Pencil and paper–quintessential school supplies—are to be replaced by keyboards and hard drives, if Microsoft has its way. Essentially a cross between an organization tool and a word processor, Microsoft OneNote 2003 offers students an intuitive note-taking experience on their computers.
“It is the software equivalent to the stack of paper on your desk,” explains Chris Pratley, group program manager at Microsoft. And like paper, OneNote allows writing on any part of a page without modifying the rest of the document. Text entered in the same region can then be grabbed as a block and moved about the page with ease.
OneNote offers students freedom to organize pages as they please, allowing for a variety of uses and formatting. Much like a three-ring binder, notes can be organized by notebook, section, folder, and even sub-page. The addition of note flags, allowing users to mark particularly important lines, is also an excellent feature.
As many students have experienced, finding something in a mass of handwritten notes can sometimes be a nightmare. With that in mind, OneNote’s searching functionality proves very useful and well-designed. Integrated into the program itself, the search feature will run through your notes, highlighting selected words and flagging them for convenient browsing.
Voice recording synced with note-taking is also extremely handy. As OneNote records a lecture, it will sync the time of the recording to any notes you may take during that lecture. Later, when the recording is played, OneNote will jump from line to line, highlighting what you were writing as the professor spoke. Picking up on missed details is a breeze as you review lectures with this tool.
Unfortunately, no program is without its drawbacks. OneNote’s primary weakness is the lack of an equation-input tool. Without such a tool, this software is rendered nearly useless for most mathematics and math-intensive courses.
“One way to think of OneNote is a place to put all the stuff you want to keep track of but don’t have a good place for in your computer,” Pratley went on to say. More than just in-class notes, you can use it to jot down information you would otherwise write on paper. OneNote can also be a convenient environment for brainstorming and developing ideas.
Generally, OneNote serves as an excellent paper-replacement. Microsoft would like users to try the software for themselves; a free 60-day trial can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/TryOneNote. The license of the full version, typically costing $99, is available at the Rensselaer Campus Computer Store for a discounted academic price of $45.
If you can stomach the price, OneNote can save you from the hassles of paper note-taking and serve as an excellent organizational tool. Whether you find it useful for classes or personal use, OneNote provides an interesting take on word processing and is definitely worth a try.
Ideally, Microsoft would work toward making this software both more affordable for students and math-friendly. Packaging it with future “Student and Teacher” editions of Microsoft Office and offering an easy-to-use equation-input tool would ensure wide adoption of this product among college students across the country.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions? I’d love to hear them. Please email me at leyzbd@rpi.edu.
