Wish list

[Dave]

I've been using ON2007 for a couple of months and found many
advantages in using it in my studies and my personal life. There are
some missing things that I'd like to see though, to improve ON as a
note taker. Some of the suggestions have been discussed in other
threads, but I thought I'd air my own preferences with you to date:

• Being able to drag a container to another section (I have to copy or
cut / paste at present)
• Being able to highlight text in a pdf printout.
• A highlighter option which allows a constrained highlighting from
the insertion point (could then effectively highlight text in a pdf
printout above)
• A call-out tool to circle some text etc and allow a comment to be
added
• Setting picture as background - can only do this with images. Can't
do it with text containers.
• Being able to prevent ON from moving existing containers down when I
add extra content to containers above. I often add text to previous
containers, but this can throw the containers below out of alignment.
And if I'm annotating a pdf printout, then the importance of the
containers being aligned is paramount.
• Grouping together containers.
• Having an option of a split screen so notes could be taken on a
different page or section, similar to Word
• Ability to erase parts of a drawn picture.
• An history list of previously searched words (I like to be able to
repeat certain searches)
• Being able to rotate a picture (ie, one scanned in). This is
important to extract text. I have to remember to scan the document the
correct orientation.
• Ability to remember where on a page you are scrolled to (without
having to type anything)

In my opinion, these (and many other previous suggestions from others)
would make ON a much better effective research / study tool. I
wouldn't want it to simply be another version of Word, and I realise
that a single application can't do everything, but these are just my
personal improvement items.


Dave

 

[John Guin [msft]]

Hello Dave,

Lots of geed suggestions here. Thanks!

Two tips: Image rotation. Get the free powertoy on my blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/12/14/image-rotator-powertoy-for-onenote-2007.aspx

For setting text as a background image - here's a workaround. Cut the text
to the clipboard and paste. When you paste you will get a pop up menu that
has a selection for Paste as Picture. Choose that and then set it as
background. Not incredibly straightforward, I'll admit, but might unblock
you from your needs.

 

[Dave]

Hello Dave,

Lots of geed suggestions here.  Thanks!

Two tips: Image rotation.  Get the free powertoy on my blog athttp://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/12/14/image-rotator-power...

For setting text as a background image - here's a workaround.  Cut the text
to the clipboard and paste.  When you paste you will get a pop up menu that
has a selection for Paste as Picture.  Choose that and then set it as
background.  Not incredibly straightforward, I'll admit, but might unblock
you from your needs.

Hi John,

Many thanks for your tips. I have to work out how to install a
powertoy (not sure what one is at the moment), but it sounds like an
excellent way of overcoming the rotation issue. The conversion of text
to an image workaround does sound a bit of a drag, but I'm sure it'll
come in useful for a one-off.

Thanks again,
Dave

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Dave wrote:
[...]

Two tips: Image rotation. Get the free powertoy on my blog

athttp://blogs.msdn.com/johnguin/archive/2007/12/14/image-rotator-power.
...[...]

Many thanks for your tips. I have to work out how to install a
powertoy (not sure what one is at the moment),

It's easy as easy can be:
Just download the ZIP-file,
unpack it to a temp folder,
run setup.

but it sounds like an excellent way of overcoming the rotation issue.

It does not only sound so ;-) ;-)
It is a excellent tool which I have been using since it appeared.

Rainald
P.S. There's larger number of PowerToys, some of which are true
essentials. The most of the things are to be found on the OneNote
PowerToys website:
http://www.onenotepowertoys.com
The maintenance of the site suffers but it's still worth to go through.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I've been using ON2007 for a couple of months and found many
advantages in using it in my studies and my personal life. There are
some missing things that I'd like to see though, to improve ON as a
note taker. Some of the suggestions have been discussed in other
threads, but I thought I'd air my own preferences with you to date:

Thanks for your list!
Just another remark:

• Having an option of a split screen so notes could be taken on a
different page or section, similar to Word

Did you try to open another instance of ON side by side with the open
one?
Ctrl+M or from the menu (Windows | New Window)
This IMHO seems to provide the functionality you are after.

Rainald
P.S. I will forward your list in the Office2010 TP newsgroup in order to
be be seen by the developers

 

[Dave]

Thanks for your list!
Just another remark:


Did you try to open another instance of ON side by side with the open
one?
Ctrl+M or from the menu (Windows | New Window)
This IMHO seems to provide the functionality you are after.

Rainald
P.S. I will forward your list in the Office2010 TP newsgroup in order to
be be seen by the developers

Hi guys,

Thanks for your help and passing on my comments to the developers.
I've applied some of your suggestions with some success. I use the
'new window' method a lot now, so I can flip between different parts
of my notes.

The only major problem I have (for which I guess there is no solution
as a Power Toy or inclusion in the next edition) is the moving of
containers to allow for extra content. I realise this might be very
helpful, but... I have recently highlighted many pages of text in a
pdf printout (converted the pdf to background) which looked just
right. Only, despite being very careful, I've managed to move some of
it down (and, thus, out of sync) by adding more text to a container. I
suppose one option would be to send the page to Word, then bring it
back as a picture, thus, effectively locking everything together. This
doesn't really work too well though. Besides the laborious effort
involved, it will render everything as a picture. All the notes I may
have wanted to amend / add to will now be a picture. I can see a way
around this by allow the option of 'do not add space', but the new
version of ON seems more to do with increasing the sharing
capabilities rather than sorting out the myriad of more basic issues.
This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. It's like adding leather
seats to a new model of car, without first making sure all the wheels
don't keep falling off! You can understand my frustration over this
one little issue and I don't mean to offend the dedicated fanatics of
One Note. I'm now off to move all my highlighting back to where it
should be - very productive.

Best wishes,
Dave