One Note is a small,
but overlooked piece of software that is now part of Microsoft Office. You most likely have it installed on your
local machine and probably don't even know it.
The program originally started out being marketed to students as an
alternative to note taking by hand, but has since evolved to be something
that's being marketed to everyone.
One Note takes away
all the 'stupid' from Microsoft office, such as the 'smart' formatting,
bulleting, saving and other features, and combines them into a much smarter
interface. It interacts with your whole
computer, allowing you to take screen clippings of other programs to insert
into your note, different tabs, notebooks, all of which can be shared with
other users (and even in real time!)
Audio, video and even webpages can be inserted into your
'notebook'. When you copy/paste from a
webpage, it even brings in the web
address so there is no wondering later on where you got that information.
One Note also has an
ipad app. It sync's with the Microsoft
SkyDrive (a cloud service) and you're notes can be available virtually
anywhere. Home computer, work computer,
tablet, phone, all can connect to the same notebook and add or subtract
notes.
The program very
easily allows multiple people to collaborate on a file and even tells you who
added what to a paragraph since last time to looked at the file by putting it
in bold, highlighting the lines and putting initials of the editor next to it.
The program can be
used offline, so you could go out to a site, take notes at a meeting, come back
to the office and have those notes available instantly to edit and add to on
your desktop.
One Note integrates
nicely with the rest of the office Suite.
Buttons allow you to share tasks between outlook and One Note. Appointments can talk between the programs,
and its easy to share notes, notbooks, appointments, tasks from outlook to One
Note.
I have had great
experiences with the program, and now am testing it to use in an office
environment to see how well it integrates.
So far so good.
I would highly
recommend that all users who plan on using it sign up for a (free) windows Live
account, it will make sharing notebooks between accounts much easier.
