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OneNote Newbie

 I just started trying OneNote.  It seems like a good replacement for notepad when keeping a log of what I do day to day.  However I was able to feel like a moron for a good ten minutes as I started using it.  I saw the pen on the tool bar and tried it out. 

 

Ink is cool.  However, using a mouse to ink is definitely non-optimal.  How do I get out of Pen mode?  As far as I can tell the answer is I wasn't in Pen mode.  There  simply wasn't a visual indicator that I was allowed to type.   I still don't know if there is a way to get the text insertion prompt back using the mouse.  I had some serious scribble going on trying though.

 

Here is my log so far today:

Wed.

Email

Don Syme found a behavior change in how line info is emitted using the symwriter - logged a bug

DCR work

Spent time moving Work Log to One note

Wasted time trying to figure out how to get out of Ink mode in OneNote.

OneNote doesn't actually seem to be modal with respect to input - I just didn't realize it.

Wrote blog entry on initial problems using OneNote.

 

My biggest problem with my log is when for some reason or other I don't save and lose the last entries.  My understanding is that OneNote won't have this problem.  I'll test this now by killing OneNote from a console window and see if I still have this sentence.

 

Nice - I didn't lose a thing!  Obviously I am also using OneNote to author a blog entry.  If you have OneNote tips please let me know about them.

Published Wednesday, August 11, 2004 11:17 AM by SteveJS
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# re: OneNote Newbie

I've got to give OneNote a try. I usually put all my notes, contact nos., things to remember in one huge notes.txt file, then use my text editor's Find feature to look for something. Occasionally I would grep for some keyword or phrase among my notes directories when I need something. Low-tech but it works.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 11:24 AM by robdelacruz

# re: OneNote Newbie

The note is your friend Luke...use the note Luke..use the note.

I have used OneNote for our Requirements Elicitation, Needs & Features sets and meeting notes. Not to mention I plan to use it for my classes too.

So make lots of tabs. And for each tab make lots of notes. For each note, make lots of subnotes. Use the colors for different notes.

I have found that doing drawings for things to do with requirements is better left to Visio.

Also I dont like how the note name is only a fixed number of characters and its the first N characters of the Subject. That way if I have variant Subjects where the name changes after N + x characters the notes appear to be the same.

OneNote is cool but it needs a blog where people can suggest changes and improvements.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 12:19 PM by Sushant Bhatia

# re: OneNote Newbie

While in pen mode, you can get your text entry cursor by hitting CTRL then clicking on the page where you want to write.

As you requested a mouse-only way, you can do the same by clicking the "Type / Selection Tool" (2 icons to the right of the pen tool in the toolbar).

I've written a bit about OneNote usability before (here: http://www.softwareengineering.ca/jpdaigle/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9c76efd9-7aad-4d67-a06c-d410f98c9e4e), will write again someday when I have time.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004 1:09 PM by JP Daigle

# re: OneNote Newbie

Steve, I keep a blog on OneNote, and you can also write in the newsgroups at msnews.microsoft.com (in microsoft.public.onenote). Be sure to get the new SP1 release, since it allows you to do things like resize the page tabs to see more of your title.

Also, there is a lot of on-line training in the form of short videos to show you cool ways to use OneNote. Check out noteflags and their summaries for example.
Friday, August 13, 2004 1:09 AM by Chris_Pratley

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