The best ways to show OneNote to others

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Colin Walker — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 09:19:00 GMT

These points are equally valid for performing a successful demo of a Tablet PC which can be equally frustrating to explain to those who don't 'get it'.

Let's face it Tablets and OneNote go hand in hand and I can't imagine using one without the other.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley (MS) — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 09:25:00 GMT

Colin, you do know how to upset me! Although I think OneNote is great on a Tablet, I most definitely take issue with the statement that you can't imagine using OneNote without a Tablet. I use it primarily with a keyboard and mouse. 85% of our users can't be fools... See this link to see how I feel on this: http://weblogs.asp.net/chris_pratley/archive/2004/01/30/65268.aspx

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

PJ — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 10:20:00 GMT

Chris,
Thanks for this excellent blog as always. This will be extremely useful in trying to convince my company to rollout OneNote company wide.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Christian Mogensen — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 12:05:00 GMT

What about making a screencast showing off OneNote? Basically a narrated flash movie telling the story of OneNote...

I know that I'd check out something like that.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Jonathan Perret — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 13:34:00 GMT

Chris, I've been baffled by the lack of the most basic graphical tools in OneNote (like, how do you draw an arrow with the mouse ?) but attributed it to the fact that OneNote was mainly designed for the Tablet where you can draw anything you want in Ink.
I know several people who use Powerpoint to draw their notes, sketch flowcharts, etc. and OneNote as it stands definitely does not cover this (ab)use of PPT, unless you can use a stylus.

Another thing, not tablet-related, but that gets on my nerves everytime I try to use OneNote : why no drag-and-drop for tabs ? Moving pages around takes ages...

Cheers,
--Jonathan

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Colin Walker — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 13:40:00 GMT

Purely my personal preference and no offence intended.

I've used OneNote on my desktop (as I commented on that other post) and even tried it with an old graphics tablet before I got my Tablet PC.

I'm certainly not going to argue with you, OneNote is an excellent app irrespective of the input interface or OS.

I think it's just that as my Tablet is currently my only working non-server PC I've started thinking in ink.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Frank Gaeta — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 15:20:00 GMT

My OneNote it is!

Show OneNote to others by allowing them to see how simple customizing almost everything inside the user interface is. Express to them the support available for creating personal toolbars to facilitate specific tasks. Create a quick IExplorer specific toolbar that entails choosing what color highlighters to have available along with that useful clipping tool, and include the undo arrow so they experience how internet research can be so easy with just those tools alone.

---Pasted something from the web you didn’t need? Click undo, and now choose the clipping tool again and go retrieve what you did want pasted. Only the selected highlighters are on your newly created IExplore toolbar, so click one to start lighting up the place or just begin typing---

Show them how OneNote not only facilitates but improves note taking during lectures or meetings. When I first began using OneNote and MS Journal (with a Tablet PC) during class lectures I rarely bothered to change pen colors or do an highlighting. Some instructors spoke too much too fast for me to keep up all the while trying to use different colors for unique topics. Now, after sticking to OneNote, I simply place my personalized “Quickie Bar” on the center of a page and am able to quickly switch writing tools without missing a word. This may sound insignificant until you find yourself recording a speaker strapped with an Energizer battery behind their motor mouth. Changing colors during note taking can signify when the lecturer stressed a certain point or was only sidetracking without requiring writing in “Important” and “Not Essential” respectively. It’s these little options that make OneNote standout to users that are aware of their significance. Hence, show them.

Some more customizations I always find worth mentioning follow. The ability to determine the size clippings should be when pasted onto OneNote eliminates resizing each image, user friendly…huh? Attaching links to those clippings is also optional, I know I hated deleting each link when pasting from my textbooks. Customizing organization is a breeze, for dragging a section from one folder to another seems effortless when file organization requires modification.

The customization capabilities are endless, and emphasizing it to others demonstrates OneNote’s flexibility for all users and tasks. Explain to the inquiring masses how selecting audio quality stands ready to optimize specific scenarios. Occupying minimal space on a near full hard drive is possible by recording at lower quality settings, but the option still remains to have high level audio quality geared for played back in the presence of a large audience.

Yes, it’s true OneNote can be sold by explaining how it will transform into a unique and personal digital desk with wide opened drawers full of immediately accessible pens, highlighters, scissors, glue, graph paper, college ruled paper, video and/or audio recorder…blah, blah, blah…all of that at the click of a mouse or pen. This program is rich with functions, but because how those functions can adapt to user preferences establishes that developers were thinking of all user scenarios and not just in shipping the product…yet another positive aspect of the program that can be shown.

A Tad More on Audio Recording

Elaborating on the sync capability of OneNote’s audio recording is sure to convert the already amused into the awe struck. Explaining the extension and ease behind the audio capabilities is definitely a plus. When evangelizing I always ask people, “How many times have you been reading a key idea in some important material and didn’t stop to annotate because you knew you’d remember it, yet a day later you had to read the same material over again because it was just too difficult (laziness maybe) to create a simple highlight?” Well, OneNote only requires--again--a simple click to start the recorder and the key idea is recorded for immediate and future playback. The extension of the audio created in OneNote is set to be dragged into an MP3 player and listened to while on the long drive to work or school over an inexpensive FM transmitter. I am certain my collage study time has been shortened and strengthened due to being equipped with a median that allows me to simultaneously cover new material and create audio annotations that later can be listened to during opportune moments normally wasted. Scratch the name OneNote and rename it “Forgotten Ingenious Ideas and Vital Information Easy Access Archive Engine That Can Be Utilized Wherever Headphones Or Speakers Are Allowed.” Okay, maybe the name should be left unchanged, but leaving the clutter of Post-It notes behind along with 3x5 cards is now possible. Show them how extension of the media files created in OneNote make this possible.

This is not SPAM, thanks…chuckle, chuckle.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Marc Orchant — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 17:59:00 GMT

Look at it the other way around then Chris. OneNote is an essential app to demo the Tablet PC. It's one of the two applications I always use to show people how I use the Tablet (the other is MindManager X5).

I've used OneNote longer than I've used the TPC and I do agree it's a great tool even on a lesser laptop or (shudder) desktop PC ;^)

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Clifford — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 20:19:00 GMT

I fell in love with OneNote on a laptop. I realized the power of the notebook metaphor quickly, and got a lot of use out of it. And then I got a tablet, and fell in love with OneNote all over again.

Yesterday, in a coffee shop, a customer saw me using my tablet and came over for a demo. I showed him OneNote - even pages where I'd combined keystrokes with ink. I told him, probably 3 times, that One Note worked just as well on a laptop - his laptop, but I don't think I got through to him. I'm sure he'll consider it - but not until after he buys a tablet!

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Mickey Gousset — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:05:00 GMT

Once again Chris, an excellent post. I can't wait to get to work to try out the Image Writer power tool!

Interesting finds this week

Jason Haley — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 04:08:00 GMT

Interesting finds this week

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley (MS) — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 01:09:00 GMT

Christian, try the Office Online site - here's a list of demos to watch, for example: http://tc23.iponet.net/en-us/FX010804491033.aspx

Jonathan - those are common requests - we'll see what happens...

Everyone else: thanks for the great comments!

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Viona — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:33:00 GMT

Thanks Chris.

I still don't understand why:

a) While the whole Office suite of products have decent flow charting capabilities, why doesn't One Note have a simple Flow Charter?

b) Why can't I embed a video from an external WMV file to show/play in the note itself? And, if possible, store its contents in the .one file itself?

Thanks!

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 04:05:00 GMT

Viona,
Any feature takes time - nothing is free. Integrating the shared drawing layer you see in some other Office apps is a lot of work - it was done by a significant team over a significant period of time. We didn't have time. Also, it wasn't clear when we started that making fancy drawings was what OneNote was about. We were thinking about notes, not presentations. Now, *simple* drawing tools make more sense for OneNote than the complex drawing tools other apps have. We get that request a lot - we'll see what we can do.

As for video, being able to add a pre-recorded video or audio file and take linked notes on it is something we like as an idea too. We didn't do it because we focussed on note taking (i.e. recording what is happening in a meeting or other event), not on annotation of prexisting multimedia. But of course sometimes recording with OneNote is not an option, so maybe we'll have a chance to do this work too.

Demoing OneNote

Andy Gray — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 06:46:00 GMT

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Viona — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 09:10:00 GMT

Thanks a bunch for the reply, Chris.

Any idea when we can expect SP2? :D

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Kris Sangani — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:48:00 GMT

Thanks for your article Chris.

I was wondering if Microsoft has produced a White Paper on the efficacy of One Note. This would be very helpful when trying to convince others.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 16:37:00 GMT

Kris, there is a lot of supporting info at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010858031033.aspx
Click on the link to "product info" on that page (http://www.microsoft.com/office/onenote/prodinfo/default.mspx) to see articles on things like the "Business Value of OneNote".

Viona: Sorry, I can't really comment on future plans in any detail.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Jacques Crémer — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 07:19:00 GMT

I have tried several times to use OneNote, and have always felt frustated. I believe that more than demos, one of the problems is the help system.

Two examples. I have a new Tablet, which came with OneNote installed, so this week-end I decided to try again. On Friday, I discovered the training site and enjoyed going through the first two lessons. Since then, I have been unable to refind the site. When I click on the "formation" links (I am using the French version), I am led to http://office.microsoft.com/fr-fr/FX010559221036.aspx
which links to nowhere useful.

Second example. In the lessons I went through, there was a neat feature that when you clipped a web page, OneNote would automatically note URL and date. I am unable to find it in the Help section.

More generally, the Help is full of statements of what OneNote can do for you at the meta-level (make it easier to do research), but it is very hard to find anything specific. Two suggestions. a) Make it less web based; I want my help to click in when I am looking for it. b) Regive us the "Index" which we used to have in the old help systems: I could search the help files by trying different things and eventually get to what I wanted.

This frustration with my inability to find what I want might make me abandon once again my attempt to use OneNote, who apart from that looks like it could be fun and useful.

Jacques

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 04:09:00 GMT

Jacques,

Thanks for the feedback. We keep working on the help system, so any feedback you can provide would be very helfpul (especially in the on-line help, please use the buttons at the bottom of the articles you don't like and tell us what to fix.)

To find the OneNote homepage that has links to all the tutorials, either use a web search with "OneNote" as the search term, or from the main Office On-line site, click "Page d'accueil" in the upper left, then under "Produits" lower on the left, chose "OneNote". Here is the direct link, from which you can find links to the tutorials.
http://office.microsoft.com/fr-fr/FX010858031036.aspx

The screen clipping feature is under the Insert menu - the term in English is "Screen Clipping" - I am not sure what it is in French.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Kris Sangani — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 15:04:00 GMT

Thanks very much for those links. They were very helpful. In particular, I found the case study on Blogo News, the Brazilian news organisation very interesting.

There was a sports journalist on the other side of the world using One Note in an almost identical manner to my own use of the software.

This is my setup:

On the road I use a Toshiba M200 convertible - and with the Microsoft OneNote application in use for six months now, I am seeing great strides in my productivity and efficiency.

Finally, got my microphone set up perfect and I haven’t screwed up a recording for a long time. I use an external microphone and the recordin options on OneNote are very useful.

I record every phone interview, one-on-one and press conference – and I never have to transcribe a thing as all these recordings are time stamped with my own notes. I just point and click to the relevant note and I hear what was said

I use a Skype phone which can send and receive telephone calls to the ordinary telephone network and can penetrate even the toughest firewalls. I’m saving a fortune on my mobile phone (down from £75 to £25 a month). I got my Sony Ericsson HBH600 headset working with Skype on the PC.

The most difficult thing I found was getting One Note to record both sides of a Skype conversation. I managed to figure out a workaround using an additional driver called VAC (virtual audio cable). It acts as a virtual mixing desk between Skype and One Note. However, I have decided that the application is too complicated to use in the field

What would be great is if OneNote could record both sides of an VOIP conversation and then I could work completely wirelessly the next time I interview a Microsoft spokesperson.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Garrett Garcia — Thu, 05 May 2005 09:58:57 GMT

It would be really handy if OneNote could export as a word file or even HTML. The "web page" that it exports cannot be viewed by Firefox, which is a huge turn off. This makes it very hard to share notes with people who aren't also using OneNote, and since it isn't included with Office, chances are most people aren't using it. This means that if they don't have OneNote and use Firefox, then you better start printing.

OneNote :: Information Management Tool

Prose & Icons — Thu, 05 May 2005 19:37:44 GMT

Chris_Pratley's OneNote WebLog : The best ways to show OneNote to others I also show people my Blog section, where all my previous posts and posts I am still working on are kept. This really shows off how a OneNote...

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Chris_Pratley — Tue, 17 May 2005 08:19:26 GMT

Garrett, if you have Office2003 then OneNote can also output as Word *.doc format, both in Save As and Publish Pages. We chose MHTML as the output format since it produced single files you could email to others, which matched what usrs expected (unlike HTML, which produces a collection of files that are hard to email without breaking links to images, etc), and all Windows machines (at least) come with the ability to read MHT files (via IE) even if browsing is done via Firefox. In the future we may add the more complex and fragile HTML as an output format although then people have to figure out that they can post directly from OneNote to the web, or learn ftp (neither of which is an easy task for many people). Or maybe FireFox will someday support the MHTML RFC? In any case, you can always select all of the pages you want and Copy/paste them to a word processor to share notes - no need to print.

re: The best ways to show OneNote to others

Wessel Wessels — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:40:25 GMT

I'm a big fan of OneNote. Something I would like to do is while I'm in a telephone conversation with somebody using X-Lite and my Plantronics headset I would like to record the conversation. I tried it and it only records my voice and not the person on the other end.