I've read MS's descriptions of ON and watched its awful tours/demos. Before I actually install it, perhaps someone who likes it can answer a couple of questions:

1. Does it have the ability to display a tree (2-pane) interface?
2. If not, how many levels of sub-tabs are possible?
3. How well/easily/accurately does it save Web pages?

Many thanks!!!

-c

Hi Cassius,

Cassius wrote:

I've read MS's descriptions of ON and watched its awful tours/demos. Before I
actually install it, perhaps someone who likes it can answer a couple of
questions:

1. Does it have the ability to display a tree (2-pane) interface?

No, and it's its major fault, in my opinion. Microsoft sticks rigidly to the notebook paradigm.

2. If
not, how many levels of sub-tabs are possible?

You can have unlimited numbers of notebooks, each with sections or section groups, which in turn can have section groups and so on (so there is theoretically no limit to the depth you can go with sections, though the overview can quickly be lost); with each section split into an unlimited number of pages (which can be sub pages, but they're just indented pages, really).

3. How well/easily/accurately does
it save Web pages?

It's not designed to save whole pages with formatting, and it doesn't attempt to make any use of style sheets, formatting etc. So pages are saved more as a bunch of stuff rather than a laid-out page. It's really meant just to save snippets from web pages, such as pictures or text, which is does well. Note: Only IE has the toolbar add in to save a webpage to OneNote. There was one for the previous version for FireFox, but I've not yet seen this for OneNote 2007.

Graham

Many thanks!!!

-c

Perhaps I should add that you can open an "Windows Explorer-like" pane in One-Note, which shows the notebooks and sections is a tree-like form (if you squint a bit), and which does make it possible to find a section quickly.

I'm not sure what you're asking in No. 2. By 'tabs' do you mean graphical tabs or hierarchical levels? Hierarchical levels are unlimited, mainly because OneNote relies on the Windows file system. Sections are files, section groups are folders, notebooks are root level folders. Pages and sub-pages, however, are devices within OneNote. So, as to visible tabs, you have a row of pages and subpages (on the right, but you can reposition it). On the left, a row of open notebooks. And on the top, the chosen hierarchical level of sections or section groups within the notebook. A literal answer to your question is that you can display four levels of tabs, but you can choose which intermediate and higher levels to display.

I don't mind that the tree folds out. I see its problem as mainly the, as yet, rudimentary capabilities of the tree, limiting the efficiency of reorganization therein.

Cassius wrote:

I've read MS's descriptions of ON and watched its awful tours/demos. Before I
actually install it, perhaps someone who likes it can answer a couple of
questions:

1. Does it have the ability to display a tree (2-pane) interface?
2. If
not, how many levels of sub-tabs are possible?
3. How well/easily/accurately does
it save Web pages?

Many thanks!!!

-c

OneNote has an additional organizational view that might serve as a "tree" view. In the Notebooks panel (which is on the left side of the screen), there is a button called "All Notebooks." Clicking this opens a horizontal version of your notebooks. This is helpful when you've got several notebook "opened" on the Notebooks panel, where screen space is limited. In essence this "All Notebooks" button provides a menu of notebooks, groups and sections to choose from.

OneNote does a good job capturing content from web pages, but, as has been said, does not capture the structure or layout of the web page.

Personally, I prefer the notebook metaphore to the tree metaphore, though I agree that a tree view can be useful at times.

Steve Z.

Cassius wrote:

3. How well/easily/accurately does it save Web pages?

I finally registered here, because I've been reading this forum for a while, and it has been very helpful in focusing in on a primary program to use. I pretty much ended up with OneNote, but more about that process some other time, perhaps.

One of my biggest concerns with OneNote is that it does NOT save web pages accurately. I also use Surfulator, and it's much better for that specific purpose. (OneNote is so flexible in so many other ways that I decided to go with it.)

The problem with OneNote is that it saves web pages almost randomly, with a tendency to a vertical sequence: first you might see everything that's on the left, then you see what's in the middle, then you see what was on the right. I lived with it, but not without tweaking: I'd import that page, then spend a few minutes cleaning it up so that what showed in OneNote was the important stuff, that piece of the page that when I come back to it some time later, I'll know why I saved it.

Then I finally clued in to another OneNote trick, that also works well in Firefox. ("Send to OneNote" only works in Explorer.) Now it's what I use regularly: when I'm on a web page and want to save some part of it, I do "Windows + S", which lightens the page and puts a special cursor on screen. Use the cursor to draw a box around the piece you want, then you can copy that piece over to OneNote. Unfortunately, you can't scroll down with that box, and what it brings over is an image, not a live page with hot links, but at least it's *exactly* what you saw on the web page. I then copy the URL over, which is a live link, and all of that is 90% of what I'll usually need. It's not always what I want (what Surfulator does with web pages is what I want...), but it works well enough, and fast enough, that it suits me. I haven't been doing this long enough to test whether any of the imported material is indexed and searchable; I suspect not, which is a problem. Usually I make the title of the page specific enough to find it when I need it; one can always add key words too.

By the way, I was reluctant to abandon the tree structure, but this notebook metaphor works well. I especially like that I can put *anything* on the page *anywhere*. I'm not using OneNote for highly structured information, like Contacts, but it's great for a vast number of items. I clip reviews, save receipts, make lists, collect articles, outline projects, post future ideas, and just throw in everything I have. If it goes more or less on the right page in the right notebook, I can find it without searching. (Which is great, because searching is also not a strong point of OneNote, or at least I haven't mastered it.)

- bboyd

bboyd wrote:

I haven't been doing this long enough to test
whether any of the imported material is indexed and searchable; I suspect not, which
is a problem.

In OneNote you need to right click on the image and choose "Make Text in Image Searchable". It only works at the moment for US English, French and Spanish. When the image is clear, such as a screen capture from a website, it indexes without problem. The search in OneNote is the native Window's search and, to my taste, is rather slow.

Graham

bboyd wrote:

when I'm on a web page and want to save some part of it, I do "Windows + S", which lightens
the page and puts a special cursor on screen. Use the cursor to draw a box around the
piece you want, then you can copy that piece over to OneNote. Unfortunately, you can't
scroll down with that box, and what it brings over is an image, not a live page with hot
links, but at least it's *exactly* what you saw on the web page. I then copy the URL over,

Instead of creating a screen clipping, which is very useful but only for small areas, you may select what you want to copy (and in this case you can scroll down) and apply the usual Copy and Paste. OneNote automatically adds the link to the page from where you copied.

Cristina in Lisboa, Portugal

I want to thank all of you who responded to my questions about OneNote. The information you provided was sufficient for me to decide that ON is not for me. You saved me many hours of testing ON. For this I am most grateful. My sincerest THANK-YOU to each of you.

-c

Cristina Ramos wrote:

Instead of creating a screen clipping, which is
very useful but only for small areas, you may select what you want to copy (and in this
case you can scroll down) and apply the usual Copy and Paste. OneNote automatically
adds the link to the page from where you copied.

Another feature I love in OneNote is its printer. You can print from every programme (including web browsers) to OneNote.
For example, you can send a pdf file to OneNote and then annotate it to your heart's content. I do like this programme. :)

Cristina in Lisboa, Portugal

Cristina Ramos wrote:

Another feature I love in OneNote is its
printer. You can print from every programme (including web browsers) to
OneNote.
For example, you can send a pdf file to OneNote and then annotate it to your
heart's content. I do like this programme. :)

That is a great feature. I think it is safe to say there is not another program like OneNote, at least not for PC/Windows.

Steve Z.
Hubbardton, Vermont USA