KlipFolio claims to be the world’s smallest personal dashboard & sidebar for Windows. I don’t know about being the smallest but it definitely is one of the coolest Windows dashboard & sidebar I’ve come across so far.

In their own words:

“With KlipFolio you don’t have to give up your desktop to stay on top of what matters to you. And with over 4000 Klips available for download—all small, resizable, customizable and skinnable—you’re sure to find exactly what you need to stay ahead of, well, everyone.”

After seeing just a screenshot on the KlipFolio site, I was eager to download it & give it a try. To my surprise, I’m very impressed & satisfied with this desktop tool (lately I haven’t been too impressed with tools I’ve come across).

The KlipFolio dashboard is pretty small & all Klips (KlipFolio’s term for widgets) are tiny as well; they can be resized and moved around however you like. The dashboard can be docked to the left, right, top or bottom of your window. If you don’t want it docked, you can just leave it floating in the middle of your window.

Below is a screenshot of how the dashboard looks when floating. Of course, yours will look different depending on which Klips you’re using, how you choose to position your Klips & what size you choose to make your Klips.

As you can see in the screenshots below, there are many different ways to display the dashboard when it’s docked (top, bottom, right, left). You can choose to display it like a regular toolbar or you can pull each Klip out to any height that you like, so that you can still see what’s going on without any additional movements. Either way, you can move your Klips around, resize them & even pull them out from the dashboard.

KlipFolio has quite a few skins to choose from. If you don’t see a pre-installed one that you like, you can always download more.

When it comes to the types of Klips that you can download, there’s literally thousands to choose from. Installing a Klip is as easy as installing a Greasemonkey script - only one click necessary (plus a confirmation click of course). Feel free to go here to browse some of the many Klips you have to choose from.

I also want to point out a few other features posted on KlipFolio:

• Always up-to-date information flowing into your Klips so you don’t have to go looking for it.
• Built-in RSS support allows you to monitor your favorite RSS feeds on your desktop using Klips.
• You can share things you’ve found in KlipFolio with your friends and colleagues.
• Multi-language full unicode support (over 24 languages) in Klips and KlipFolio’s interface.
• Built-in alerts allow you to set desktop alerts for keywords and new articles in any Klips, so you are notified as soon as changes occur.
• Developer-friendly Klips are smart, easy to build, and fully scriptable. You can write a Klip in as little as 7 lines of XML.

To highlight some of the KlipFolio features, I created a short little video using Cam Studio, which allows you to record your screen. This is my first attempt at creating a video with it, so bear with me!

My apologies about the size, it wasn’t til after I uploaded it that I saw how small it was - I have to learn how to zoom in! You can view the full screen version here, though it is a little blurry. Also, sorry that there’s no sound but, I took it off because the microphone on my laptop is not close enough & I have a soft voice, so you could hardly hear me. I’m still learning!

Keep in mind that I’m using KlipFolio 5 Beta D, so it may look a little different from the version that you choose to download. Right now the current version they display on the site is KlipFolio version 4.

So, let me know what you think about KlipFolio. Do you prefer it to other Windows desktop gadgets out there? Is it better or not as good?

Technorati Tags: klipfolio, klips, dashboard, sidebar, windows, desktop, gadget, widgets

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