching . Optionally , you could also set Note - > Translucent Window to make your line semi - gauzy , appropriate you to see the video through the bank note . Switch back to QuickTime , start out the movie again , then bulge typing in your awkward greenback . Here ’s an example of a note floating over a movie ( come home the image for a 1,440 - by-900 version ):
Note that when you tick in the sticky to start taking notes , the chief menu bar will appear , as Stickies is now the foremost app . If that bothers you , you may use this hint to cover Stickies ’ menu bar while it ’s active .
Another build - in answer , at least for OS ecstasy 10.4 users , is to use Dashboard ’s Stickies gubbins . Since the Dashboard layer be adrift above all others , your sticky note will be visible on top of the performing picture show . Of course , so will any other Dashboard widgets you have open , which could lead to a big case of optical clutter — and it ’s something of a pain to close all those open gizmo any time you desire to comment on a film .
Third - party solutions
There are a routine good solutions involving third - party tools . Movie Time , for instance , is a free movie player that lets you specialize on which “ layer ” you ’d like your movie to appear ( behind regular window or on the desktop , for instance ) . You could then use your favored text editor to take notes on top of the acting movie .
If you use Unsanity ’s $ 10WindowShadeX , you’re able to make any window from any program ice-cream soda on top — so you could take your government note in BBEdit , TextEdit , or any other editor of pick .
The freeSideNoteis a notepad that slue out from the edge of the concealment , letting you annotate when you need to before disappearing until it ’s time for the next comment . It bear out many of the same lineament as Stickies , include colored banker’s bill , font and style configurations , and support for images . It even includes organization - wide-cut hotkey admission .
Finally , if none of the above seem to meet your needs exactly , you could always go old schoolhouse : catch a pen or pencil and some paper , and you could take notes in full - covert movie playback mode without any visual distraction at all !
