questions regarding OneNote functionality

[Jim Lipsey]

I'm considering purchasing the academic version of OneNote for
consolidating the documents, notes and email conversations related to my
graduate research. Currently, I'm using the very capable YeahWrite, but
am running up against its limitations and WordPlace stopped development
of the product a couple years ago. I've been reading up on the OneNote
SP1 Preview, but still have a number of questions regarding its
capabilities and appreciate any insight current users can provide. My
questions are in relation to the upcoming official release of SP1 and I
am using MS Office XP, which I do not intend to upgrade to 2003.

1. It appears that external document types cannot be embedded as notes
with OLE functionality, but that image representations of other
documents can exist as notes. Do I have this right?

2. Is this true for any document type (pdf, etc.) or can only MS Office
docs have image representations embedded in notes.

3. I'm having trouble understanding OneNote's treatment of pdfs. Can I
insert any old pdf into my notebook? (I have a lot of pdfs)

4. Can I open an externally referenced document through its picture
representation from within OneNote, or do I have to venture back into
the filesystem to find it? i.e. is the picture hyperlinked to the actual
document?

5. If I update the external document, is an updated representation
automatically shown in OneNote, or do I have to manually instruct the
program to regenerate the representation?

6. The license appears to allow for two installations (home and work).
How can data be synchronized between the two? Can I transparently access
my work via internet?

7. What export options exist for my OneNote data?

8. Can hyperlinks, both local and external, be embedded in notes?

Many thanks for any replies.

-JL

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

I've been reading up on the OneNote SP1 Preview,

Why not download it and try it?

1. It appears that external document types cannot be embedded as notes
with OLE functionality, but that image representations of other documents
can exist as notes. Do I have this right?

Correct, ON doesn't support OLE. You can insert pictures of documents or
copy text.

2. Is this true for any document type (pdf, etc.) or can only MS Office
docs have image representations embedded in notes.

You'll need to print it to the office document writer then insert it.

3. I'm having trouble understanding OneNote's treatment of pdfs. Can I
insert any old pdf into my notebook? (I have a lot of pdfs)

Yes, but as hyperlinks, not images (unless you print them out)

4. Can I open an externally referenced document through its picture
representation from within OneNote, or do I have to venture back into the
filesystem to find it? i.e. is the picture hyperlinked to the actual
document?

Not if you insert a picture (no OLE support, remember) but you can add a
hyperlink to the doc.

5. If I update the external document, is an updated representation
automatically shown in OneNote, or do I have to manually instruct the
program to regenerate the representation?

No, you'll need to insert it. ON doesn't have a way to tell it to regenerate
it either.

6. The license appears to allow for two installations (home and work). How
can data be synchronized between the two? Can I transparently access my
work via internet?

You can share the ones over a network.

7. What export options exist for my OneNote data?

HTML and word docs.

8. Can hyperlinks, both local and external, be embedded in notes?

Yes.

 

[Jim Lipsey]

Diane,

Thanks for your informative reply. OneNote looks like a nifty program,
especially for collaborative project management, but not quite what I'm
needing. With OLE embedding and pdf support, it'd be a home run. I'll
check back when SP2 is in the works.

-JL