Microsoft OneNote Frequently Asked Questions

Click here to watch a free, 45-minute, video in which Microsoft Software engineer Chris Bertelson walks you through the features and capabilities of OneNote. Very well-done and informative!

1. The Basics?

1.01 What is OneNote?

OneNote is an application for free-form note taking on your computer. It accepts typed or handwritten (if you have a digitizer) input as well as things you copy/paste from other applications. It also supports audio recordings and does some advanced searching across the notes to make it easy for you to find notes you've composed.

1.02 How is it different from the Journal product already on my Tablet PC?

Well, they are very similar, to be sure, but OneNote is a more full-featured product than Journal. Eventually it is likely that OneNote will be a superset of Journal; i.e. have all of the features of Journal plus some, but as of version 1 it's not quite there yet. Here are a few of the differences between OneNote and Journal (as far as I know):

Worth noting that Journal has the "Lasso" selection feature which OneNote does not.

1.03 When will the next version be available? What about the next Service Pack? (SP) What can you tell us about them?

The next version is already in development, but there is no announced timetable for release at this point.

1.04 Does it work if you don't have a Tablet Computer?

Yes, it works fine. You can use OneNote with a desktop or laptop - just type your notes in where you want them. You will need to have the same level of hardware that you need for the Microsoft Office suite, however, and it requires Windows 2000 SP3, Windows XP or later.

1.05 Will OneNote be part of the Microsoft Office suite? Does OneNote require the Microsoft Office Suite?

OneNote 2003 was only sold as a separate product - much as Visio or Project are currently. It doesn't require the Office suite, though features like "Create an Outlook Task" obviously won't work if you don't have Outlook 2003.

OneNote 2007 is included in two of the suites: Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition and Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate.

1.05.1 What does OneNote cost?

Retail price is $99. There sometimes are rebate offers for people who own or buy Office that can reduce that price.

1.06 Will OneNote 2007 work with older versions of Office like Office XP?

Yes, though it is optimized for use with Office 2007. It will work fine with Office 2003.

1.07 Will there be a PocketPC or Palm version of OneNote?

Sort of. Microsoft has announced that they are working on a version of OneNote for the SmartPhone. It's not clear yet what, if any, other mobile devices might be supported. It's unlikely that Palm will be one of them, however. But there are some utilities for syncing the Palm with OneNote (see below)

1.07.1 Can I sync my Pocket PC notes with OneNote?

Sort of. OneNote SP1 will automatically pull your PPC notes into it if you tell it to. It's a one-way transfer though, OneNote won't send any of its files back to the PPC.

1.08 Does OneNote support SmartTags?

No, I'm afraid not. It does support AutoCorrect and dynamic spell checking, however.

1.09 Does OneNote have an Object Model or programming interface?

No, at this time there is no exposed object model. There will be quite a lot more exposed in the next version of OneNote.

1.10 Can OneNote be used for "sticky notes" on my desktop or elsewhere?

No, OneNote is more like a legal pad than a "post-it" type program. If you require "sticky notes" see the Post-It Software program.

1.11 Can you save in .XML format?

1.12 Does OneNote support any form of encryption? What about Integrated Rights Management?

No, no native support for either in the current version. You can, of course, use third-party disk encryption or even OS-level encryption to encrypt the files on the disk.

1.13 Can you change the background color of individual note containers on a page?

Not in version 1. If color coding your notes is important you might be able to get by just setting the color of the text, or using the highlighter tool to highlight the text with a certain color. Or perhaps come combination of both.

1.15 Can I use OneNote to annotate other documents or files like PowerPoint presentations?

Not really - you can drag an individual PowerPoint slide into OneNote and draw on it. If you have a Tablet PC, though, you can annotate directly in PowerPoint and don't need to use OneNote.

1.16 What are Quick Notes? What are Side Notes?

Quick Notes is actually the old name for Side Notes (I preferred "Quick Notes" personally). They are really just a small window on the OneNote program so that you can quickly take a note or drag/drop some web content into a note without having the entire OneNote interface open. If you maximize the Side Note window you'll discover that you're actually working in the full OneNote application, just not being presented the full interface.

1.17 Can I create links that connect items within OneNote? For example a link from this note to another note on this page or on another page?

No, not in this version. It's coming in the next full release of OneNote, however. See 12.3 below.

1.18 What format is the Video encoded in?

1.19 How can I tell what version of OneNote I'm using? What's the most recent version?

In OneNote go to Help | About. 11.6554.6568 SP2 is the most recent, publicly available, version.

2. Using OneNote - Getting Started

2.01 How do I create a new section?

2.02 How do I move a page up or down within a section?

A. Click the page tab once. Then click it a second time. Then drag and drop it up or down where you want it.

B. "Grab" the page tab with your mouse, drag it to one side or the other (as if pulling a card from the deck) then drag it up or down where you want it.

2.03b How do I set the default font?

2.04 I want to show the page names instead of numbers on the right side, how can I?

2.05 How do I change the names of the pages?

The page names are taken from the page title at the top of each page. Change the page title and it will change on the page tab.

2.06 How do I import notes from Journal to OneNote?

2.07 How do I send Notes via e-mail?

Just click File | E-mail or press CTRL+SHIFT+E. If you change your mind and decide not to send the e-mail message don't close the window, you'll close OneNote too. Just click the "e-mail" icon on the toolbar or click File | E-mail to revert back to the standard OneNote window without sending the message. Be aware that this feature only works with Outlook 2003.

2.08 Can I change the color of the boxes you type in?

Not the color, but the shade. Go to Tools | Options and look at the handwriting section. You can set the shade of the Writing Guides there. You can turn them off, if you're using Ink on a Tablet PC, by going to View | Writing Guides and unchecking it.

2.09 Can I rename the default "My Folder" folder?

No, you can only rename custom folders that you add. The default folder is "untouchable" in that manner. You can't delete or rename it.

2.10 How do I create custom folders? Can I have multiple hierarchical layers of folders?

Insert | New Folder or ALT+I, F. You can create as many of them as you want. Yes, you can have as many folder layers as you want.

2.11 What's the difference between the Quick Note and OneNote?

Actually, the Quick Note IS OneNote, just in a very small window. If you maximize the Quick Note you'll see that it's actually just a view of OneNote and any notes you type into the Quick Note window are saved in OneNote in a section called "Quick Notes." If you are in OneNote and you shrink the window down at some point (usually around 1/4th of the screen or a little smaller) the view will change and you'll see the Quick Note view.

2.12 Is there a keyboard shortcut to pop up a Quick Note? What about the full OneNote window?

Yes. WindowsKey + N pops up a Quick Note. To get the full OneNote window try WindowsKey + SHIFT + N.

2.13 How do I move a text container between different pages in my section?

The standard answer is that you have to cut or copy and paste. You can't easily drag & drop between pages however there is a workaround. If you open two OneNote windows (Window | New Window) and set one of the windows to be your source page and the other to be the page you wish to move the container to, you can drag and drop from one to the other.

2.14 Does OneNote support AutoShapes (drawing) like Word does?

Not at this time but it's coming in the next version. Naturally you can use your pen (or mouse if you're really talented) to freehand draw any shapes that you like.

2.15 How do I assign a reminder pop-up to a task or to-do item in OneNote?

You can't currently. Your best course is to send the task to Outlook, which does support reminders.

2.16 How do I use stationery in OneNote?

2.161 Can I create custom templates and stationery?

Yes, just set up the page the way you want it, then click File | New and on the bottom of the File | New taskpane you should should see the stationery section including a choice to "Add Current Page to Stationery."

2.162 Where is the stationery located?

2.17 How do I print all of the pages in a section?

2.18 I don't see any way to enter a page title?

2.19 How do I alphabetize the tabs on the right side of the screen?

Manually. There isn't any automatic sort feature in the current version. You'll need to use your mouse and grab the tab, drag to the right and then up or down to reorder the tabs in whatever order you like (including alphabetical).

3. Storing and Sharing Notes?

3.01 How do I save my notes?

You don't have to. OneNote automatically saves the notes every 30 seconds, or whenever you close the application or a section. You can configure how often you want OneNote to save by going to Tools | Options | Open and Save.

If you really want to save immediately, though, you can just press CTRL+S to force a save.

3.02 Can Notes be shared between two computers?

Yes. If the computers connect to a network you can create a custom folder and place it in a shared location. Keep in mind that sections are locked so two computers cannot edit the same page, or two pages within the same section, at the same time. But you can use them at different times or two of you can work in different sections of the same folder at the same time.

The next version improves this process quite a bit and does enable multiple computers to edit the same page at the same time.

If you need to transport notes between two computers that are not connected your options are a bit more limited. You can place your shared folder on a removable drive or CDRW and transport the media back and forth -- but that presumes that you have a CD-burner on both machines. Your best bet in this case might be one of those USB mini-drives. Keep in mind that if you start OneNote without that removable media available to it you'll get an error message telling you that it can't find the shared notebook and asking if you want to keep it as a notebook it should try to open by default.

3.03 How can I share my OneNote files with a colleague who doesn't have OneNote?

1) File | E-mail and e-mail the OneNote file as an HTML document. This requires you to have Outlook 2003, but it only requires the other person to have a mail client that supports HTML (such as Outlook 2000 or Outlook XP).

2) File | Publish to publish the OneNote file as an HTML file; then you can share that HTML file with the other person and they can view it in any browser.

3.04 I want to use the Shared Workspace feature, but the Shared Workspace pane is dimmed or grayed out. I do have a SharePoint server, what do I do?

To enable that pane you have to save a note file to the SharePoint server either by Save As, Publish or you can just copy it over there in the file system.

3.05 Can I archive my notes? What about backing them up?

There isn't any archive feature in the user interface, but you can do it at the file system level by simply archiving the .ONE files in your notebook folders. Likewise you can do a backup of the .ONE files and OneNote includes an automatic backup feature that will make copies of your .ONE files as you go in order to significantly reduce the chances that a .ONE file could get corrupted or destroyed in an unrecoverable manner.

3.06 Can I backup my notes to a network or removable drive?

Yes, in fact that's a good idea. Just go to Tools | Options | Open & Save and set the backup location to be the network or removable drive. Keep in mind that this works much better, of course, with machines that are always connected to that network or removable drive.

3.07 Should I change the default backup interval?

It's probably not necessary. OneNote automatically backs up, by default, every 1 day. If you're a heavy user you might want to set that to be a little more frequent or if you have a particularly slow machine you might consider setting it to be a little less frequent.

4. Digital Ink

4.1 What languages does Digital Ink support?

International & American English, French, German, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and Korean.

4.1.1 Can I use Digital Ink even if I don't have a Tablet PC?

Sort of. If you have a digitizer like the Wacom unit shown at 9.20 below you can do pen input. A digitizer is a device that attaches to your computer and accepts input from a pen-like device. Digitizers are built into the screens of tablet PCs and most PDAs. It's worth pointing out that the digitizers on Tablet PCs are generally much better than the ones you attach to a desktop computer - the sample rate is much higher so the quality of the writing recognition should be much better.

To get Digital Ink, however, you'll also need to install the Tablet PC version of Windows XP on your machine. It's a superset of WindowsXP and seems to like alternate input devices much better. Easy to install, but rather hard to get your hands on. The hitch here is that the Tablet PC Operating System isn't available at retail. You either have to buy a Tablet PC or get it via an MSDN subscription. If you want an MSDN subscription you can order one through Amazon.com -- see section 9.30 below.

4.2 How can I get OneNote to properly recognize that I am handwriting (instead of drawing) on my Tablet PC?

One thing that can help is to make sure that the rule lines you're using are appropriate for your particular handwriting. See View | Rule lines to adjust them. If you tend to write big you'll want larger rule lines, and vice-versa.

4.2.1 How can I make my handwriting more accurate in OneNote? (thanks to Chris Pratley for the info!)

4.3 When I'm writing on my Tablet PC the selection tool keeps getting selected without my asking for it. How can I get it to stay in pen mode?

2. If you have a Toshiba tablet try disabling the "Symbol Commander" which tries to guess what you're trying to do based upon gestures.

3. Try going to Tools | Options | Handwriting and uncheck the box for automatically selecting Pen or Selection tool.

4.4 I'd like there to be a finer pen than the ones provided.

Then you're in luck. Select the pen you would like to have finer. Click Tools | Drawing and Writing Tools | Pens | Customize Current Pen. You'll find a setting that lets you specify how fine (or thick) you want the pen to be.

4.4.1 I wish there were more colors of pens.

See 4.4; another setting there lets you choose between 40 different colors of pen.

4.4.2 I set the pen to .35 thickness but it's still too thick!

Try turning off pressure sensitivity (Tools | Options | Handwriting). It may be that you're pressing too hard and that causes the ink to appear thicker.

5. Using with Other Programs

5.01 Can I import my Outlook Notes into OneNote?

Just drag and drop the Outlook note where you want it in OneNote and it will be there.

5.02 How do I drag text from a web page into my note?

Use your mouse (or keyboard) select the text you want to copy over from your browser, then drag it to the OneNote window and drop it on the note page where you want it. If OneNote is minimized just drag to the taskbar, pause over the OneNote tab on the Taskbar until OneNote opens then drag to where you want it on the OneNote page and drop.

You can only drop it on the current OneNote page. There isn't any way to navigate to other pages, folders or sections while you're dragging. If you want it to appear on a different section or page you'll need to drop it on the current page, then cut/copy and paste it on the page/section where you want it.

5.03 I see that I can create an Outlook task from OneNote, what about Calendar or Contact items?

Yes, with SP1 or later you can, though the feature only populates the Notes section of those items. One of the wish list items for the next version is for improved integration there and we will be seeing that improvement.

5.04 Can I use the File | E-mail feature with Eudora? What about Outlook 2002?

Nope - it requires Outlook 2003. You can still attach your .ONE files to an e-mail message, like any other file, using Eudora, earlier versions of Outlook or any other mail client that supports file attachments, of course.

5.05 I heard I can use my Logitech digital pen to send text to OneNote. I don't see that option, though!

(Thanks to Lori Birtley for this!) The Logitech software has a button to send the page to OneNote. One thing to be aware of is that it sends the page as an image and you cannot convert the hand written text to type written text (or search across the handwritten text since OneNote sees the page as a big image).

The software that has the OneNote button is new and available to download from the Logitech site: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/page=downloads/software&CRID=1808&contentid=7165&countryid=19&languageid=1

6. Using OneNote - Tricks

6.01 How can I insert the current date and/or time in my note?

If you're running SP1 or later you can do it with Insert | Date & Time or by pressing ALT+SHIFT+F

6.02 Can I zoom in and out with OneNote?

Yes, as a matter of fact you can. Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+= and it will zoom in for you. Keep pressing it to zoom in more and more. CTRL+ALT+- (the minus sign from the numeric keypad) will zoom back out again.

If you want to have a Zoom button on the toolbar you can add it. Click View | Toolbars | Customize, go to the All Commands category and at the very bottom of the command list you'll find Zoom. Drag and drop it to your toolbar where you want it.

6.03 I want to record an audio note from a source not listed, how?

If you can hook up your audio source to the mic jack on your computer you can record easily that way. Most audio devices will be able to connect that way -- usually with a simple audio cable connected from the "Headphones" or "Speaker" jack on the audio device to the mic jack on the computer.

6.04 What does "Adjust Outline Structure?" do?

It removes skipped outline levels. For example if you have an outline that looks like this:

I. This is my first level.
1. This is my second level, but it's actually on the third level.

It moves the second level item up to the real second level. So it will look like this:

6.05 What if I want to quickly open a side note, but want to open the same side note I last worked on and not a new one?

Click the toolbar icon to open a new side note, then click the back arrow button from the toolbar that appears at the bottom to switch to your previous side note.

6.06 How can I find my various audio notes quickly?

Best trick is to create a custom note flag called "Audio" (or whatever you would like to call it) and assign that note flag every time you're recording an audio note. Then the Note Flags Summary will be able to show you an aggregate of all your audio notes.

6.10 I have a page I want to make a subpage of one of my other pages, how can I do that?

Click the page you want to be the main page, then hold down CTRL and click the page that you want to be the subpage. Right-click either page and select "Group Pages." Keep in mind that whichever page tab is higher will be the page that becomes the main page.

6.11 I have a subpage that I want to be a regular page, how can I pull it out from under the page?

6.12 How do I delete a specific piece of stationery?

1. The correct way is to move the "my stationery.one" out of the templates folder and into your My Notebook folder, then delete the page you want to remove, close the section and move it back to templates. To delete all custom pages, just delete the file from templates.

Templates is a hidden folder here: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\

(Thanks to MVP Diane Poremsky for this answer)

2. If you're running the SP1 preview you can now from within OneNote. Choose Format->Stationery, then click on the plus next to "My Stationery" so you can see your custom stationery pages. Then right-click on the >one you want to delete and pick "Delete".

6.13 How can I create a custom template in OneNote?

Create your custom template, then save it as a new stationery by opening the New taskpane and clicking the "Save Current Page as Stationery" link at the bottom of the task pane.

6.14 How do I create links to files?

1. You can drag and drop the file to your OneNote page. That will create a link and create a copy of the file in your My Notebook folder. Keep in mind that if you edit the file from OneNote that the changes will NOT be reflected in your original source file. Conversely any subsequent changes in your original source file will not be reflected in the copy linked in OneNote.

2. You can create a file link in OneNote that points at the original file. The link format is like this:

Where you use the correct path and filename to the document you want to link. There is a nifty freeware tool to make this easier, it's called Clipname and you can find it here.

6.2 How do I insert a symbol?

Use the Character Map (Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools) to find the symbol you want and copy/paste it into OneNote. If it's a symbol you expect to use a lot create an AutoCorrect entry for it. Tools | AutoCorrect and create a new entry -- use an uncommon string (like "sss") and have AutoCorrect replace it with the symbol you want.

6.3 How do I draw a straight line?

6.60 Why doesn't my text container drop where I let go of the mouse? I drop it and it moves slightly one way or the other?

You probably have "Snap to Grid" turned on. Go to Edit | Snap to Grid to turn it off.

6.61 Can I move a text container using the arrow keys?

Yes, but not only the arrow keys. If you right-click the brown header on the text container and select "Move" you can then use the arrow keys to move the container up, down, left or right. So you do need the mouse to start the process, then you can use the keyboard.

6.7 How can I view a list of my most recently edited notes?

6.8 How can I quickly grab a screen capture?

Assuming OneNote is running at least in the system tray just press Windows Key + S.

6.8.1 I started to get a screen capture then changed my mind. How can I cancel it?

7. Troubleshooting

7.01 I can't get my audio recordings to play back!

You have to have Windows Media Player 8 or greater and DirectX 8.1 installed in order for the playback of audio recordings to work. If you don't have them go to Windows Update where you should be able to download and install them.

If you downloaded DirectX 9.0 from Windows Update you may find that you have other problems; 9.0a is now available for download through Windows Update and seems to resolve the problem.

7.02 I recorded an audio recording but I don't see any icon for it, what happened?

You have to type a note while recording so that there is a note for the audio recording to be associated with. The icon for the Audio Recording will appear just to the left of the note. If you don't want to type a note, just start a new note that simply says "Audio" while it's recording. That's sufficient to get the icon.

7.03 OneNote is running VERY slowly. It takes more than 10 seconds to open and more than 7 seconds to change sections.

One user reported similar symptoms being caused by running SETI@Home. If you're running SETI you might try turning it off, at least temporarily, and see if the problem goes away.

7.04 The File | E-mail menu item is grayed out.

2) Go to Internet Explorer, Tools | Internet Options | Programs and make sure Outlook is configured to be your default mail client.

7.041 When I try to send e-mail I get an error that the Remote Procedure Call failed!

Some people have reported that result if they have McAfee SpamKiller running. Try turning it off and see what happens.

7.05 When I try to install OneNote I get a 1309 (or 1311) error!

Try copying the installation files from the CD to your hard drive and try installing again. That has worked for some people.

7.06 My icons appear garbled in OneNote and Office 2003!

Check your video display properties (Start | Settings | Control Panel) and make sure you're set to 32-bit color and not 16-bit color.

7.07 How can I get it to print the rule lines on the page?

7.08 When I go to Tools | Options | Backup | Backup Now I get an error message that says it cannot complete the operation.

Make sure you don't have your backup folder isn't set to the same directory as your My Notebook folder. Tools | Options | Open & Save.

7.09 I can't get video recordings to work. In Tools | Options | Audio and Video the camera choice is greyed out!

See 7.01. Same fix.

7.10 Since installing SP1 the tray icon for OneNote has disappeared and I can't seem to get it back.

Yes, that's a known issue.

Create a new text file using Notepad (or the text editor of your choice) and paste everything between the ====s into it.

============
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\OneNote]
"FirstBoot"= -
============

Name that file: ontray.reg and save it somewhere like the desktop where you can easily find it. Close OneNote and Double-click the Ontray.reg file to add the relevant line to your registry. Restart your computer and it should work fine.

You can download the file, already made, here. Please note - this file is provided without warranty or guarantee. Please make sure you have a known-good backup of your system before you add/edit anythingto your registry.

7.11 My OneNote has crashed and when I try to open it I get an "An Unknown Error Occurred While Opening This Section" error. What can I do?

First thing I'd do is see if you can restore from a backup version of your data file. If that doesn't work, try starting OneNote with the /ForceRepair switch. (Start | Run | onenote /forcerepair)

If that doesn't work there is one more thing you can do (NOTE: THIS IS NOT SUPPORTED - DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK)

You should make sure you have a copy of your file, even if corrupted, in a safe place before doing this. Similarly to the /forcerepair option, execute the same command line you did, but use /forcerepairfull this time, like in: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Onenote.exe" /forcerepairfull "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Notebook\Quick Notes.one" Again, this is not the normal file recovery mode. If it works, the recovered content might not be as well structured as it was.

(Thanks to Microsoft's Benoit Barabe for this information)

8. More Information and Resources?

8.01 The Official Microsoft OneNote page: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/onenote/default.asp

8.02 An interesting InfoWorld column about OneNote: http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/11/22/021125opcurve_1.html

8.03 Bill Gates' Comdex introduction and demo of OneNote: http://www.microsoft.com/office/onenote/images/OneNote_Demo_Comdex_300k.asx

8.04 Transcript of Microsoft OneNote Chat from March 20th, 2003.

8.05 Transcript of the Microsoft OneNote Chat from June 12th, 2003.

8.06 The Official Microsoft Community page for OneNotehttp://www.thespoke.net/MyBlog/bschorr/MyBlog.aspx

8.08 The Insider's Guide to OneNote 2003 - a free eBook from Microsoft.

8.10 Microsoft Public Newsgroups: Microsoft.Public.OneNote - To get it in your newsreader (Outlook Express?) you can add a news account for the public Microsoft newsserver at msnews.microsoft.com. In the web interface just drill down through the Office groups.

8.11 Tablet PC Mailing List: http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/tabletpc.

8.20 Tablet PC Home -- Good source for discussions and information about Tablet PCs.

8.21 Frederick Zimmerman's OneNoteInfoCenter.

8.22 Tablet Creations - Chris Hassler's Tablet PC site.

8.23 The Tablet PC.NET - Terry Stratton's Tablet PC site.

8.24 Chris Pratley's Blog (lots of OneNote information): http://weblogs.asp.net/chris_pratley/

8.25 The SchorrTech Blog - I try to post OneNote info as it arrives.

8.26 TabletPC2 - MVP Linda Epstein's excellent resource for Tablet PC information

8.27 Kathy Jacobs' excellent OneNote Stationery site.

8.28 Office for Lawyers - a site with information about Microsoft Office for Attorneys.

8.30 Print to OneNote Powertoy

8.90 How do I suggest new OneNote features to Microsoft?

A2: Post it in the microsoft.public.onenote newsgroup. Members of the OneNote team do monitor that group from time to time and if I see a particularly valuable feature suggestion I always try to forward it along to the proper team members.

9. Great Gear

9.01 Tablet PC Quick Reference - A good book for Tablet owners to have on hand.

9.02 How to do everything with your Tablet PC - by Bill Mann

9.03 Microsoft OneNote 2003 for Windows - by Todd Carter and Diane Poremsky

9.04 Complete Guide to OneNote - by W. Frederick Zimmerman

9.05 Absolute Beginners Guide to Microsoft OneNote 2003 - by Patricia Cardoza

9.06 Essentials: Microsoft Office InfoPath and OneNote2003 - by Fox and Metzelaar

9.10 Compaq TC1000T Tablet PC - One of the least expensive Tablet PCs on the market.

9.11 Toshiba Portege 3505 Tablet PC - More expensive than the Compaq, but more powerful and full-featured as well.

9.12 Viewsonic Tablet PC V1100 - P3-866, 256MB RAM

9.13 NEC VersaLite Tablet PC - A slate tablet with a 933Mhz Pentium 3.

9.20 Wacom Graphire2 Pen, Mouse and Tablet Set - One of the standards in the field - add pen and Ink capability to your desktop or laptop PC.

9.21 Aiptek HyperPen 8000U digitizer - A relatively inexpensive way to add handwriting and ink capability to your desktop and notebook PC.

9.22 Logitech io Personal Digital Pen

9.30 MSDN Universal Subscription - If you don't have a Tablet PC this is the best way to get the Tablet OS for your desktop or laptop machine. Note that this configuration is only supported for developers.

9.31 Tablet Planner for Tablet PC - by Franklin Covey

9.32 Microsoft OneNote: The program itself!

10. Utilities

With the advent of SP1 OneNote now has a limited API and already we're starting to see some utilities come available for OneNote. (Note: I have not tested each and every one of these so I can't vouch for their quality)

10.1 Palm-to-OneNote Importer - A tool to let you import notes from your Palm-based device to OneNote.
10.1.1 Memone - Another Palm to OneNote tool.
10.2 PP2One - An importer to send PowerPoint presentations to OneNote.
10.3 Microsoft Education Pack for TabletPC - a collection of utilities designed to appeal to students who use Tablet PCs. Of particular interest to OneNote users is the equation editor which makes it easy to write equations in digital ink, have them recognized and you can then copy/paste to OneNote.

11. The Wishlist - The Most Popular Feature Requests for Future Versions of OneNote

11.1 Internal Links

It's in the new version. See section 12.3 below or visit Owen Braun's Blog for more info

11.2 Hide Subpages

Another popular request is the ability to use a +/- button to show/hide subpages. For pages with a large number of subpages this would greatly simplify and clean up the display. To vote on this suggestion click here.

11.3 Bidirectional task syncing with Outlook

You can create tasks in Outlook from OneNote but when you mark the task complete in either program it doesn't mark the same task complete in the other program. Popular feature request is to link the two tasks so that if it is marked complete in one, the other will show that status as well. To vote on this suggestion click here.

11.4 Mathematical Equations

One area OneNote is weak in for students is that it doesn't natively support an equation editor for inserting mathematical equations. This suggestion is to add support for this capability. To vote on this suggestion click here.

One workaround here is to use the Tablet PC Educational Pack (see: Utilities, above) which has an equation editor in it.

12. The Next OneNote! (this currently relates to OneNote 2007 but soon will be updated...)

12.1 Chris Pratley's Blog: Chris has been the most vocal about the new features in OneNote 12 (Codename) which isn't surprising considering he's the Program Manager for OneNote.

12.2 Owen Braun's Blog: I'm not sure what Owen's actual title is but I've always thought of him as Chris's right-hand-man (see above) and his blog is another great source of info about the new version.

12.3 Will the next version have...

12.4 Why don't you just list all of the new features?

Guess what?! Microsoft said I can now. Read our OneNote 12 report here. The report is not a comprehensive list, you'll undoubtedly find more at Chris or Owen's blogs.