Tips from OneNote 2007 Guide (for Students)

I’ve been looking through the OneNote 2007 Guide and I think there are some really good tips that can be used by College Students.

Tip #1: Audio Recording- With OneNote you can record your class lectures at the same time that you take notes. Just be sure to tell your professor beforehand so you do not get into any legal troubles.

“To capture the details of an important meeting, lecture, interview, or even a phone conversation, you can create audio and video clips and store them as part of your notes.

• Audio notes let you focus more on a conversation and less on the task of note-taking.
• Video notes are great for capturing presentations during business meetings and class lectures.

To record audio clips, you need a microphone. Most laptops and Tablet PCs already have one built-in. To record video clips, you need a video capture device, such as a webcam.

• To start recording, click the microphone button on the toolbar or click Insert > Audio Recording. The Audio and Video Recording toolbar will appear while you are recording.

Recording is linked to the notes that you take. A small audio/video icon will appear next to notes associated with a recording. You can click it to jump to the corresponding time in the recording.”

Tip #2: Full Page view- If you have been trying to figure out how to customize and arrange your toolbars so that you can take notes efficiently and with as much writing space as possible, simply try using the Full Screen button next to Help.

“Expand a OneNote page to full screen if you need more space for taking your notes.

This mode is particularly useful if you are:

• Brainstorming and need more space to lay out your thoughts
• Taking notes in a live sharing session with several people as on a whiteboard
• Using OneNote as a side window with a checklist while working on another task or document
• Using OneNote on a Tablet PC in Portrait mode”

Tip #3: Side Notes- I am very happy to see this! I often find myself surfing the net and finding a small piece of information I want to record and hold on to. So I open the side note and insert the copy/paste information…and there it is. Of course you have to move the info from the unfiled notes category but its good to go through and organize your notes every little bit.

“You can use Side Note feature in OneNote when you are mainly working in a different program but want to capture your thoughts or copy some information into OneNote. You can select and drag text or images into a Side Note from other programs. Side Notes are great for:

• Collecting information while browsing the Web
• Making quick notes (like small sticky notes) when you are on the phone, or someone stops by to talk about an issue.
• Writing down your thoughts while reading a document, Web page, or an e-mail message
• Copying reference data into OneNote while looking through presentation slides

To create a Side Note: Press Windows logo key + N while in any program or click the OneNote icon in the Windows taskbar”

Tip #4: Hyperlinks- You can create hyperlinks to web pages and to your own notes. That makes things a little bit easier…

“In addition to creating regular hyperlinks that point to the Web (Insert > Hyperlink), you can create hyperlinks to any part of your notes (a notebook, a section, a page, or even a specific paragraph).

Use such OneNote hyperlinks to create:

• A table of contents on a page with links to the other pages in the section or with links to other parts of the same page
• A favorites list — a list of links to pages and sections that you need to visit frequently
• A definition or reference link from a term, a name, or a topic on one page to more detailed information in another place in your notes

To create a hyperlink, right-click the tab or note you want to link to and then do the following:

1. Click Copy Hyperlink to this Page

2. Click Paste to place the link where you want it to appear

You can even paste the link outside OneNote. For example, you can send the link to others in an e-mail. They can click it to jump to your notes (if the notes are in a shared notebook).“

Tip #5: Inserting files- You can insert printouts and search the text in the printout for certain words! You can also attach files to your OneNote page from Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. This helps to keep all information of different formats in the same place.

“You can insert full-color, searchable printouts of any file type that your computer can print. You can then type, draw, or handwrite on top of the printout picture in OneNote. For example:

• Insert a printout of a report and type your thoughts on top of it. Circle interesting areas using Drawing tools.
• Insert a printout of lecture slides and add more notes on the course while you are reading the textbook.

Two ways to insert a printout:

• Click Insert > Files as Printouts in OneNote.
• Or use the File > Print command in another program and select “Send to OneNote 2007″ as your virtual “printer.”

You can store documents and other files directly on a OneNote page, which comes in very handy if you are trying to keep project files and project notes all in one place.

Simply drag and drop any file from Windows Explorer onto a page in OneNote, or insert them by using Insert > Files on the OneNote menu.

You can open and edit an attached file by double-clicking its file icon.”

Tip #6: Privacy- OneNote allows you to password protect certain sections of your notebooks. This is very useful if you have a research paper due and you don’t want your fellow classmates plagiarizing your work!

“OneNote allows you to password protect any section of your notes. When you assign a password to a particular notebook section, the information in that section is strongly encrypted (using the 3DES encryption standard). Setting passwords is useful in several situations:

• You can keep a OneNote section with personal account numbers, login names, other passwords, and so on. Use a password so nobody can view this information when you leave your computer unattended.
• Put a password on sections with sensitive information that you don’t want others to accidentally see on your screen when you are navigating around your notes.

To set a password for a section, click File > Password Protect this Section.

Your section will be locked as shown below, until you click and enter a password to unlock it. It will also be locked automatically after a period of time if you leave the section or leave your computer unattended.

Note: Use strong passwords — long strings or phrases with a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols. If someone wants to guess your password, the most typical attack is to try words from a dictionary or information commonly known about you, such as your birthday or your nickname.”

I hope this gives all my fellow college students who use OneNote 03 or 07 some useful ideas about how to make OneNote work best for you. And for those who are already out there in the work force, this tips can be molded to suit your personal needs as well!

*All Italized quotes taken directly from OneNote 2007 Guide*

And if you have deleted the Guide, “OneNote Extensibility & More..” can tell you how to retrieve the guide.