Does anybody have/use Microsoft OneNote software? If so, can you tell me what you use it for and how you like it?
I’m looking for something to organize materials and writings for a couple of large projects and a textbook. It’s time to make the Big Leap into Technology and abandon my former method . . . big stacks on the floor.
Someone recommended OneNote for me, but I can’t really get a feel for it from the Microsoft website.
If you do not use that, might you have something else that you like?
Out of curiousity, several months ago I downloaded the fully functional demo. I couldn’t figure out what it does from the website either.
Still don’t know, even after playing with the demo for 30 minute or so.
It’s really weird.
Dale
If you’ll look at its listing on amazon.com, there are a couple of reviews which will actually help you understand what it’s supposed to do.
Dale
I beta’d this thing for MS - I use a Tablet PC every day, and that was its initial intended market.
I find that it (like many MS products) wants you to work its way, instead of working your way. (Every few years, when I get a new computer and reinstall Word, I have to spend an hour or so convincing it that I don’t need all its auto-formatting junk, and that I do in fact know how I want my documents to look. )
I do not use Onenote now, using instead the free MS Journal for any notetaking I need to do (in meetings or at conferences). On the other hand, it does in fact do what it says it will do, and if your work style matches up with it better (or you are more flexible and less set in your ways than I), you may love it. Many do.
What’s wrong with BSOTF? I learned it from Klinger on MASH (“A pile for everything, and everything in its pile.”)
I’ve got it. My boss insisted that I install it. He loves it. I don’t really use it much, but it’s interesting. It actually looks like an interesting program, but as to the ins-and-outs I’ve not yet had the time to plumb those depths.
For what it’s worth, though, it has been nice for what I’ve used it for (mainly notetaking).
Best,
LJ
Exactly!
Do you know what it is you want to do, LC? Perhaps if you more clearly defined the tasks you want the software to provide/perform someone could give you a better recommendation.
djm
In one word . . . “very large spider.” 
Dust and hurricanes, too.
I know what you mean. At home, I’m ok, but at work . . . ooooh! grrrr! . . . every time they push out some kind of network thing it resets your defaults. I finally just gave up. [/i].
On the other hand, it does in fact do what it says it will do, and if your work style matches up with it better (or you are more flexible and less set in your ways than I), you may love it. Many do.
I want to be able to write technical material, either in textbook form or journal articles, completely electronically. I want to be able to go from mostly electronic references directly into an electronic collection . . . thing.
In the past, I collected copies of mostly paper material (library books, printed references, etc.). Or, I took notes on 3 x 5 cards. I saved them up, then sorted them out, then wrote using them, then typed up the finished product on the computer, having to keep track of the references by hand, etc.
I now have the ability to get most of my reference material in electronic form. A lot of it’s on the net. I want an electronic 3 x 5 card, an electronic “photocopy” of a bit of a reference, and a way to keep all this stuff in folders–the same way I did before–until I’m ready to write. Then, I want to be able to push the bits of paper around until I get them in the right order and incorporate them without having to retype them.
While I can cut and paste into Word, I cannot cut and paste photographs and diagrams and “snapshots” of reference pages with any ease. Instead of having to write “on page 160, 3rd paragraph, 2nd line, it says “blah, blah, blah.”” and then explain it, I want to be able to just paste a clip of 160, 3rd, 2nd and explain it.
And then . . . one thing I want to be able to do is stick a finished product up on a website so students can retrieve it. Or, collect chapters into a textbook.
OneNote looks like my scissors-and-tape method. It has actual colored folders into which you can shove virtual pages . . . you can even have them look like notebook paper (Ooooh! I loved that!). . . filled with “taped-on” clips from various places. You can drag the clips around on the pages, and it looked like the pages could be any length, which pleased me . . . like organizing things on rolls of shelf paper (my favorite method).
From what I could see in the 15-minute online tour, which I finally got to work last night, it looked useful and not too annoying.
It was only $49 on Amazon, so I bought a copy. But that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in hearing about what anyone else is using.
If I have BPITC (big piles in the computer), it will be safe during a hurricane. I was looking at my office a few weeks ago, realizing that one reason I’m not getting anything done is that last winter I was reluctant to start anything I couldn’t finish before hurricane season, and now that we’re IN it, I’m reluctant to start anything until the season ends . . .
Yeah, that’s the academic’s Holy Grail. I’ve tried some of the annotation software, like Citation, for this sort of thing as well., but I think my problem is I’m just not organized enough to take advantage. But, as you point out, OneNote is cheap, so why not give it a go? Let us know how you do with it.
Tim
Yes, it was half the regular retail price. I selected a choice that offered an academic discount. Oddly, nobody asked me to offer any proof. I hadn’t even expected an academic price to be offered on Amazon, but there it was.
Heh. Monday they’ll probably find the order and require me to send them a letter from the school president and my fingerprints.