Johnny "One Note"
A little while back, I shared with you my travails of crashing my desktop computer and having to replace it with a new model having the Microsoft Vista operating system. I also shared with you my frustration at the steep learning curve, not only with Vista but with the new MS Office software suite I purchased to go with the new desktop. One of the nifty productivity tools in MS Office is a program called One Note that really helps keep you organized when working on a project.
OK, so here’s the disclaimer … I’m a wimp and an enabler for continuing to use evil Microsoft operating systems and software. Linux rules, Macs rule even more, and open source operating systems, office suites and other programs are much, much, much more superior to Micro-weevil and Windoze. There, are you happy? Good. For the rest of us residing on Earth who have to work in collaborative work environments (especially in government collaborative work environments), we have decided to lie down next to the pod, take a nice long nap and wake up as a Microsoft automatons.
The new MS Office 2007 “Ultimate” package of software has the usual Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint, but add Access database management, MS Accounting for financial support, Publisher for desktop publishing, and three new applications … Groove – a project collaboration program, InfoPath – a cool forms development and information integration tool, and One Note - a way to organize your notes, thoughts and files to work on a project.
Of all these, I’ve only immersed myself in One Note to date and I’ll have to say I like it. The interface is sort of like a journal that allows you to make various notebooks representing projects or topics. Within a notebook, you can create pages that represent sub-topics within a project.
For instance, I am working on an East Coast court project, so I created a One Note notebook with the project title. I then created pages when I came across a subject I needed to track, such as report content, interview notes, background information and contract issues. Instead of having to separately track loose emails, word documents, calendar entries and to-do lists related to this project, I put them all together in One Note. I copied and pasted relevant email passages, linked documents and cross referenced calendar and to-do entries, each in their sub-topic page. You can even record voice entries and post videos.
You could choose to keep One Note to yourself and synchronize your files between your desktop and laptop (for travel), or you could share all or one of your notebooks with a work team.
This application really helped me organize the East Coast project, especially when writing the final report. I was able to more effectively track billing expenses (time, travel and supplies), and meet all my deadlines. This is mostly because I now put everything in one place, even when I create a file or make an entry somewhere else. MS Outlook allows you to make One Note links when you enter new items, and the other MS Office applications let you do likewise.
So this is starting to look like the Stockholm Syndrome where I was forced to migrate to Vista, which forced me to upgrade my office suite software, and it all happened under duress. However, now I am learning to love my captors.
It ain’t pretty, but there it is. I’ll keep you posted when I dip my toe into the other Office apps.
Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com