Side Notes Confusion

[Rebecca]

Greetings. I am very new to ON, and I am slowly learning how to use it. I
am somewhat confused about the usage or benefits of Side Notes. For example,
when I create a Side Note, shouldn't it stick, so to speak, to the general
area where the note was made (Section, Page, whatever), somewhat like
inserting a memo in EXCEL, or a footnote in WORD, though I realize it would
be like adding a note (Side Note) to another big note, that is, the section
or page in ON? Do all the Side Notes accumulate in one file? And how can it
be popped up? Do I have to use the back and forward icons to find a
particular note? Also, I can't see any Side Note icon anywhere. I have
checked the manual (and the discussions online) and the like but the
explanations are somewhat inadequate, though the reason for my confusion
could be that I'm slow at learning about new software.

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP]

Greetings. I am very new to ON, and I am slowly learning how to use
it. I
am somewhat confused about the usage or benefits of Side Notes. For
example,
when I create a Side Note, shouldn't it stick, so to speak, to the
general
area where the note was made (Section, Page, whatever), somewhat like
inserting a memo in EXCEL, or a footnote in WORD, though I realize it
would
be like adding a note (Side Note) to another big note, that is, the
section
or page in ON? Do all the Side Notes accumulate in one file? And how
can it
be popped up? Do I have to use the back and forward icons to find a
particular note? Also, I can't see any Side Note icon anywhere. I have
checked the manual (and the discussions online) and the like but the
explanations are somewhat inadequate, though the reason for my confusion
could be that I'm slow at learning about new software.

There is a section in your OneNote notebook called "Side Notes" which is
where all of your side notes accumulate. You can move things out of that
section to other sections if you like, of course.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote/Outlook
Operations Coordinator
Stockholm/KSG - Honolulu
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

The concept behind the Side Notes section and UI is that it is a generic
place into which you dump notes that you collect from wherever.

See a web page you need later on for a term paper? copy/paste the URL
into the Side Notes section.

Want to add something to your "Cool things about Erik" list? Type it
into the Side Notes section

Do you need to remind yourself to ask about project XYZ at your next
status meeting? Open up the Side Notes section and add it.

You are correct in that there is only one Side Notes section, and all
things placed there are placed into one section.

Later, you should periodically review what's in the SN section and then
move items from there into their permanent sections/pages.

The assumption behind this is that you might not have OneNote open all of
the time, or that you just want to dump a note/reminder somewhere before
you forget it, and don't want to spend time navigating in OneNote for the
correct location to put that note/reminder.

To open up the Side Notes section, right-click on the OneNote icon in the
Notification Area and select "Open New Side Note". Or press Win-N on the
keyboard.