OneNote – HUGE Update

OneNote, Microsoft’s answer to a note capture and planning app, has been redesigned and updated to version 16.

The biggest noticeable improvement is to the layout. The tabs and sections have moved from the top to the side.  You can choose from various notebooks quite easily on the far left side which stays hidden until you are ready to use it.

OneNote has even made it possible to import your Evernote files to OneNote using a “preview” version of an importer. Basically, you download the importer and run the installed app.

The collaboration feature to allow you to invite people to share and work on a Notebook is a powerful tool.

Using this app, you can sync, capture, organize and plan from any device you can run OneNote from.

OneNote – How to Create and Add Subpages and Tags

Microsoft OneNote is an electronic notebook – scrapbook – notetaker app all in one.

There are many features that make this app useful. First, you need to understand how a notebook is set up. The hierarchical outline form is as follows:

• Notebook
  • Section (or Section Group consisting of multiple sections)
    • Page
      • note, object, PDF, text, table, file attachment, link, shape, audio recording etc.

For example, in the Notebook created for this post – “Camera and Equipment” information about Canon Cameras and lenses was organized into various pages and sections. The setup is seen below. Such an idea is easily translated to a Trial Notebook, Deposition Notebook or other notebook for gathering information and ideas about various topics.

There are various section tabs, each of which contain pages of information. The pages are named based on the title given on the page, See e.g. EOS 70D where the name of the page appearing on the top right is the name that appears in the pages column.

It is possible to better organize notes by creating page hierarchies by indenting various pages and subpages. To accomplish this on the iPad, tap the Edit button at the top of the page column. Here, it is to the left of EOS 70D. (above).

Once you tap that edit button, you can select various pages and then indent or outdent them by tapping on the corresponding icon.

This hierarchical outlining can help you better organize your notes and information. This is a read only link to the Notebook I created so you can see how it it organized and set up. You should be able to open this with your OneNote app.

Sync

You can sync the work you do in your notebook between your iOS devices and your laptop using Microsoft’s cloud services OneDrive.

Once you login from your devices and laptop, your notebooks can be stored, accessed, and synced in that cloud space. To set up Autosync including the attachments from your iOS device, tap the little 3 hamburger icon on the top left, then tap the gear icon, then select Sync and turn on the Auto Sync Attachments.

Creating Tags, Etc.

You can create various tags, including checkboxes, highlighting, stars, etc. by tapping on the text box and tapping on the tag icon.

Then, choose from the various tag choices.

Help is Available

Microsoft has OneNote Help available for iPad. The best way to understand OneNote is to try playing around with creating a notebook. The methods for doing so are slightly different on the laptop and the iOS device. On a laptop, you can right click to perform certain tasks, on the iOS device, you can tap on the various objects to perform certain actions or tap on a text box to add text.

Conclusion

OneNote is a powerful app for gathering and organizing information, ideas, and thoughts. There are no real limitations as it is basically a fancy electronic whiteboard notebook. This brief overview is to help you start understanding the hierarchy of a notebook and organizing pages within in it.

OneNote – Embed Office Documents

Microsoft’s OneNote is a great app for capturing, sharing and organizing ideas, thoughts and various snippets. This ultimate electronic scrapbook can sync between your iOS device and your Mac version.

It takes a little while to wrap your head around the idea of the tabs and pages concept of organizing. But, once you do, it makes sense. Whether you are taking notes in class, working on a project or organizing a trip, this app allows you to store and organize the bits of stuff you need.

There is even a hand writing recognition built into the app. So, for example, you can take a picture of a hand written note, put it into OneNote and then, search or copy your hand written notes.

The experience of using this function has not been the most reliable or consistent.

This is how to use the feature, according to Microsoft:

OneNote supports Optical Character Recognition (OCR), a process that recognizes text shown in pictures. OneNote can extract the text it recognizes in pictures so you can paste it elsewhere in your notes (or into another app), where you can edit and format the text as needed. This offers a convenient way to capture useful and important information that you would otherwise have to manually retype (for example, text on a business card or on a printed purchase receipt).

Suitable pictures for text recognition include photos you’ve taken with a cell phone or other type of camera, screenshots you’ve taken on your Mac, and images you’ve scanned with a flatbed or portable scanner.

Do the following:

1. Scan or snap a picture of the text you want to capture.
2. Insert or paste the picture on any page in OneNote.
3. Control-click the picture, and then click Copy Text from Picture.TIP: Depending on the complexity, legibility, and the amount of text shown in the picture you’ve inserted, this command may not be immediately available on the menu that appears when you Control-click the picture. If OneNote is still reading and converting the text in the image, wait a few moments and then try again.
4. In your notes (or in any other app), place the cursor where you want to paste the copied text, and then press Command-V.

 

The success I have had with the feature does not come close to what Evernote can do. However, the ability to store and sync snippets of information as well as share with others is quite good.

OneNote – Digital Notebook and More

Microsoft OneNote, is a digital whiteboard / notebook app that allows you to capture notes, ideas, errands on the go or on your Mac. Your notes and ideas can be synced to the cloud via OneDrive. You can learn more about using the app from MicroSoft’s OneNote page.

The ability to clip information from the web as well as sketch and scribble ideas instead of just typing on the screen sets this app apart from some other notebook apps. You may even enjoy using the camera to take a picture of a class board or white board to capture your ideas.

What’s New in Version 15.20
“Motion Pictures” – Embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and Vine alongside your notes with the Share Extension.
**iPad Air/Mini2 and above**
Freedom of Translation- Rearrange your notes, ex post facto. Outlines, images, and other items are now free to move anywhere on a page
Flex Select- Wrangle together selections of text, images, and other page content with the lasso tool. Let the shape of your selection be bound only by your imagination (and the confines of a Euclidean plane)
Darkroom, Lite – Rotate and resize images to your heart’s content
**IPhone 5S and above + iPod 6th gen and up**
Darkroom, Lite – Rotate and resize images to your heart’s content

To learn more about using OneNote 2016 on the Mac, check out Microsoft’s Support page. This 11 minute video may assist you as well.

OneNote Supports Pencil – How to Connect

Microsoft OneNote now supports the Pencil Stylus by Fifty Three. In order to use the stylus, you have to pair it with the app. Here’s how…

To use the Pencil stylus with OneNote, perform the following steps:

1. Open OneNote on your iPad
2. Tap on Draw
3. Tap the Hand With Stylus icon on the far right
4. Tap Pencil By Fifty Three
5. Press your Pencil to the pairing spot.

Once you connect Pencil, you can draw after selecting a pen. If you hold your pencil at an angle, the mark will be a little thicker. The eraser end words as well to erase marks made.

OneNote works with other stylus devices as well. Simply tap on other stylus and tap on the icon showing how you hold a pen. This will help eliminate unintentional palm input.

Outline+ Now Supports iCloud Drive

Outline+ with OneNote Compatibility has been updated to support iCloud Drive. This app is a full featured note-taking app that can be used by students, teachers, lawyers, and other professionals.

The recent update includes the following fixes and improvements:
– Added support for two-factor authentication to OneDrive
– Highlighting of the handwritten text works more smoothly
– Fixed some issues with spellcheck behavior
– Corrected the copy-and-paste method of numbered and bulleted lists
– Fixed crash while logging in Dropbox
– Various bug fixes and improvements

The app not only works with OneNote, but its own Mac version called Outline. The Mac version of the app can be a OneNote replacement or stand alone app. If you have been looking for an that allows you to organize and capture notes, consider Outline+.

 

OneNote for iPad – OCR and Handwriting Update

OneNote for iPad has received a major update to its abilities – Handwriting and OCR for images.

The app is used to capture and share thoughts and ideas as well as organize information. The information can be synced between your iOS devices and Mac via Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud service.

The developer describes the new features as follows:

• Handwriting – Sometimes, there’s just no substitute for putting pen to paper and sketching out your next great idea. That’s why we’re introducing handwriting to OneNote. Highlight documents, scribble notes, or just doodle until your heart’s content.
• OCR for Images – Search for text contained within images in your OneNote notebooks. OCR is now supported on new images added to OneDrive notebooks. You can even copy the image text and add it to your notes. Existing images will also become searchable soon!
• Bug fixes

Be aware that the OCR function is not instantaneous. It may take some time for the function to “decode” the image. It seems to work fairly well with type. It is not clear whether handwriting recognition is working.

In any case, OneNote has taken a major step forward against Evernote as a rival for ease of capturing ideas, information and syncing.