Please note: Currently PokerStars and iPoker (no miniview at this point) are supported. There is an older version of SmartNotes for PartyPoker here, which may or may not still work.
About
SmartNotes makes taking notes easier. You open and close notes with a single mouse click, or use hotkeys. You can define where you'd like the notes to pop-up, what size you'd like them to be and what they look like.
The corresponding thread on 2+2 is here.
Screenshots
Getting started
Please download from the link below, then open the folder and create a shortcut for the file SmartNotes.ahk. Then run it. Now, before anything will work, you have to select Preferences from the tray menu and enter the path of the main PokerStars directory (most likely C:\Program Files\PokerStars), or the ipoker history/username directory (ie C:\Program Files\{name of skin}\history\{user name}). Next, you'll want to import your notes: Click on 'Import' and then select the Stars notes file ('Notes.txt'). Unfortunately there's no way to import iPoker notes, you'll have to manually re-enter the notes as you come across already noted players. Now you should be good to go - fire up a table (can be a play money table if you like) and start playing. You will need to play one hand before SmartNotes can recognize players. To open the notes, left-click on the box with the player name and stack size. To close the note pop-up, right-click it. When you have SmartNotes set to display the player name at the top of the note (like in the screenshot above), you can drag-'n'-drop the note by clicking on that part of the pop-up. Otherwise you might want to try using NiftyWindows (great app, recommended in any case).
Now you can start experimenting with the different options in the tray menu.
Using SmartNotes
Notes
SmartNotes reads the hand histories to figure out who's sitting at the table, and where. Since no hand histories get written when you are sitting out, SmartNotes will use the last hand history that was written - however, that information may not be accurate, so you have to be careful to not take notes on the wrong player after you've missed a few hands. I suggest you use the 'Show player name at top' and 'show tooltip' options, so you can check the player name.
Import
You will most likely only import notes once, right at the start. SmartNotes stores it's notes in it's own little 'database', and only those files get updated when you edit notes - the original notes file is ignored. Therefore there is no point in importing again.
Export
The export function will export all your notes to a file and format them in the original way. This will be necessary if you want to import them into PokerTracker, or (unlikely ;-)) you decide to not use SmartNotes anymore (in that case you will want to replace the Notes.txt file in PokerStars with the file you imported to so you can keep all the notes you took while using SmartNotes.
Layouts
The layouts feature lets you configure where you want to click to open your notes, and where you would like them to pop up. To make changes, open a table and then click on the row for the table type (2max, 6max, 8max, etc). Note that iPoker uses the same layout for all tables, so you'll only have to set up 10-max (and setting up 8-max etc will have no effect - the notes won't work). Now click on 'Take screenshot' and then Ctrl+Alt+LeftClick the table. Now click on Open table. The white squares are the notes, the red ones are the hotspots. You can move drag-'n'-drop them, or alternatively move the mouse cursor over them and then use the arrow keys while holding down Ctrl (slow) or Ctrl+Alt (fast). The arrow keys on their own will move the mouse only. As you'll see, when you hover over one of the little boxes, you'll get a tooltip with the seat #. Make sure you don't mess up the order, otherwise you might end up taking notes on the wrong player.
Hotkeys
Here you can define the hotkeys - should be pretty self-explanatory. To find out more about hotkeys click on the link at the top of the Hotkeys Gui.
Note that SmartNotes will operate on the current TableNavigator table if you are running TableNavigator, on the active table otherwise.
Hotstrings
Hotstrings auto-replace abbreviations as you type, for instance 'btw' with 'by the way' etc. I uses them to take notes more quickly and still keep them readable.
Other features
You can add, edit or delete notes from the SmartNotes main window. Note, however, that the iPoker note icon will NOT be updated, in other words if you add a player post-session then encounter him again, there will be no indication that you have a note on him. The opposite is true for deleting a note - there will still be a note icon on the player and the ipoker client note on him will still be there.
You'll notice that the icon turns gray when you have no tables open - the script will automatically pause itself if it detects that you're not playing. This way, the hotkeys for opening notes get back their original function when you're not playing. You can also manually pause the script, from the tray menu or using a hotkey - this way the script will stay paused even if you have tables open.
One last feature I should mention: When a pop-up is active, you can resize it using Ctrl+arrow keys.
Changelog
v1.02: Added a refresh button and a button to add players via the main gui (when you are not at the table with them.
v1.03: Fixed some bugs with the importing and exporting.
v1.04: Fixed bug - default notes size was not being used. Fixed bug - the Pause option didn't disable hotkeys.
v1.05: Fixed bug with hotspots when playing more than one table.
v1.1: Added iPoker support (not tested on tourneys), plus button to delete players via the main gui. -HalvSame-
v1.2: Added Party Poker support (not tested on tourneys). -HalvSame-
Warning
Use the script at your own risk, and please be careful - I can't guarantee that it's bug free. For instance, after exporting notes, take a look at the contents of the file you exported to and check that the notes actually got written to it; or have a look at the notes you took after a session and check if something's missing; etc. Also, you might want to occasionally back up your notes. The easiest way is to just export them and email the file to yourself.
Download
WARNING: If you already have SmartNotes and are downloading a new version, be sure to make a backup of your notes or ideally the entire SmartNotes folder before you download again, as something important could get overwritten.
When you are downloading for the first time, you should also download the LayOut.ini and copy the file into SmartNotes\Settings.