An Overview of OneNote

OneNote is a new addition to the Office family of products that appeals to professionals and home users who need to take extensive notes and gather research information. The free-form tools allow the user to combine handwritten information with typed notes, graphics, and information dragged from digital sources such as the Internet and even audio recordings. There are links to other Office 2003 products, such as Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint. A task could be exported to Outlook 2003, and text could be pasted into Word or an outline pasted into PowerPoint.

The real benefits will most likely be to PocketPC and tablet users because the interface is well-designed for combining multiple types of elements, including handwritten notes or drawings. Figure 10.10 offers a view of a sample OneNote page, with a limited version of the Shared Workspace task pane open.

Figure 10.10. Sample page in OneNote 2003.

OneNote is missing the standard drawing shapes, so its design features are limited, and Visio or Word are better choices if geometric shapes are required. OneNote pages can be published using the .mht format and would then be accessible to SharePoint users. A good use for a OneNote page would be to quickly post handwritten notes from a team meeting if time wasn't available to retype them, or share ideas on a web page layout.