How can we fasten drawed objects to the words they are directed to

[Valmaseda]

Being able to do some shemes, or draw arrows between words or any other kind
of drawing done on top of some normal writing is handy. But whenever we move
the text the drawing gets where it was and all turns
Is there any way that we could fasten/chain the arrows and other objects
with the text? And the drawn objects among themselves?
Perhaps grouping objects like in Visio would be helpful. Even for drawings
and text.

 

[Grant Robertson]

Is there any way that we could fasten/chain the arrows and other objects
with the text?

Asked all the darn time. Unfortunately, no. It is the biggest complaint
that people have about OneNote.

The best way to keep these things together is to make sure they are all
in a separate text box.

__________________
|Text in box A |
|_________________|



____________
|Text B <--|--- Picture with an arrow pointing to Text B.
|___________|



If you add lines to box A then OneNote will expand box A. When it does
this, then everything that is entirely below the bottom of box A will be
shoved down on the page the same amount. This means Text B in the second
box will be shoved down the same amount as the arrow and picture. This
makes it seem as if the two are linked but they are not.

The best way to ensure you are starting a new box is to click about three
lines below the bottom line in the previous box. Any individual piece of
ink that is NOT entirely below the bottom of the box where you are adding
lines will NOT be moved down. This could separate various parts of your
picture.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Perhaps grouping objects like in Visio would be helpful. Even for drawings
and text.

Uhhhh ... nevermind Visio. You can group objects in the lowly Windows
Journal.

It's an obvious need, could a OneNote DEV fill us in on why it wasn't
undertaken ? Is it a Synching thing ? It might be hard to synch a
"group" function ?

 

[Alex]

It is true, this is a very common request and something we've spent a large
amount of time thinking about. The entire history is too long to write down
here, but in short, this is a really hard problem that could be solved in a
variety of ways, some requiring more user control than others. We made some
improvements in 2007 to the way objects on the page move when a object above
them grows into them, but we aren't finished clearly. The ability to group
and link things together is an ongoing topic of discussion, and will be
addressed in future releases. We understand this is a critical peice of the
experience that needs to get better. Thanks for all of your feedback, your
detailed descriptions of your scenarios will help us to build the best
overall experience. Thanks for your patience.

-Alex <MS>

 

[EMRhelp.org]

It is true, this is a very common request and something we've spent a large
amount of time thinking about. The entire history is too long to write down
here, but in short, this is a really hard problem that could be solved in a
variety of ways, some requiring more user control than others. We made some
improvements in 2007 to the way objects on the page move when a object above
them grows into them, but we aren't finished clearly. The ability to group
and link things together is an ongoing topic of discussion, and will be
addressed in future releases. We understand this is a critical peice of the
experience that needs to get better. Thanks for all of your feedback, your
detailed descriptions of your scenarios will help us to build the best
overall experience. Thanks for your patience.

-Alex <MS>

Microsoft Word 2003 is able to "BIND" ink annotations (on my Tablet
PC) to the paragraph they are sketched over top of. OneNote really
needs this feature badly.

What we want: Lasso select of any items and right click .. Group.



Is part of the problem that it would be hard to "synch" these
groupings ?

 

[EMRhelp.org]

The best way to keep these things together is to make sure they are all
in a separate text box.

Great tip.

All idiosyncrasies aside, the lasso works very well, and if you did
want to move things, you can lasso them and move them that way.

And .. if things did get "messed up" the lasso tool will allow to
precisely move things. Very nice