Anyone here use OneNote?

Ive just started playing around with it and really have no ideas what im doing.

I was wondering: what do you find it most useful for and, what are your favorite features?

 

I'm a OneNote believer. It's great.

I love the ability to draw in my notes in a pinch, the integrated calculator (try entering 2+2= for example) and the search.

If you have a tablet PC, it becomes even more compelling, but even without it, it's a great tool

If you didn't get rid of the "OneNote 2007 Guide" notebook (look along the left side of the OneNote window for it) it has a great, down to earth explanation of all you can do with it.

I've found that OneNote's best for classes where you'll won't be writing down equations in your notes or doing math problems. IF you have a tablet PC though, then it works well here too.

 

I think Dave made me have a look at one note

Personally I don't use it - and actually without a tablet PC I'd call it pointless.
Its basically digital notetaking software - the key difference to a piece of paper is that you can link input and move it about.

But for notes I stick with a pen an paper - much easier to draw with a pen too

Now on tablets that may change.... depending on the accuracy of the stylus.

 

My son has OneNote on his tablet. It's great with note taking using handwriting. Most times handwriting is faster than typing and it excels in freehand drawings.

 

I tried using OneNote in a Jazz Appreciation course I took over the summer. Now in the fall I've found myself using pen and paper more than anything. I just find it faster than typing and can keep myself better focused on the professors lecture. I can also organize them better and faster while I write than with OneNote.

It's possible that if I had a tablet PC my opinion would change.

 

OneNote FTW. You should check out the Microsoft Office Tutorials.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote

 

really?

i've got to say, it's the most useful thing on my computer, productivity-wise

although for personal use...not so much.

i have 6 years of school-related-work-&-notes all saved in onenote format

i make a notebook for each semester, a section for each course, and a tab for each day of class. i keep all my notes on one PAGE, in essence. its great because you can search a word (when studying for an exam) and it will show you everything in your notes with the word. It's really useful when exam time comes. it keeps all my classnotes much much more organized than anyone else's.

also i like how you can search text inside of PICTURES. I usually take a picture of the syllabus and all class handouts (a ghetto way to scan) and drag the file into oneonte and throw the hardcopy away. the search function recognizes the text inside these images too. It even highlights the word inside the image, pretty cool.

If your not in school, or dont take notes on your laptop, i dunno if it'll be useful

 

I have a Tx2, it great

 

I used it when I was using a tablet with my laptop last year, but my tablet is now sleeping somewhere in my room.

 

Been using for the past 2 years here. The reason why I started using it was because my old laptop had a really old battery and it made my laptop shut down unexpectedly whenever it felt like it and I would lose some of my notes in Word but since OneNote doesn't technically save, I never had that problem since.

Plus, since it keeps all my notes organized in one place, I don't have to scour my hard-drive for a note and everything opens instantly when I need it to.

 

I tried OneNote when it first appeared. But I found it hard to create outline style notes and tables were a real pain. Both of these items were a "must have" for me. Almost all my notes are taken in outline form.

I had such a hassle with those two things I never tried it again. Have either or both of these been dealt with in the latest version? If so, I migh give it a go again.

Gary

 

what are outline notes?

i only use it occasionally. when ever i need to brainstorm something mostly.

 

I used to use OneNote when I took my laptop to class regularly in the fall of 2008, but because I don't have a tablet and I have a lot of math/science classes, OneNote has its limits. Also I stopped taking my laptop to class because I tend to game on it.

 

Sample follows.

Code:

I.  Major Point 1
     A.  Minor Point 1
         1.  Detail Point 1
              a.  Trivial Point 1
              b.  Trivial Point 2
          2.  Detail Point 2
              a.  Trivial Point 3
              b.  Trivial Point 4
      B.  Minor Point 2
II. Major Point 2

etc.

The version of Onenote I tried, didn't support this style very well. And I could not do any sort of tables at all.
Gary

 

You just hit I and tab over. They are glorified bullet points.

The table tools aren't as rich as Microsoft Word. They don't give you as many formatting options. But it is enough to make something simple with headers and such.

 

Yes they are just glorified bullet points but Word handles them with ease. It handles the hierarchy indentation automatically, as well as the numbering of each line. If you go back and insert items, as I often do, Word renumbers everything. Onenote didn't do any of that when I tried it. Does it now?

I seem to remember the table stuff being buggy. But again I tried the first version of OneNote way back when.

Gary

 

Yeah, OneNote renumbers them now. And you can collapse levels too.

 

Time to have another look then! Thanks.

Gary

 

I don't like OneNote 2007 (and older).. The UI is made for Tablet PC only. You have to up large icon for easy access... but the icons are totally ugly at that level. I found OneNote 2010 to be remarkable, I was invited to the technical Preview of Office 2010 since then I find this tool to be great for laptops, as it has the ribbon bar, and allows you to customize the ribbon bar to your liking, even add your own tabs.

You can get your Office 2010 beta right here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/download-office-professional-plus/default.aspx

 

well im in the minority i hate it and its the 1 program i leave out when i install the suite

 

It's great for my environmental planning and law course as well as my upcoming environmental assessment class, OneNote is useless for mathematics or the sciences.

 

Well, what do you know. I just played with Onenote 2007 a bit and it does do the sort of outline stuff I want. The table suport seems to work just fine too. Guess I may have to start using it!

Thanks folks!

Gary

 

I don't know about that. OneNote's UI isn't all that great for a tabletPC. IMO, its biggest killer feature is its ability to integrate with Outlook. Tasks created in OneNote are replicated in Outlook, along with their status. Notes can be tagged with contacts, comes in handy as a bigger badder version of a man's black book!

Otherwise, it's a glorified word processor/data manager.

 

I use it for math and the sciences all the time. I just depends on the user.

 

How do you use it for math or science? Are you using a tablet?

 

That's what I did. I used a tablet. Although you can get the same kind of functionality with a mouse/trackpad, just not the same form.

 

you might not have any use for it, so no need to install. but hating it is just useless waste of emotions.. it's very good for what it's good for. some people need that, some don't.

 

well, it's for taking notes.. and it works very well at that on a tablet. what would you change on it?

 

Once I tried out Onenote and realized its purpose (write notes without the need to save) and functionality (simple equations, bullet points, list, tables, etc.) I have used it in every single meeting I have gone to.

Not only does it eradicated the need for traditional pen and paper but because being in the IT and media industry, it comes across as a better sign of "I know what I am doing", when you can take notes and give the presentation on the same laptop.

 

Careful with that! Once folks realized I took outline style notes (previously with Word) at every meeting I attended, I soon was drafted as the official scribe at most meetings! Mostly because we could project my notes right away during the meeting.

Gary

 

People use to bug me all the time for notes from meetings. Then they realized
I didn't transcribe the meeting but rather just wrote down the stuff I couldn't memorize.

There are plenty of meetings where I think to myself, "Didn't I just get a memo about things?" :starts doodling:

 

yup I have a tablet, and I love it! (HP Tx2 2.2Ghz AMD turion CPU...)

 

I use Onenote for note taking primarily. I think the strength of OneNote lays in it's ability to takes anything into "note." Such as webpages, screencaps, just anything you can think of, and put it into digital form. The ink and text management is nice, but when you start saving some webpages into it, such as recipes you find on the internet, or just like web pages you like, or conversations you have, you find it turns into like a super scrapbook that can be eaisly organized, and almost forever archives.