Author Topic: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks (Read 205536 times)

Dormouse · « **Reply #100 on:** February 20, 2016, 03:05 PM »

Using multiple platforms, and mostly not being on my desktop, has heavily reduced the number of options I have. Simpler is generally better than complex because I can make it work anywhere.

I tend to use Evernote most because it works well and similarly whatever the platform. OneNote doesn't, so I will use it on the desktop/laptop and add to notebooks when I am on on other platforms. But unless I am already using OneNote for something, I'll just use Evernote.

Pretty much the opposite of a card index system. I bung everything in and search for stuff I need later. Tag only when I need, and practically never when I put stuff in.

I might use OneNote more on the desktop but have always found it quirky and taking time to work out when it isn't obvious how to make it do something I want. Much less of an issue in other programs.

superboyac · « **Reply #101 on:** February 21, 2016, 06:27 PM »

ok...thanks IainB for all the explanations.

What is the status of being able using Onenote in a completely on-premise type situation? No cloud storage, other than for temporary transferring back and forth. I have an online MS account, but I don't want to use it for my notes. I can use an enterprise local onenote/sharepoint setup for syncing onenote across all devices, right?

There seems to be an issue with this for onenote 2013, from some things I've read on the web. However, I also came across a comment from a MS onenote employee who said that on-premise syncing will be coming in office 2016. But does that mean it's not currently available? I find that odd, as I imagine a lot of companies want their stuff handled locally.

IainB · « **Reply #102 on:** February 23, 2016, 06:07 PM »

@superboyac:

What is the status of being able using Onenote in a completely on-premise type situation? No cloud storage, other than for temporary transferring back and forth. I have an online MS account, but I don't want to use it for my notes. I can use an enterprise local onenote/sharepoint setup for syncing onenote across all devices, right?
_______________________________

Sorry, I can't really help you there as I have no experience of using device sharing to a SharePoint server. I guess it should work, though the proof is in the pudding.
Same goes for your other Qs.

IainB · « **Reply #103 on:** March 06, 2016, 08:29 AM »

Not from my experience, but this article could be useful: 7 Little-Known OneNote Features You Will Love

I have not used OneNote's Version History (!), so found the reference to that as the 7th feature rather interesting. It looks like it could be a potentially incredibly useful feature.

The article also includes a link to: in-depth comparison of OneNote vs. Evernote, which might help to answer some of the questions posed by others in this discussion thread.

superboyac · « **Reply #104 on:** March 08, 2016, 02:57 PM »

is there a way to control the container of a note? they are too big. i keep trying to create new notes around existing notes, and especially below them, the software assumes i'm adding to the existing note, and the margin extends a good 3-4 lines below the content. i want the container to end pretty close to where the content is. i don't want all that space, it is very annoying.

Attronarch · « **Reply #105 on:** March 08, 2016, 04:04 PM »

Damn, today OneNote's capability to copy text from pictures saved me hours of typing. Really neat function.

superboyac · « **Reply #106 on:** March 08, 2016, 08:26 PM »

Damn, today OneNote's capability to copy text from pictures saved me hours of typing. Really neat function.
-Attronarch (March 08, 2016, 04:04 PM)

totally agree. i had no idea it was that good.

IainB · « **Reply #107 on:** March 09, 2016, 09:39 AM »

Damn, today OneNote's capability to copy text from pictures saved me hours of typing. Really neat function.
-Attronarch (March 08, 2016, 04:04 PM)
totally agree. i had no idea it was that good.
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-superboyac (March 08, 2016, 08:26 PM)

Yes, when I started to realise its potential, it blew me away. And it's been improved. And now there's Office Lens on Win10 smartphones (I've been using a Nokia Lumia 830). Select document, or photo, or whiteboard, and then apply it to your image, and watch what happens. Seriously smart and useful technology. I'm in lurve.

IainB · « **Reply #108 on:** March 09, 2016, 09:46 AM »

Damn, today OneNote's capability to copy text from pictures saved me hours of typing. Really neat function.
-Attronarch (March 08, 2016, 04:04 PM)
totally agree. i had no idea it was that good.
_____________________
-superboyac (March 08, 2016, 08:26 PM)

Now try out its search capability for spoken word in the audio of audio files and video files.
Finally, everything is starting to become useful and searchable data.

Attronarch · « **Reply #109 on:** March 09, 2016, 01:18 PM »

Wait, that is also possible? Could you elaborate on how to do it? I just did a quick search online, but it seems it is only possible for audio and video recorded by OneNote?

David1904 · « **Reply #110 on:** March 09, 2016, 01:53 PM »

is there a way to control the container of a note? they are too big. i keep trying to create new notes around existing notes, and especially below them, the software assumes i'm adding to the existing note, and the margin extends a good 3-4 lines below the content. i want the container to end pretty close to where the content is. i don't want all that space, it is very annoying.
-superboyac (March 08, 2016, 02:57 PM)

A double click with the mouse should force a new note to open - although you will still need to leave one line after the previous text.

IainB · « **Reply #111 on:** March 09, 2016, 08:05 PM »

Wait, that is also possible? Could you elaborate on how to do it? I just did a quick search online, but it seems it is only possible for audio and video recorded by OneNote?
-Attronarch (March 09, 2016, 01:18 PM)

Yes. For example in ON 2007, refer: Searching for information in audio notes in OneNote.
And it's been improved since then (I'm using ON2016 now).
So, no, it is NOT "... only possible for audio and video recorded by OneNote".
Drop an audio talk in an MP3 file into a OneNote Note and play a bit of it.
Make sure you have search audio set to ON in Options | Audio & Video.
It might take a short while, but you will then be able to use WDS and ON Search to locate decipherable spoken words in the audio (or video) clips. And it's not just MP3 files for audio either. I recall that there are several audio file types it can cope with.
Find out by experimentation.

IainB · « **Reply #112 on:** March 09, 2016, 08:16 PM »

is there a way to control the container of a note? they are too big. i keep trying to create new notes around existing notes, and especially below them, the software assumes i'm adding to the existing note, and the margin extends a good 3-4 lines below the content. i want the container to end pretty close to where the content is. i don't want all that space, it is very annoying.
-superboyac (March 08, 2016, 02:57 PM)
A double click with the mouse should force a new note to open - although you will still need to leave one line after the previous text.
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-David1904 (March 09, 2016, 01:53 PM)

@superboyac: You ask "is there a way to control the container of a note?". The answer is YES. It's all draggable and resizeable you see.
Experiment.
Try to break it.
Also try out using table cells as sub-containers. I do that a lot because the Containers are too flexible and keep changing to accommodate new or changing text in the notes. The table cells behave differently and are more precisely controllable and less likely to expand automatically. The Container walls can set hard boundaries for table cells.

(Sorry if any duplication. I thought I'd already posted this comment - or something like it - but I can't find it. Maybe I forgot to press "Post" or maybe I posted it to another discussion thread by mistake.)

superboyac · « **Reply #113 on:** March 25, 2016, 04:51 PM »

i am loving onenote so far, it's been several weeks now. I am now basically committing to slowly moving my other notes into onenote. thanks Iainb for making me revisit this...i think i had thoroughly dismissed it in recent years.

Tuxman · « **Reply #114 on:** March 25, 2016, 05:41 PM »

The article also includes a link to: in-depth comparison of OneNote vs. Evernote, which might help to answer some of the questions posed by others in this discussion thread.
-IainB (March 06, 2016, 08:29 AM)

After ~~six~~ five-and-a-fourth years of Evernote, the last thing that sticks me to Evernote is Geeknote which is awesome. I must admit that OneNote is inviting, even the Android app pretty much rocks now. It's just that all of my things are already on Evernote.

Of course, I could use a combination of org-mode and OneNote to achieve the Geeknote features, but that would surely not make things easier.

IainB · « **Reply #115 on:** March 27, 2016, 09:49 PM »

Just in case this might help existing OneNote users.
I have also posted about this on the OneNote user forum as it seems to not have been posted as a bug elsewhere (not that I can find, at any rate).
It only recently started to happen.

Mar.2016 update bug? - OneNote 2016 - Extremely annoying and persistent tendency for any page to auto-reset to 100% zoom level.

This is an error/bug that seems to have been introduced into OneNote 2016 in the latest but one (penultimate) Office 2016 Updates. It only started happening after the update anyway, and had been working fine before.
This error/bug manifests as an extremely annoying and persistent tendency for any page to auto-reset to 100% zoom level.
Regardless of what you had previously set as the zoom level and whatever you might try to reset in the zoom box (I usually have it set at 115%), it keeps dynamically restoring all viewed pages to 100%.
This is a real PITA for me as a user, but, because it is not a critical error, I presume that Microsoft developers will get around to fixing it sometime later.
So, I am therefore not holding my breath and have written an AutoHotKey macro workaround to it for myself - hardly an ideal solution, but it is simpler than repetitively typing Alt, W, Q, 115%, Enter every few minutes.
Hope this helps or is of use.

IainB · « **Reply #116 on:** April 16, 2016, 04:54 AM »

2016-04-16 2152hrs: Looks like the OneNote percentage zoom 100% bug (above) may have been fixed in an update to MS Office 2016 today. (Crossed fingers...)

IainB · « **Reply #117 on:** April 26, 2016, 07:16 PM »

I mentioned above the Office Lens on Win10 smartphones.
Here's an example of where I took a photo of a business card, and using Office Lens phone app, sent it to OneNote. (I think this app is also on Android now.)
Look what it can do: (The data it collects and presents is on the LHS, the image of the card is on the RHS.)

This is a relatively simple card layout. The card is smart-scanned, and identifiable telephone/fax phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, etc. are identified. The blue print is hyperlinked text. Note the VCF file created as an attachment. Ruddy amazing.

On more complex business cards with (say) a lot of marketing spiel on, the scan sometimes makes mistakes, and it can also make mistakes in the OCR scanning if image quality is poor, or print colours are not easy to distinguish from the background, but all-in-all it does a creditable job. A timesaver, and you can ditch the paper card once it has been captured and checked.
This image was taken of the card on a tabletop. Once you tell the app whether it is a photo, whiteboard, business card or document, Office Lens automagically selects the card boundaries (the user can adjust if necessary) and processes it accordingly. If the image is not face-on, but captured in a 3D sideways perspective, it is squared up and put into a flat 2D plane with no perspective. Very handy. For example, my daughter uses it for capturing teacher notes from the whiteboard at school (it removes perspective, board glare and emphasises the darkness of writing on the whiteboard), and working notes from homework documents.
You really need to use this tool to get a feel for its potential usefulness. It is very good.

IainB · « **Reply #118 on:** April 26, 2016, 07:35 PM »

I was checking some old notes today and saw this. It is a post from 2011, but could be potentially very useful for those considering using OneNote for GTD together with Outlook: (I could never seem to get Outlook to work properly, so not of much use to me.)
GTD with Outlook 2010 and OneNote 2010 – Series Links

IainB · « **Reply #119 on:** June 01, 2016, 07:45 PM »

@superboyac:

I am officially starting what I am calling the...
'The 2016 Superboyac's IanB Onenote experiment"
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-superboyac (January 15, 2016, 02:03 PM)

How's that experiment coming along? Care to share your experiences so far? Have you got any tips or tricks we should perhaps be informed about? Could be useful.

IainB · « **Reply #120 on:** June 12, 2016, 01:35 AM »

I have been following an interesting discussion thread on OutlinerSoftware.com about the Best program for lecture notes, where I had suggested the importance of using pencil/pen and paper as the primary tool to take notes and to stimulate one's brain to make the most of the learning opportunity, and use a note-taking app (e.g., such as OneNote) as a purely secondary tool to capture any surrounding contextual info, including (say) an audio recording of the entire lecture, for subsequent review/revision.

On the page at: <http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/6475/15>
- there is more reference to "Analogue" (handwritten) versus Computer note-taking:

Posted by Hugh
Jun 9, 2016 at 01:27 PM

In support of the posts by Donovan and others above, I too recommend pencil and paper as a first resort. My reasoning is based on two things: my own experience using pencil and paper for note-taking and long-form first-drafting over more than 50 years, and recent neurological research supporting the use of those tools in preference to keyboards as a way of engaging deep levels of the brain.
Here’s a blog post by Joe Buhlig which contains references to some of that research: http://joebuhlig.com...e-of-analog-writing/
The title of Joe’s first reference more or less says it all: “A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop - Scientific American”.
_________________________

The link to The Science and Experience of Analog Writing refers to the neurological research - which I had read about previously - confirming the relative and potentially crucial importance of making handwritten notes.
We should not overlook the distinct risk/possibility that, depending on one's peculiar make-up, relying on computer note-taking could potentially inhibit our ability to successfully learn.

Dormouse · « **Reply #121 on:** June 12, 2016, 06:48 PM »

Cognitive processes underlying handwriting are quite different to typing and the 'muscle memory' is more about words than letters. Many people who have difficulties with writing have no such difficulty with typing. There's a number of ways handwriting would be expected to enhance memory & it also gives the option of larger/smaller, drawing relationships and organising points differently on a page.
What, so far as I know, has not been demonstrated is a similar advantage using a digital pen and a tablet - but many though not all) of the explanations underlying the effect would apply to that too. Where a lecture is made available digitally before it is actually given orally, it allows the possibility of comments being made by handwriting on the pdf.

Completely separately, my understanding of the possibilities of Onenote use was massively expanded when I came across this page. Amazing how much more power there is in having an example you can understand and are interested in. Still need to get my head around how to do it myself though.

IainB · « **Reply #122 on:** June 13, 2016, 12:55 AM »

@Dormouse:
That digital DM OneNote Notebook at http://www.cryrid.com/dnd/?page_id=153 was pretty impressive.
I guess he's using a w-i-d-e display screen.
I got used to using OneNote on a 14.1" laptop display, and more recently a 15.6" laptop display. More real estate on a bigger screen would be nice, but I don't really want a bigger laptop nor a separate larger display screen.

My organisation and use of Notebooks is pretty minimalistic, so I am not into beautifully designed pages such as that digital DM Notebook seems to be.
After a period of experimentation, I learned to organise my notes using macros and templates as much as possible, and create notes usually using indented numbered or bulleted (collapsible) sections and subsections. As discussed in an earlier post, I also use table cells quite often as "containers" for text and images, since their boundaries are more "sticky" than the main containers on a Notebook page. Containers and images can be dragged and resized.
You can create and assemble/arrange several containers in a page, and overlay them and add drawings/shapes. They "float" as objects in layers over the page, but they do not retain any attachment or fixed relationship to each other, so that if you change one container, the page layout starts to get messed up. I think that's a limitation.
I work around it by taking a screenshot (OneNote clip) which gives you a single image of the assembled containers/objects - which latter can then be deleted and replaced by the single image in the clip. Any embedded text in that image is automatically OCR'd and becomes searchable and copyable, so nothing gets "lost".

If you select and copy a selection of formatted text and images, and paste the contents of the clipboard into (say) irfanview, the whole thing - formatted text and images - pastes as a single image. I sometimes post those single images to a DCF post as my notes. This can save a lot of time - no more messing about with the kludgy BB formatting codes in the DC Forum post editor - I just post the image (sometimes with the same clipboard contents posted as the actual, but unformatted plain text in a spoiler, so people can grab that text if/when they need it - e.g., for hyperlinks).
Hope that all makes sense.

Dormouse · « **Reply #123 on:** June 13, 2016, 05:22 AM »

I have used the container idea since I read it here (thanks), and it all makes sense - but that's not quite the same as being able to do it myself. But does give me signposts and that digital book does give me a destination (I particularly liked the links to other books, each in their own subfolder). But feels like a lot of effort to get there as Onenote always has for me.

btw, I get more and more confused by attempts to compare Onenote and Evernote. What's here is wonderful but it doesn't impact on my Evernote usage at all.

It's clear that people use Onenote in many different ways, each developed for their individual purposes.

IainB · « **Reply #124 on:** July 22, 2016, 06:17 AM »

...feels like a lot of effort to get there as Onenote always has for me...
...btw, I get more and more confused by attempts to compare Onenote and Evernote. What's here is wonderful but it doesn't impact on my Evernote usage at all.
...It's clear that people use Onenote in many different ways, each developed for their individual purposes.
-Dormouse (June 13, 2016, 05:22 AM)

1. Yes, I used to feel that way. The trick is to avoid assuming that you actually understand how best to use it and just approach it as though you are trying to use the thing "better" - e.g., I realised that if I dropped the old "data entry" habit and used the OneNote clipping tool and Windows Clipboard, then there were quicker ways to add/build useful content into one's notes, gathering text from elsewhere and even text inside images (e.g., an image of the "About" window of a program). Don't underestimate the automatic OCR capability of OneNote. It's a real timesaver, and the text in an image is very promptly indexed and thus easily found in searches. I started this discussion thread because, for me at any rate, using OneNote was not a simple affair and I figured that others might like to save time by learning from my experiences as I blundered along on my journey through the experiment.

2. I wouldn't recommend spending too much effort on comparing Onenote and Evernote - unless there was some practical purpose in it. I've used both and am familiar with their pros and cons, but I have at least been able to pragmatically determine which one has been able to best meet my peculiar needs in this so-called "information age". For example, see the long comment above in this thread on "OneNote as a 21st-century zettelkasten".

3. Yes, that's probably true, but some/most users (e.g., myself, my daughter) might typically be slow to find or appreciate some really nifty aspects of OneNote, because they don't have a common artificial framework of reference for how it could be used. "Too much to unlearn" maybe? They largely have to find out by trial-and-error, and my feeling is that a lot of people might not have the stamina to sustain that approach. Added to which, the OneNote developers are quietly beavering away in the background, making changes that are beneficial for users, so a seemingly kludgy feature found in OneNote today may be gone by tomorrow.