Does OneNote have ...?

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Posted by Cassius
Jul 1, 2007 at 06:14 PM

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

Posted by Graham Rhind
Jul 1, 2007 at 07:03 PM

Hi Cassius,

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

Posted by Graham Rhind
Jul 1, 2007 at 07:06 PM

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.

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Jul 2, 2007 at 04:29 AM

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

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 2, 2007 at 01:05 PM

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.

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