Back to Basics: OneNote

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amanda's picture

image Microsoft Office OneNote 2007

I love OneNote.   When I first started working for Tim he asked me to sign up with a lot of things online, and start using different programs that I'd never even heard of before. One of those programs was 'OneNote'.  At first I didn't use it that much, I'm one of those people who don't really enjoy changing the way you do things. I found it more practical to write things down in my physical notebook that I carried in my bag, But since then I've personalised my OneNote and have been keeping heaps of information organised nicely in there.


You can have as many notebooks as you like.
If you open one notebook, it'll have different sections across the top which you can name whatever you like. And down the right hand side there's the list of pages for that section.

For example, in my notebook, I have Personal Information, User Names, Game Review Notes, To do, Miscellaneous.

In 'Personal information' I could write whatever I want about myself, or anything.
In 'User Names', I keep all my usernames etc for all the sites that Tim has got me to sign up for and all the email accounts and what not.
In 'Game Review Notes', I just use that section to write up game reviews that I've been asked to do, that's instead of using word I suppose.
In 'To Do', If Tim's given me a list of tasks, I'll write them up in there or copy them in there so that I don't forget the bits of information he tells me.
In 'Miscellaneous', I write anything! If Tim's instant messaged me a link to a site, or anything at all, I'll chuck it in there.

A very useful thing with OneNote I find, is that I don't have to remember to save everything as I use it. It automatically saves everything as you write it, which is really useful when you're trying to accomplish things in a hurry. I also find it useful because it's really easy to organise information.

Some time very soon I'd love to get the program for myself to use at home.

You could have a notebook for cooking recipes.
A notebook for web sites you use and email accounts, the usernames for each of them.
A notebook for stories you may write.
A notebook for addresses - family, friends and what not.
A notebook for birthdays - chapters for different people, immediate family, other family, work friends, school friends, best friends, etc.
A notebook for personal stuff - Shopping lists. To Do lists. Financial information. Credit card accounts. Frequent flyer accounts. Medical Information. Etc.
A notebook for a journal/diary.
A notebook for whatever you could possibly think of.

It really is a useful and easy way to store information. Another great feature is you can password protect notebooks or even just pages within your notebooks.
But, the coolest feature, would have to be the ability to capture things on screen. Say you're looking at a web site or something, and you want that information you're viewing copied into your notebook, you just open up OneNote, go into the notebook and page you want the information stored in, and across the top of the page should be a tool bar, and in that is the option to "Clip" (or shortcut, windows key + S), it'll clip what you want as an image into your notebook. So awesome! Once you click it, your screen has a clear/white sheet across it, and you drag over whatever you want on your screen copied, and it copies it as an image into the notebook! That's coolness right there. Also, if you copy from a web page, it saves a URL with the image. What's also cool, the text within a screenshot you capture, you can search for. On the page in your notebook that you've got a screenshot in, up the top right hand side is a search box. You can write in a word and search it, and if it's in that screen shot it'll show you it. Even though it's an image, it still reads the text within it. Very cool.

OneNote is the way to go. No more forgetting your notebook at home when you go to work, no more losing pieces of paper with phone numbers or addresses or anything like that on it, no more looking every where for a pen and paper to jot something down quickly, no more struggles to keep your information organised and easily accessible. Just use OneNote.  Use it, Love it.

aManda

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Mad White Hatter's picture

I totally agree. I use it to

I totally agree. I use it to snag just about everything I want to take off of the net. I also use it for my blogging. When I want to publish a page to my SharePoint blog, it uploads everything seamlessly and deposits the pictures, charts, or anything else perfectly. I can't say enough good stuff about OneNote. There is even different layers of security, which is really great for those os us who are paranoid.

Anonymous's picture

I so dont get into the

I so dont get into the Onenote jist of things

jethro's picture

thats sad - it is such an

thats sad - it is such an awesome program with so many great features - like the text recognition from images, easy screenshot image creation, task integration with outlook, shared notebooks, integration with sharepoint, instant save etc.
we couldnt live without it now.

give it another try and read through the user guide notebook that installs by default when you first open it

cheers