
Tips to Unlock the Potential of Microsoft OneNote (2014) - Tomte
http://onthehub.com/blog/10-tips-to-unlock-the-potential-of-microsoft-onenote
======
BinaryIdiot
(Sorry, this turned into a little bit of a rant)

I love OneNote. Big problem though is the organization. Once you get more
than, say, 8 tabs (more like 2-3 on mobile) it's a pain in the ass to find the
others. Sure you can organize them so maybe nest them but eventually you're
either going to run into having too many tabs in one place or too many pages
in another (on my computer's resolution having about 20 pages under a tab and
now I have to scroll which is a huge pain in the ass). Tags are half assed
because you can't organize around them only search.

Honestly I tried making Evernote, OneNote and Google Drive my go-to places for
notes. But I keep running into two issues:

1\. I want my notes and documents to be in the same place. In fact many notes
turn into documents and sometimes vice versa. The definition of either one is
so blurred to me right now that I end up not doing anything because I can't
decide if something is a note or document.

2\. Organization is really freaking important. Google Drive can work well for
this (to a degree; it takes forever to open something nested though because
the UI is far slower than anything native) but OneNote just isn't good enough.
Evernote is okay as I would tag everything but even sub tags are wonky; at
least last time I used it I couldn't search for a parent tag and get the
children. Plus I've lost data with Evernote before so I can't go back to that.

I started picking up writing a little side project and decided to use GitLab +
Markdown for this. So far it's actually not that bad but I miss spell checking
and easy mobile access. Sure I found an app that let's me edit the markdown on
my phone but it's a pain in the ass. Worst I can't embed multimedia and it's
not easy to use in this regard anyway.

I need something that's going to be reliable and around for along time too so
I usually steer clear of the very new start-ups; I don't want to invest
putting my hundreds of notes and documents into the thing only to have them go
bankrupt or pivot months later. I'm thinking about trying Microsoft Office 365
next using it in much the same way as Google Drive but this time I can open
stuff in the native apps.

~~~
rabboRubble
I got around the tab issue by knowing Chinese. My longest tab name length is
3. Everything else is 2. Doesn't help you much I'm sure (although you could
try things like TD for To Do) but I'm quite pleased with the solution!

計畫, 家服, etc.

~~~
BinaryIdiot
That's quite clever! Yeah doesn't directly help me but I'll think about the
abbreviations as that's not a bad idea.

------
idm
I recently released an open source note taking application called gthnk
([http://gthnk.com](http://gthnk.com)). It's based around markdown-formatted
text files, in part because I do not want to commit my thoughts to a
proprietary format that may not be readable in a decade or a century.

~~~
Tomte
How do you handle Screenshots?

I never thought it was important. Now I'm screenshotting a lot.

~~~
idm
my workflow is like this on OS X:

1\. use hotkey to capture screen or portion of screen

2\. screenshot is automatically stored as PNG on Desktop

3\. click-drag PNG onto gthnk attachments target

4\. done. now it is stored with that day's entries

Updated to add: the PNG itself is stored in a SQLite3 database. However, each
night gthnk exports the database to the filesystem because, for future
retrieval purposes, I think it will be easier to retrieve items from a
filesystem than an obscure database format.

~~~
hackuser
> each night gthnk exports the database to the filesystem because, for future
> retrieval purposes, I think it will be easier to retrieve items from a
> filesystem than an obscure database format.

In 20 years, how do I know which binary blob goes with which text file, and
also with what point in each text file?

I want add: It's so wonderful to hear a developer concerned with these issues.
Almost always, future-proofed data is an accident or afterthought, which means
I can't depend on it being implemented well or being supported in the long
term. It puts gthnk on my shortlist.

~~~
idm
I will need to document this, but it's an important question.

\- All attachments are named using the datestamp, so the first attachment
today would be called 2016-01-19-0.pdf or whatever.

\- The entries are also named using the datestamp, so we end up with a text
file like 2016-01-19.md.

\- The markdown itself contains an explicit link to the attachment; it is
automatically inserted during export.

\- However, datestamp acts as a primary key so that entries and attachments
can be paired using another technique.

Finally, attachments are linked to days. It is not currently supported to
associate an attachment with a specific entry on any given day.

------
mynegation
No. I have been burned couple of times and since then I refuse to store my
digital notes in anything else than a bunch of minimally-formatted (think
Markdown or potentially org-mode) files.

OneNote binary blob format, while nominally open, is supported on a limited
number of platforms by a single company.

~~~
Tomte
That's great in theory, but utterly impracticable on the phone etc.

And the "limited number of platforms" includes everything 98% of people are
using.

I do sympathize with your views, but I value convenience more, in this case.

~~~
idm
On the specific point of mobile note capture, I believe I have solved this
problem in my own text file-based system.

I use dropbox to sync a text file from my phone and a separate file from my
tablet. These text files are managed by gthnk
([http://gthnk.com](http://gthnk.com)), which combines all of these files
overnight. By the next morning, all of my notes are together no matter where I
originally wrote the note.

~~~
prplhaz4
With most current note-taking systems, the sync is near-real-time - which, is
super handy when moving from the conference room or on-the-go on your phone to
your desk/laptop during the day - an overnight sync in that scenario doesn't
meet requirements.

I'd imagine it wouldn't be too far fetched to utilize a sync service like your
current solution for flat files in a more real-time manner...

~~~
idm
That's an excellent point about real-time sync. There is a button in gthnk
that will grab any notes from mobile devices on-demand. I think this would
permit somebody to move from a conference to their desk. However, I can also
see how/why that might be tiresome for somebody who frequently transitions
devices multiple times per day.

Also, you're right; there's no deep architectural reason why you couldn't sync
more frequently than once per day.

------
zubspace
Last year I started importing my firefox bookmarks into OneNote with OneNote
Clipper. In theory this awesome:

\+ Ability to organize bookmarks with searchable content.

\+ No more dead bookmarks.

\+ Boomark into a quick notes section and organize later.

Some drawbacks:

\- Clipper does not work in article mode on some websites (github and reddit
for example...)

\- Syncing sometimes does not work and theres no way to see why. For example
pages with lots of images.

\- Clipper cannot create new sections.

I'm quite happy with the solution, but still sceptical, because if stuff does
not work, I'm on my own.

~~~
JupiterMoon
Have you tried Zotero for this. Works brilliantly and it is relatively easy to
export to a form of bibtex.

~~~
zubspace
Thank you, I will definitely give it a try. Never heard of "reference
management software" before, so I learned something today.

------
josephpmay
Over the past year, OneNote has become my go-to notetaking app and the app I
use the most out of the office suite. Sharesheet integration with iOS makes it
incredibly easy to save links from my phone, and it's whiteboard scanning
tools are unmatched.

------
hackuser
Some people are saying they don't want to use OneNote because they don't want
to store their data in a binary, proprietary format that's not future-proof. I
agree.

But I think we're not defining the problem well by focusing on the
application: A failure of the tech community is that we never provided the
equivalent of a plain text format for the multimedia age: An open, universal
mixed-media file format.

With a standard format we'd have editors popping up that target it, the way we
have such a great ecosystem of text editors. HTML does the job in a way, but
it's not portable. One of the HTML archive formats might do the job, but none
are widely supported (AFAIK).

~~~
gvb
How about MIME?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME)

* ASCII encoded / support for other character sets

* Mixed media

* Standard

* Battle tested

~~~
frik
several browsers and email programs support MIME incl IE9-11 (.mht), Opera
(12?)

It's called MHTL:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.mht](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.mht)

~~~
scholia
You can also add MHTML support to Firefox and probably Chrome...

------
Flow
The Mac App Store version of OneNote doesn't have the drawing tools. I could
see things I written and drawn at work, using a Windows computer, but at home
they were more like pictures than drawings.

~~~
achow
Also, lack of basic image editing tools.

I do lot of research and often store bunch of screenshots but inability to do
basic image cropping really puts me off! For almost all the images I store I
need to chop off non-relevant part, but have to do it outside OneNote. It gets
tiresome very soon (take screenshot, paste in a image editor, crop it, save it
and then insert it in OneNote).

~~~
Bjartr
One possible efficiency gain you might be able to use is the Snipping Tool if
you're on windows (and I'd bet OSX has an equivalent). It lets you drag a box
around a part of your screen, takes it as an image, which you can then copy to
your clipboard with one click (or ctrl-c I believe)

------
roel_v
For note taking during meetings where people draw a lot on whiteboards, I once
tried to set up a workflow that would let me take a picture from my Android
phone, in one click (with a link on the home screen), and would then
automatically send that picture to my laptop and put it into OneNote.
Preferably through bluetooth so that I don't need an internet connection. I
couldn't even get the first part to work, despite spending half a day messing
around with Tasker and Pushbullet. That would be a killer feature for me.

~~~
achow
Have you tried Office Lens?

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.officelens&hl=en)

"Never miss notes on a whiteboard or blackboard, and never look for misplaced
documents or business cards, missing receipts or stray sticky notes again!
Office Lens makes your pictures magically readable and re-useable. Capture
content right into OneNote with automatic trimming and clean up."

[https://www.onenote.com/apps](https://www.onenote.com/apps)

------
paulus_magnus2
"Working on something kind of similar: \- vector graphics/drawings created by
freehand / writing [http://write-
live.com/d/dba21681-8d3f-4fbe-8b4b-e5c1983df934](http://write-
live.com/d/dba21681-8d3f-4fbe-8b4b-e5c1983df934)

[http://write-live.com/d/8f9b7846-a7b9-4e5c-b704-dad9aa87d14e](http://write-
live.com/d/8f9b7846-a7b9-4e5c-b704-dad9aa87d14e)

\- unlimited* levels of zoom [http://docs.write-
live.com/WriteliveServer/webview.html?d=34...](http://docs.write-
live.com/WriteliveServer/webview.html?d=3483c3de-b329-4af1-97d7-2d7f27d96ad1)

\- draw on a tablet, view on tablet / web [http://write-
live.com/d/538254c5-7d31-41f2-83bb-bcd0a7cee7ab](http://write-
live.com/d/538254c5-7d31-41f2-83bb-bcd0a7cee7ab)

A bit like if google docs had a baby with OneNote"

------
parktheredcar
Why ideas why Microsoft doesn't officially support OneNote plugin development?
I was trying to put something together the other day to bulk insert pages and
it took hours just to piece together a working VS project that was compatible
with OneNote 2013.

~~~
mattchamb
Did you try the REST API? [http://dev.onenote.com/docs#/reference/post-
pages](http://dev.onenote.com/docs#/reference/post-pages)

~~~
parktheredcar
I didn't, I was hoping to work on the desktop app with offline files.

------
clumsysmurf
"5\. Use tags for better organization"

I'm still waiting for the Mac version to get custom Tags. They only give you a
few canned options like Project A and Project B :/

------
Ezhik
If anyone's interested, I have been working on this template tool for OneNote:
[http://notegram.me](http://notegram.me)

It's made with the OneNote cloud API, so you don't need to install anything,
and can use it with iOS/Android/Mac/etc. versions.

------
s_kilk
One thing I missed while evaluating OneNote (and coming from Evernote) was
reminders/alarms on notes.

I searched around for a solution, but it seems the only way to do it is by
using Outlook, which I'm frankly never going to do.

------
justin_vanw
Wow, HN has changed. Doesn't anybody else run linux on the desktop anymore?

