Software :: Create Marginal Notes And Anchored Notes?

can anyone suggest an mac os x app (or mac os x-supported software like OpenOffice et cet.) that will allow me to create marginal or anchored notes in a text document?

i am not interested in MS WORD, not out of any ideological dislike of gates or ms word, et cet. (although i do not like word), but i am tired of paying steep prices for it and upgrades and wish a simpler program for someone who writes, period. i do not need 90% of word's features (although it, and openoffice alternative, does have the "insert note" on reviewing toolbar i like - see below)

if anyone is familiar with what is called "critical apparatus", it would allow me to add what are essentially footnotes in a visible (Jer's Novel Writer) or invisible (WORD and OpenOffice) notes to the text. (btw: here is what i mean: [URL] and click on screenshot at bottom right of screen)

such a feature would be immensely helpful for some translation projects i am doing as well "to check" reminders within creative projects, from essays to novels.

i may be wrong but i don't think bookmarks are what i want and i prefer to avoid footnotes or endnotes (yes - i am selfish. i want it all) although a footnote is not so terrible a work-around.

i have looked at following options in respective apps:

postit/stickies type note - openoffice has a WORD type feature (like the critical apparatus popup window in url above) which is accessible but i would love to have a smaller simpler program to do this

marginal notes - i love Jer's Novel Writer for this but if you write a long note or lots of notes anchored to the same small stretch of text, these marginal notes become cumbersome and piled on top of each other in the margin, unless there is a way to do this i am doing wrong. (am open to suggestions how to use JNW better. i have not written to Jer - maybe i'll do this)

flags: supernotecard has flags but limits them to one per card where a card is funtionally synonomous with a paragraph. thus one can not annotate multiple words in same paragraph with individual markers

links: i am using DEVONthink more and more as a word processor with its multiple windows, database/search/concordance capabilities and extremely rewarding flexibility. i could use their links to separate windows but don't like this as much.similarly voodoopad does this well but same objection

separate windows: many programs facilitate a new window that could hold my notes. they are not anchored or easily tied to the text in question without altering the text, e.g., DEVONthink, Smultron, et cet.

i think i have looked at almost everything, i think, e.g., supernotecard, notemind, nova mind, tinderbox, notetaker (which i love), ulysses, avenir, z-writer, scrivener, smultron, textwrangler, subethaedit, mi, copywrite, bean, textmate (a great "project format" for composite documents like journal or book with chapters), mellel, mariner, JNW (which i also love), nisus, tex-edit plus, all the omnigroup apps, journler, storyist, writeroom, abiword, but may have missed something. programs like curio (which i like, along with omnigrapple pro) and mindburn are not really what i need either.

i guess if i knew enough i could write an applescript within some of these programs. but i am not very facile with scripting and do not want to take the time to become so. i do not think TeX et al. are the way to go and the same comment about time versus learning curve applies.