As we discussed briefly in the previous topic, you can create content and then move it into an organizational structure, or you can create an organizational structure and then create content within it. In this topic, we discuss creating storage structures within OneNote.
Note
See Also For information about rearranging content within a notebook structure, refer to Moving and Removing Information in Chapter 16, Chapter 16.
A new notebook contains whatever sections and pages are specified by the selected notebook template. The most basic notebook, a blank notebook, contains one section and one page. Regardless of the notebook template you choose, you can easily create new pages on which to collect information and subdivide pages into subpages. You can also create new sections in which to organize the pages. You can further organize information by grouping sections together in section groups.
So how do you know when to create a page, subpage, section, or section group? The answer is dictated by the following:
The nature of the information you are collecting. In a Customer Records notebook, you will obviously want to include a section for each client, and in a Project Records notebook, you will want one section per project.
The volume of information. There is no point in collecting information unless you can quickly and easily retrieve it when you need it. On an ideal page, all the information is visible at a glance, without too much scrolling. If you have to scroll, maybe some of the information should be organized on subpages. Similarly, in an ideal section, all the pages and subpages are visible at a glance in the Page Tabs area. If there are too many page tabs, maybe some of the pages should be organized in new sections. And if not all the sections are visible in the notebook header at a glance, maybe it is time to organize the sections in section groups.
The important thing to remember is that the organizational structure of a notebook should be dynamic—in other words, it should change as the information in the notebook changes.
When first created, each section contains one blank, untitled page. You can add plain blank pages, blank pages of a special size or with a special background, or specialized pages containing content guides.
Blank page options include the following:
Specific sizes, including Statement, Letter, Tabloid, Legal, A3-A6, B4-B6, Postcard, Index Card, and Billfold
Simple backgrounds, including College Ruled, Small Grid, or 16 solid colors
Nearly 70 decorative backgrounds displaying various illustrated or photographic elements in the title bar, corner, margin, or background of an otherwise blank page
Specialized page options are based on content templates, which are divided into the following categories:
Academic templates, including Simple and Detailed Lecture Notes, Lecture Notes And Study Questions, Math/Science Class Notes, and History Class Notes
Business templates, including Project Overview and six types of Meeting Notes
Planners templates, including three types of To Do List
You can quickly create a new page or subpage in the current section by selecting an option from the New Page menu at the top of the Page Tabs area.
Clicking More Template Choices And Options displays the Templates task pane. You can preview any page template by clicking it in the list. The first time you click a template in the task pane, OneNote creates a page based on that template; subsequent clicks apply the selected template to the created page.
Tip
You can't apply a template from the Templates task pane to an existing page, but from the Page Setup task pane, you can apply a background color or create your own page template. For more information, see the sidebar Formatting Notes, Pages, and Sections in Chapter 15, Chapter 15.
To assign a page title, you enter text in the title box located in the upper-left corner of the page.
You can enter as much text as you want in the title box; after the first eight characters, the box expands to fit the text. When the text exceeds the maximum for the page width, it wraps to the next line. You could enter thousands of characters in the title box, but I recommend that you keep page titles short. Because OneNote processes the title text each time it displays the page, long titles slow down the program response time, and you can't use the program while it is processing the text.
At the default Page Tabs area width, the first 20 characters of the page title appear on the page tab at the right side of the OneNote program window. You can easily change the width of the Page Tabs area by pointing to the border between the active page and the tab area, and then when the insertion point changes to a double-headed arrow, dragging the border to the left or right.
Tip
The Page Tabs area is part of the program window, so when you switch between pages, sections, or notebooks, its width doesn't change. The configuration of common elements such as the Navigation Bar, toolbars, and Page Tabs area remains constant, and changing them for one page changes them for all the pages.
You have fewer options to consider when creating sections, because there is only one type of section. Unlike pages, sections don't have special templates. You can change a section color to differentiate it from other sections, perhaps as a visual reminder to yourself, and you can safeguard a section by assigning an access password to it.
When a notebook contains a lot of information, you might want to consider creating a section group. This useful organizational tool is an entirely separate set of sections and pages within a notebook. You can move sections to and among section groups.
In this exercise, you will add pages and subpages to a section, and then add a section and a section group to a notebook.
Note
USE the SBS Sections notebook. This practice file is located in the DocumentsMicrosoft Press2007OfficeSBS_HomeStudentOneCreating folder.
BE SURE TO start OneNote before beginning this exercise.
On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Notebook.
The Open Notebook dialog box displays the contents of your OneNote Notebooks folder.
In the Favorite Links list, click Documents. Then in the file list, double-click the Microsoft Press folder, double-click the 2007OfficeSBS_HomeStudent folder, and double-click the OneCreating folder.
The SBS Sections folder within the OneCreating folder is actually a OneNote notebook.
Click the SBS Sections folder, and then click Open.
The SBS Sections notebook opens. This typical example of a blank notebook contains one section named Competition, and one page, which is currently blank.
On the Standard toolbar, click the New arrow, and then in the list, click Page.OneNote creates a second untitled page in the Competition section.
In the Page Tabs area, click the New Page button.OneNote creates a third untitled page. The title box of each page is blank, and the page tab identifies each as Untitled Page.
In the Page Tabs area, click the New Page arrow, and then in the list, click Pushpins Corner.
Note
Troubleshooting The templates available in the New Page list change to reflect your recent choices. If Pushpins Corner is not available, click More Template Choices And Options, and then in the Templates task pane, expand the Decorative category, and click Pushpins Corner.
The new page changes to reflect the Pushpins Corner decorative template.
In the page title box, type Sharp Ideas.
As you type, the title appears on the page tab.
In the New Page list, click New Subpage.
OneNote creates a page that is subordinate to the Sharp Ideas page. Notice that the subpage has the same template as its parent page.
On the Standard toolbar, click the New Section button.OneNote creates a section containing one blank untitled page. The section name is selected for editing.
On the Standard toolbar, click the New arrow, and then in the list, click Section Group.
OneNote creates a section group and selects the section name for editing.
In the notebook header or on the Navigation Bar, click the Analysis section group button.
The section group contains no sections or pages.
On the Navigation Bar, drag the Competition section to the Analysis section group.
The selected section and its pages move to the section group.
