Anyone else using OneNote?

[GlenBarrington]

For research & planning, mostly. I'm starting to see some real value there.

[Penforhire]

OneNote is Microsoft's secret killer app. So few people realize just how useful and powerful it is. I use it extensively for work but still do not use every feature. For example I don't use it for collaboration (shared on-line OneNote file), I don't record any audio synched to notes, I do not "dock" it next to other Office apps to bookmark between apps, and I do not use their inking tech (which supposedly works well with handwriting-to-text conversion if you use a proper tablet & pen mode).

I use it more for organizing information, searchable history, and related records than for active research. It is way faster to search than Outlook. I sometimes embed e-mails (as icons), sometimes print them onto the OneNote page. Same for web pages (links and/or prints). My metaphor is a multi-subject 3-ring binder with an expandable extra dimension.

One of my odd uses for OneNote is to output PDF's without using a 3rd party PDF print driver. For example, I can screen capture a Google maps view, send it to OneNote, add mark-ups (arrows, text boxes, whatever) and save to PDF from there.

There are OSX and iOS versions of OneNote but they are not fully equivalent, but getting better. I used a 3rd party app on iOS (Outline+) until recently. Microsoft continues to make the effort to improve those platforms (I had a OSX version update just last week).

Microsoft is pressing everyone toward the cloud and their 365 subscription service, which shows most strongly on OSX and iOS. I still use a local OneNote file only under Windows. Having the file maintained in their cloud is not terrible but I still resist it on principle.

[ZGottlieb]

I'm not a OneNote power user, but I use it to write my book on my IPod since I tunes stopped sinc'ing their notes with PCs.

Apple has been gradually pushing me more towards MS solutions vs making me a customer.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

For research & planning, mostly. I'm starting to see some real value there.

I like Simplenote because it's ... simple (just text, which is what I want). I used to use EverNote but it always tried to enforce formatting and I didn't like that. Since I use Linux and a Blackberry, OneNote isn't really one of my choices — but on my main computer (and laptops) I write in JOE (text editor) using the Jstar variant (because I like WordStar keystrokes). If I need to "fancify" the document, I just move it LibreOffice (rarely need to). Basically everything in Linux can save to PDF format, even from the command line.

I've got Simplenote on the Fire tablet and a nice Bluetooth keyboard and an app called JotterPad (where I write and then copy into Simplenote, so it's available everywhere). It's slick, but I never use it. (Just another failed attempt to find some use for my tablet — I guess I'm not a tablet kind of person.)

Sorry to ramble. I like plain text because it's a format that's never going to go away and isn't dependent on any application.

[GlenBarrington]

Sorry for the late reply, but I forgot I posted this! OneNote just gets more and more useful to me the more I use it. Right now, I'm using it(2016 version) for my blog, planning for new articles, doing research, and am trying to use it for plot outlining, and character development in my fiction. Oh, and I'm trying to figure out if it can be used to create video training film scripts and story boards.

I read an article about how a couple of software engineers at Microsoft were trying to make outlining better inside of MS word (It's never been that great for outlining compared to other word processors, IMO). And they got intrigued by the idea of an endless scrolling screen. How they transitioned from outlining to scrolling screens is beyond me. Sheesh, talk about feature creep!

I like 2016 version better than the free version that comes with Windows 10, but MS has committed to eventually porting all the features (that make sense) to the free version so they can retire 2016. No standalone future versions are being worked on.

At any rate, they realized that

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Sorry for the late reply, but I forgot I posted this! ...

I've never done that!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Sorry for the late reply, but I forgot I posted this! OneNote just gets more and more useful to me the more I use it. Right now, I'm using it(2016 version) for my blog, planning for new articles, doing research, and am trying to use it for plot outlining, and character development in my fiction. Oh, and I'm trying to figure out if it can be used to create video training film scripts and story boards.

I read an article about how a couple of software engineers at Microsoft were trying to make outlining better inside of MS word (It's never been that great for outlining compared to other word processors, IMO). And they got intrigued by the idea of an endless scrolling screen. How they transitioned from outlining to scrolling screens is beyond me. Sheesh, talk about feature creep!

I like 2016 version better than the free version that comes with Windows 10, but MS has committed to eventually porting all the features (that make sense) to the free version so they can retire 2016. No standalone future versions are being worked on.

At any rate, they realized that

I concur that OneNote is a truly overlooked wonder. I've used Evernote, OneNote, Lotus Notes, you-name-it, and ON is really remarkable. If nothing else, its ability to link between apps in the Suite is handy. If you ever tried to use Liquid Story Binder XE, and gave up in frustration, you cna use OneNote with Word and other apps to create your own, using the OneNote linking feature as a very powerful method of outlining. Create the outline, write the scenes/chapters/blogs/whatever, and then link them in a single outline. Or interlinked outlines.

Lovely stuff.

FWIW, I find Word's outline function to be also woefully misunderstood. I don't like using headings for everything, of course, but by so doing, you can use Outline View, which is really powerful. (And, wait for it, yes, you can, of course, use OneNote linked to outline levels and entries in Word.)

Hitch