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[Steve]

Hi all.

I am designing (using OneNote 2007) an on-site residential energy auditing
system that blends with some automated equipment, energy-analysis software,
quic e and general CAD work. An energy-audit, for those unfamiliar with it,
involves measuring the structure, detailing thermal envelope characteristics,
analyzing the HVAC, diagramming, notes, datalogging with sensors, and using
DOE-approved analysis software. So, needless to say, it is not readily
packaged onto one platform.

However, I have found OneNote to be a VERY nice program due to it's ability
to remain flexible, quickly pull up templated forms based on on-site review,
and allow multi-users for larger or extended projects. I am hoping to get
the State utilities as well as government agencies to consider it (I've had
20 years experience in this field and the HUGE problem is disorganized,
outdated, redundancy and uncustomized project files!)

The question: there is a serious lack of auto-updating between pages,
forms, or folders for reoccuring info such as client, address, component
types, architectural data, etc. The auto-lin is VERY nice to 'Wiki' the
Folder to a reference folder for the auditor, BTW. But is their a tool that
allows either basic forms or pre-designed templates to auto-retrive info from
a base page? Such as I design a Admin page that contains the address, style,
age, Project ID, job type, and such fields and when I go to the other section
pages, the info will auto-fill the same fields there.

More specifically: say I have a numeric value for the house volume that I
need listed on 3 other forms (pages)... 2 that are part of the standard
folder package and one the auditor may add on via the template process. The
tool would link those fields together in the same folder.

Thanks for any help!

Steve Hansen
Kirkland, WA

 

[David]

Hi Steve,

If I understand your requirement correctly, you require a flexible system
that is context sensitive and data driven.

Microsoft Access may well be the most suitable tool for your application.
It is a favourite of Bill's:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2006/03-21OfficeDevCon.mspx

While Access is often (unfairly IMO) criticised, in the hands of an
experienced programmer (as opposed to someone who has just played with it)
it is an extremely powerful tool.
I have seen some incredibly detailed and complex applications built with
Access. I work with an Access MVP and he builds applications or prototypes
in extremely quick time. This approach also allow you to build an
application that can scale with an Access front end and a SQL Server (or
database of choice) backend.

Like any tool, it is not the answer to every question. But it might well be
the best solution for your requirements.

If you have further questions on this that are off topic (this is a OneNote
NG), then feel free to contact me via email (you should have no trouble
unravelling my mashed email address).

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Steve wrote:

[...]

But is their a tool that allows either basic forms
or pre-designed templates to auto-retrive info from a base page?
Such as I design a Admin page that contains the address, style,
age, Project ID, job type, and such fields and when I go to the
other section pages, the info will auto-fill the same fields there.

Sad to say so, but it seems that you are wanting to use OneNote for
tasks which OneNote is not made for.
It's an instrument for note-taking and storing information from
different source. It's not a *database* application which AFAICS would
be what you need.

ON does not have any *fields* and there is no way to automatically
update anything.
Any kind of information has to be typed in or pasted.

Rainald