I Don't Understand OneNote

[martin gifford]

Hi,
I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations.
I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked
at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it.
But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas
for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my
diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things
easier for me. So...
Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an
intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to
replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my
ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g.
autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do).
Thanks,
Martin Gifford.

 

[ShakespearesEdge]

Martin, I think that the best way to use ON is to replace any other (paper)
notebook system that you currently use with the program. But ON is not
really a word processor as it doesn't have anywhere near the power and
features of even a stripped-down word processor - such as WordPad, for
example. So I think that as a word processor, you'd find ON a disappointment.

Having said this, I use ON for almost everything:

-scanning bills
-creating a file cabinate of any important documents (I scan just about
everything and then throw away the paper copies)
-lecture notes
-daily To-Do's
-etc.

I think that just allowing ON to evolove as it will, without trying to
conform to some kind of template, is a far better (and useful) approach than
to try and "figure out what it's for."

Hope this helps....

 

[Aquagem]

Hi, Martin -- I'm an avid diarist, and I've used Word for well over ten years
to do virtually all of my writing. One of the reasons I wanted to get into ON
was to try to organize my writings, and, most important, to be able to search
for specific terms (things like "posterior parietal cortex") across large
volumes of writing. I only have a couple of weeks of experience so far, so I
know there are lots more tricks to learn, but i have found that I can import
articles into ON as print images and search them very fast for anything I
type in. So that is one potential I intend to expand on.

Another one is organizing work notes. My usual situation is that I am
operating in a total Office environment, with databases, spreadsheets,
PowerPoints, Word documents, pictures, web clips, etc. I have evolved a
logical and effective folder strategy through the years to store a lot of
diverse information, but have had huge problems trying to use the Office
tools to keep a lot of information from all these sources together in a way
that makes it possible to access from a single portal.

For example, I might have a database with names and addresses I need for a
mailing, several different letter permutations to send, including a mail
merge to grab data from a spreadsheet, and also to have a place to keep notes
about the project, analysis of Wiki and web research, and so on. Trying to
develop some sort of an application myself was not giving me what I wanted,
and searching the web for some ideas led me to ON.

With ON, I can pull all related material from maybe five different folders,
various apps, etc., into a single notebook page devoted to that one project.
With everything grouped in one place, I can pull up the spreadsheet, open a
document, set up a merge, insert two or three "to-do" items I can monitor
from anywhere else in ON.

I find that being able to centralize a number of functions in one place
gives me a lot better control over getting things done. This would transfer
immediately to class notes, interdisciplinary papers or research, assembling
quotes from far-flung resources into a unified document (full of hyperlinks,
print images, photos, charts, and original writing). Many of these functions
can be done in Word, also, but they are easier in ON, and are much easier to
move around tha reorganize.

PLUS - the outliner in ON is better, imho, than Word's; all of the
auto-correct entries you use in Word work seamlessly with ON. (I have
hundreds of shorthand auto-correct terms defined, eg, "env" = "environment",
"ppc"="posterior parietal cortex", "janet" = "Janet".)

Anyway, that's a start. I have ordered ON for use at home, and plan to
integrate my many specialized interests to it - all without giving up any of
my background organization in Word, but gaining a much more nimble
environment in which to work.

 

[Toddard]

Check out "Complete Guide to Onenote" at your local bookstore, or read some
of the reviews of the book at Amazon.com. It might be what you're looking for.

 

[Toddard]

This might also be helpful:

Since "doing" is sometimes the best form of learning, our #1 recommendation
is to boot OneNote and read the "OneNote 2007 Guide" notebook. You already
have it in your list of notebooks but you may not have even noticed it.
Everyone gets this by default and it has been hand crafted by the team to let
you know what OneNote is, why you might want to use OneNote, and then chock
full of interactive scenarios and features. We promise you that if you go
through the OneNote guide completely, you'll be a pro.