Suggestions for OneNote including Lock and Hide Notes

[olliechapple]

Wish List

Lock and Hide notes - assign yourself as Note manager for sharing purposes
Assign an owner to a note and Timestamp it
Categorise a Note and create a custom Categories List
Create a custom Owners List - can share cannot share Notes
Create custom search views - i.e. Knowledge base view with articles and
rankings
Rank notes in terms of either status, priority and usefulness and notes most
accessed either by manager or sharers.
Each time a note is accessed - the sharer/user is timestamped and this is
visible an searchable as an advanced search and report created.
Log and password access sharing. Make sharing easy to assign to MSN users
Integrate Calendar so its shared properly
Allow Knoweldge base to be exported to a dbase or ODBC and saved
as/accessible as an Intranet Server SAAS app.
Divide notes up into Subject, Topic and Article for Knowledgebases and
Discussions.
Last accessed Time available
Assign different users read/write to different Projects and Notes/subnotes
Managers have read write and locking privildges. Users can create edit their
own Notes.

 

[Patrick Schmid]

I'll reply to the things I didn't comment on yet in the other thread.

Lock and Hide notes - assign yourself as Note manager for sharing purposes

ON doesn't have a concept of owner and manager. That concept goes against
its collaborative, team based approach.

Assign an owner to a note and Timestamp it

No owner concept, but note containers are timestamped

Create a custom Owners List - can share cannot share Notes

You can do this for each section. You have to use NTFS permissions though.
ON itself doesn't have user rights managements (besides a password
protection).

Rank notes in terms of either status, priority and usefulness and notes
most
accessed either by manager or sharers.

Still not sure about it.

Each time a note is accessed - the sharer/user is timestamped and this is
visible an searchable as an advanced search and report created.

You can probably write an add-in that can provide this feature.

Log and password access sharing. Make sharing easy to assign to MSN users

Again, look to Windows. Why would you want to assign it to MSN users?

Integrate Calendar so its shared properly

Integrate Calendar?

Allow Knoweldge base to be exported to a dbase or ODBC and saved
as/accessible as an Intranet Server SAAS app.

Write an add-in that does it.

Divide notes up into Subject, Topic and Article for Knowledgebases and
Discussions.

Make different sections?

Last accessed Time available

Last created, last modified is available. Last accessed doesn't work with
the way ON shares notes.

Assign different users read/write to different Projects and Notes/subnotes
Managers have read write and locking privildges. Users can create edit
their
own Notes.

Again, NTFS permissions can do this, but not ON.

I think you are looking at ON in the wrong way. What you are looking for
seems to me better served with a database-based tool that is specifically
designed for strict user rights management. OneNote just doesn't do this. It
is for teams and individual users who want to share their notes quickly and
easily, but not for a strictly managed environment. Do you really need that
much control over notebooks, or can you achieve the same output with a lot
less control?

Patrick Schmid

 

[HomeSchoolTeacher]

Patrick,

You are right that the original poster is looking for a database backend for
OneNote. If OneNote went into that format, what he is asking for would not
be unrealistic.

From a money perspective, I can understand that Microsoft may not want to
invest in the development to make OneNote with a database backend, but since
I have read in numerious places that Microsoft wants to make OneNote only
available at the highest subscription level (excluding the student/family
edition) it would make sense for Microsoft to incorporate this into the
business edition of OneNote. Having that option would be realistic in a
business environment.

Melissa

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP]

Aloha HomeSchoolTeacher,

I'm not sure it's accurate to characterize OneNote as only available at the
"highest subscription level" because OneNote will still be available as an
individual purchase for under $100 (sometimes WAY under) and will still be
bundled on most if not all TabletPCs.

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenote.html

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Melissa,

OneNote is more peer-to-peer than client-server. Therefore I don't think
it'll actually ever get a database backend.
On a less "philosophical" note, there is zero technical need for a database
backend. ON 2007 works in a client-server mode already, namely when you
store a notebook on a file or SharePoint server. Each individual client
synchronizes itself with the notebook on the server in a very efficient
manner. It is also very bandwidth efficient. Therefore I personally think
that OneNote 2007 will scale up very, very well. Due to that, I don't think
MS will have the technical need to add a database backend (often times
needed in order to allow scalability).
With file/SharePoint permissions you can already today decide which
individual sections are available to which users and which of these sections
are read-only and which not. ON 2007 will open a section it doesn't have
write permissions on and display it as read-only. A user can still make
changes in that section, but they will only be stored locally.
So if you wanted to implement the concept of an owner and assign who can
edit sections, you can do so today by using NTFS or SharePoint permissions.
So while these features might not be tighly integrated into OneNote, you can
still achieve them by using stuff administrators should already now. By the
way, there is nothing that will stop a developer from writing an add-in that
allows a user to set these NTFS permissions in OneNote itself.
In terms of packaging, the situation has only become better with OneNote
2007. OneNote 2003 wasn't packaged in any Office if I remember correctly.
OneNote 2007 will be in two packages.

Patrick

 

[Jonathan]

A few weeks back another homeschooler wrote in and introduced an interesting
"take" on structure: output into a structured format. I wish I could find the
post, as it is inside another discussion.

I believe he wanted to be able to keep and manage day-to-day homeschooling
teaching and assessment activities in OneNote and then reprort to New Jersey
officials particular information in a particular format required of
homeschoolers. If I remember correctly he wanted to have some more formats of
output for easier sharing. Perhaps a predictable XML that fit a
presestablished DTD?

This caught my interest because I am an elementary teacher with lots of
reporting requirements and I, too, would like to do lots of fairly free-form
work day -to-day and then report some kinds of data easily across all that
info and time.

I have only used ON a tiny amount and have not yet tried regular sharing ON
info outward with colleagues such as my fellow grade-level teachers. Some of
them may like the HTML some not. I wish pdf was an option. But the state
wants info in neatly [consistently] wrapped bundles. It may have to show the
path by which it changed. I realize this may not have been at all important
to the ON team. If programs try to do TOO MUCH they lose their focus.

I am considering running my own Sharepoint server to gain some sharing
efficiencies, hoping that an average guy can tackle this.

Anyway, that previous post raised some interesting format and sharing
questions. I hope there will be very technical ON2007 books or
Microsoft-supported writing of interesting and technically challenging case
studies of integration and sharing efficiencies ON can achieve. Most of the
after-market software books are just re-hash of the menus. Helpful for the
first few months but not stories of organizational change.

An example might be how to use Outlook together with OneNote in
organizations, even those without Exchange servers. I learn a *lot* from the
discussions here like this one where approach and design philosophy are
paramount. Features are good to know but not as helpful to my understanding
about how to adopt OneNote as a hub for my teaching work.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now.

Jonathan

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Hi Jonathan,

I believe he wanted to be able to keep and manage day-to-day homeschooling
teaching and assessment activities in OneNote and then reprort to New
Jersey
officials particular information in a particular format required of
homeschoolers. If I remember correctly he wanted to have some more formats
of
output for easier sharing. Perhaps a predictable XML that fit a
presestablished DTD?

It's definitely not in OneNote 2007. However, this might be something that
add-ins could do. I haven't looked at the programming interface of ON 2007,
but I believe it is fairly powerful.

I have only used ON a tiny amount and have not yet tried regular sharing
ON
info outward with colleagues such as my fellow grade-level teachers. Some
of
them may like the HTML some not. I wish pdf was an option. But the state
wants info in neatly [consistently] wrapped bundles. It may have to show
the
path by which it changed. I realize this may not have been at all
important
to the ON team. If programs try to do TOO MUCH they lose their focus.

Your wish shall be granted. OneNote 2007 (like the other Office 2007
applications) has PDF output built-in. It also writes XPS and I see an
option for Microsoft Word here too.

I am considering running my own Sharepoint server to gain some sharing
efficiencies, hoping that an average guy can tackle this

Somehow that triggers the though "overkill" in my head. Why would you want
to do this?

Anyway, that previous post raised some interesting format and sharing
questions. I hope there will be very technical ON2007 books or
Microsoft-supported writing of interesting and technically challenging
case
studies of integration and sharing efficiencies ON can achieve. Most of
the
after-market software books are just re-hash of the menus. Helpful for the
first few months but not stories of organizational change.

I've read quite a few stories of how ON 2007 is being used already in team
environments, and they are quite interesting.

An example might be how to use Outlook together with OneNote in
organizations, even those without Exchange servers. I learn a *lot* from
the

Wait till Beta 2 and you'll see some interesting features in that area.

discussions here like this one where approach and design philosophy are
paramount. Features are good to know but not as helpful to my
understanding
about how to adopt OneNote as a hub for my teaching work.

I don't know ON 2003 really that well anymore. I haven't used it since
November, so whatever I mention is related to 2007 and may or may not exist
in 2003.
ON can be the hub in one way, as you can pull everything you need together
in it. For example, I am a TA for a lab of an undergraduate engineering
course. I have one notebook dedicated to that whole course and one section
in that notebook is dedicated to individual labs. I have one page per
lesson. On each page, I have all the files embedded that I need for each
lab. So for example, I have the ppt file there for my slides. The actual
file is embedded, so I can double-click it to open it in ppt, edit it there,
etc. So in that sense, the easiest way to get to every file related to a lab
is to go on my ON page. In addition, I have other ON pages linked into them.
I might use subpages, if I gave a particular lab by writing on my tablet
instead on the board. So in that sense, ON is my hub for an actual lab. All
I need to do is to open up the correct ON page, and I have everything I will
need in each lab right at my fingertips.

I have my tablet and my desktop syncing each other via the new ON sync. If I
wanted to send a particular page or section to someone who isn't sharing a
notebook with me, I can just use a new feature that allows me to create a
packaged file that includes all embedded files as well, and email that one.
The recipient just needs to open it and tell ON where to put the contents.

Patrick

 

[Jonathan]

Patrick,
Thanks for your informative reply. I'll never have time to learn the
programming required for an API like OneNote's. My thoughts about sharing
through Sharepoint were to make easy access to document and forms we need for
teaching. Although we use Notes at work, there isn't enough staff and
understanding about Notes/Domino to use it in this way. We still have to get
to the school's office to get a blank paper form that must be used for some
task. We should be able to submit them in pdf, too, but that's a different
arguement!

See below... especially all the way down about "embedding" Thanks!

Hi Jonathan,

reprort to New Jersey officials particular information in a particular
format required of homeschoolers. If I remember correctly he wanted to have
some more formats of output for easier sharing. Perhaps a predictable XML
that fit a

It's definitely not in OneNote 2007. However, this might be something that
add-ins could do. I haven't looked at the programming interface of ON 2007,
but I believe it is fairly powerful.

Patrick, you say that ON2007 will write an excel workbook so there must be
some way to structure things, probably by careful input formatting on the
page.... Interesting! Output directly to word is good. One of my colleagues
never looks at her e-mail. Ever.

Your wish shall be granted. OneNote 2007 (like the other Office 2007
applications) has PDF output built-in. It also writes XPS and I see an
option for Microsoft Word here too.


Somehow that triggers the though "overkill" in my head. Why would you want
to do this?

Is Sharepoint really hard to manage? I admit I have not researched ease of
use yet. We have trouble with the school network all the time (mostly set up
as peer-to-peer and having to include a LOT of Win98 machines) in our school
all the time but almost always the computers can see the Internet. So if my
kids do work in the computer lab I want them to be able to upload files
somewhere (my Sharepoint server?) and then get them back in my classroom to
complete/further their project. Right now the terrific but overlaoded tech
support person at our school and I have been unable to do this with the
internal network.

I've read quite a few stories of how ON 2007 is being used already in team
environments, and they are quite interesting.

I hope these will become available so I can plan and advocate where
necessary. Remember I will be the only one in the whole school with OneNote
and among three active laptop users in my classroom work. Right now all
classroom (school-supplied desktops) are 1999 Win98 boxes with 64Megs of
RAM.I hear they will issue XP machines sometime next year.

Wait till Beta 2 and you'll see some interesting features in that area.

How will I see these case studies? Will Chris or others at MS reference them
in blog links? Hope so!

I don't know ON 2003 really that well anymore. I haven't used it since
November, so whatever I mention is related to 2007 and may or may not exist
in 2003.
ON can be the hub in one way, as you can pull everything you need together
in it. For example, I am a TA for a lab of an undergraduate engineering
course. I have one notebook dedicated to that whole course and one section
in that notebook is dedicated to individual labs. I have one page per
lesson. On each page, I have all the files embedded that I need for each
lab. So for example, I have the ppt file there for my slides. The actual
file is embedded, so I can double-click it to open it in ppt, edit it there,
etc. So in that sense, the easiest way to get to every file related to a lab
is to go on my ON page. In addition, I have other ON pages linked into them.
I might use subpages, if I gave a particular lab by writing on my tablet
instead on the board. So in that sense, ON is my hub for an actual lab. All
I need to do is to open up the correct ON page, and I have everything I will
need in each lab right at my fingertips.

I have my tablet and my desktop syncing each other via the new ON sync. If I
wanted to send a particular page or section to someone who isn't sharing a
notebook with me, I can just use a new feature that allows me to create a
packaged file that includes all embedded files as well, and email that one.
The recipient just needs to open it and tell ON where to put the contents.

This sounds very good. When you use the word embedding it sounds so close to
the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) many of us would use. If I push a
Powerpoint show "into" a OneNote page it will show with all effects, features
when opened by someone without OneNote installed? No, I see you say that the
recipient has to tell ON where to put files...

But perhaps I could pull in students' Word files to pages devoted to keeping
track of their progress and their document would be visible as an example,
read(view) only, of course.

I read last night about a fifth grade teacher who uses an HP 1100, inking,
and a projector. Everything she projects during teaching is saved in the
Journal, so it never is "erased" -- always available to show to discuss
again. With the wireless network in the room like the one I have now I would
be able to print that image for copying. (I keep wishing the school would put
the big copier on the network but that costs $3,000 we don't have.)

Sorry about all the moaning about resources. It's just the reality of public
education and I knew this when I changed careers to teach.

I hope the teaching goes well for you this spring and you'll have time to
keep the stories coming here on the forum. It will be 7 months before I can
buy the 2007 version, so I'll need that vision of the promised land hovering
in front of me. My third graders all have end-of-school-coming-fever and are
more than a little distracted. How are your university types doing?

Jonathan

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Patrick, you say that ON2007 will write an excel workbook so there must be

some way to structure things, probably by careful input formatting on the
page.... Interesting! Output directly to word is good. One of my
colleagues
never looks at her e-mail. Ever.

No, Sorry. ON 2007 does not write Excel. XPS is MS's version of PDF and is
being introduced with Vista.\

 

[Patrick Schmid]

Thanks for your informative reply. I'll never have time to learn the

programming required for an API like OneNote's. My thoughts about sharing

I was thinking that maybe some third party is going to write tools like
that. If there is sufficient demand, someone will do it...

Is Sharepoint really hard to manage? I admit I have not researched ease of
use yet. We have trouble with the school network all the time (mostly set
up
as peer-to-peer and having to include a LOT of Win98 machines) in our
school
all the time but almost always the computers can see the Internet. So if
my
kids do work in the computer lab I want them to be able to upload files
somewhere (my Sharepoint server?) and then get them back in my classroom
to
complete/further their project. Right now the terrific but overlaoded tech
support person at our school and I have been unable to do this with the
internal network.

I haven't used the one yet that is currently in the Office Beta. The one I
installed before (forgot which one) was pretty easy to use and install
though. Your scenario definitely sounds like sharepoint could be a big help
for you! Not sure about one thing, namely whether each kid could have its
own separate workspace for files. If not, everyone would be uploading to the
same and everyone could access the other person's work. possibility for
cheating. It's a concern in a university environment. I don't know which
grade you are teaching and whether that's a concern in your scenario as
well.

I hope these will become available so I can plan and advocate where
necessary. Remember I will be the only one in the whole school with
OneNote
and among three active laptop users in my classroom work. Right now all
classroom (school-supplied desktops) are 1999 Win98 boxes with 64Megs of
RAM.I hear they will issue XP machines sometime next year.

The best you can do is ask people in this newsgroup to share stories.

How will I see these case studies? Will Chris or others at MS reference
them
in blog links? Hope so!

Sorry, I didn't mean case studies. I meant actual features.

This sounds very good. When you use the word embedding it sounds so close
to
the Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) many of us would use. If I push a
Powerpoint show "into" a OneNote page it will show with all effects,
features
when opened by someone without OneNote installed? No, I see you say that
the
recipient has to tell ON where to put files...

It's not OLE. Picture your ON page to be like a ZIP file. You just add ppt
presentations to it. The files are just that, files. A better equivalent
might be a HTML email. You have all the text of the email (the OneNote page)
with files represented as icons dispersed throughout. That really is how it
looks like in ON.

But perhaps I could pull in students' Word files to pages devoted to
keeping
track of their progress and their document would be visible as an example,
read(view) only, of course.

It's not quite that sophisticated, unfortunately...

Sorry about all the moaning about resources. It's just the reality of
public
education and I knew this when I changed careers to teach.

I understand, even though I can't really relate to it currently. I forgot
the statistics, but I think 80+% of my university's classsrooms are equipped
with projectors and computers e.g. (cost of attendance for undergrads is at
40+k though now per year...)

I hope the teaching goes well for you this spring and you'll have time to
keep the stories coming here on the forum. It will be 7 months before I
can
buy the 2007 version, so I'll need that vision of the promised land
hovering
in front of me. My third graders all have end-of-school-coming-fever and
are
more than a little distracted. How are your university types doing?

They have a final coming up this Friday and then that's it for teaching for
me till August. You can give beta 2 a try wants it comes out.

Patrick