copy text and hyperlink

[derek]

I've got a question about copy and pasting in onenote:

When I copy something from the web or a word document and paste it into
onenote, it includes a URL pointing back to the original document.
This is pretty handy, and when it's not needed, it's easy enough to
delete. Is there a way to make this happen when copying and pasting
things within Onenote? I having many pages of dissertation notes
within Onenote, and am copying little bits into an outline page. I'd
like these little bits to be hyperlinked back to their original
context, however, it's too much work to do this manually (by first
copying the paragraph, then going back and copying the hyperlink)--I'm
looking for a keyboard shortcut or menu option or something.

Thanks

 

[Grant Robertson]

Is there a way to make this happen when copying and pasting

things within Onenote? I having many pages of dissertation notes
within Onenote, and am copying little bits into an outline page. I'd
like these little bits to be hyperlinked back to their original
context, however, it's too much work to do this manually (by first
copying the paragraph, then going back and copying the hyperlink

You know, I almost said, "No." because there is no option specifically
for that. However, I remembered something that happened a few times and
went back and verified that it works every time. Here is the trick:

1) Go to the page where the tidbit you want to copy is located.
2) Select the tidbit you want to copy.
3) Rather than just hit ctrl-c to copy the text, right-click and choose
"Copy hyperlink to this paragraph."
4) Go to where you want to paste the text.
5) Paste in the usual manner.

You will notice that it will paste a hyperlink instead.

There are a few caveats:

A) If the words you originally selected were in ink then the hyperlink
will include all of the paragraph from the beginning up to the last word
you selected and it will be converted to text. You can easily delete any
text you didn't want to include.
B) If the words you originally selected were plain text then something
weird happens: If the text was at the beginning of the paragraph then you
are fine. However, if the text you originally selected was from the
middle of a paragraph then the resulting hyperlink will contain a similar
amount of text but it will come from the beginning of the paragraph
instead of the actual text you originally selected.

I don't know if these are bugs or if the technique I describe is a bug in
and of itself. If so, it is a kind of handy bug if you can learn to work
around it's limitations. I have no clue if this behavior will be
maintained or fixed in the RTM version coming out soon.

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

There's no option to do that in ON. The idea is that if you want to
refer back to data elsewhere in ON, you would copy the link. There's no
reason to duplicate the data in ON. Think of ON as a normalized database

 

[Grant Robertson]

The idea is that if you want to
refer back to data elsewhere in ON, you would copy the link. There's no
reason to duplicate the data in ON.

But sometimes people want to create their OWN summary page of short notes
about something. They want to be able to just scan down that summary and
get the info they need. Then IF they need more info they use a link to
get to the more detailed page.

Sometimes it is not the most efficient to completely normalize something
as amorphous as personal, handwritten notes. Even in a fully normalized
database it is possible to create a form that pulls together info from
different tables and presents it all in one place for the user. Since it
is not possible to do this as flexibly as people want in OneNote, people
have to do it by hand. Note Tags and the summary pane/page are not
enough. They have just enough limitations to severely limit their
usefulness.

A) It always gets the entire paragraph. There is no way to tag just one
sentence within a paragraph.

B) Since, when writing in ink, OneNote 2007 does a worse job of
recognizing the ends of paragraphs than ON 2003 did, most of the time
every line gets treated as a paragraph. So, when you go to tag a
paragraph, it only tags one line of that paragraph (usually the last one)
and the summary is useless for this paragraph. The only way to fix this
is to laboriously go through the paragraph and delete the carriage
returns. Often this hoses up the ink so you end up spending 5-10 minutes
rewriting and cleaning up the paragraph and eventually give up and retype
the whole thing. In the mean time the speaker you were taking notes about
has gone on without you and you have missed 10 minutes of the lecture.
Therefore I have completely given up on using tags with handwriting.

C) The summary pane/page alphabetizes the paragraphs! What the heck? What
makes you think that I would always want my notes rearranged by whatever
happened to be the first word in the paragraph? The only other option is
to group by date but then it doesn't keep all the tags of a certain type
together. So my options are useless and worthless. Not a very handy
feature if you ask me. We need to be able to group by tag and have the
summary be in the same order as it is in the actual document.
Alphabetizing should be optional. Anyone who would think otherwise should
not be designing software.


Even if the tags and summary pane/page worked the way they should, people
would still want the ability to create summaries of their own design in a
free form manner. Telling us to, "Think of ON as a normalized database"
is just a lame excuse, especially when your own marketing material claims
it is exactly the opposite.

 

[Jonathan]

the Grant, Your summary of ON2007's tag-assignment and -collection is on the
money and useful in the search for workarounds. However, Erik S isn't from
Microsoft, so he shares no guilt by association.

Let's press the new leader of the ON team -- when announced -- for a Service
Pack to bring these odd behaviors up to par. Getting more users by showing
friends and colleagues what ON can do will help because a bigger audience
will exert more revision muscle in Redmond.

Jonathan Rawle

 

[Grant Robertson]

B?Sm9uYXRoYW4=?= <jonathan7zerozero7(use numbers) at yahew dot usual
domain> says...

However, Erik S isn't from
Microsoft, so he shares no guilt by association.

For some reason I keep thinking he is. I noticed after I posted but
didn't think it was that big of a deal.

I hesitate to convince others to use OneNote. If I do then I know I will
be held responsible for all the bugs and they will expect me to teach
them how to get around them when there is no way.

For all those MVP's who would jump in and say, "What bugs?" I would refer
them to many past posts. They know what I am talking about.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

For all those MVP's who would jump in and say, "What bugs?" I would
refer

them to many past posts. They know what I am talking about.

I am not going to jump in...I suggest you download the Release
Candidate... eh I mean final/RTM build once you can, and see what they
fixed

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Jonathan]

Grant, We can only show others wjhat we do with the tool and let them decide.
Most people who get interested in software like this would look at what they
can get done with it and live with its oddities and weaknesses. It's a pretty
good tool and being as different as it is, it either fits someone's work
style or is just fascinating enough to that new user to adapt some of their
work to it in hopes of getting more done across all tasks. Yeah, there are
bugs and forgotten corners of unresolved info flows. Overall OneNote will
really help me when I get enough time to built it out to cover my work
effectively.

What I was trying to get across is that the detailed analysis you and others
do here is really helpful. At this point the people at Microsoft have done
what they are going to on this program and it will be a while before they
work again on these little holes in the program.

Jonathan Rawle

 

[Lirianna]

Does this function only work on the purchased version of OneNote? I can't
seem to get it to work on the 2003 Trial SP2 version.....

 

[Grant Robertson]

Does this function only work on the purchased version of OneNote? I can't
seem to get it to work on the 2003 Trial SP2 version.....

You know what? I am really sorry. I had assumed that the original poster
had specified that they were using ON 07 B2TR. Links like these are only
available in OneNote 2007.

The trial version of the RTM version of the 2007 version of OneNote
should be available soon. Maybe it's available now. I don't know for
sure.

 

[Lirianna]

That's okay. No need to be sorry. I'm new to OneNote and and this
discussion group. Was just wanting clarification. Thank you for responding.
: )

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

December 1 is the availability date for trial versions (or maybe
December 2 or later for many people as the servers probably will go down
under the heavy load on the first day....)

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Grant Robertson shared these words of wisdom:

However, if the text you originally
selected was from the middle of a paragraph then the resulting
hyperlink will contain a similar amount of text but it will come
from the beginning of the paragraph instead of the actual text you
originally selected.

IMO this just natural:
It's a hyperlink to a *paragraph* and so the beginning of the
paragrapph is the decisive part.

Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Jonathan shared these words of wisdom:

.... At this point the people at
Microsoft have done what they are going to on this program and it
will be a while before they work again on these little holes in the
program.

Would be OK for the *little* ones.
But there still are some rather *big* ones.
And IMO some work would be needed for those.
IMO an interim Service Pack would really be needed and fixing problems
should not be postponed until Ofiice 14 will be in the makes.

Rainald

 

[Grant Robertson]

IMO this just natural:
It's a hyperlink to a *paragraph* and so the beginning of the
paragrapph is the decisive part.

Shooting for MVP are we?

Puhleeze, selecting text B but copying text A is never natural. It is
just a bug.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Grant Robertson shared these words of wisdom:

Shooting for MVP are we?

????
You're talking in riddles

Puhleeze, selecting text B but copying text A is never natural. It
is just a bug.

Depends on the view ...

Rainald

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

IMO this just natural:

????
You're talking in riddles

He meant that you are aiming to become an MVP. MVPs have the tendency to
explain why something doesn't work (and showing some understanding for
the technical difficulties/solution) instead of just blaming Microsoft
for not getting it right

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Patrick Schmid [MVP] shared these words of wisdom:

He meant that you are aiming to become an MVP.

ROFLMAO

Great idea!! I have absolutely nothing to do ;-) ;-)

MVPs have the
tendency to explain why something doesn't work (and showing some
understanding for the technical difficulties/solution) instead of
just blaming Microsoft for not getting it right

Could be that some are too permissive at times and some feel being
attacked themselves by rants on MS [grin,siiigh]

Rainald

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Could be that some are too permissive at times and some feel being

attacked themselves by rants on MS [grin,siiigh]

Hehe.
You forgot a few more reasons:
- we have got our own private forum to rant directly at MS
- if you only rant and never try to understand where a team is coming
from, you are going to be less effective in getting them to do anything,
because they won't listen to you at all
- we might have already ranted a lot at MS about something, and are
simply ranted out
- we might actually know what MS is planning on doing about something,
but are prohibited from disclosing this due to the NDA we signed
- some of the attacks on MS actually become personal attacks when you
try to explain what is going on
- and there are probably lots more reasons

Patrick

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Patrick Schmid [MVP] shared these words of wisdom:

Could be that some are too permissive at times and some feel being
attacked themselves by rants on MS [grin,siiigh]

Hehe.

;-) ;-)

You forgot a few more reasons:

I did not give any reasons at all ;-)
Just a nasty description of obversation from other MS NGs. MVPs in
here are all nice as nice can be ;-)

- we have got our own private forum to rant directly at MS
LOL

- if you only rant and never try to understand where a team is
coming from, you are going to be less effective in getting them to
do anything, because they won't listen to you at all

Only too true :-( :-(

- we might have already ranted a lot at MS about something, and are
simply ranted out
ROFLMAO

- we might actually know what MS is planning on doing about
something, but are prohibited from disclosing this due to the NDA

Yeah, there is that.

we signed - some of the attacks on MS actually become personal
attacks when you try to explain what is going on

Happens, unfortunately.

- and there are probably lots more reasons

Reasons for what?? <g,d&r>

Rainald