My strategy for synchronizing additional files that I keep in OneNote folders

[Grant Robertson]

I have consolidated all of my reference and project files into the same
set of folders that I use for OneNote files. Naturally, OneNote has no
clue that they are there. I recently got a desktop again because my aging
laptop wasn't keeping up any more. I synchronize my laptop and my
desktop.

For the OneNote files I synchronize the accepted OneNote way. I moved all
the files to the desktop, deleted all the files from the laptop
(including the cache files), then opened the desktop's OneNote notebooks
from the laptop over the network. This means that the only OneNote files
on the laptop are the cache files and there is no OneNote folder
structure in the default "My Notebooks" folder.

However, that still leaves all my other files sitting on my desktop. This
is where my old synchronization program (SureSync from
www.softwarepursuits.com) comes in handy. I set it to synchronize all
those other files to a folder structure on the laptop that is exactly
identical to that on the desktop. I set it to ignore any actual OneNote
files and only synchronize the others. Since the drive and folder path is
identical on both machines, I can now open linked-to files from within
OneNote on either machine.

I am working on moving as many files as reasonable directly into OneNote
by dragging them onto the appropriate OneNote page and choosing the
middle option but that is a lot of work and not everything should be
treated that way. This way I have the best of both worlds. I get the
paragraph level synchronization of OneNote and all the other files get
synchronized too.

 

[tshanno]

I am working on moving as many files as reasonable directly into OneNote
by dragging them onto the appropriate OneNote page and choosing the
middle option but that is a lot of work and not everything should be
treated that way. This way I have the best of both worlds. I get the
paragraph level synchronization of OneNote and all the other files get
synchronized too.

Yes, I do this, too, I can't insert links to files because I want the
files backed up with the other project materials. The links are
broken when the files are moved into the new backup file structure.

But embedding the file isn't ideal, either. ON just wasn't designed
to be a file manager. For instance, I can't tell when I last edited
the file. But what's most annoying is that you can't search an
embedded document. You have to insert both the file and the printed
image of the text. Seems to me like you should be able to simply
insert the file and at least have the program tell you the search word
is in it.

Tom S.

 

[Grant Robertson]

Yes, I do this, too, I can't insert links to files because I want the
files backed up with the other project materials. The links are
broken when the files are moved into the new backup file structure.

You do realize that this is only because the path name to the folder is
now different. I consider my laptop to be the backup of my desktop now.
The links to my independent files work because I make sure that the full
path name is the same. I partition my hard drives so that my "My
Notebooks" folder is always at "D:\My Notebooks."

But embedding the file isn't ideal, either. ON just wasn't designed
to be a file manager. For instance, I can't tell when I last edited
the file. But what's most annoying is that you can't search an
embedded document. You have to insert both the file and the printed
image of the text. Seems to me like you should be able to simply
insert the file and at least have the program tell you the search word
is in it.

So I just use these different behaviors to determine how I will treat a
particular file.

If I want OneNote to be able to search it then I drag it to a OneNote
page and choose the last option which both prints it and embeds a copy of
the file. I then delete the original file from my hard disk.

If I just want quick access to the file from within OneNote but don't
want it to keep giving false hits when I do a search then I drag it to
the OneNote page but choose the second option which just embeds the file.

If I rarely access the file or need to access it directly from some other
program without opening it via OneNote then I just put it in the same
folder as the section. I just did an experiment and you can move a
"section group" (a folder) within OneNote and any additional files are
moved with it. However, all text-links to those files will now be broken
because they have a different path name now. This is why I usually don't
make a text-link to the files unless I know that the folder structure is
finalized and I won't be moving things around later. If I need access to
the files I just use Windows Explorer and dig for them. It's not the most
convenient but that is what I had to do before I got OneNote so I really
haven't lost anything.

 

[tshanno]

You do realize that this is only because the path name to the folder is
now different. I consider my laptop to be the backup of my desktop now.
The links to my independent files work because I make sure that the full
path name is the same. I partition my hard drives so that my "My
Notebooks" folder is always at "D:\My Notebooks."

Yeah, I can't do it that way. I have a double backup in the form of 2
different external hard drives, each with a diferent letter.

So I just use these different behaviors to determine how I will treat a
particular file.

If I want OneNote to be able to search it then I drag it to a OneNote
page and choose the last option which both prints it and embeds a copy of
the file. I then delete the original file from my hard disk.

Yes, this is what I do with virtually all of my files. There are at
least two problems:

One minor problem is that the printed page adds to the size of the
file. I've no idea how much but I assume that its a relatively small
addition. Nevertheless such things do add up over time.

The major problem, however, is that when I embed many of the files,
its so I can find them more easily and work with them. Editting them
changes them and makes them different from the embedded image. I am,
therefore, constantly re-printing the files to ON to keep them up to
date. Not good.

If I rarely access the file or need to access it directly from some other
program without opening it via OneNote then I just put it in the same
folder as the section. I just did an experiment and you can move a
"section group" (a folder) within OneNote and any additional files are
moved with it.

This would be a great finding if the links could be made relative to
the current directory. In fact, I noticed that in an earlier beta
version of 2007 the "embedded" files were actually stored in a
subdirectory underneath the current notebook's directory.

Tom S.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

I wonder if the next version of OneNote could do this type of stuff
automatically.

ie. when I drag a file onto OneNote ...

I want it to
(1) create a link to the original file and
(2) insert a copy of the file onto the page ..

and ... OneNote will check that files for changes on a daily basis and
"Update itself".

Sound good ?

This would be just an automation of the currently available process.

 

[Grant Robertson]

This would be a great finding if the links could be made relative to
the current directory.

Yeah, I have asked for this feature a few times too. It used to work in
ON 2003.

 

[Grant Robertson]

I want it to
(1) create a link to the original file and
(2) insert a copy of the file onto the page ..

and ... OneNote will check that files for changes on a daily basis and
"Update itself".

Sound good ?

Sounds good to me. I'm guessing that the originals of these files are on
a server somewhere that you don't have constant access to. There is the
offline files feature in Windows XP. Perhaps you could set those files to
be available offline then link to their original location from within
OneNote. When you are offline perhaps OneNote won't be able to tell the
difference. I seem to recall that this didn't work with older versions of
ON. Perhaps it works now. I haven't thought to try it yet.