Nota Bene: The OneNote Blog : Office

Is “narrow-casting” a good idea for OneNote Help content?

Michael C. Oldenburg — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:30:00 GMT

A colleague of mine has been experimenting with "narrow-casting" — the practice of making Office Help and How-to content extremely specific to a particular audience or user group. The idea is simple: The people to whom certain Help content speaks directly will ultimately get more out of it than general-themed content. Read my complete blog post to learn more about this idea and to give me your own take on narrow-casting. Do you like the idea? If so, what kind of audience in the OneNote community might benefit from it?...(read more)

Never miss a deadline with OneNote!

Michael C. Oldenburg — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:30:00 GMT

The newest episode of the video series "A Writer’s Guide to Microsoft Office" is now available. This latest video shines the spotlight on OneNote 2007, which is used to track writing contests and writing submission deadlines by a local writer. It's another great example of how easy it is to do real-life tasks in OneNote without a lot of up-front work or overhead. No matter what the task, OneNote adapts to the way you like to work. Check out my full blog post for the video and for links to related content....(read more)

Lost your job? Let OneNote and Office help!

Michael C. Oldenburg — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

My own experience with unemployment happened at a time when jobs in every industry were plentiful and when you would get an actual phone call or a polite letter informing you of the fate of your application. Those days are pretty much over. If you don’t sharpen the tools in your arsenal to keep up with the times, you may lose out. With so many people losing their jobs recently, the Office Online team has launched a brand-new Career Center to help Microsoft Office users with every step of a career or job search. We’ve even partnered with the experts over at Monster.com to make the whole process a snap. Also available is the new OneNote job application tracker. This free, template-based tool can be added to any section in your OneNote notebook to let you keep track of your applications, resume versions, contacts, follow-ups, and more. Read my full blog post to check it all out! ...(read more)

Learn from a pro: Real-world draft management in OneNote 2007

Michael C. Oldenburg — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 03:30:00 GMT

Some of the best computer tips out there aren't ever “in the manual.” They come from watching someone else work, letting us peek over their shoulder while they complete a real-world task with the software they’ve chosen, and then learning from their technique and style. Today, I'm pleased to announce the premiere episode of “A Writer’s Guide to Microsoft Office” — a new podcast series written and hosted by my teammate, Joannie Stangeland. In her first episode, Joannie shows us how she uses a variety of OneNote 2007 features to manage writing drafts that she prepares for submission to publishers. Joannie didn’t select OneNote as her tool of choice for draft management because she works for Microsoft during the day. She immediately realized its benefits back when OneNote 2003 had been released and few people (even within Microsoft) had heard of it. There was no book or Help topic to teach an aspiring writer how they might use OneNote to work with drafts and manuscripts. Joannie developed her own technique when the cumbersome clutter of paper and manila file folders quickly failed her....(read more)

It's that time of year again...

Michael C. Oldenburg — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:00:00 GMT

This month’s collection of tips on the Microsoft At Work Web site (shown below) gives a shout-out to one of my previous blog posts, in which I shared some tips about using OneNote for holiday and event planning.

If you missed my original blog post, you can still read it here:

Survive the holidays with OneNote 2007
http://blogs.msdn.com/michael_oldenburg/archive/2007/12/16/6686183.aspx

All of the links in the article are still valid (for example, the pointers to the various editions of Microsoft Office that include OneNote). The new 2009 OneNote calendar templates are still being posted on the Office Online Web site, but you can start grabbing the first ones here.

Be sure to check out the Templates site on Office Online for new calendars in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, you can download a ton of other templates there — all free of charge.

To receive free monthly tips and tricks about a variety of Office programs and technologies, including OneNote, consider bookmarking the Microsoft At Work and the Microsoft At Home Web sites. There’s always something new to learn and check out!

Free download: Office 2007 Help updates (including OneNote!)

Michael C. Oldenburg — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:00:00 GMT

When we mention “Help” in the software publishing world, we don't mean technical support or maintenance (that's generally called “Support”). Instead, the collective term “Help” refers to the free published content that ships with most commercial or professional software programs. This content can serve as a reference (like the printed manuals that used to be included in the box) or it can provide training, step-by-step tutorials, and overviews to help you learn a new software program and master its many features over time.

You probably know that pressing F1 in any Office 2007 program opens the Help viewer, which lets you browse that program's Help content by clicking through a Table of Contents or by searching for keywords and feature names. Clicking the appropriate link on the Help menu will do the same thing, although this interface style has gone out of fashion in programs with the new Fluent (a.k.a. Ribbon) interface, such as Word 2007 and Excel 2007.

What you may not have noticed before is that, regardless of the interface, the programs in the Office 2007 suites have two very different Help experiences. When your computer is connected to the Internet, and if you (or your system administrator) have given permission, the Help viewer will fetch and display the most up-to-date and complete content for the Office 2007 Help in each program. This experience is preferred because, in this so-called “connected state,” you're sure to always see the latest and greatest Help content that's available for your program(s). In this scenario, the Help viewer bypasses the Help files that were originally installed with each program because such disk-based content cannot be automatically updated and thus becomes outdated rather quickly.

If you yank the network cable from your computer or otherwise disconnect from the Internet for any reason, the Help viewer reverts to the offline Help files on your hard drive — outdated as they may be. All of the Help and How-to content that has been published since the launch of the product is then no longer fetched from the Office Online Web site. This is problematic when you need to look up procedure steps for a program task or feature and the corresponding Help topic exists only online. For example, imagine you're traveling on business and finishing your big PowerPoint presentation on the plane. Your boss told you to insert an animation or video, but you don't remember how to do this. If a specific article with the solution to your issue was not published as part of the original "offline Help" files on your Office CD or DVD, you'll have to wait until you can next connect to the Web.

Sitting on planes isn't the only situation where offline Help files may suddenly become important. In many companies, employees are not permitted to connect to the Internet for security reasons or due to corporate policies. For these customers, keeping our offline Help files as up-to-date as possible is very important. Larger companies typically have an IT staff that keeps cached versions of new Help content available in-house for searching. But for smaller businesses, no such luxury exists.

Whatever your situation, I recommend grabbing our newest Office 2007 Help updates and installing them on your computer.

If you have configured your version of Windows Update (Windows XP or Windows Vista) to include updates for all Microsoft software, these new offline Help file updates will show up in the “Office 2007” category of your “Recommended” updates (see screenshot). Depending on how your Windows Update is configured, you may already have these updates, or you may need to manually check for them. You may not see exactly the same items on your screen as are shown in this screenshot. The number of Help updates depends on whatever individual Office 2007 programs you have installed (separately or as part of any of the suites).

By the way, if you don't have Office 2007 updates integrated with your version of Windows Update (or if you don't want to for some reason), you can go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=40747 to check for all available Office 2007 updates for your computer. This is the same link that the Office programs go to when you click Check for updates from the Office interface.

Once updated, the offline Help files on your hard drive will contain a new, up-to-the-moment snapshot of the Help libraries which we keep current on the Office Online Web site every month. So, even if you're not planning to ever disconnect from the Internet, offline Help files on your hard drive might just get you out of a bind the next time you find yourself up against a deadline and in need of finding that elusive, secret handshake for mastering a particular task or feature.

To make sure your Office 2007 Help viewer is configured to fetch the latest online content whenever you're connected to the Internet, click the button in the lower right corner of the Help viewer window (in OneNote 2007 or any other Office 2007 program, press F1) and then choose Show content from Office Online from the popup menu. “Connected to Office Online” means that your Office program will automatically include the latest online content in the Help Table of Contents and in the Search results.

By the way, to quickly find all OneNote-specific Help & How-to content that's currently available on Office Online, click the links in the left margin of my blog (under the OneNote Links heading).

With shared notebooks, collaboration is not just a buzzword

Michael C. Oldenburg — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:00:00 GMT

Wikipedia defines “collaboration” as follows:

“Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people work together toward an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature — by sharing knowledge, learning, and building consensus.”

Back in the 1980s, IBM may well have dubbed their revolutionary new machines “Personal Computers,” but these days, if you use your PC in an office or at school, you probably already spend at least as much of your time collaborating with others as you do on your personal projects.

At first glance, collaboration seems like a no-brainer. Each day, we meet people face to face, talk with them on the phone, and exchange all the free e-mail we want. Instant messaging is another great way to chat or exchange files, especially if you and your teammates share similar hours near a computer. And yet, things quickly get a lot more complicated when you’re trying to keep more than a few people on the same page.

Work hours and locations are more diverse than ever. Information overload is everywhere. Our inboxes are full of “Look at me now!” requests and unscheduled tasks that are becoming increasingly difficult to process, let alone manage. How are we supposed to update each other on news and status without adding to the existing e-mail hell? Nobody wants more meetings just to talk about all of the work that has to get done.

We want our computers and tools to help us, but choosing the right tools for collaboration can be tricky. Most people will admit that they tend to gravitate towards what they know (or what’s been set up for them), and not necessarily what will help them collaborate in the smartest, most efficient ways. So, how do you try a better way when you don’t know that there is one waiting in the wings? First, assess honestly how well your tried-and-true methods and tools have served you in the past and then keep an open mind while you do some research on your own.

In my newest Office Hours column, I'm outlining how OneNote 2007 offers smarter ways to share information with a team or workgroup. Even if you already know how indispensible OneNote can be for management of your personal information, you might not yet have discovered its built-in collaboration features. Aside from the “how to” steps in the article, I’m offering some best practices that you may find useful — such as adding a hyperlinked Table of Contents that points to the pages and sections in your shared notebook, or including a reference section to keep important information at everyone’s fingertips.

As always, I’m interested in your feedback. Please tell me if you find such articles useful or if you’d rather see this type of information covered in a different way (the more specific your feedback, the better!). You can leave feedback by submitting comments directly at the end of the column (or any other Office Online article), or by commenting here on my blog. If you prefer, feel free to drop me a line directly.

In case you haven’t seen them, here are my previous Office Hours columns about Office and OneNote:

OneNote: A smarter way to share information with your team
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102750221033.aspx
Use Office 2007 on your mobile phone
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102402571033.aspx
How OneNote made friends in a corner office
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102282211033.aspx

You can view all articles (including those by my fellow Office columnists) by checking out the Office Hours home page!

What do you want to see in a OneNote 2007 book?

Michael C. Oldenburg — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Over the past few months, I’ve been asked by some of my readers if I can recommend any good books about OneNote.

In short, the answer is a reluctant “No.”

If you do a quick search in Amazon.com’s Books section for “OneNote 2007” (include the quote marks in your search), you’ll see that the results will be underwhelming. You may remember that the previous offering for OneNote 2003 a few years ago was much more generous. So, why the sudden dearth of choices now?

While I don’t have any official data on this, I suspect that it’s just another case of everyone tightening their belts these days. Just as companies of all sizes in nearly every industry have radically consolidated their businesses and narrowed their scope to save costs, so have book publishers who used to pump out a gazillion books each year. It’s not hard to imagine why those books that are dedicated to version-specific, software-related subjects would be most affected by this. They almost always have a very limited shelf-life because of their specific focus.

Computer books are not everyone’s cup of tea. A lot of people never crack one open and prefer to read Help content online. But I’ve met a lot of people (customers, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances) who have told me that they much prefer learning about computer programs by keeping a book next to their computer, in which they can follow along in an overview of the software or in tutorial lessons that teach them about the software’s many features. In terms of training, books almost always succeed with their target audience because the information they contain is presented in a linear, sequential fashion. Help topics are meant to get you out of a bind when you’re in the middle of doing something and you don’t know how to use a certain feature.

When I started at Microsoft twelve years ago, it was still common practice for software companies to fully document a product — right down to the last toolbar button and dialog box. At Microsoft, we didn’t yet have Office Online at that point (or anything like it) and customers were unable to tell us what they thought about the usefulness of our documentation. We had no way of measuring which features (and associated Help topics) were the most popular, or which features created the biggest pain points and needed more explanation. As a result, literally everything was documented, just in case our users needed to read up on it someday. For better or for worse, those days are long gone.

One thing hasn’t changed. Companies continue to give their employees software programs to use at work, but little (if any) training is made available to help them master these tools. These days, if you can’t demonstrate a good grasp of Office software, your résumé may well be passed over. So, where’s an ordinary person supposed to get reasonably-priced, comprehensive training to get up to speed on software? Back when so-called “day one” software documentation was beginning to narrow more and more, a new industry sprung up to fill the sudden void. Technical self-help books like the Dummies series were being published to help novice users who had trouble ramping up with a software program.

Love them or hate them, these types of books have done very well in sales over the past several years. But despite their popularity, even these publications seem to have downsized their catalogs as of late. For example, to cover the various new Microsoft Office programs, book publishers seem to have combined everything into a single “Office 2007 for Dummies” or similar book in which the individual programs are discussed in much shorter fashion. That may work well for established and ubiquitous programs like Microsoft Word. But even though it may not seem like it, OneNote 2007 is only a Version 2.0 program that happens to have done incredibly well as a standalone product. Surely it deserves more comprehensive training coverage than this?

If you happen to belong to the group of people who love computer books, and you would like to finally see one dedicated to OneNote 2007, I have good news! Kathy Jacobs, one of OneNote’s most dedicated and vocal fans (who just happens to be a prominent Microsoft MVP) is planning to write a book of her own and she wants your input. In a recent blog post, Kathy outlines some of her plans for this title. Rather than copying the same repetitive approach of previously published tech books, she wants to create a book that speaks more to home users and students instead of only corporate users.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. If you can learn to master OneNote 2007 in a more natural and less formal setting and get comfortable with its features, you can easily apply those skills when using OneNote at work. By contrast, I think the opposite isn’t always true. It can be much harder to learn OneNote if you’ve only seen it discussed in work scenarios and not every home user or student can necessarily identify with these.

So, here’s your call to action. If you’ve been a consumer of technical self-help and training books and you’ve always wanted to give someone an earful about what you liked and disliked about these types of books, let Kathy know. Do you want step-by-step tutorials or broader overviews with specific case studies and scenarios? Should it cover only basic features or describe advanced techniques from expert users? Is a bound and printed book best or would you prefer a downloadable, electronic version instead?

You can share your ideas and requests for a OneNote 2007 book by leaving a comment here on my blog, by dropping me a line, or by responding directly to Kathy’s original blog post. As fellow content producers, Kathy and I will both be very interested to read your thoughts and responses!

Office Labs community site makes its debut today

Michael C. Oldenburg — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:00:00 GMT

For the past few months, the Office Labs group at Microsoft has been hard at work, prototyping a number of community-oriented projects. As of today, these projects are no longer shrouded in mystery. Head on over to the Office Labs site to check out what’s available!

Office Labs is headed by Chris Pratley, who is widely known as the father of OneNote. Chris describes his new assignment as “a group of designers and developers that collect ideas from all over Microsoft and build working prototypes of the most promising of these ideas to see if they work as well as we hope they might.”

To be clear, Office Labs isn’t a showcase of alpha or beta products or services. Instead, it’s a collection of current and ongoing experiments. “Concept testing is what this site is all about,” says Chris in his welcome post, which you can read here.

At the heart of these tests and experiments is the community of Microsoft Office customers, who are encouraged to participate and share ongoing insight and feedback with each other. There’s much to check out, but OneNote users may find the following two Office Labs projects of particular interest:

Community Clips

Find "how-to" videos about Microsoft Office products, made by people like you. You can download a free screen recording program to create and share your own demos and tutorials with other people in the community. The videos you share on the Community Clips site can help others learn and master their favorite Office programs and features (think YouTube for Office Help). To view the current catalog of clips and to download the free desktop recorder, visit the Office Labs home page and then follow the links.

InkSeine

If you happen to be using OneNote 2007 on a Tablet PC, check out how InkSeine tailors the Tablet PC interface to pen input and uniquely combines inking with searching. The tool fades into the background so that you can focus on capturing your ideas, sketches, and creative thoughts. To see how InkSeine complements OneNote on Tablet PCs, visit the Office Labs home page and then follow the links to the free download.

Projects on Office Labs will be updated and supplemented over time, as additional Microsoft team projects and experiments are deemed ready for their close-ups. Be sure to bookmark the Office Labs site, create an account, subscribe to the blog, and share your honest opinions and ideas with the creators and with the other participants of the Office Labs community.

For a bit of OneNote nostalgia, head on over to Chris Pratley’s OneNote blog, which debuted back in January of 2004 and still draws a large following despite Chris’ new focus. Chris (and OneNote) are also prominently featured in this news story on c|net today.

Meet the “Mini-Me” counterparts of Office 2007

Michael C. Oldenburg — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:00:00 GMT

To some of you seasoned road warriors, this will be old news. Alas, I meet people each and every week who are blissfully unaware of a convenient option to take their Office documents and files on the road with them — without lugging around a laptop PC. If, like some of my co-workers and friends, you are still busy copying files onto USB drives to take work home, to catch up on reading specs and documents, and to fill out spreadsheets and rehearse PowerPoint presentations, consider the smartphone option.

As a member of the OneNote team, I was well aware of OneNote Mobile since it was released a few months ago. But I didn't own a smartphone and couldn’t really experience it for myself. I also hadn't looked at the other small-screen Office counterparts since I owned a first-generation Pocket PC some years ago. Happily, that’s all changed. In my April column on our Office Hours Web site, I’m documenting my own recent (re-)discovery of the Office Mobile programs in hopes of introducing more people to this wonderful option.

In the OneNote Mobile-specific section of the April column, I’ve linked to the “OneNote Mobile quick start guide” on Office Online for additional information. This guide was written prior to the advent of Windows Vista and Windows Mobile 6, and I've recently received lots of feedback from our site visitors asking for an updated version of the guide that addresses this newer configuration. I’m happy to announce that I’ll be publishing such an update within the next week or so, at which point I’ll change the link in the Office Hours column and I’ll announce the new guide here as well. I’d like to point out that this is another great example of how valuable your continued feedback about our documentation really is. It may not always seem like it, but the star ratings and comments that you leave for articles and other publications on Office Online don’t go into a black hole. They’re read by writers and editors like me, and we do our best to prioritize needs for updated and supplemental information in the online Help for our Office programs based on such feedback. So, if our articles, training courses, and video demos don’t quite hit the mark now and then, please tell us what you’d like to see. And, of course, whenever we’ve done our job well, positive feedback is always appreciated, too. ;-)

Below are the links to my current (and previous) column, as well as the other published Office Hours columns:

Office Hours: Use Office 2007 on your mobile phone (my April 2008 column)

Office Hours: How OneNote made friends in a corner office (my June 2007 column)

Office Hours (the official Web site and the full catalog of available columns)

PS I’ve just returned from vacation, so if you’ve recently written me and are waiting to hear back, please be patient while I catch up on messages. As always, thank you kindly for your interest in OneNote and in my blog — it’s always good to hear from our customers and my readers!