journal vs. onenote

[don]

I just got a new tablet computer. It has both Journal and One Note
installed. Do I need both? what are the benefits and disadvantages of each?

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote]

I just got a new tablet computer. It has both Journal and One Note
installed. Do I need both? what are the benefits and disadvantages of each?

FAQ 1.02.

1.02 How is it different from the Journal product already on my Tablet PC?
Well, they are very similar, to be sure, but OneNote is a more full-featured
product than Journal. Eventually it is likely that OneNote will be a superset
of Journal; i.e. have all of the features of Journal plus some, but as
of version 1 it's not quite there yet. Here are a few of the differences
between OneNote and Journal (as far as I know):
OneNote has spellchecking and AutoCorrect; Journal doesn't.
OneNote supports linking audio notes to your written notes; Journal doesn't.
OneNote recognizes indents and tabs in handwriting as well as typing;
Journal doesn't. OneNote has the grid for aligning items on the page,
Journal doesn't. OneNote's Quick Notes are searchable from within the
product. Journal's Sticky Notes are not searchable from within Journal.
With OneNote you can just click and start typing literally anywhere on
the page. Journal allows you to create text boxes and type within them
but it's not quite as fast and intuitive as just click & type.
Worth noting that Journal has the "Lasso" selection feature which OneNote
does not.
A good analogy I heard is that OneNote is to Journal as Word is to Wordpad.

 

[Grant Robertson]

I just got a new tablet computer. It has both Journal and One Note
installed. Do I need both? what are the benefits and disadvantages of each?

I'm an avid OneNote fan but there is one thing I just discovered that is
possible in Journal that is not in OneNote. Journal allows you to use the
entire page as an editable white board. You can draw anything, anywhere
on the page without worrying about which Writing Guide / Note Container /
Drawing Guide OneNote is going to put it into. In Journal you just put
ink anywhere. Then you can lasso or individually select any combination
of any ink strokes you like. (Select the lasso tool and Ctrl-click on any
individual stroke) You can then move those selected strokes anywhere on
the page you want. You can group selections of strokes so they always
move together and ungroup them later if you want.

While OneNote does allow you to select individual strokes, you have to do
it by dragging the select tool in a box and this is not always the
easiest way to select exactly what you want. You can't group objects. You
can't even select them and make them all part of the same drawing guide.
(Yes you can draw a box around them but they only stay part of the same
drawing guide as long as the box is there and that is not a workable
solution most of the time.)

So I find that both tools have their uses. I don't use Journal to take
handwritten notes any more but I still use it when I need a super white
board that allows me to rearrange anything at will.

Would it be nice to have these Journal features in OneNote? Perhaps. But
I am just waiting for OLE integration so I can simply create a Journal
box on my OneNote page and draw what I want within it. Of course this
would depend on Journal being an OLE server as well and I am not sure if
it is.