OneNote is *NOT* a .....

[EMRhelp.org]

1) outliner
2) word processor
3) email program
4) database
5) spreadsheet program
6) useful program.

The Microsoft MVPs are hear to tell you that OneNote is Not this and
that. It's really tiring. Not only is rudimentary information
management not possible with OneNote ... there is no linking to current
Office Products.

OneNote needs major development. Why is this needed project not
getting priority ? Releasing the next version over a year from now is
NOT appropriate.

We need OneNote 2.0 now.

or is everyone here content at waiting another year on this flailing
program ?

 

[Chris H.]

We'll have the next version in the same time frame as Office has the next
release. Not before then, as even related to us by the OneNote team at
Microsoft. That word isn't just coming from the MVPs.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[John Waller]

6) useful program.

Actually, I find ON extremely useful and it has revolutionised my wife's
small business in the past 12 months.

What are you trying to use ON for?

Clearly you have a goal in mind for using it and ON is not yet helping you
reach it.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

I need an information management tool for clients.
OneNote is a disconnected note taking application.
Office is a tired suite needing rejuvenation. I thought OneNote would
do that. It didnt.

 

[John Waller]

I need an information management tool for clients.

Depending on what you mean by an information management tool (sounds quite
broad), ON is probably not what you are looking for.

OneNote is a disconnected note taking application.

It works very well for a lot of end users.
By disconnected, do you mean that it doesn't talk to/integrate other
software?

Office is a tired suite needing rejuvenation. I thought OneNote would
do that. It didnt.

What's tired about it?

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Q: What's tired about Office?

A: It doesnt offer new things users want. Office 97 is good.
The main problem here is that .... what possible features extra could
it offer ? NONE!

For the vast, vast, vast majority of users, all the word processing
features needed are included in Office 97.

 

[Chris H.]

Do you ever post anything positive? Just curious.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[deblewis]

I feel your pain..

I've been searching high and low for a good note taking/information manager
that will work well with my Desktop at work and sync to my Tablet for at home
out of the office.

I'm just not finding anything that is doing the job. One Note I think would
fill the bill if I could just use some of the basic features with my Office
2000 that you can with 2003.

I understand not all functunality would be possible.. but if other folks
like GoBinder etc can integrate with early versions of Office why the heck
can't Microsoft! The one that really bugs me is not being able to import the
picture for later markups from Word/Excel.

Honestly the only reason these functions are not there is to force upgrades.
This is what tics me off. I like to stay in step with what is used at my
work, they are not upgrading yet. So here I am being teased with this
wondeful tool only to be an inch away from what I'd really like.

Frustrating..

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Q: Do you ever post anything positive? Just curious. (Chris H.)

Oh god yeah.
Even in a weak product like OneNote, I can find positives.
I feel the INKING is nice on my Toshiba M200. Very Smooth.
I find the ability to easily Ink and type _in the same note_ is well
done. I feel the Stationary in OneNote is well done, despite the lack
of quicker categorization of different stationary. I want to have
around 100 or more stationary pages at my disposal, that is hard with
OneNote. Yesterday I said the zooming in/out of Notes with
Control+mousewheel was effective and well implemented.

 

[Chris H.]

Whew! Thank you. It is refreshing to see you post something positive.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP Outlook/OneNote]

1) outliner

It's not only an outliner though the outlining features in the current
version are still a little primitive. I'm confident they will improve
in future versions.

2) word processor

Correct. That product is called Microsoft Word.

3) email program
4) database
5) spreadsheet program

It's also not a hippopotamus or a cheese sandwich.

Microsoft already makes very fine products for those listed functions:
Outlook, Access and Excel respectively.

6) useful program.

I'm sorry you feel that way. Perhaps you would be happier with
something like AskSam?

The Microsoft MVPs are hear to tell you that OneNote is Not this and
that.

The Microsoft MVPs are here to try and answer questions. We can't make a
round peg fit in a square hole. If you're trying to do things with
OneNote (or any other product for that matter) that the product wasn't
designed to do then we may not be able to help you.

It's really tiring. Not only is rudimentary information
management not possible with OneNote ... there is no linking to
current Office Products.

Yes it is and yes, there is.

OneNote needs major development.

It's getting major development.

Why is this needed project not getting priority ?

Why do think it's not getting priority?

Releasing the next version over a year from now is
NOT appropriate.

Rome wasn't built in a day. If it was, we'd have hired their
contractor.

We need OneNote 2.0 now.
or is everyone here content at waiting another year on this flailing
program ?

Before you can fly you must crawl, walk and then run. One cannot fly
into flying. (with apologies to Nietzsche)



--
Aloha,

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, OneNote-MVP
Stockholm Consulting Group/KSG
http://www.scgab.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

**I apologize but I am unable to respond to direct requests for
assistance. Please post questions and replies here in the newsgroup.
Mahalo!

 

[EMRhelp.org]

I've used Asksam for many years. It has great retrieval functions.
Thanks for the suggestion but it's not well suited for Information
Management either. It is a great free form database for very large
collections.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

Q: Why do think it's not getting priority?

Office 12 release cycle is lengthy because of the maturity of the
product.
OneNote 1.0 SP1 is a very immature product.
Waiting for Office 12 release is not appropriate.

 

[Chris H.]

Thank you for your opinion. You and I will need to wait the same amount of
time, however.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP Outlook/OneNote]

Q: Why do think it's not getting priority?

Office 12 release cycle is lengthy because of the maturity of the
product.
OneNote 1.0 SP1 is a very immature product.

So is a human baby (heck, it can't even stand up; crashes all the time
talk about a lack of features) but you'll allow at least 9 months to
develop one of those won't you? Or do you gripe at the mother-to-be the
whole time about how it's not acceptable to have to wait for the child?

Waiting for Office 12 release is not appropriate.

It has nothing to do with priority. OneNote 12 (2.0) is an ambitious
undertaking which requires considerable development resources and
considerable development time.

You seem to believe that Chris and the guys can just snap their fingers
and produce a product that does everything you want overnight. They are
great at what they do, but nobody is that fast.

If you want OneNote 2.0 tomorrow they can do that. It won't have any of
the features you want, in fact it'll look an awful lot like OneNote 2003
SP1 except that they'll have changed the title bar to read "OneNote
2005." And they won't have had time to test it to make sure that
changing the title bar doesn't break anything.

You complain about what OneNote is today and then insist that they give
you a new version of it tomorrow. They aren't baking a pie. They are
developing a complex software product in an ever-changing hardware
environment and trying to bring to life as many of the features that
folks like you have been asking for. If they ship it next month but
don't have enough new features in it (because they rushed it out to
satisfy your demands) you'll just complain about that too. Oh, and they
have to make sure that it's stable too.

So relax. Be patient. OneNote 12 isn't just sitting in a can, already
finished, twiddling its thumbs until Office 12 ships. It's being
actively developed, tested, fixed and tweaked (then tested, fixed and
tweaked again; lather, rinse, repeat). That takes time. They have a
very talented and enthusiastic group of people working hard on it every
day.


--
Aloha,

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, OneNote-MVP
Stockholm Consulting Group/KSG
http://www.scgab.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

**I apologize but I am unable to respond to direct requests for
assistance. Please post questions and replies here in the newsgroup.
Mahalo!

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP Outlook/OneNote]

I've used Asksam for many years. It has great retrieval functions.
Thanks for the suggestion but it's not well suited for Information
Management either. It is a great free form database for very large
collections.

Yes, I know. And despite AskSam's years of development it's not well
suited for Information Management and probably hasn't sold as many copies
as OneNote, What's taking them so long? That's unacceptable. ;-)

--
Aloha,

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, OneNote-MVP
Stockholm Consulting Group/KSG
http://www.scgab.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

**I apologize but I am unable to respond to direct requests for assistance.
Please post questions and replies here in the newsgroup. Mahalo!

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

Do you spend as much time on their Community website complaining about
their product?

 

[cb.lists]

Ben M. Schorr - MVP Outlook/OneNote wrote:>

So relax. Be patient. OneNote 12 isn't just sitting in a can, already
finished, twiddling its thumbs until Office 12 ships. It's being
actively developed, tested, fixed and tweaked (then tested, fixed and
tweaked again; lather, rinse, repeat). That takes time. They have a
very talented and enthusiastic group of people working hard on it every
day.

A hearty seconding for your plea for patience! I'm not always a big fan
of Microsoft products (eg. Evernote suits my purposes better than
OneNote does, and I can't bear Word), but I respect the fact that MS
tends to set its own schedules and won't be pushed.

I used to work as a software developer -- 95% of the reason I quit to
move to a different career was that every company I could find to work
for produced crap sofware (misery for a developer who just wants to
*make good things*). They did this because their customers just would
not let them have the time they needed to engineer things even
half-decently. The neurotic whining customer (who 'needs' everything
yesterday, even though they really don't) is the curse of the industry.
If Microsoft can use its muscle to set its own schedule, good on it.

 

[cb.lists]

Ben M. Schorr - MVP Outlook/OneNote wrote:>

So relax. Be patient. OneNote 12 isn't just sitting in a can, already
finished, twiddling its thumbs until Office 12 ships. It's being
actively developed, tested, fixed and tweaked (then tested, fixed and
tweaked again; lather, rinse, repeat). That takes time. They have a
very talented and enthusiastic group of people working hard on it every
day.

A hearty seconding for your plea for patience! I'm not always a big fan
of Microsoft products (eg. Evernote suits my purposes better than
OneNote does, and I can't bear Word), but I respect the fact that MS
tends to set its own schedules and won't be pushed.

I used to work as a software developer -- 95% of the reason I quit to
move to a different career was that every company I could find to work
for produced crap sofware (misery for a developer who just wants to
*make good things*). They did this because their customers just would
not let them have the time they needed to engineer things even
half-decently. The neurotic whining customer (who 'needs' everything
yesterday, even though they really don't) is the curse of the industry.
If Microsoft can use its muscle to set its own schedule, good on it.

 

[EMRhelp.org]

OneNote is not an office product.
It's not part of the Office Suite.
"OneNote 12" for a name is a joke.

Releasing OneNote on the same long release schedule as the mature
Office Suite is inappropriate.
Microsoft doesnt care about OneNote users or they would have provided
more resources to the development team.