Outlook Integration

Windows Journal is a good tool for sharing information with others through Outlook. You can automatically insert meeting information into your notes, as well as easily send Windows Journal notes to others.

Installing the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC

Even if you have Office 2003 (as of this writing), you can extend the functionality of Windows Journal (and of Office XP or Office 2003) by installing the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC (you can download the Pack from http://www.microsoft.com/office/tabletpc/). This gives you a few extra helpful features that don't come with your Tablet PC or with Office XP or 2003. The main additions are the integration with Outlook. For Example, if you use Outlook XP or 2003, the add-on enables you to import meeting information directly into your Journal notes, as shown in Figure 7.13.

Figure 7.13. Choose the format of the attachment you are sending to the recipient.

Note

This section covers Outlook only. For other applications, the integration will not be as automatic.

Sending Journal Notes as Email

It's easy to share your notes when you send them to others via email. With your note open in Journal, open the File menu, choose Send to Mail Recipient, and then select the file type to send, as shown in Figure 7.13.

Once you select the format for the attachment and tap OK, Outlook will open, enabling you to send the note as an attachment. Figure 7.14 shows that the received email is viewed exactly like the original note, as you would expect based on what we learned about exporting at the end of Chapter 6.

Figure 7.14. The email message's attachment looks exactly like the original note.

Importing Outlook Meeting Information

To import meeting information, simply tap Insert, Outlook Meeting Information and choose the meeting that you want added into your notes (see Figure 7.15).

Figure 7.15. Choose the meeting you want to insert into your Windows Journal note.

Tip

You can import Outlook meeting information into your Journal notes only if you've installed the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC. For more information, refer to the sidebar titled "Installing the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC" earlier in this chapter.

Figure 7.16 shows what the meeting information looks like when imported.

Figure 7.16. The information that Windows Journal imports from your Outlook meeting information.

Once the meeting information is in your note, Windows Journal will use the contents of the subject line as the filename unless you type something else above the subject line in your note. (Windows Journal always takes the top-most item as the filename by default.)

Converting Selections to Outlook Items

If you've installed the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC on your Tablet PC (refer to the sidebar "Installing the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC" earlier in this chapter), you can convert selected notes to Outlook items, such as appointments, contacts, and tasks. To do this, first open the note that you want to convert. Then, tap Actions, Convert Selection to, and select what you want the note to become in Outlook (in this case, Outlook Appointment, as shown in Figure 7.17). The text is converted and saved in the notes part of the Outlook item, but you can easily drag and drop the content into the appropriate fields.

Figure 7.17. Convert text or ink to an Outlook item.