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► GETTING STARTED
Welcome to NoteAlarm 2000 — a simple notepad and alarm clock for Windows. Write notes on the left, manage alarms on the right. Everything saves together in a single .nal file so you don't have to keep track of separate files.
The window is split into two panels. Drag the divider between them to resize. The notepad is on the left; the alarm list and the add-alarm form are on the right.
TIP: The app remembers your window size and splitter position between sessions.
► THE NOTEPAD
The left panel is a full-featured rich text notepad. Just click and type. It supports:
- Word wrap (toggle under View → Word Wrap)
- Font size 8px–32px (View → Font Size or the Font toolbar button)
- Undo (Ctrl+Z), Cut / Copy / Paste
- Select All (Ctrl+A)
- Find (Ctrl+F) — highlights the match in yellow and wraps around
Find Bar
Press Ctrl+F to open the find bar at the bottom of the notepad. Type and press Enter or click Next. Use Prev to go backwards. Press Esc or click X to close and clear the highlight.
► ALARMS
Adding an Alarm
Use the form at the top of the right panel:
- Time — use the up/down spinner to set the time (12-hour AM/PM format)
- Label — a short name like “Meeting” or “Take meds”. Defaults to “Alarm” if blank.
- Sound — choose from Beep, Chime, Pulse, Digital, or Gentle. Click Preview to hear it first.
Click + Add to add it to the list.
Editing an Alarm
Double-click any alarm in the list (on the Time or Label column) to open the Edit dialog. You can change the time, label, sound, and also write an attached note — a longer reminder that pops up when the alarm fires.
Enabling / Disabling
Click the On column (shows X when active) to toggle an alarm on or off without deleting it. The status bar at the bottom shows how many are currently active.
Deleting
Click the [X] column on any row to delete it immediately.
When an Alarm Fires
A popup appears on top of all other windows showing the time, label, and attached note (if any). The chosen sound plays on a loop until you dismiss or snooze.
Snooze
Click 5m, 10m, 15m, or 30m to snooze. The alarm will re-fire after the delay. Click Dismiss to stop it for this session.
NOTE: Alarms fire once per minute window. If you dismiss and the same minute hasn't passed yet, it won't re-fire until the next day.
Alarm Sounds
| Name | Character |
| Beep | Classic triple beep |
| Chime | Rising four-note chime |
| Pulse | Rapid repeating pulse |
| Digital | Old-school digital buzz |
| Gentle | Soft rising-falling melody |
All sounds use the Windows Beep API (kernel32.dll) — no sound card needed. Works on XP and up.
► FILES (.NAL FORMAT)
NoteAlarm 2000 saves to .nal files — XML under the hood. One file holds your note and all your alarms together.
File Menu
- New (Ctrl+N) — clears the note. Does not clear alarms.
- New Window (Ctrl+Shift+N) — opens a second independent instance.
- Open (Ctrl+O) — opens a .nal file (note + alarms) or a .txt file (text only).
- Save (Ctrl+S) — saves to the current file, or asks where if it's new.
- Save As — saves to a new .nal file.
- Save Note as .txt — exports just the note text as plain UTF-8.
- Save Alarms — exports just the alarms to a .nal (useful for backups).
- Clear All Alarms — removes everything from the list after a confirmation.
TIP: Double-click a .nal file in Explorer to open it directly. The file association is set up automatically on first launch.
Unsaved Changes
If you close or exit the app with unsaved edits, you'll be asked whether to save, discard, or cancel. This catches both new notes and changes to already-saved files.
► SYSTEM TRAY
NoteAlarm 2000 always keeps an icon in the system tray while it's running.
- Double-click the tray icon to bring the window to the front.
- Right-click for the tray menu: Open or Exit.
Closing the Window
Clicking X closes the app. If you have unsaved notes it will ask first. To keep it running in the background without closing, just minimise it to the taskbar instead — alarms still fire either way.
► DARK MODE
Click the Theme button in the toolbar to switch between Light and Dark mode. Dark mode applies to all controls: notepad, alarm list, inputs, toolbar, status bar, headers, and dropdowns. Scrollbars stay system-coloured — that's an XP thing, nothing I can do about it.
► START WITH WINDOWS
Go to View → Start with Windows to launch automatically at login. A checkmark means it's on. This just adds an entry to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
► FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
► My alarm didn't go off. What happened?
First check that the alarm is actually enabled — the On column should show an X. Also double-check the time. The picker uses 12-hour AM/PM so it's easy to accidentally set something for 7 PM when you meant 7 AM. The alarm checker runs every 5 seconds so there might be a tiny delay too.
► The alarm went off but I didn't hear anything.
The sounds go through your PC speaker using the Windows Beep API, not your sound card or speakers. A lot of newer desktops and most laptops don't have a real PC speaker anymore, so you just won't hear anything. Try the Preview button — if that's silent too then yeah, your machine probably doesn't support it. Sorry, not much I can do about that one.
► Can I set more than one alarm?
Yes, as many as you want. They all show up in the list and fire independently of each other.
► What even is a .nal file? Can I open it?
It's just XML. You can open it in Notepad if you're curious. It has your note text and your alarms in there. Don't edit it by hand unless you know what you're doing, the app will just error out if the XML is broken.
► I closed the app and lost my notes.
If the app crashed or you hit No by accident, the notes are gone, sorry. Since version 1.4.1 you always get asked before closing if there's anything unsaved, so it shouldn't happen anymore. Just hit Ctrl+S every now and then to be safe.
► Can I open a regular .txt file?
Yep. File → Open, pick the .txt file, it loads into the notepad. Alarms won't come with it obviously since there's nowhere to store them in a plain text file.
► The window is opening off-screen and I can't get to it.
This can happen if you changed your monitor setup since last time. The app saves and restores the window position and it should clamp it to the screen automatically, but if it's really stuck just delete the registry key at HKCU\Software\NoteAlarm2000\WindowState and it'll reset to the default position next launch.
► Does it run on Windows 98 / ME?
It needs .NET 2.0 which Microsoft never officially released for 98/ME, so probably not. It's tested on XP. Should work fine on Vista, 7, and anything newer too.
► Will you add [feature]?
Maybe! Send me an email (see below) and I'll see what I can do. No promises though, this is a side project and I have a day job lol.
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► TIPS & TRICKS
- Attach a note to an alarm (double-click to edit it) for a full reminder that pops up when it fires.
- Use Save Alarms to back up just your alarm list and reload it into a different .nal later.
- Open a second window with Ctrl+Shift+N to keep notes in one and alarms in the other.
- The status bar shows e.g. “3/5 on” so you can see at a glance how many alarms are active.
- Bump the font up to 14px or so if you use this as a daily scratchpad. Easier to read.
- The find bar wraps around automatically when it hits the end of the document.
► KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
| Shortcut | Action |
| Ctrl+N | New file |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | New window |
| Ctrl+O | Open file |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+Shift+S | Save As |
| Ctrl+F | Find |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+X / C / V | Cut / Copy / Paste |
| Ctrl+A | Select All |
| Enter (in Find bar) | Find next |
| Esc (in Find bar) | Close Find bar |
| Alt+F4 | Exit (prompts if unsaved) |
► ABOUT NOTEALARM 2000
NoteAlarm 2000 is a free notepad and alarm clock for Windows XP and later. No installer, just a .exe. No internet connection needed. No ads, no spyware.
| Version: | 1.4 |
| Platform: | Windows XP and later, .NET 2.0+ |
| Authors: | CC & Gee_Bie |
| License: | MIT — free to use, share, and modify |
| Copyright: | © 2007 CC & Gee_Bie |
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