OneNote: a hidden Microsoft Office gem
Last week I discovered Microsoft OneNote 2007, and I am (honestly) impressed. Actually, the first time I ever heard of OneNote was when I read the FAQ of InkSeine.
Here’s part of the product description:
Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that provides people one place to gather their notes and information, powerful search to find what they are looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared notebooks so that they can manage information overload and work together more effectively.
I have been using a combination of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Notebook and del.icio.us to organize (and capture) information (partially inspired by this setup). The big problem here was synchronization. I ended up copying URLs to Google Notebook since I would never be confronted with them again if I stored them in del.icio.us. There were no explicit links between meetings, documents, and other resources (e.g. websites or short notes in notebooks). I would add gadgets for each of these apps to my iGoogle page to keep an overview. Although I could cope with this setup, it was not ideal. Gmail and Google Calendar are great services which I still love to use, but for quick notes and jotting down ideas I often resorted to paper notes.
Although OneNote is not perfect either, combined with a laptop (or tablet PC) it has the potential to eliminate most paper note taking. To get a good overview of what’s possible with OneNote, have a look at these resources:
- Max Zuckerman’s OneNote: the Mega-Tool for Learning
- Dian Chapman’s OneNote Introduction
- the OneNote 2007 Guide if you have OneNote installed on your PC.
A lot of people have been impressed with OneNote and have blogged about it.
Here are a few of OneNote’s features that I like:
- text search in images and audio
- audio and video recording with synchronized notes
- shared notebooks
- embedding any file as a printout
- screen clippings
- the ability to write and draw anywhere on a page
- tags (e.g. todo, important, question, etc.)
- calculator support
- inking support (if only I had a tablet PC)
Here’s an example of how I used OneNote to summarize an intuitive explanation of Bayesian Reasoning by Eliezer Yudkowsky:
Tags: onenote, productivity, software
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hehe, I discovered it a few months ago (Vicky uses it) and I wanted to blog about it, as I liked it very much. Although for some reason I can't seem to push myself in to using new stuff.. It seems I'm conservative with regard to how I do stuff
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May 8th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Ever heard about Evernote? http://www.evernote.com/about/what_is_en/
Might be a nice addition.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:00 am
Thanks! That's a great suggestion since it runs on multiple platforms. I just signed up for an invitation to the beta program
May 10th, 2008 at 3:29 am
[...] OneNote: a hidden Microsoft Office gem: Last week I discovered Microsoft OneNote 2007, and I am (hon… [...]
November 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Probably late on the bandwagon but I had a “Wow. This is splendid!” reaction when I finally took the time to look at OneNote. For projects and tasks as well as research I've been juggling Google apps, as well as Outlook tasks and cal, good old .txt files with .LOG tags added to the start as well as Tab groupings and sub groupings in IE and Firefox and don’t forget regular folders.
OneNote has impressed me so far (compared to many other MS items that frustrate me so) and actually made me exited to really start using it! A rare thing for software… and after using it for a few days I feel my brain starting to unfrazzle if ever so slightly… and I'm baffled by why MS isn't pimping this rather solid app out.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
It's a great idea,it runs on multiple platforms,I liked it very much.
Thanks
March 13th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Great that you are such a OneNote Fan. Join other fans at the new OneNote online community at http://www.iheartonenote.com
Learn tips and tricks for using OneNote from other users, share Notebooks, join discussions. It's free.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I also started using onenote and have fallen in love with it. It's a huge timeasaver when you are grabbing data from a number of sources.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I was actually really impressed with Office Onenote as well. The first time I discovered it was when it came preinstalled on my Toshiba Laptop. I've never even heard of it before then. Why doesn't microsoft promote it at all? It's a GREAT piece of software imho.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Indeed, it's strange that they don't promote it that much. I think OneNote is very useful for college students for example.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Is it free of we have to buy it from microsoft…tell me a link to download this onenote software for free..
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June 27th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
What a useful post here. Very informative for me..TQ friends…
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July 20th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Sometimes I just prefer using the old classic staples and just forget about technology, but then I remember that we live in the 21st century and I turn on my computer.
August 16th, 2009 at 11:34 am
I had never used One Note in past, I prefer a Google services, they gives some simplicity in my work, but after this article I have to review my opinion.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
For projects and tasks as well as research I've been juggling Google apps, as well as Outlook tasks and cal, good old .txt files with .LOG tags added to the start as well as Tab groupings and sub groupings in IE and Firefox and don’t forget regular folders.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:31 am
For projects and tasks as well as research I've been juggling Google apps, as well as Outlook tasks and cal, good old .txt files with .LOG tags added to the start as well as Tab groupings and sub groupings in IE and Firefox and don’t forget regular folders.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:25 am
I like this Guest Writer thing. This was a very informative post.