OneNote, the way to a tidy desk
Thursday, May 13 2010
Many have purchased a copy of Microsoft Office especially the Home and Student edition. We're all familiar with Word and Excel but we're not at all sure about a program called Microsoft Office OneNote that's included in the suite. So what's it there for? What can I use it for? Is it worth learning how to use?
If you don't own a copy of OneNote but have a Windows Live ID (or Hotmail or MSN subscription), soon you'll be able to use the OneNote Web App for free. The OneNote Web App will provide lots of features from the desktop version and also provide the flexibility of being accessible wherever there's internet access (as will the other Office Web Apps, namely Excel, Word and PowerPoint).
A first look
OneNote is the one place to put all your notes. A quick look around webDotWiz's desk, for example, is not a good sight: scribbles on lots of piece of paper about things to do, snippets of information, even ideas about what to write for future webDotWiz columns. All these bits of paper shouldn't be there - webDotWiz should have these notes (used advisedly) typed into a page or two in OneNote. From there, he'd be able to better organise his reminders and things to do into particular sections in OneNote, flag their importance and later find the relevant information.
That's how OneNote works - type a bit of information anywhere onto a OneNote page, move it around on the page later for neatness' sake, and even place it onto a particular page in a special section in its own notebook for later reference.
So when you open OnteNote for the first time, click on the OneNote 2007 notebook (it it's not already open) to get started. Also down the left-hand side are other notebooks that have been started for you. Each of these notebooks already has some sections (the coloured tabs across the top) and each section has some pages in a section.
Day-to-day use
That's all well and good but what about using OneNote to jot down a few things as the day progresses? The secret lies in the use of OneNote's special little window called the Side Note. You open Side Note by clicking its icon down in the right-hand bottom corner of the Windows task bar's list of icons. Now you're able to type any snippets or copy and paste from another document or a web page. Later you can organise these bits and pieces into their own notebook, section and page.
When you copy and paste a snippet of information from a web page, OneNote automatically documents the web page from which you took the information so you can always get back to the original web page as well including the date and time so you know how up to date the information is.
Screen clipping tool - secret of success
Down in the bottom left of your keyboard is the Ctrl (Control) key, then one marked with the Windows logo and alongside that is the Alt key. The one marked with the Windows logo is the one we want - it may be also lettered with Start.
The easy way to copy information from a web page or other document is to hold down that Start key (usually called the Win key) and press the S key (that is, Win+S for screen clipping). The screen will whiten and your usual mouse cursor changes to a crosshair. Move the crosshair to where to start your screen clipping, hold down the left mouse button and grab the area of the screen that's got the information you want to store.
When you release the left mouse button, your screen clipping is automatically loaded into OneNote on its own page (under OneNote's special storage area called Unified Notes).
Win+S and Live Writer
When writing up an entry for your Live Space, using Live Writer and OneNote's screen clip tool can save lots of time. The one prerequisite is that you've uploaded your photos to an album on your Live Photos.
Before you start writing in Live Writer, make sure you've brought up in Internet Explore the Live Photos album from which you want some shots.
After you finish typing, go to a suitable photo in your Live Photos album and do a Win+S to get a screen clipping. Now you can paste this screenshot directly into Live Writer and do the usual things with resizing, placement, custom margins and perhaps a watermark.
OneNote Office Web App
Keep an eye on webDotWiz Online or follow him on Twitter so you know when Microsoft's Office Web Apps become available. Then you can start getting rid of all those scraps of paper on your desk and put your notes in OneNote.