Hey Blackyell. Nice to meet ya!
In regards to the notes, you could create a layer for 'notes' that is not visible when the game starts. I think this would accomplish the same thing, right? A built-in feature would be the same thing, more or less, so I'm gonna guess it's not high on the list since the functioning for us to do it ourselves is already there.
When you say guides are you talking about dividers? A visible line to mark off certain areas? If that's the case, then creating a line sprite and setting the initial visibility off accomplishes the same thing, no?
I enjoyed reading the ideas, sir. Take care!
Yes, for the notes it's possible to add a hidden layer, and it's what I'm currently doing. But the fact we can't draw on it directly by hand is somewhat painful in certain occasions. For example, with style of game where the player can only follow straight path until it hit something. It's hard to explain, so here is a quick example, made in photoshop (imagine the black squares are Sprites, and the red line is an "hand written annotation" ) :
<img src="http://hfr-rehost.net/self/91862893ac60599922e9fbb74d5c0aea160f0f5c.jpg" border="0" />
After that, it's easy to add some "garbage" without blocking the player's path :
<img src="http://hfr-rehost.net/self/a6c86639ff27c024f613ba4fa9da5d7da113b908.jpg" border="0" />
And I'm sure hand writing could be useful to quickly add many other annotations, avoiding to have to add a layer, (and don't forget to activate this layer each time we want to add an annotation !!), then to add a sprite, draw a line inside it, then painfully duplicate it everywhere and rotate it ...
(It is difficult to make clear his thoughts in a foreign language)
Considering the guides, yes I know it is possible to use a sprite (and again, it's what I'm doing right know), but if I suggest it, it's because I consider it's not convenient.
One more time, it's only some suggestions, for something that I find tedious. It's not like a "DO IT KNOW"-command :)
Hope my messages are clear.
Thanks for reading.