Renaming notebooks -- but not folders?

[YouBetcha]

I reorganized some of my materials, renamed some notebooks in the process.
Then I closed some notebooks that I didn't need "on hand."

Later, i went back to "open" some notebooks. Turns out, when you rename a
notebook, it doesn't change the folder name on your hard drive. You have no
way of knowing what you might have named your "renamed" notebooks. So you
search around and guess at the directories, based on the historical file name.

Is this the expected software behavior?

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

Yes it is expected behavior. If you rename a Notebook (and the underlying
folder is also renamed) then the others who also are using that Notebook
will suddenly not have access, since the path they use to access that
Notebook is incorrect.

 

[Grant Robertson]

If you rename a Notebook (and the underlying
folder is also renamed) then the others who also are using that Notebook
will suddenly not have access, since the path they use to access that
Notebook is incorrect.

But what if you rename a Section or "Section Group." Is that part of what
is handled by the .onetoc2 files?

 

[Grant Robertson]

Turns out, when you rename a
notebook, it doesn't change the folder name on your hard drive. You have no
way of knowing what you might have named your "renamed" notebooks. So you
search around and guess at the directories, based on the historical file name.

Just close all the notebooks, rename the folders using Windows Explorer
or the DOS command line, then re-open the notebooks.

 

[YouBetcha]

Agree.

I'm with you, Grant, on having some feature within the software to
manipulate what is on the disk, be it OneNote files or other supporting
documents. The left toolbar interface is nice and consistent with the rest
of the software, but when I want to do something, I can't really use it.

 

[YouBetcha]

But this is inconsistent with what happens if I right-click and change the
name of a section or section group (I realize that OneNote adjusts to these
changes more automatically). A command like "rename" should have a
consistent meaning throughout the application.

And, when you close and re-open the notebook, it forgets the name you gave
it. It reverts to the folder name.

Right-clicking on the notebook should have two choices: "Rename/Move
Folder" and "Change Display Name"

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Just close all the notebooks, rename the folders using Windows Explorer
or the DOS command line, then re-open the notebooks.

But will that, as Erik Sojka (MVP) points out, wreck the synching with
other client copies ?

 

[Grant Robertson]

But will that, as Erik Sojka (MVP) points out, wreck the synching with
other client copies ?

Not if you tell them all to close the notebooks and open them under the
new names. You shouldn't be renaming the notebooks every other day
anyway. If you have several people using the same notebooks then just
decide amongst yourselves what the names should be, close all your
notebooks, rename all the folders, open your notebooks again, then leave
them the heck alone.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Not if you tell them all to close the notebooks and open them under the
new names. You shouldn't be renaming the notebooks every other day
anyway. If you have several people using the same notebooks then just
decide amongst yourselves what the names should be, close all your
notebooks, rename all the folders, open your notebooks again, then leave
them the heck alone.

Well ... say the "Original File" is on computer A. and there are 4
peer computers with synched copies.
I could see shutting down OneNote in Computer A and renaming the
directory. And shutting down OneNote on the other PCs, but what other
operations would you do on the peer PCs ?

 

[Grant Robertson]

Well ... say the "Original File" is on computer A. and there are 4
peer computers with synched copies.
I could see shutting down OneNote in Computer A and renaming the
directory. And shutting down OneNote on the other PCs, but what other
operations would you do on the peer PCs ?

Before you change anything, you should start OneNote on all the computers
and let it sit for a while. This is so it can synchronize any changes
that have been made on the individual machines back up to the server. Let
it sit for about an hour just to be sure, although it usually sync's in
just a minute or two. Letting it sit over lunch with no one using the
computers at all would be good. This is because the synchronization may
only occur when the computer isn't being used in order to avoid slowing
down the computer.

You must then actually "Close" the notebook from within OneNote on all
the computers before you rename it on the server. Right-click on the
notebook and choose "Close this notebook." Simply shutting down OneNote
will not be enough because when you start OneNote again it will still
expect the notebooks to be on the server under the old names. It would
probably just think you aren't connected to the right network and
continue to let you make changes which would be stored in the cache but
would then never be synchronized with the server.

Once you have closed the notebook on all the computers then you can
rename the folder on the server using Windows Explorer.

After that you can re-open the newly named folder in OneNote as a
notebook on all the computers.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

You must then actually "Close" the notebook from within OneNote on all

the computers before you rename it on the server. Right-click on the
notebook and choose "Close this notebook."

Thanks for the Clarification Grant.

I want to create a Note System with lots of links, but I am a bit
scared now !