Welcome to the World’s First and Only OneNote 2007 Community

Participate in the world’s one and only community site created by fans for fans of Microsoft’s OneNote.

Read my blog and participate in the discussions!

OneNote 2007, for the uninitiated (of which there are far too many as far as I am concerned, that’s why I,  a fictional character, created this site), is actually a Microsoft product of insane greatness – it’s part digital planner, part electronic 3-ringed binder, part life-saver.  In case you want to try it out, there is a free 60 day trial.

Using OneNote to design!

From our friends at the  Creative briefing blog

For those of you in the business of design, think about all the software you use. My personal list includes all of Adobe Creative Suite 3, EditPlus 2, and Microsoft Office OneNote.

Wait a sec…  did I just say OneNote?! Yes, I did!

If you’ve ever been in the situation where you needed to eye-drop a colour from somewhere, or make a measurement, or simply grab a snippet of something on your screen, you’ll understand the importance of your computer’s Print Screen function. But Print Screen is a hassle. After all, it prints the whole screen, leaving you to crop out the unecessary parts. That’s where OneNote comes in!

Among all the cool note-taking functionality OneNote offers, it also comes equipped with a nifty screen clipping function that allows you to take a screenshot of any part of your screen simply by clicking and dragging your cursor over the desired area (similar to how you would select an area in Photoshop). And voila – no cropping required! OneNote gives you the option to save the screenshot to your clipboard (ready to be pasted somewhere) or to place it into a new note within OneNote. It even comes handy with a keyboard shortcut (windows key + s… sorry Mac users)!

I personally love the convenience of being able to take custom-sized screenshots whether I’m using it within design, word processing, or even instant messaging (MSN lets you simply “paste” the image into the message box and then sends it as a file to your buddy).

Now I know not everyone owns or can afford a copy of OneNote. Nor would many of you even consider purchasing it for this functionality alone. 

Sharing Notebooks in Office 2010

Have you signed up for the OneNote 2010 beta yet?

If not, visit http://www.microsoft.com/2010 to download the Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta.

Here to tempt you is a description of how you will be sharing Notebooks in Office 2010:

In Microsoft OneNote 2010 Beta, you can share any notebook so that you can access it on other computers or on the Web, or so that you can work in it together with other people. As a collaborative tool, OneNote offers far more than the ability to send static notebook pages via e-mail. Depending on the nature of your projects, you can use OneNote to brainstorm together with other people in meetings, use the notebook pages as a virtual whiteboard, and set up shared notebooks in which everyone can view, add, and edit information.

Unlike other programs that lock files for editing by one person at a time, OneNote 2010 lets multiple authors access a shared notebook at the same time. Anytime someone edits to the pages and sections in the shared notebook, OneNote automatically synchronizes the changes so that the notebook is always up-to-date for everyone. OneNote also maintains a separate offline copy of the notes on each user’s computer. That way, shared note-taking participants can continue to edit the notes locally even when they are temporarily disconnected from the network. The next time they connect to the shared notebook, OneNote automatically merges their changes with the changes made by everyone else.

Create a new shared notebook

1. On the File menu, click New.
2. Under Store Notebook On, choose where the new notebook should be stored:

   Click Web if you want to be able to use the notebook from any computer or from a Web browser. You will need to sign in or sign up for an account, after which you can control whether your notebook can be accessed only by you or also by other people.

   Click Network if you want to share the new notebook with other people on the same computer network or on a SharePoint site (for example, at your work or at your school).

3. In the Name box, enter a descriptive title for the subject of the new notebook (for example, Team Notebook).
4. In the Web Location or Network Location field, do one of the following:

   Specify a Web Location If the Web service is available, sign in with an existing account (such as Windows Live) or sign up for a new one. When you are signed in, you will see a list of your Web folders where you can create shared notebooks. If you don’t need to share with other people, select one of the Personal Folders. If you do need to share with others, select a Shared Folder to which others will have access. To set sharing permissions for new and existing folders, OneNote will launch your Web browser, where you can finish creating the new folder for your notebook. Return to OneNote and then refresh the folder list in the Web Location field to see the folder that you just created. Now select this folder and then proceed to Step 5 below.

   Specify a Network Location You can enter the full path of a network file share, enter a mapped network drive, or paste the full address of a SharePoint document library where you want to create the shared notebook. You can also select from one of the recent SharePoint locations, if available. Note that the notebook will be accessible to anybody who has permissions to this network location or SharePoint site.

5. Click Create Notebook.

Share an existing notebook

1. On the File menu, click Share.
2. Under Select Notebook, select an existing notebook that you want to share with other people or between other computers that you will be using.
3. Under Share On, choose where the notebook should be shared:Click Web if you want to be able to use the notebook from any computer or from a Web browser. You will need to sign in or sign up for an account, after which you can control whether your notebook can be accessed only by you or also by other people.

   Click Network if you want to share the new notebook with other people on the same computer network or on a SharePoint site (for example, at your work or at your school).

4. In the Web Location or Network Location field, do one of the following:

   Specify a Web Location If the Web service is available, sign in with an existing account (such as Windows Live) or sign up for a new one. When you are signed in, you will see a list of your Web folders where you can create shared notebooks. If you don’t need to share with other people, select one of the Personal Folders. If you do need to share with others, select a Shared Folder to which others will have access. To set sharing permissions for new and existing folders, OneNote will launch your Web browser, where you can finish creating the new folder for your notebook. Return to OneNote and then refresh the folder list in the Web Location field to see the folder that you just created. Now select this folder and then proceed to Step 5 below.

   Specify a Network Location You can enter the full path of a network file share, enter a mapped network drive, or paste the full address of a SharePoint document library where you want to create the shared notebook. You can also select from one of the recent SharePoint locations, if available. Note that the notebook will be accessible to anybody who has permissions to this network location or SharePoint site.

5. Click Share Notebook.

Note: If a Web or Network location that you want to use is shown as unavailable, make sure you are connected to the Internet or your network and that you have the necessary permissions before attempting to save and use notebooks in such locations.

Create an e-mail message with a link to the shared notebook for yourself or others

After you create or share a notebook, OneNote will ask you if you want to create an e-mail message with a link to the shared notebook.

If you are sharing the notebook with other people, click E-mail a Link to compose the e-mail message for your recipients. This message will include a link to the shared notebook, which recipients can click to open the shared notebook on their computer.

Note: Mail recipients who do not already have permission to access the shared notebook location will not be able to use the shared notebook. The e-mail link only points to the location; it does not provide automatic access.

If you won’t be sharing your notebook with others but you want to use it on multiple computers, you can click E-mail a Link and then send the e-mail message with the link to your own Web-based e-mail account. This way, you can easily open the shared notebook from another computer.

Welcome to the new IheartOneNote site!

If you are a regular ihearter, you will notice that this site looks a little different – that’s because I have moved it over onto WordPress. I hope that you’ll find it a little easier to find stuff about OneNote – use the tag cloud or the category feature on the right.   I moved most of the posts over from the other site and will also add a post that includes all the  message board discussions.  I’ll create a blog post for each topic which will allow you to respond via comments.

If you have any thing you’d like to post, please email me and I’ll be happy to blog about it.

Please subscribe to the new site via email – see the link on the right and participate in our first poll.

Blogging With OneNote 2010 Beta

Here’s a review from webworkerdaily.com  of the OneNote 2010 beta as a blogging tool:

Now that Microsoft Office 2010 is in beta (as I noted here ), I’ve been spending more time using the applications, especially OneNote 2010 beta. have long used OneNote for capturing project information when I am working on one of my Windows machines, but its potential as a blogging tool has been on my mind recently. One of the features Microsoft ( GigaOM Pro company profile here ) touts I It makes a lot of sense, because OneNote can serve as an organizer for ideas, a repository for pictures and images, and has tools for composing text.

For purposes of this post, I created a fresh notebook in OneNote 2010 beta running on Windows 7. The publishing process from OneNote to your blog is straightforward. First you compose your post in OneNote and then choose “Send” from the “File” menu. Choose “Send to Blog.” If you haven’t used OneNote 2010 beta to publish to your blog previously, you’ll receive a prompt to set up a new blog account and then the New Blog Account dialog box appears.

The blogging feature supports Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, SharePoint blog, Microsoft Community Server, TypePad and WordPress. (Disclosure: Automatic, maker of WordPress, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.) Follow the prompts to set up your new blog account. This is the only time you’ll have to set up your blog for publishing.

The post you composed in OneNote 2010 beta now appears in Word 2010 Beta. It can be easy to miss at first, but what you are actually seeing is Word with the “Blog Post” tab open. From this tab, you have options for publishing and inserting categories. I encourage you to test these features out prior to using them because I noticed some subtle differences between the options available for TypePad and WordPress.

When publishing to your blog, the following scary warning appears:

Whether you are comfortable with this or not, it’s certainly off-putting — I would like to know whether my password is being encrypted or not.

I was disappointed that the “Send to Blog” feature relies on MS Word for publishing my posts, because I was expecting a strictly OneNote-to-blog publishing experience. However, if you use OneNote to capture ideas and research information you may still get some mileage out of this feature. Personally, I probably won’t be using the feature on a regular basis because I think using two desktop applications just to compose and publish a blog post is a little too much, though it could be handy if I am writing posts based upon source material I already have in OneNote.

Nonprofit Employment Agency Uses Interactive Training Tool to Help Teens Succeed

Based in Toronto, Ontario, JobStart is a nonprofit United Way member agency that helps participants gain the skills needed to achieve economic self-sufficiency. In December 2007, the agency received Microsoft® Office OneNote® 2007 through a sponsorship from Microsoft Canada and began testing the software in its youth program. JobStart anticipates that using Office OneNote 2007 will reduce costs while increasing collaboration between students and instructors.

Business Needs

JobStart was originally established in 1980 as the Centre for Advancement in Work and Living. For 28 years this nonprofit agency has been committed to helping Toronto’s youth become gainfully employed. JobStart also provides innovative employment services to adults, newcomers to Canada, persons with disabilities, and students.

In November 2006, JobStart received the Minister’s Silver Award for Excellence in Service Quality from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. This award recognizes the excellent employment services JobStart provides to individuals and employers and its capacity to respond to the changing needs of the community. JobStart delivers Employment Ontario, an integrated, client-centered service designed to provide employment and training to individuals 16 years of age and eligible to work in Canada.  JobStart is funded by all three levels of government, by United Way of Toronto, and by an Unlimited Potential Grant from Microsoft Canada.

For the past 14 years, JobStart and the Toronto District School Board have worked in partnership to offer Literacy Basic Skills (LBS) instruction and General Educational Development (GED) test preparation to individuals seeking employment. Sam Sanfilippo, LBS/GED Instructor, says the goal is to help young people upgrade their math, reading, and workplace skills to improve their chances of being employed or placed in an apprenticeship opportunity.

As a nonprofit agency, JobStart is committed to increasing the quality of its service while reducing costs and running more efficiently. “We recently began tracking how much paper we use to print our math and English worksheets,” says Julia Knapp, Director, Programs and Services, JobStart. “In the past six months we’ve already used over 20,000 sheets.” JobStart began looking for a solution that would reduce printing and paper costs while increasing the flexibility and dynamism of the educational tools available to its instructors.

Click here to read about their Solution with OneNote

Find out how the US Coast Guard uses OneNote to enhance training

The United States Coast Guard is known for its impeccable standards and service. To maintain these levels of performance, USCG habitually goes above and beyond the call of duty to seek out new tools and resources that support the ongoing education of its members.

Situation

Originally established in 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) is one of the oldest organizations in the federal government. Throughout its distinguished history, USCG has been instrumental in enforcing maritime law and protecting the nation’s coastlines and ports. During an average day, USCG saves 14 lives, assists 123 people in distress, conducts 78 search-and-rescue missions, and responds to 12 oil or hazardous chemical spills.

It isn’t very often that a piece of software comes along that actually unifies what you’re doing. OneNote 2007 takes the Microsoft Office suite one step closer to being a one-stop shop for training. Jane Lybecker Training Specialist III, L-3 Communications, Inc., in  support of Training Center Petaluma, USCG

This level of responsiveness and execution requires the highest caliber of skill and training. USCG is a forward-looking organization with a commitment to providing its members with the best technology-assisted, performance-based education available. USCG operates two full-time training centers in Yorktown, Virginia, and Petaluma, California, which provide training for entry-level and advanced rate-specific skills (a “rate” is defined as an enlisted pay-grade).

The Training Center (TRACEN) at Petaluma operates seven entry-level, or “A”, Schools, which focus on developing Petty Officer skills within specific ratings (general occupations within the USCG) that include Information Systems Technician (IT), Electronics Technician (ET), Operation Specialist (OS), Health Services Technician (HS), Yeoman (YN), Storekeeper (SK), and Food Services Specialist (FS). TRACEN Petaluma currently offers over 50 courses to approximately 4,000 USCG members each year.

Students are provided a variety of instructional material, including binders of documentation and handouts to supplement training. “Our current training support documents are largely paper-based,” explains Lieutenant John Bannon, TRACEN Petaluma, USCG. “Students take notes in spiral notebooks, reference their extensive student guide, and compile additional printed information for every course. We’re very interested in finding ways to save money on paper and printing costs, as well as provide enhanced learning transfer. As a federal organization, we’re certainly always thinking about being good stewards with the taxpayers’ money.”

When students leave the training centers, they take these printed resources with them into the field to use as references, but USCG members find the manuals and handbooks to be cumbersome. “It can be difficult to find a specific note or instruction in a printed resource, especially out in the field,” says Bannon. “Flipping through hundreds of pages of notes isn’t always feasible.” Currently the USCG is exploring various electronic support tools.

Instructors also spend a substantial amount of time preparing materials for classes and keeping documentation up to date. “I teach computer system administration for the Coast Guard,” says Jane Lybecker, Training Specialist III and Senior Instructor, L-3 Communications, Inc., in support of TRACEN Petaluma. “This topic requires almost weekly updates because everything changes so frequently. It’s very difficult to keep all of the documentation up to date and to know where the most current versions are located. I have to pull information from 14 different folders out on the network and 3 different Web sites. It’s a very time-consuming process.”

TRACEN officers began exploring the potential of using technology-based tools to further enhance the efficiency of the USCG training environment for its students as well as its instructors.

Click here to read more about their solution with OneNote

Too Much of a Good Thing…

Another great post from ihearter Steve

I don’t know about you, but for me organizing is a challenge in part because I don’t maintain a single discipline about how I do it over time.  I get some pieces working, add others, read a good article and think “I should do that”, and next thing you know I’ve forgotten all about the basic steps that helped me improve in the first place.

This happens with OneNote too for me.  The ability to ‘TAG’ tasks to do is a great thing, AND I notice that the more I create lists, say for ‘home’, ‘critical tasks’ at work, other ‘tasks’ to be delegated or develop, I suddenly have 7 or 8 pages with things to do.

Here’s a capability of OneNote I’m learning can help.  Do a Tag summary page and see them all at once.

• On the Command Menu, go to ‘Insert’ and the first choice, ‘Tag’.
• On the ‘Tag’ submenu the first choice is ‘Show All Tagged Notes.’
• Click that and it brings up a ‘Tags Summary’ sidebar that will let you see all your tasks, and group them by Section, Date, etc. You can show checked or unchecked.
• And the really sweet tip here: At the bottom of the sidebar is a button that let’s you ‘Create Summary Page.’  Click that and it creates a page listing all your tagged tasks in the order you’ve chosen.
• I title that with a date and time and print it out so I can see the various threads I’ve created.  I print it out on paper as a handy reminder, and then I go back and tidy things up.

This saves looking all over for things you wanted to remember at the time, but now have forgotten where the page went to.  You can also do this for items you’ve tagged as ‘Outlook Tasks.’  I don’t know about you, but for me this practice helps me find things before they’ve gone missing for too long.

I notice it actually does help me Get Things Done.

ONENOTE FOR RACERS – WAY COOL!

So, I am on a quest to identify all the ways you the OneNote fans are  using OneNote and i stumbled across this post today thanks to Twitter  (I am such a freaking Twitter fan!) What can be cooler than using OneNote to analyze motor racing tracks.                           Here’s how it’s done:
As you develop your skills in Open Track events, and start to become comfortable with a  particular racetrack, you will start to realize that you need to analyze each part of the track in detail. This allows you to methodologically focus on improving how you approach the  turn,  where you turn in, where your apex is and how you cross it, and how you exit the turn. Plus of course the relationship of that turn to the next one, and so on. In other words, you start to document each aspect of the event. And not only information   about the track, but starting with a list of what you need to pack for the weekend, the latest alignment specs you setup the car with, tire temps after each run, maps to the event and hotel reservations, and lots more. This is where a great piece of software comes in: Microsoft OneNote. OneNote is a  software notebook. Pages, tabs, and sections allow you to organize your information  the way you want to. The ability to import graphics or to draw in freehand allows you                                to visualize and mark up information. If you have a Tablet PC, you can use a pen to            draw diagrams and to annotate them with your notes.. A Tablet PC isn’t necessary,  but it’s a nice addition to the capabilities and of course it’s very powerful to be able                       to carry the laptop around your garage area and to take notes with the driver during   and following each track session. If you have instrumented your car, and are storing the data in a file such as Excel, that file can be linked to or even imported into OneNote, where it can also annotated                    and highlighted. Now you can look for issues and start to methodically address them. The example shown here is from Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2004. Engineers at the track use information store in and organized by OneNote to immediately modify the car for better performance. Engineers analyze the data to design car                                        components and plan strategies to help win future races. They previously used pen             and paper, but that information was difficult to share and inconvenient to use in                the track environment. Imagine these kinds of notes for your local track. If you                    are an instructor, you could even build your instruction notes here and print them            out for the student or class. Whether you’ve got a TabletPC or not, this is the killer way to store your notes at the track. Alignments, tire pressures, other setup information, notes on the                                   track, events results, and more. Everything stored in OneNote, even handwriting               and images, is searchable and sharable. This is an extremely powerful tool  and we consider it a must-have.

Tweets about OneNote

So, as you all know, I am tweeting about Onenote and iheartonenote on Twitter. I thought I’d take a look at what you all are saying about OneNote on Twitter. Here’s what I found this morning:

sherrymn: Working with OneNote as a means to organize my projects and meeting notes.

PorterN: Improved note taking ability in economics. I use the internet to find graphs to put in my OneNote notes. Neat and efficient.

WebVixn: Must say how much I’m loving Microsoft OneNote for my research. SO easy, keep it open constantly

eaitken:Have you tried the OneNote integration with Outlook in 2007? Very satisfying.

charcoal: OneNote is awesome. Linked pages, grouping things on pages and being able to have all the campaign info I need, without paper everywhere.

karlkawano: OneNote automatically will search text in graphics!!! OMG!!!OneNote is clearly the winner here and am loving it.

TheRealIngrid: Microsoft has a program called OneNote which is great for journaling. No sense in putting private thoughts on the internet.

Ok, Tweeple, let’s start tweeting about iheartonenote as well. I need you your help getting the word out.  My goal for this site is total world domination!

Chicken is a Four Letter Word!

Ok, so I am finally ready to reveal ‘what happened in Vegas’ last week.  My buddy Chad and I decided to go out for dinner one night after attending the MIX conference all day.  But first we had to have some drinks. 3 hours and innumerable cocktails later we are famished and basically plastered. We walk outside,  trying to swim through the mental fog,  and think of a restaurant to go to when a real nice guy on the strip hands us a flyer.

Never pick a restaurant based on the street dudes on the strip that hand out those flyers. We did. The guy gives me the flyer and says “You gonna like dis joint- it a upper-comer”. Great I think- a hot tip on a little known Vegas restaurant with fantastic food- a hole in the wall that no one else knows about- lets go! So we hop a cab and give the address.  Cabbie says ‘Ya mon- I take you to the Chicken Ranch’.  Oh boy- even the local cabby knows about this place- must be good- I can’t wait to get some of that juicy, home-cooked style chicken. I would be salivating but the alcohol has drained my body of all water and my mouth is like sandpaper and my head is starting to pound a tad.

Just as the cab is about to go, the cabbie decided he first has to stop and chat with some friends hanging out on the corner- ‘A minute mon- got to get directions’. It appears the cabbie pays his friends for the ‘directions’ as he hands over money and they slip him something wrapped in tin foil.  Odd- but I think nothing of it as I’m starving and drunk and really want to dive into that chicken.

Just as the cabbie returns and opens the door, police lights appear out of nowhere and we’re suddenly surrounded by cops. Maybe it’s time we left, I think, and head over to McDonalds. Cabbie says ‘take your money back mon since we didn’t go no where’ and hands me some cash. So I stumble out of the cab into the glaring lights and am immediately tackled by Vegas PD, handcuffed, and placed face down on the pavement. Mmmmm, chicken, I think as my face is squashed into something on the pavement that resembles rancid beef fat. ‘Whats this?’ the officer asks as he takes the money the cabbie gave me which upon closer inspection appeared to also contain the tin foil the cabbies friends gave him. It turns out the tin foil didn’t contain directions.

So now I’m starving, dehydrated, head pounding, handcuffed, face-down on the pavement in rancid beef fat, and getting busted for drugs. How much worse could it possibly get? Then they do the alcohol test on me- ahhh- public intoxication- that will look good on my record. The paper in my hand the guy on the street gave me as a restaurant recommendation- the police seem interested in that as well.

Turns out the Chicken Ranch doesn’t really serve chicken. Soliciting prostitution- wow- I am really, really loving Vegas. Starving, dehydrated, head pounding, handcuffed, face-down on the pavement in rancid beef fat, busted for drugs and public intoxication and soliciting prostitution.  Jackpot! Seven-Seven-Seven!! Can’t wait to tell my Mom about the Vegas trip.

By the way, I don’t eat chicken anymore.