KlipFolio

What we liked:
Although you can drag and drop individual KlipFolio widgets onto your Desktop, the different modules (known as Klips) are designed to link together. The starting layout is a square block, but you can transform this into a sidebar by simply dragging it to one of the screen edges. If you’re not happy with the default size, you can shrink it right down so it’s no wider than a centimetre, or enlarge it to the point where it fills your entire Desktop. Individual Klips can be resized too (down to one centimetre square or as large as you like), simply by moving your mouse pointer to one of the edges and then dragging it to the desired size. You can position the Klips wherever you want, and in whatever shape you fancy. It’s also possible to create multiple groups of Klips and drag them to different edges of the screen to form separate sidebars.

KlipFolio can sit in front of or behind any open window, and lets you change the interface’s skin, alter its colour, set a level of transparency and change the font and type size. Right-click any Klip and you can adjust its individual settings and request alerts that will tell you when any new items become available or changes to a Klip’s content occur. All in all, it’s an incredibly configurable tool.

There’s an excellent selection of Klips to get you started – including Google News, Flickr, YouTube and Google Search – and adding new ones is just a matter of clicking the link for the one you want on the KlipFolio site. You can also create your own RSS-feed Klips by pasting the addresses into the program’s Feed Viewer.

How it can be improved:
Being able to pull the Klips out as proper standalone widgets (which don’t link up the moment they come into contact with each other) would be a nice additional touch.

Our verdict:
All the RSS feeds and gadgets you could want on your Desktop, wrapped up in a superb interface that can be customised to the most precise requirements. See our Workshop in the last issue of Web User for a guide to using KlipFolio.

Reviewed: Issue 161 (10 May 2007 - 23 May 2007)