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Donovan Lange's Work-Blog

My name is Donovan Lange. I'm a Software Design Engineer on Microsoft Office OneNote. This is my work-blog, a place to talk about OneNote, Microsoft, and programming. Geeky stuff. I also keep a life-blog, for the "other" things in my life.
OneNote Power Toys

Chris Pratley recently mentioned various ideas for OneNote Power Toys.  Personally, I'd really like to see:

  • A Journal Importer that cracks open journal files, creates a new page (in a user specified section) in the OneNote Notebook, and then imports all of the ink content from the journal file into the newly created page.
  • A generic Print to OneNote driver that appears in every sense to be a regular system printer but converts the “printed“ input into an image that is subsequently imported -- perhaps as a background image -- in the user's notebook.

It's unfortunate that the hardest part about all of the Power Toys I've heard mentioned isn't the actual import of the final content into OneNote -- it's generally interfacing with the external application: Outlook, Internet Explorer, or Windows for the Print Driver, etc. 

Nonetheless, we've been working on ways to make it easier to use and develop OneNote power toys.  David on our PM team has been working recently on a single page of add-in's that will be available off of the Office site that will provide links to all the various power toys that you can install with the SP.  (For example, I suspect you'll be seeing Omar's excellent Outlook2OneNote add-there.  :)  And I've been working on a nicely abstracted managed interface to our COM components that feels more like an Object Model.  (It's not quite ready for release, but if you're anxious to try it out -- drop me an email, and I'll send you the source.)

It's great to see people thinking about OneNote PowerToys -- one of the best moments in the life of any developer is seeing people use your programs in ways you'd never have imagined.

Posted: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 5:01 PM by DoLange
Filed under:

Comments

Jim Robbins said:

I've heard a lot of people say that OneNote needs its own printer driver, similar to the Journal printer driver. Instead of the OneNote team creating their own virtual printer, I'd like them to be able to use the existing Office 2003 Document Image Writer. This works like the Acrobat printer driver; anything "printed" is saved to a file. The resulting file can be manipulated, and all the original text is still available for searching, copying, etc.

What I would like is to have OneNote import a .MDI file into a page or sequence of pages. The user could then annotate on top of the imported page, search the imported text, etc. This would allow the flexibility of Journal or GoBinder while reusing the existing MDI technology.
# May 3, 2004 10:00 AM

Donovan Lange's Work-Blog said:

# June 18, 2004 1:06 AM

Donovan Lange's Work-Blog said:

# June 18, 2004 1:07 AM

Daniel said:

I am new to OneNOte and tablet computing in general. I am considering purchasing OneNote after usinf the SP Preview and Journal software for a couple of weeks now.

I imediately saw the need for a stand alone OneNote print driver likended to Adobe's and Journal's offerings. I do not have Office and at the prive I'm not all that eager to purchase it. I need to be able to print to OneNote from any application. I noted your comments from April 27. Is there any new news on this front and where is the best info-discussion site for OneNotes and Tablet computing in your opinion?

Thanks inadvance.
# June 25, 2004 11:37 AM

Donovan Lange said:

Hi Daniel,

Unfortunately, there is no new news that I can offer officially at this time. However, I wouldn't change the channel either -- good things come to those who wait. ;p

Regarding, OneNote/Tablet discussion, I'd of course recommend the OneNote user group (http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?lang=en&cr=US&dg=microsoft.public.onenote) and I've found that a lot of people hang out at http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/.

Hope this helps,

Donovan

Donovan
# June 25, 2004 12:01 PM

ben said:

hello,

i am german. :) and i use onenote. its awesome.

but: what about this mdi - document image. its lika acrobat from adobe. but tell me, what about the people who doesn't have office 2003? how can they open a .mdi-file?

is there any possibility to get a "reader"? thanks for your help!


ben
# August 3, 2004 1:43 AM

ben said:

once again:

i have my todo-list in outlook. is there any possibilty to import these list in onenote? dynamicly?

thx for your help,


ben
# August 3, 2004 5:25 AM

Donovan Lange said:

Hi Ben,

Offhand, I don't believe that there is a reader for .mdi files; although I could be wrong. *mumble mumble, we suck, mumble mumble* :)

OneNote won't automatically import your Outlook tasks, but if you're ultra-motivated, you could write a utility that would accomplish this using the new DataImport API in OneNote SP1 with Outlook's ObjectModel. (Alternatively, you could ask <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/">Omar</a> to add the ability to import tasks to the "Send to OneNote from Outlook" power toy that was just released.)

Hope this helps,

Donovan
# August 3, 2004 10:29 AM

ben said:

thanx a lot. this helps,


ben
# August 3, 2004 10:36 AM

ben said:

hello,

once again a question about this odi-driver:

you can print to tiff and mdi, right? but: tiff is s/w. it isn't in color. and mdi is in color. is there a possibility to save it as a tiff WITH colors?
i found no position to change this in the properties of the ODI printer...
# August 10, 2004 12:54 AM

Donovan Lange said:

Hi Ben,

I'm just guessing here, but I don't believe this is possible. ODI was primarily designed with Fax services in mind, hence why the TIFF image is saved as a monochrome.

Sorry I couldn't be of more assistance,

Donovan
# August 10, 2004 11:08 AM

David Funni said:

In the top 5 tips for students it says to print directly into onenote but I can't find out how to.  This is the most intuitive way to trasfer anything into onenote.  Its better than having a power toy do it.  However the power toy does work...

# July 10, 2006 11:27 AM

unquote Brussels said:

My name is Donovan Lange.  I'm a Software Design Engineer on Microsoft Office OneNote.

I do not agree. Go to http://www.auditjobs.info/elision_Belgium/division_Capital%20Region/unquote_Brussels_1.html

# January 19, 2007 7:19 AM

enchiridon Brussels said:

My name is Donovan Lange.  I'm a Software Design Engineer on Microsoft Office OneNote.

I do not agree. Go to http://www.bigtrades.info/hominy_Belgium/omophagous_Capital%20Region/enchiridon_Brussels_1.html

# January 24, 2007 3:46 AM

Steve said:

Here is a new OneNote addon that is very interesting:

http://desktop.xiipy.com/onenote

It is called Xiipy and acts as a "research assistant" and automatically reads through your notes and finds related resources (i.e. pictures and webpages).  Give it a try, I love using it for taking notes in History class.

# December 26, 2007 5:30 PM

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# May 19, 2008 7:16 PM

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