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1. George H. Reme | July 16th, 2010 at 2:25 am

   To Whom it May Interest,

   I am a dyed-in-the-wool proponent of OneNote thanks to its second iteration, 2007. While 2003 gave a tantalizing (and frustrating!) glimpse of what could be, 2007 delivered in most every way: functionality, stability, usability, and so on. I can attest that it is the best consumer program for indexing content I’ve ever come across. People, particularly students and others who need to accumulate and organize information, are disserving themselves and their projects by not using it.

   Having used the beta for several months, I was gearing up to write a gushing endorsement of 2010. While it was nothing near the gargantuan leap between 2003 and 2007, it didn’t need to be. I appreciated them refining just a few key features in my favorite program, including:

   (1) adding the ability to insert infinite sub-tabs in any given section
   (2) vastly improving the reception of files printed to OneNote–now you can choose exactly where you want each file to go
   (3) allowing greater ease in choosing where your notebook is stored
   (4) improving synchronizing capabilities. I haven’t been able to test this fully yet, but everything I’ve read suggests that they honed what was already a formidable list of ways to keep your files synced.

   Once OneNote 2010 was released, I fully intended on buying it and nothing else. Unfortunately, for students MS only discounted the Office suite and not individual programs (right now I could buy the whole suite for less than it would cost to buy the cheapest version of OneNote. That’ll eventually change; I suggest you hold out if you can). So, I contented myself with recently installing the fully-featured trial copy.

   Much to my chagrin, it was just yesterday that I also discovered a grave misstep! From my admittedly anecdotal experimenting with searching the same documents in 2007 and 2010, I have discovered that 2010 is not nearly as good at indexing images as its predecessor. Never mind that the search function itself is now less user friendly–in the past, you could scroll through search results (across sections or even notebooks) rapid-fire by hitting the “enter” key much like you would do on a browser. Now doing so only causes confusion (I think it takes you to the Recycle Bin instead)! Instead, you are supposed to enter the term you are looking for, and choose from the list that develops immediately beneath it. But I could live with this, if 2010 improved upon or maintained the quality of the searches. No such luck.

   This is a serious problem that I hope is not permanently baked into 2010. In the tutorial pages for 2007, they boasted about being able to query any term and find it–whether it be handwritten, text embedded in an image, or even SPOKEN WORD recorded (e. g. said in a lecture). Images in text seem like the easiest of the three to index, yet 2010 trips over itself to do so.

   2007 was revelatory. Were it not for this problem, I would heartily endorse 2010 as a worthwhile refinement of a truly great program. With this lapse in a key feature (at least for how I use OneNote), I am given pause. How could they get this wrong?

   I waited until today to put up the review, because I was hoping that somehow the images would get indexed overnight and my complaint would be moot. Alas, not so! I am interested, however, in having this independently verified. For any owners of 2007 reading this, please try your own experiment. I imported the scanned page of a book into both, and then searched for one of the words that was warped by the binding. 2007 found it (of course!), while 2010 failed to find even the boldfaced TITLE!

   Good luck,

   George

   *by the way, the first poster was wrong. You can export to MS Word–but images of text will merely be inserted as images, not processed into text.
   Rating: 3 / 5

2. Bible Reader | July 16th, 2010 at 4:49 am

   I have used & been utterly fascinated with this genre of software {”note-taker,” “organizer,” “outliner,” “free-form database,” “personal information manager”} for decades. I well remember using the earliest versions of “Tornado Notes” & askSam–both of which were wonderful in their time; I’ve upgraded both of those apps over the years & have tested NUMEROUS other competing programs–including MyInfo, Ultra Recall, Info Select, TreePad, & WhizFolders.

   OneNote Easily beats them ALL! There is simply no contest.

   For those of you who haven’t tried OneNote, here’s a brief description of its many benefits–While its Feature-List is Huge, Polished, & Intuitive, these are some key features:: OneNote is a great place to put ALL your notes. It lets you organize all your data & access it in a Snap. Easily add HYPERLINKS Between any Notes, or Hyperlink to websites & to other programs. It Retains Formatting when you copy from the Web or other apps, & accepts text, photos, handwriting, drawings & audio. OneNote lets you put ALL your data in a single spot & find it again in a couple clicks. Unlike cumbersome tree-based organizers, OneNote lets you organize your data into Major Categories (”Notebooks”)–such as “family” “hobbies” “projects” . . . Into Specific Topics (in Section Tabs)–like “my Wife” “Bible study notes” “Simpson Project” . . . And Into individual “Notes”–be it 2 words or a lengthy treatise. SEARCHING is indexed so the results appear even Before you’ve entered your search-string! The Notebook Names, Section Tabs, & Notes display on the sides of your screen ready to open with a Click. Text formatting is available via right-click. It Automatically Saves And Backs up your work. In short, OneNote offers you the ability to manage every bit of data in your life–an Amazing program you’ll wonder how you managed without!

   I was previously a long-timer user of OneNote 2007. OneNote 2010 is truly an Essential Upgrade: While the Search features in O. N. 2007 were Very Good, the Search Enhancements in O. N. 2010 are Spectacular; OneNote has adopted Search-As-You-Type searching (you usually spot your desired note Before you finish typing the search-string) . . . & navigating through your hits is quite fluid.

   And the additional Enhancements added since the 2007 version are just too numerous to mention here. Here are just a few of the Changes Since O. N. 2007::
   >> You can save your notes to the web so they’re available from Any computer.
   >> The toolbars are even easier than before to personalize–especially the Quick Access Toolbar–for instant
   access to your every most-used function. Prefer not to use the Ribbon?–You rarely need to even see it.
   >> Amazingly, Searching is even More Powerful Than Before & offers even More options.
   (Be sure to take advantage of Operators “AND,” “OR,” “Partial,” & “Exact”!) Simply stunning!
   >> There’s a SEPARATE Search for “Find-on-Page” that instantly highlights all hits for just the text on-screen.
   (BTW, all OneNote search-results appear Instantaneously. )
   >> The previous limited space for Section Names has been thoroughly corrected.
   >> The “Format Painter” lets you apply desired formatting to multiple selections.
   >> Sub-pages are now multi-level, collapsible, & a breeze to work with.
   >> All deletions of Pages & Sections are instantly recoverable via an internal Recycler.
   >> Etc. , Etc. , Etc.

   A truly _Compelling Upgrade to a program that is worth its weight in Pure Platinum.
   . . . And if you haven’t tried OneNote yet, You are in for a Treat! You will wonder how you managed without it: All your Thoughts, Data & Ideas perfectly organized & instantly accessible.

   How good is OneNote? Brilliant people worldwide are calling it the Best & Most Important software on their computer.
   It is certainly that for me: The Sine Qua Non of my computer, an awesome extension of my brain.

   P. S. : To keep this review concise, I included secondary notes in Comment One. If you notice any inaccuracy or any way my review can be more helpful, please add a comment. Thank you!
   Rating: 5 / 5

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