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What is Microsoft Office OneNote?

Microsoft Office OneNote is a new application for the Microsoft Office system scheduled to be available in mid-2003. OneNote is a digital note-taking application that enables people to capture, organize, reuse and share their notes on any laptop, desktop or Tablet PC.

Saying Goodbye to Traditional Note-Taking

People who take notes on paper enjoy the flexibility of being able to write or draw anywhere on a page, but find such notes difficult to organize, search and reuse. Current applications used for note-taking may allow information workers to reuse and share their notes but lack the flexibility of paper.

Who Needs OneNote?

OneNote will be beneficial for those who are using paper or digital applications to take notes and looking for a better solution to the task. Specifically, it will be valuable for information workers who do the following:

  • Currently take notes on paper or on a PC

  • Attend a lot of meetings

  • Do research

  • Repurpose their notes to develop more formal documents or presentations

  • Need to share their notes with others 

Key Features

Users of OneNote can capture information in multiple ways, including the following:

  • Multiple device support: OneNote works well on desktop, laptop and Tablet PCs.

  • Flexible two-dimensional page surface: Users can click anywhere on a page and begin to type or write.

  • Digital ink: Users can handwrite their notes or draw diagrams and pictures using a pen-input device.

  • Audio notebook: Users can record audio notes that sync with their typed or written notes.

  • Copying and pasting: Users can move notes around in OneNote, or between OneNote and any other Office application (and many non-Office applications).

  • Capturing Web content: Users can insert pictures, diagrams, text and other information from a Web site directly into OneNote using a drag-and-drop operation. OneNote automatically includes the Web address for users so that they can refer to the information later, if needed.

  • OneNote quick pane: A OneNote quick pane is a small version of OneNote that users can launch with a single click on the Windows Quick Launch toolbar. It opens a small window for typing or writing notes on the go.

Users of OneNote can organize information easily with help from these features:

  • Page tabs: Page tabs enable users to easily flip through or rearrange pages in their current notebook.

  • Title area: This is where users can place notes that they want to remain visible even if their main notes become too long to fit on the screen at one time.

  • Note flags and note flag summary: OneNote provides users with a set of customizable note flags, which they can use to mark notes that are important or require follow-up.

  • Layout and design options: Users can combine, format and rearrange notes with a drag-and-drop operation to organize their notes in a way that makes sense to them.

The following features help users of OneNote reuse and share notes easily:

  • Auto saving: Users will never lose notes again because OneNote automatically saves them as they are written.

  • Finding and searching: Users can search notes quickly and find what they need without having to know the notebook, folder or file in which they saved the information.

  • History navigation: OneNote keeps track of all the pages users have visited across their notebook. Just as in a Web browser, users can move backward and forward to pages they have visited.

  • E-mailing notes: E-mailing notes can be done directly from within OneNote.

  • Publishing as HTML: Users can publish any of their note pages as HTML.

Pricing and Availability

The public beta of OneNote is now available. The final product will be available in mid-2003.

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