I entirely agree,
I hope the search feature in the next release of OneNote is going to be
where OneNote finally shows its muscles! A little ingenuity in how OneNote
organizes all the information entered by the user could make it a few orders
of magnitude more useful. It example, it could be equipped to recognize
basic structures of languages like words, sentences, paragraphs, and identify
if a particular sentence is a question (e.g. if it ends with a question
mark). OneNote should also provide the ability to tag metadata onto objects
such as pictures, paragraphs, sound clips, and provide ways to create
“meta-links†to other related objects or sections of the notebook. For
example, when I jot-down my grocery list, I could set a meta-link on a
special fruit item that points to the recipe for which I need it.
It would be useful if all information entered (paragraphs, sentences, items)
would be automatically time-stamped as/when created and as/when modified. It
would also be useful if the objects could be tagged as “typed†or “pasted†as
well as contain info about their source or reference. Users could also
select what metadata is tagged along with the information they enter so they
don’t have to carry information they have to use for and manage the size of
their notebook. The metadata could also be made visible or hidden. In time
some nice innovations will come, that allow the user to browse, search and
display (essentially navigate and map the “meta-space†of the notebook). I
think it is essential to plan for this and integrate the necessary structure
into OneNote, to allow for such capabilities in the future.
MS seems to have the basic platform in place for what could truly be a
revolutionary tool for individual users and collaborative groups. I just
hope they will get the structure of how the information gets stored and
retrieved right before they lock the design for good. If not, what’s going
to happen is, give it 2-5 years and, all our notes (and time burned entering
it in the notebooks) will be worthless because the notebooks can’t be
searched properly, other tools can’t access the notebook’s database
structure, or the notes can’t be easily converted to be used in future tools
that provide better organizational structure or meta-data manipulation
capabilities.
The provision for basic semantic manipulations (pre-programmed or
user-defined) to search or perform other summarizing operations is definitely
the way to go forward with this tool. Personally, this is what I’ve been
waiting and waiting and waiting for…
