ON as a daily organizer compared to InfoSelect: several questions

J

Jonathan

All,

I need help with a decision between OneNote and another program, InfoSelect.

I use InfoSelect as my minute-to-minute hub. This program, from
www.miclog.com is outline-focused and has lightning search included. The
outline structure helps but its super-quick full-index searches means that
you don't ever have trouble finding anything if you remember *any* of the
text in the page you seek.

InfoSelect can cull whole pages from the web with a single click. It offers
instant grids, quick databases, and forms within the program. It can do
simple word processing and merge. You can link between pages. It has easy
templatization. A programming Swiss Army knife.

OneNote has always been very appealing to me, too, and I do own the program.
I try it from time to time, especially in meetings. I wish I typed faster! I
don't have a tablet pc, but plan to get one soon.

I have been looking at the information about ON2007 and wonder whether I
should switch. Ink works OK for InfoSelect with Tablet OS support, but not as
fully integrated as ink use in OneNote. I figure that templates work in a
similar way between the two programs except that a recent post amazed me with
the complaint that there was not a truly "default" page template for OneNote.

Another OneNote endorsement is the experience of a 3rd-4th grade teacher
who, it was reported to me, switched from experienced and expert use of
InfoSelect to similar use of OneNote for her classroom "hub" and she is very
happy with the OneNote capabilities. However, she may be more organized than
I am. (Actually, *everyone* is more organized than I am.)

So I thought I'd put out a couple of questions:
1. Is OneNote quick to find text within its own pages?

2. Does a product like X1 "see" the text in OneNote pages and therefore
report them out after X-1 indexed searches? I assume Google Desktop does not
see inside "*.one" files. I would consider buying X1 to have this capability.

3. What strategies do you all use for sharing work you do in OneNote when
you are the only one with a copy of the program?

4. I am a teacher (elementary) so my day runs very fast. I like the idea of
storing an entire year's curriculum in one of these programs. Is OneNote sill
fast when it hold LOTS of pages and pdf's, etc.

5. I assume it can "hold" a pdf? This is important because many of the
pieces of a curriculum will have to be brought to OneNote as pdf's.

6. If I build a template that has a space for a photo, can I drag a photo in
jpeg format into that picture box and have it stay that designated size on
the page? The same for other art: diagrams, PDFs, clipart GIFs, vector fomats?

7. Are there good printing controls? Schools still run on paper.

8. Last question: is it important to have a lot of screen real estate to use
OneNote and a tablet well? I ask because the IBMs still offer only 1024x768
(I think I have the numbers right) rather than the next standard above that,
Seems limiting especially with inking dialogs (TIP, right?) etc.

No OLE, only 25 flags, and a few of the comments here make me wonder how
seamless it will truly be sharing the work I do in OneNote with others who
use standard Office apps. InfoSelect has e-mail inside it but I have decided
to use Outlook from now on no matter which way I go. However it means you can
send out content really easily.

I realize that, probably, few of you know InfoSelect. Perhaps some of the
issues noted throughout this forum will be cleared up by the arrival of
ON2007. (But I know there's still no OLE in 2007.)

Please reply with thoughts about OneNote's ability to handle a lot of
content, multiple file types, and a rapid-fire elementary classroom. Think 24
meetings going on at once!

Finally, thanks, everyone, for bearing with such a long post.

Jonathan
 
R

ricochet

1. OneNote does have a search feature, but it's not the fastest thing
in the world.

2. Google Desktop DOES have the ability to index .one files -- I
posted a link to the add-on not too long ago (don't have it handy) but
it works fine.

3. I email notes all the time -- that's how I share them. It was
tough to share things once they were created in Info Select as well --
its export feature was awful. I really hope the 2007 version of
OneNote cleans formatting up a LOT, b/c it's a real pain to share notes
via email and have the format get mixed up if you export to Word or
need to suck email responses back into OneNote.

4. I have a ton of data in OneNote, and it's still extremely snappy.
The way they architected it (sections have their own .one files) keeps
the data separate and harder to corrupt, and navigation is absolutely
snappy.

5. Right now, OneNote can only hold a link to PDFs. The next version
will be able to snag a PDF or image file, display it, AND OCR it in the
background, making the PDF's text searchable. This OCR feature has me
drooling and could be my killer feature to finally drop Info Select.

6. I don't think so, but I think you could use the screen capture
(Windowskey-S) and copy it over and size it in the space in your
template.

7. Printing isn't bad, but there are formatting losses when you send
notes to Word.

8. I dunno, I don't have a tablet.

Info Select's email was a travesty (my term, sorry) -- I felt they
really got away from their core feature set by incorporating email
which they didn't even do well. They haven't put out a substantial
upgrade in two years, and still charge a lot of cash for the
subscription version as well.

I think one of the videos on MS's site has an educational aspect on it,
and OneNote is gaining a lot of acceptance and momentum in colleges.
Its notebook metaphor fits nice with the hand-written notebook that
most students use. Good luck!
 
J

Jonathan

So if you work with people who don't have OneNote do you send everything
"out" as a Word document? do you export it to yourself, check format in a new
Word document created for this purpose, and then attach this new document to
an e-mail?

I only started using Outlook a few days ago (years and years with Eudora) so
I don't know about the integration in between Outlook and OneNote2003 (2007
should be amazing) Are your OneNote pages sending directly to people through
Outlook? (not as attachements)

I tried the InfoSelect e-mail for about three weeks and just threw up my
hands. No way. So finally I will try Outlook (I always felt like it was such
a big target for hackers...)

The search in IS is super.

I really appreciate having your perspective of a long-time IS user. I am
leaning toward an immediate switch. Most of thos education examples don't
help me in my elementary school classroom. Boy, do things move FAST in all
elementary schools.

Jonathan
 

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