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What is this OneNote thing?

I am exploring the possibilities of a new button that appeared at some time on my Outlook toolbar. I also noticed that it turned up in my printers list. It is a program called OneNote that comes with Microsoft Office 2007. I kept seeing “Send to OneNote”, so the other day I “Binged” OneNote and started reading. What is it and what can it do? The short answer is: you can use it to get organized. Oh! But I have heard that before!

I have quite a collection of ring binders that organize information for the different segments of my office responsibilities. The information comes from many sources. I print out emails, web pages, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. I clip the printed pages under the right dividers in the right binders to try to organize all the good stuff that I need to remember, or at least have at my fingertips. There are several problems with this. The information comes at me from many different directions and it keeps changing. I print pages that may get lost before they find their way into the right divider in the binder. I spend time printing, punching, filing and purging. I am computer savvy; I know there has to be a quicker way to organize information that does not constantly consume paper!

I liked what I was reading about OneNote. Not only could I “file” all my usual sources of information in a virtual binder, I could also add audio and video to the collection. I can type my meeting notes directly into OneNote. I can “scribble” notes (as well as type) on the pages I file.

I can drop information from several sources on one page. I can link to-do’s to my Outlook calendar. OK, I will try this for a while, and see if it is as user friendly as the promo says it is. It sounds like it will be quicker and easier than printing the information plus it promises to be more versatile than filing in the regular Windows Explorer folders.

First I needed to figure out the organization strategy. Using the Ring Binder as a model, a Notebook replaces the Ring Binder. A Section replaces a divider. Pages are filed in the Sections. Sections can also be grouped to provide more organization.

This is where it gets better than a Ring Binder. If I save the Notebook in a shared network location, I have the option of using it as a shared workspace where several people can contribute and use it to work on a shared project. There is also a mobile component that allows synchronization with mobile devices.

There are several different template Notebooks and many pages of suggestions and tips on how to use this tool to organize your stuff, so no one has to invent how to organize a Notebook.

So for the past 10 days I have refrained from printing out pages of information (save that tree!), and have selected “Send to OneNote” instead. A OneNote icon appears in the tray at the bottom of my computer screen. I click the icon and OneNote opens up and what I sent to OneNote appears as a page in the “unfiled” Section of OneNote. I right click on the page tab on the right side of the page and select “Move page to” so that I can “file” it in the right Section of the right Notebook. I can easily name (or rename) the page for easy recognition.

I am currently building Notebooks and Sections on the fly as needed as I am learning this new tool. I have found it is really simple to start a new Notebook or add a Section. The next things I want to accomplish include typing meeting notes into OneNote and tying the to-do’s to my Outlook calendar. I also need to explore how Excel files relate to this tool.

And I just realized that if I was typing this directly into OneNote, there is a tab to blog this…..

Diane Essington
Office Manager
ICS Support, Inc.