How to improve note flags

[srd]

Apart from the support for the tablet pc, noteflags and their manner of
implementation is for many users the most important feature in OneNote.
Perhaps operating on the misguided theory, "If it ain't broke, don't fix
it," MS hasn't done anything to enhance note flags qualitatively.
(Quantitative improvements include the indexed search for note flags and
the increase in number of note flag symbols.)

A better logic than 'If it ain't broke ...' might be, 'Key features are
the most important to improve.' What are the present limitations on user
flexibility in deploying note flags?

Consider this scenario. A user is organizing new research, from which he
intends to draft a document. As he works, he conceives of a section in the
ultimate document. To efficiently use his time, the user would like to
mark each relevant paragraph with the name of the section, to retrieve
them later.

Is this not a very common, even paradigmatic scenario? The user here needs
1) to define a note flag for the section and then, unless he remembers the
association spontaneously, 2) to look up the note flag that corresponds to
the applied label to apply it. Why not just let the user define a note
flag on the fly, and allow noteflags to be constituted by phrases, not
just symbols?

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

Is this not a very common, even paradigmatic scenario?

I'm not sure - I've never seen anybody do that and I don't work that way
personally but perhaps many others do?

The user here needs 1) to define a note flag for the section and then,
unless he remembers the association spontaneously, 2) to look up the note
flag that corresponds to the applied label to apply it. Why not just let
the user define a note flag on the fly, and allow noteflags to be
constituted by phrases, not just symbols?

I like the idea of making it easier to define note flags.

When I'm in this scenario I just use specific strings to act as tags (AKA
"Note Flags") for example in our shared notebooks our guys will flag things
they want me to review by prepending the string "BMSREV" to it. I can do a
search on "BMSREV" and quickly get a list of all the items I need to review.

I could certainly use the same tactic to define document sections for easy
retrieval later.

Just a thought.