Download LivePad Free for Windows

Even in the digital age, an old-fashioned scratch pad is hard to beat when in the middle of a brainstorming session. LivePad tries to update that old standby, offering space for taking notes in a way that mixes text, hand drawings, audio clips, voice comments, and screenshots. For students or a design team that’s browsing the Web, this can be an invaluable way to mix media. A tabbed interface allows several documents to be open at once, and a password function protects them from unauthorized eyes. However, the program falls somewhat short of its lofty goals. It doesn’t provide good tools for organizing notes, and lacks basic features such as the ability to link between documents. Nor does it always collect information smoothly–when we tried dragging and dropping pieces from Web pages, the program displayed links instead of images, for example. We also would like to see features such as an address book and scheduler. Overall, LivePad is well-suited for keeping a record of cross-media brainstorming, even if other aspects are underdeveloped.