"Unfiled Notes" in a Shared Notebook

[Michael D. Adams]

Is it possible to configure OneNote (07B2TR) to have the "Unfiled Notes"
file be within a shared notebook when the .one file actually being
shared isn't always available?

Here's my setup:

I'm using ON07B2TR on two machines. I have several notebooks that I
keep on my primary machine, plus one notebook that I share/synchronize
using a USB drive ("E:\Synchronized Notebook\")

When the drive is connected, OneNote will happily allow me via Tools |
Options to configure Unfiled Notes to be "E:\Synchronized
Notebook\Unfiled Notes.one".

However, when the drive is disconnected (e.g. when using mouse and
keyboard on a two-USB-port machine), any attempt to, say, create a new
side note, is greeted with an error "OneNote cannot access the location
of your Unfiled Notes section..."

Since one of my major uses of Unfiled Notes is to clip stuff that I'll
want to read later...probably at home... it's a section that would be
really handy to synchronize between computers.

I'm aware that there are workarounds, including adjusting my setup to
where the USB drive is always available, using other means to copy
Unfiled Notes.one between the two computers, or simply remembering to
move pages from the local "Unfiled Notes" to one in the synchronized
notebook.

However, before I continue to settle for the workarounds...I thought I'd
ask if there was an official solution to the problem.

Thanks.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Did you check the locations under Outlook Integration and Send to
OneNote in Tools, Options? Whatever you have there needs to be also set
to E:\Synchronized Notebook\Unfiled Notes.one

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
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***
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[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

In addition to what Patrick suggests (ensuring that the *other* special
sections also point to the USB drive) have you tried configuring an
additional Notebook or section to act as your transfer notebook? i.e. a
section that is not otherwise used for system tasks?

If you do that, you should be able to sync that content more cleanly
between the two machines. In general, it's not a smart idea to have
temp or transient storage (like a USB key) be configured for a permanent
purpose.

 

[Michael D. Adams]

In addition to what Patrick suggests (ensuring that the *other* special
sections also point to the USB drive) have you tried configuring an
additional Notebook or section to act as your transfer notebook? i.e. a
section that is not otherwise used for system tasks?

That's actually the solution I have been using.

I have a couple of static notebooks on both machine, each containing
some permanent/long-term notes specific to the tasks I do on those
particular machines.

In addition, I have one notebook for transfer purposes, which contains
the few items I need on both machines, notes I'm consciously
transferring from one machine to the other and items that I have clipped
and want to read/sort later without being tied to a particular machine.

Currently, those clipped items are being directed to "Unfiled Notes",
and I take a couple of minutes before syncing/changing computers to
manually transfer those notes to the synchronized notebook.

It works, and I'm happy. I'd just be happier if I could trade in the
manual process with an automated solution.

Did you check the locations under Outlook Integration and Send to
OneNote in Tools, Options? Whatever you have there needs to be also set
to E:\Synchronized Notebook\Unfiled Notes.one

Yes. When changing Unfiled notes to E:\[foo], the others appear to
automagically change to E:\[foo] as well.

This synchronization of settings seems to be replicated when the drive
is removed. They all revert to "//?/[volume reference]/[foo]"

Note also that I'm using Firefox plus the "Clip to OneNote" extension
(which simply brings up a new Side Note and pastes the current contents
of the clipboard to it) for most of my browsing and clipping.

In other words, I don't really care where IE/OL/the faux printer driver
are directing their content. I seek the simplest way to cause Side
Notes to be created by default in a synchronized notebook even when the
drive I'm syncing to is not present.

Next time I have a moment to play, however, I'll try explicitly setting
the other locations to E:\[foo] to see if that makes a difference on the
drive-removed behavior.

Thanks.

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

The automatic solution should work as long as the unfiled notes section
is within a notebook that is being properly synced. I have that setup
here and it works fine.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

In addition to what Patrick suggests (ensuring that the *other* special
sections also point to the USB drive) have you tried configuring an
additional Notebook or section to act as your transfer notebook? i.e. a
section that is not otherwise used for system tasks?

That's actually the solution I have been using.

I have a couple of static notebooks on both machine, each containing
some permanent/long-term notes specific to the tasks I do on those
particular machines.

In addition, I have one notebook for transfer purposes, which contains
the few items I need on both machines, notes I'm consciously
transferring from one machine to the other and items that I have clipped
and want to read/sort later without being tied to a particular machine.

Currently, those clipped items are being directed to "Unfiled Notes",
and I take a couple of minutes before syncing/changing computers to
manually transfer those notes to the synchronized notebook.

It works, and I'm happy. I'd just be happier if I could trade in the
manual process with an automated solution.

Did you check the locations under Outlook Integration and Send to
OneNote in Tools, Options? Whatever you have there needs to be also set
to E:\Synchronized Notebook\Unfiled Notes.one

Yes. When changing Unfiled notes to E:\[foo], the others appear to
automagically change to E:\[foo] as well.

This synchronization of settings seems to be replicated when the drive
is removed. They all revert to "//?/[volume reference]/[foo]"

Note also that I'm using Firefox plus the "Clip to OneNote" extension
(which simply brings up a new Side Note and pastes the current contents
of the clipboard to it) for most of my browsing and clipping.

In other words, I don't really care where IE/OL/the faux printer driver
are directing their content. I seek the simplest way to cause Side
Notes to be created by default in a synchronized notebook even when the
drive I'm syncing to is not present.

Next time I have a moment to play, however, I'll try explicitly setting
the other locations to E:\[foo] to see if that makes a difference on the
drive-removed behavior.

Thanks.

--
Michael D. Adams -- Windsor, Connecticut -- http://www.triskele.com

Blogs: http://www.triskele.com/actuary (News/commentary)
http://www.triskele.com/highway (Highway features)

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I'm using ON07B2TR on two machines. I have several notebooks that I
keep on my primary machine, plus one notebook that I
share/synchronize using a USB drive ("E:\Synchronized Notebook\")

If it does not work reliably with a USB-stick (I can not see why and
would have to test it) can you connect the second machine and your
"primary machine" with a LAN cable from time?

I have set up systems to have *no* notebooks at all on my my TabletPC.
They all are on my desktop.
And the location for "unfiled" pages is a section in the notebook on
the desktop.
It works perfectly well.

Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

In addition, I have one notebook for transfer purposes, which
contains the few items I need on both machines, notes I'm
consciously transferring from one machine to the other and items
that I have clipped and want to read/sort later without being tied
to a particular machine.

Currently, those clipped items are being directed to "Unfiled
Notes", and I take a couple of minutes before syncing/changing
computers to manually transfer those notes to the synchronized
notebook.

I'm sorry, but I do not understand this kind of topology.

Are you using "Unfiled Notes" just as it comes (without redirecting to
a section of anotebook)?

If so, how about the following:
- create a notebook sitting on the USB-stick/drive;
- create a sect "Unfiled there";
- on both machines open the notebook from the removable medium;
- with the shared notebook opened use "Tools | Options | Storage" and
enter the notebook + the section as the storage place for "Unfiled
Notes".
- when removing removable medium do that *always* with "Remove
Hardware safely"

Would problems appear this way?

Rainald