I downloaded OneNote, and it seems like it could be very useful, but I can't figure out how to use it. Can someone tell me some of the basics?Sorry to be a pain
Basically, it's a word processor without all the word processing restrictions that word has. You should have a formatting toolbar that looks almost exactly like Word's. You can type anywhere on the page. Anywhere you type, a text container is automatically formed. You can drag those around the page, and if you drag them over another one, they merge together. When you mouse over a paragraph, a little box with four arrows shows up next to the paragraph (or bullet point or outline section). Grab that and you can tear off that piece of text and move it anywhere on the page or in the section you're writing.Another big OneNote feature is note flags. There should be a button with a pull-down menu in the main toolbar (I think it looks like a checkbox with a checkmark by default. Whatever section of text the cursor is or is highlighted will have the note flag you select be applied to it. There are a number of default ones, like "Important", "To-do", "Remember for Later", "Question", etc. There is also the Note Flag Summary pane, where you can see all your note flags. I have mine already set up for law school with flags that correspond to the briefing technique in Law School Confidential.The file organization of OneNote is supposed to reflect a 3-ring binder. You have the whole notebook, which has folders, which have sections, which have pages, which can have subpages. My advice for setting up the notebook is to make a folder called "Classes" and make a section for each class. I would use one page for each topic in the class, say in Contracts, one page for offer, one for acceptance, one for consideration. Then a subpage for each day we talk about the topics, so I can see quickly and easily what was covered on each day. OneNote also saves everything automatically, so you don't have to manually go File->Save.Everything in OneNote is searchable as well. That should come in handy when it's 8:00 and a prof askes you about Jones v. Smith and you can just type in the case name and go right to your notes.There's a lot more (very powerful program), but my advice to you is to just play around with it over the summer. OneNote is difficult to learn at first because it looks like a word processor but doesn't act like one. It's also hard to really see the benefit of it until you have a large amount of information in it. If you work at an office job with meetings and reserch of any kind, use OneNote so you can get the hang of it.Microsoft's OneNote page is also a great resource, lots of tips, tutorials, page templates, videos, etc. I'd look over as much as you can.
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