Microsoft One Note

[Anonymous]

Hi Friends,

I mentioned this is another thread but thought a more general post was also appropriate.

If you've not looked at the new addition to the Microsoft Office Suite, One Note, you may want to (there is a trial version included in most upgrade packages of Microsoft Office).

One Note is not just for Tablet PCs. It is a free-form work organizer that lets you consolidate in one place all the documents, files, notes, etc related to a topic.

You can use One Note to do your project planning (as an outline or as freestyle notes). Then, when you are ready to move something to a context list, you can highlight it and with a single mouse click turn it into an Outlook Task.

Also, when One Note is not running, an icon appears in the system tray. Clicking on it produces a utility program called Side Note that lets you enter notes into your One Note files, and you can create an Outlook Task directly from the Side Note window as well.

I'm still playing with it, but it appears this program with its seamless integration wth Outlook provides a way to do project planning and still send only the Next Action to Outlook to appear in the appropriate context Task lists.

Scot

 

[Anonymous]

OneNote is a great tool

OneNote is a great tool and one of the best things about Office 2003. I was an Office beta tester and after using OneNote for several months, I can't imagine living without it. I had previously used KeyNote, but with the Outlook integration provided by OneNote and it's flexibility, I have found it to be a great tool.

Microsoft offers a 60 day trial at

http://www.microsoft.com/Office/onenote/prodinfo/trial.mspx

Give it a try, it will be worth your effort.

 

[Guy Bjerke]

Just an FYI - I believe One Note's "integration with Outlook" only works with Outlook 2003.

 

[Anonymous]

OneNote is too cool

One note is definitely a great fit for GTD. The "stationery" feature allows you to set up note page formats--e.g. natural planning model, weekly review, etc. I pick these formats when I have a new project to work on, or to complete weekly review... saves typing up a list each time.

Rather than changing a next action to an Outlook task, I prefer to use a "note flag" for next actions. You can open a summary note flag window that will show all next actions for your projects. I use a separate page for each project. When you review the "note flags" summary, you can choose the next action and a hyperlink will take you to the appropriate project (page). No need to link "next action" list to projects, it's done automatically.

 

[apinaud]

Can somebody explain how you guys set up one note for GTD
thanks

 

[mochant]

That's correct

Just an FYI - I believe One Note's "integration with Outlook" only works with Outlook 2003.

Guy:

That is correct. OneNote wants to be part of a full Office 2003 installation. This is even more true with the SP1 release that comes out later this year(and is available in a preview release right now). OneNote SP1 adds the ability to highlight text and send it to Outlook as a task, appointment, or contact.

It also has the ability to detect a connected Pocket PC device and copy the notes from the PDA to a special section of OneNote. This is not synchronization though. It's a one-time, one-way copy per note.

FWIW, I don't see OneNote being a primary tool for GTD (in terms of managing lists and NA's) although I suppose you could set it up that way using sections, pages, and Note Flags. For me, it's the digital equivalent of my NoteTaker Wallet - a ubiquitous capture device from which I process into my GTD environment in Outlook.

 

[mmoncur]

I've been using OneNote for a while and am pretty impressed with it. I was previously using it to outline projects, but I just moved that information to Bonsai. Being able to look at and modify my outlines from my Palm is great, and while OneNote has some features Bonsai doesn't have, I haven't been making use of most of them.

I'll probably still end up using OneNote for some things, especially collecting reference material - it's a great place to store things I've copied and pasted from all over the web.

 

[emp]

never got it...

I have tried using OneNote and found it to be a clumsy, awkward, overstyled, chaotic piece of software.

Just doesn't fit with me, I guess.

::: emp :::