OneNote & OutLook

[jim]

These two products need to be combined into one. Outlook is missing rich note taking abilities. Granted OneNote seems to be a new product on its own rather than an Outlook enhancement, but it would be nice to have a 'seamless integration' option for those of us who would like to combine OneNote and Outlook

I have been using Franklin Covey's add in to Outlook, it has a basic note feature, not quite as rich as OneNote, but its just 'ok'. I would much rather have OneNote seamlessly integrated with Outlook.

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote]

I just completed installing OneNote and reading through the eBook and
could not help but think that it sure would be nice if Outlook and
OneNote were integrated.

What sort of integration are you hoping for?

 

[VanPelt]

If I could chime in here:

The integration of OneNote and Outlook could happen on many levels. One
idea would be to use as a "Notes" replacement in Outlook. I never really
could figure out why the MS team chose to ignore any new development for
Notes. A deviation to this would be to offer onenote as another function
inside outlook, making it function number 6. This would allow for close
integration of other items in outlook, making it possible to "attach" notes
for meetings within outlook and those attachments could be auto-updated.
Right now notes attached to outlook items don't synchronize themselves with
the standalone onenote.

Another reason for outlook integrated onenote is that it would solve for the
lack of an informal outlining tool in outlook. This may be more a selfish
motive for those who use David Allen's GTD process, but it would be useful
for all.

Finally, the freeform drawing capability is something that outlook
inherently lacks, and onenote solves for.

I think with SP1, and some of the work that API experts are doing out there,
a decent array of import/export/synch options will soon emerge for passing
information between outlook and onenote. Offering an outlook integrated
with onenote would be a killer app.....

 

[Paul Proefrock]

Mark,
What eBook are you referring to. Would you mind posting a link

Thanks

Paul P

I just completed installing OneNote and reading through the eBook and

could not help but think that it sure would be nice if Outlook and OneNote
were integrated.

 

[Gail Gurman]

I think with SP1, and some of the work that API experts are doing out
there, a decent array of import/export/synch options will soon emerge
for passing information between outlook and onenote. Offering an
outlook integrated with onenote would be a killer app.....

Please don't make me use Outlook in order to use OneNote. Make them work
together if you want, but please don't make them into one indivisible
program.

In fact, I'd really like to see OneNote work with any email client (i.e.,
for sending OneNote pages). Aside from Microsoft not wanting its customers
to use anything but Microsoft products, I don't see why OneNote pages can
only be mailed with Outlook. I can save them separately and attach them in
Mozilla Mail. Why can't OneNote do that for me?

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

In fact, I'd really like to see OneNote work with any email client (I.e.,

for sending OneNote pages). Aside from Microsoft not wanting its customers
to use anything but Microsoft products, I don't see why OneNote pages can
only be mailed with Outlook. I can save them separately and attach them in
Mozilla Mail. Why can't OneNote do that for me?

Because of the Office envelope hooks it uses to interface with Outlook. You
can't send embedded documents from other office products in mozilla mail,
why should OneNote be any different?

As for merging it with Outlook - I hope not. Each type of note serves a
purpose - OneNote for long notes, outlook for short notes I need to keep
forever (passwords etc).

 

[Dana DeLouis]

My opinion would be that it would be difficult to integrate them. The file
size of Outlook is just to big (1 big *.pst file!) to incorporate the
additional large file/files from Onenote. I have always wished that Outlook
would incorporate a file structure similar to Onenote to break the file size
down.

 

[Peter Engrav \(MS\)]

I feel relatively safe predicting that while OneNote and Outlook are
exceedingly unlikely to merge into one product, the opportunity for rich
integration between them is quite clear - we'll think about it a great deal
as we design the next versions of both.

At the risk of going completely off into the philisophical weeds - there is
one significant difference between OneNote and Outlook that I believe will
keep them distinct. Outlook is at its core a tool for recording and
managing all of the chunks of information in your life that obey one of a
smallish set of incredibly important schema - Message, Appointment, Contact,
etc. OneNote, on the other hand, is all about letting you record
information in a freeform, general way without any constraints of schema.
You can happily type a paragraph that starts out being a record of an
appointment and then turns into a contact without us getting in the way. We
may attempt to add features that "recognize" various schemas and try to
behave appropriately (say we notice paragraph that look more or less like
contacts and offer to create real Outlook contacts from the data) but we'll
never forget that the data as you entered it is the fundamental truth and
any guesses we've made as to how to make sense of it are just guesses.

I think both flavors of information (and the interactions between them) are
incredibly valuable.

Does that make any sense?

- Peter Engrav (MS, OneNote Dev Manager)

My opinion would be that it would be difficult to integrate them. The file
size of Outlook is just to big (1 big *.pst file!) to incorporate the
additional large file/files from Onenote. I have always wished that Outlook
would incorporate a file structure similar to Onenote to break the file size
down.

 

[Chris Schatte]

Peter Engrav
(say we notice paragraph that look more or less lik
contacts and offer to create real Outlook contacts from the data
Would it be possible to
say type an existing contacts name/calendar date/ and it be recognized by One Note
We use ON in our business to add to/begin new notes on: existing jobs/additions to/new/etc...
Now it takes extra time to update calendars/contacts/etc..
It would be more productive to do this with the calendar/contact window open to update while in ON
Not merge the two just access pertinent information from both would vastly improve the productivity of both applications

 

[Peter Engrav \(MS, OneNote Dev Manager\)]

While it would be exceedingly imprudent of me to promise features in future
versions (and if you ever hear me doing so you should ignore me!) this is
precisely the sort of thing we're looking into when we say "OneNote +
Outlook integration."

- Peter Engrav (MS, OneNote Dev Manager)