Use OneNote to work at home and on the road

In college, I had a friend who categorized all of her lecture notes. Rachel used at least three different highlighters to “code” her notes … during the lecture.

Copious note-taking skills eluded me then and now, but I might have tried harder if I’d had a premiere note-taking tool like OneNote (or a computer for that matter, but I digress).

If you haven’t used OneNote, check out Nota Bene, Michael Oldenburg’s OneNote blog. The world’s first and only OneNote 2007 community calls OneNote “part digital planner, part electronic 3-ringed binder, part life-saver.”

And now, OneNote can add digital organizer away from the office to its growing list of practical applications. Cynthia, who has shared her tips for working remotely (see earlier blog posts about managing your work from a distance, using e-mail to work from home, and using Office Communicator and Office Live Meeting to work from home), says that you can, and should, integrate OneNote in your remote work arrangement.

Cynthia sent these OneNote tips from her home office in Eastern Washington:

Make project notes and take meeting notes in OneNote, and then easily send them to yourself or to meeting recipients using the Send To options on the OneNote File menu. That way, you have a backup copy in OneNote as well as having communicated notes by e-mail.

Better yet, create a Shared Notebook in a network location for projects where you need to iterate, collect input, and track projects with your colleagues.

Use OneNote to help organize your day Take notes in OneNote about tasks you need to complete, and then  block out time on your Outlook calendar to complete them by using the handy Create Outlook Item options on the OneNote 2007 Tools menu.

Copy your Outlook calendar to OneNote as an electronic backup instead of printing it out on paper, particularly if you’re travelling and not sure you’ll have connectivity to network resources. (Open a calendar view in Outlook and then, using the Print menu option, select Send to OneNote 2007 instead of your regular printer). You can select a calendar style and date range that reflects your trip in the Print dialog box options. (For complete instructions, see the Templates team blog post about creating OneNote calendars using Outlook.)

Take a look at our collection of OneNote notebook, section, and page and stationery templates on Office.com.

Have you tried OneNote? What tips do you have for using OneNote at home or on the road?

--leslie