Taking Notes: OneNote v. Word

[How will you take notes this fall? Elaborate.]

How will you take notes this fall?  Elaborate.

Word

 32 (38.1%)

OneNote

 38 (45.2%)

Pen & paper

 8 (9.5%)

Other

 6 (7.1%)

Total Members Voted: 79

[law123]

I know there are some threads about OneNote....I'm curious as to how many people plan to use it for note taking.  I am not very computer savvy and wonder if the potential benefits are worth my time trying to figure out how to use it.

[Officer Rod Farva]

Here are two things I haven't figured out about OneNote, and maybe someone can explain: printing and saving for back-up purposes

[flydog]

OneNote saves everything you type as you go. Word autosaves every 5 minutes so if you have a problem with Word up to the last 5 minutes may be gone forever.

OneNote also organizes notes into folders and sections so they are easier to find and has the ability to easily reference outside materials. If you type notes into Word all you have are hundreds of pages of notes that you need to organize yourself.

OneNote is for note taking and Word is for creating documents. You cant compare one with the other. I bought my OneNote for less than $20 on eBay and after trying it I feel its well worth the small investment.

If you dont have either OneNote is the least expensive way to go. I also suggest OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office. Its free and virtually identical to the Microsoft product.

[More]

Here are two things I haven't figured out about OneNote, and maybe someone can explain: printing and saving for back-up purposes

If you mean printing more than one section at once, just hold "Control" and click the tabs you would like to print.  Then select "print selected."

I am going to use OneNote, just because it seems like it would be nice to have everything organized in one file like that.  I think I'm going to do a folder for each class and a top tab for each case.

[alexis]

I think im going to get one note, but the website says that there is going to be another edition in 2007. are you all using the 2003 version, or did i miss the section that says  i can get the 2007 version now?

that aside, if i got the 2003 version do you think it will be far inferior to the 2007? are all current one note users perfectly content with their 2003 one note?

and lastly, is it really more convenient than word?

thanks in advance.

[lexinash]

My vote is for OneNote.  I used it in undergrad and loved it.  It even has some function for law students, but I haven't really used that.  I just used it for basic notetaking and loved how it kept all of my work neat and organized.

[tobias]

I've always taken notes in pen and paper and then typed them up that night, which helped me digest and remember the material. Not sure if this is going to be a practical technique for law school...thoughts?

[hopeful20]

i asked one of my law school friends about OneNote and she said to just use Word.  One issue she found with OneNote was that you cant open the files on a computer that doesnt have the OneNote program.  so if you wanted to share your notes with someone electronically, they would need the program to view it.

for people who have used it, what are your thoughts on this?

[hopeful20]

You can export your notes as either Word docs or html files.  It's about as easy as saving them. 

Oh okay.  I didn't know that was an option.  If that's the case, I might as well install the program on my laptop and play around with it.  I bought it awhile ago and have never opened it. 

[OingoBoingo]

I think im going to get one note, but the website says that there is going to be another edition in 2007. are you all using the 2003 version, or did i miss the section that says  i can get the 2007 version now?

that aside, if i got the 2003 version do you think it will be far inferior to the 2007? are all current one note users perfectly content with their 2003 one note?

and lastly, is it really more convenient than word?

thanks in advance.

The biggest thing about 2007 vs 2003 is the increased integrstion into Outlook. For instance, you can turn a note flagged item into a task with 2003 . The problem lies in execution - onenote simply drops the entire writing block into the task title. You have to open outlook 2003 to modify and add due dates etc etc. 2007 actually lets you create and modify the task completely within Onenote and does so using outlook menus (no need to learn something new).

There are a few other tweaks especially concerning the look and feel (it is alot prettier) and project collaberation (with co-workers, other students etc etc) that mean nothing to me as a law student.

Oingo