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Hi, I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations. I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it. But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things easier for me. So... Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g. autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do). Thanks, Martin Gifford.
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Martin, I think that the best way to use ON is to replace any other (paper) notebook system that you currently use with the program. But ON is not really a word processor as it doesn't have anywhere near the power and features of even a stripped-down word processor - such as WordPad, for example. So I think that as a word processor, you'd find ON a disappointment.
Having said this, I use ON for almost everything:
-scanning bills -creating a file cabinate of any important documents (I scan just about everything and then throw away the paper copies) -lecture notes -daily To-Do's -etc.
I think that just allowing ON to evolove as it will, without trying to conform to some kind of template, is a far better (and useful) approach than to try and "figure out what it's for."
Hope this helps....
"martin gifford" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > Hi, > I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations. > I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked > at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it. > But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas > for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my > diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things > easier for me. So... > Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an > intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to > replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my > ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g. > autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do). > Thanks, > Martin Gifford.
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Hi, Martin -- I'm an avid diarist, and I've used Word for well over ten years to do virtually all of my writing. One of the reasons I wanted to get into ON was to try to organize my writings, and, most important, to be able to search for specific terms (things like "posterior parietal cortex") across large volumes of writing. I only have a couple of weeks of experience so far, so I know there are lots more tricks to learn, but i have found that I can import articles into ON as print images and search them very fast for anything I type in. So that is one potential I intend to expand on.
Another one is organizing work notes. My usual situation is that I am operating in a total Office environment, with databases, spreadsheets, PowerPoints, Word documents, pictures, web clips, etc. I have evolved a logical and effective folder strategy through the years to store a lot of diverse information, but have had huge problems trying to use the Office tools to keep a lot of information from all these sources together in a way that makes it possible to access from a single portal.
For example, I might have a database with names and addresses I need for a mailing, several different letter permutations to send, including a mail merge to grab data from a spreadsheet, and also to have a place to keep notes about the project, analysis of Wiki and web research, and so on. Trying to develop some sort of an application myself was not giving me what I wanted, and searching the web for some ideas led me to ON.
With ON, I can pull all related material from maybe five different folders, various apps, etc., into a single notebook page devoted to that one project. With everything grouped in one place, I can pull up the spreadsheet, open a document, set up a merge, insert two or three "to-do" items I can monitor from anywhere else in ON.
I find that being able to centralize a number of functions in one place gives me a lot better control over getting things done. This would transfer immediately to class notes, interdisciplinary papers or research, assembling quotes from far-flung resources into a unified document (full of hyperlinks, print images, photos, charts, and original writing). Many of these functions can be done in Word, also, but they are easier in ON, and are much easier to move around tha reorganize.
PLUS - the outliner in ON is better, imho, than Word's; all of the auto-correct entries you use in Word work seamlessly with ON. (I have hundreds of shorthand auto-correct terms defined, eg, "env" = "environment", "ppc"="posterior parietal cortex", "janet" = "Janet".)
Anyway, that's a start. I have ordered ON for use at home, and plan to integrate my many specialized interests to it - all without giving up any of my background organization in Word, but gaining a much more nimble environment in which to work.
"martin gifford" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > Hi, > I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations. > I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked > at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it. > But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas > for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my > diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things > easier for me. So... > Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an > intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to > replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my > ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g. > autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do). > Thanks, > Martin Gifford.
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Check out "Complete Guide to Onenote" at your local bookstore, or read some of the reviews of the book at Amazon.com. It might be what you're looking for.
"martin gifford" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > Hi, > I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations. > I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked > at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it. > But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas > for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my > diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things > easier for me. So... > Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an > intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to > replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my > ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g. > autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do). > Thanks, > Martin Gifford.
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This might also be helpful:
Since "doing" is sometimes the best form of learning, our #1 recommendation is to boot OneNote and read the "OneNote 2007 Guide" notebook. You already have it in your list of notebooks but you may not have even noticed it. Everyone gets this by default and it has been hand crafted by the team to let you know what OneNote is, why you might want to use OneNote, and then chock full of interactive scenarios and features. We promise you that if you go through the OneNote guide completely, you'll be a pro.
"martin gifford" wrote:
[Quoted Text] > Hi, > I played a bit with Evernote, and that made sense but had many limitations. > I thought I'd try OneNote 2007 but it doesn't make sense to me. I've looked > at the Microsoft demo and skimmed a few books, but I can't find a use for it. > But everyone seems to love it. I'm a creative person with millions of ideas > for songs, books, products, screenplays, etc. that I currently keep in my > diary (Word 2007), and I'm a student. So I presume OneNote can make things > easier for me. So... > Does anyone know of a simple book or something online that gives an > intuitive guide or useful examples of uses for OneNote? I'd love to use it to > replace my diary (currently Word 2007), because then I could organise my > ideas better (I think) while having the advantages of a word processor (e.g. > autocapitalizing the first word of sentences which Evernote doesn't do). > Thanks, > Martin Gifford.
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