Chapter at a Glance
In Chapter 18, we discussed the basic Microsoft OneNote 2010 data storage structure (notebooks, sections, and pages) and took a tour of the sample notebook that comes with OneNote. As you’ll see in this chapter, there are many ways of structuring a notebook. The important thing is to create a structure that is easy for you to move around in so that you can easily find the information you want when you want it.
With OneNote 2010, you can create notebooks for your personal use on one computer, for use on multiple computers, and for use by multiple people. The ability to contribute and edit content in a shared notebook simultaneously with other people opens up many possibilities for collaboration.
In this chapter, you’ll create a OneNote notebook on your computer and learn how to create a notebook that you can access from more than one computer or in which you can collaborate on content with other people. You’ll create sections and section groups in your notebook, and add pages and subpages to the notebook so that you are ready to start storing information.
Note
Practice Files You don’t need any practice files to complete the exercises in this chapter. For more information about practice file requirements, see Using the Practice Files at the beginning of this book.
OneNote 2007 included several notebook templates that created notebooks containing sections and pages customized for their intended use. OneNote 2010 doesn’t include any notebook templates; you simply create a basic notebook and then create the sections and pages you want within it.
You can create a basic notebook, add content to it, and then organize the content into pages and sections, or you can create an organizational structure and then add content to the pages and sections. The best method will vary depending on the way you plan to use the notebook—whether you are collecting a wide variety of information or working on a highly structured.
If you work on only one computer, simply create the notebook in the default location (your DocumentsOneNote Notebooks folder). If you work on more than one computer (such as a desktop computer and a portable computer) and have read/write access from both computers to a shared location, you can create a notebook that you can access from more than one computer. An appropriate shared location might be any of the following:
A shared folder on your primary computer
A folder on a shared network location
A removable storage drive (such as a USB flash drive) that you move between computers
A Microsoft SharePoint site document library
A Web site
The first two locations are accessible only when you’re working on the same network as the storage location; the last two are accessible only when you have an Internet connection; and the removable storage drive is accessible from any location.
Note
See Also For information about sharing notebooks with other people over a network, on a SharePoint site, or on a Windows Live SkyDrive site, see Creating a Notebook for Use by Multiple People later in this chapter.
If you store the notebook in a shared folder on your primary computer, you can open it from any other computer for which you have the same logon credentials. Choose a storage location that will be available when you need it; for example, if you turn off your desktop computer while traveling with your portable computer, a notebook stored on the desktop computer might not be accessible.
In this exercise, you’ll create a simple notebook in the default storage location on your computer.
Note
SET UP You don’t need any practice files to complete this exercise. Start OneNote, and then follow the steps.
Display the Backstage view, and then in the left pane, click New.
The New page displays options for creating local and shared notebooks.
On the New page, under 1. Store Notebook On, click My Computer.
The page content changes to include options specific to creating a local notebook.
In the 2. Name box, enter My SBS Notes.
In the 3. Location box, confirm that the path specifies your DocumentsOneNote Notebooks folder as the location of the new notebook.
This is all the information you need to provide to create the notebook.
In the lower-right corner of the New page, click the Create Notebook button.
OneNote displays the new notebook.
With Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft has placed a strong emphasis on collaboration, specifically on the ability for multiple people (referred to as authors) to work together to create a document. OneNote is no exception—multiple people can access and contribute to an individual notebook that is stored in a central location.
OneNote creates an offline copy of the notebook on each computer from which the notebook is accessed. OneNote synchronizes each offline copy with the original notebook when the computer reconnects to the shared location and OneNote is running.
If you know in advance that you plan to share a notebook, you can do so at the time you create it; otherwise, you can share an existing notebook at any time.
When creating a shared notebook, you select a storage location that is accessible either over your network or over the Internet, depending on the access requirements of the people with whom you want to share the notebook.
If you create a notebook for use on only one computer and later decide you want to share it with other authors, you can easily do so.
If your primary computer can be accessed through a network or workgroup, you can share the notebook from its original location.
If your primary computer cannot be accessed through a network or workgroup, or if you do not log on to your primary and secondary computers with the same credentials, you can move the notebook to a shared location.
To share the active notebook, follow these steps:
On the Share tab, in the Shared Notebook group, click Share This Notebook.
The Share page of the Backstage view opens.
Select the location from which you want to share the notebook, as follows:
To share the notebook with any Internet user, click Web in the Share On section. Then in the Web Location section, click or browse to the site.
To share the notebook with co-workers from a computer that is on your organization’s internal network, click Network in the Share On section. In the Network Location section, enter the UNC address of the network location (in the format \serversharefolder), click the location in the Recent Locations list, or click Browse and then, in the Select Folder dialog box, navigate to the network location and click Select.
To share the notebook with co-workers from a SharePoint document library, click Network in the Share On section. In the Network Location section, enter the URL of the document library or click the document library in the Recent Locations list.
On the Share page of the Backstage view, click the Share button.
OneNote saves the notebook in the selected location and displays a confirmation dialog box.
If you want to inform other people about the location of the shared notebook at this time, click E-mail A Link. Otherwise, click No, Thanks.
If you click E-mail A Link, your default e-mail program starts, if it isn’t already running, and creates an e-mail message with the subject Invitation to OneNote notebook. The message body includes a link to the shared notebook.
After you share a notebook on a Web or network location, the Share page of the Backstage view changes to reflect that.
Other OneNote users can open a shared notebook either by clicking the link in the notification e-mail message or by browsing to the storage location of the shared notebook from the Open page of the Backstage view.
To create a new notebook in a shared location, follow these steps:
Display the New page of the Backstage view.
Select the location in which you want to create the notebook, as follows:
To share the notebook with any Internet user from a Windows Live Sky Drive site, click Web in the Store Notebook On section. Then in the Web Location section, click or browse to the site.
To share the notebook with co-workers from a computer that is on your organization’s internal network, click Network in the Store Notebook On section. In the Network Location section, enter the UNC address of the network location, click the location in the Recent Locations list, or click Browse and then, in the Select Folder dialog box, navigate to the network location and click Select.
To share the notebook with co-workers from a SharePoint document library, click Network in the Store Notebook On section. In the Network Location section, enter the URL of the document library or click the document library in the Recent Locations list.
On the New page of the Backstage view, click the Create Notebook button.
In OneNote, people who contribute to a notebook are referred to as authors. OneNote 2010 tracks the contributions of each notebook author. By default, other author’s initials (as identified in the OneNote Options dialog box) are shown next to his or her edits; if you prefer, you can hide the authors’ initials.
Note
Troubleshooting The appearance of buttons and groups on the ribbon changes depending on the width of the program window. For information about changing the appearance of the ribbon to match our screen images, see Modifying the Display of the Ribbon at the beginning of this book.
You can locate changes made to the notebook content within a specific time frame or by author. You can also view prior versions of a page, and roll back to a prior version if you want to discard the changes made since that version.
By default, shared notebooks are synchronized when any author makes changes. You can check the synchronization status of your local copy of a shared notebook from the Shared Notebook Synchronization dialog box, which you open by clicking the View Sync Status button on the Info page of the Backstage view or by right-clicking the notebook on the Navigation Bar and then clicking Notebook Sync Status.
The Sync Automatically Whenever There Are Changes option is selected by default. If you prefer, you can choose to work offline and sync only when you click the Sync Now button in this dialog box.
When the Navigation Bar is expanded, the ActiveSync icon to the right of the notebook name indicates the synchronization status of the shared notebook.
When OneNote is not actively synchronizing the primary notebook with the copies on other computers, one of the following indicators appears on the icon:
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.
A new notebook contains one untitled section and one untitled page. 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 whether to create a page, subpage, section, or section group? The answer is determined by the following:
The nature of the information you are collecting. In a Customer Records notebook, you might want to include a section for each client, and in a Project Records notebook, you might 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 on the Page Tabs Bar. 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’s 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 templates for you to replace with your own content.
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 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:
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 Bar.
Clicking Page Templates on the New Page menu 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 you can apply a background color or create your own page template. For more information, see the Formatting Notes, Pages, and Sections section of Entering Content Directly onto a Page in Chapter 20.
A new section is named simply New Section, followed by a number to differentiate it from other new sections you create (New Section 1, New Section 2, and so on). To change the name of a section, right-click the section tab in the notebook header, click Rename, enter the section name you want, and then press Enter or click away from the section tab. A section name can have up to 50 characters.
A new page isn’t named at all. OneNote identifies it as Untitled page. To assign a name to a page, 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 we 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.
When the Page Tabs Bar is expanded at its default width, the first 21 characters of the page title appear on the page tab; when it’s collapsed, only the first eight characters are visible. You can increase the width of the expanded Page Tabs Bar by pointing to the border between the active page and the tab area and then, when the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow, dragging the border to the left.
Note
Keyboard Shortcuts Press Ctrl+Shift+[ to increase the width of the Pages Tabs Bar. Press Ctrl+Shift+] to decrease the width of the Pages Tabs Bar.
The Page Tabs Bar 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 and Page Tabs Bar remains constant, and changing them for one page changes them for all pages.
You have fewer options to consider when creating sections than when creating pages, 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.
Note
See Also For information about changing a section color, see the Page and Section Backgrounds section of Entering Content Directly onto a Page in Chapter 20.
When a notebook contains a lot of information, you might want to create 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 rename existing sections and pages, add pages and subpages to a section, and then add a section and a section group to a notebook.
Note
SET UP You need the My SBS Notes notebook you created earlier in this chapter to complete this exercise. Open the My SBS Notes notebook, expand the Navigation Bar and the Page Tabs Bar, and then follow the steps.
In the notebook header, right-click the New Section 1 tab, and then click Rename.
The tab name is selected for editing.
Type Work, and then press Enter.
The section name changes on the section tab and on the Navigation Bar.
On the Untitled page, click in the page title box, and then type Notes.
As you type, the page name changes on the Page Tabs Bar.
On the Page Tabs
Bar, click the New
Page arrow and then, in the
list, click Simple To Do
List.OneNote creates a new page, titled To Do List. On the Page Tabs Bar, the To Do List page tab follows the Notes page tab.
On the Page Tabs Bar, click the New Page arrow, and then click Page Templates.
The Templates task pane opens on the right side of the program window.
In the Templates task pane, click the Business category and then, in the list, click Simple Meeting Notes 1.
OneNote creates a page named Meeting Title. The page has a background image and a structure for basic meeting notes.
In the Templates task pane, in the Business category, click Informal Meeting Notes 1.
In the upper-right corner of the Templates task pane, click the Close button.The task pane closes.
On the Page Tabs Bar, point to the Notes page tab.
A New Page button appears on the right side of the content pane, to the left of the Page Tabs Bar. A black triangle points from the New Page button to the top of the page tab list.
Move the pointer down the page tab list to the Meeting Title page.
The New Page icon moves down the list with the pointer.
A thick black bar appears between the page tabs.
If necessary, move the pointer to position the insertion bar at the end of the page tab list. Then click the New Page button.
Note
Keyboard Shortcut Press Ctrl+N to create a new page at the end of the current section. Press Ctrl+Alt+N to create a new page following the current page.
OneNote creates an untitled page at the location of the insertion bar.
On the Page Tabs Bar, right-click the Untitled page tab, and then click Make Subpage.
Note
Keyboard Shortcut Press Ctrl+Alt+] to make the current page a subpage. Press Ctrl+Alt+[ to bring a subpage up one level.
On the Page Tabs Bar, the name of the Untitled page tab is indented to indicate that it is now a subpage of the Meeting Title page.
Click the Meeting Title page tab. At the top of the Page Tabs Bar, click the New Page arrow, and then, in the list, click New Subpage.
Point to the Meeting
Title page tab, and then click the Collapse button that appears at its right
side.The subpages collapse under the Meeting Title page tab.
In the notebook header, to the right of the
Work section tab, click the
Create New Section button.OneNote creates a section containing one blank untitled page. The section name, New Section 1, is selected for editing.
Type Ideas, and then press Enter.
In the Navigation Bar, right-click the My SBS Notes notebook, and then click New Section Group.
OneNote creates a section group and selects the section group’s name for editing.
Type Analysis, and then press Enter.
The section group appears on the Navigation Bar and in the notebook header, represented by a stack of section tabs.
On the Navigation Bar or the notebook header, click the Analysis section group.
The section group contains no sections or pages; it is only a container for sections.
On the Navigation Bar, drag the Ideas section to the Analysis section group.
The selected section and its pages move to the section group.
You can create a notebook for your own personal use on one computer or on multiple computers.
When planning your information-storage system, you start with a blank notebook and add sections and pages.
The organizational structure of a notebook is dynamic and can change to reflect the information you collect.
You collect information on pages. When you have a lot of information on one page, individual items of information might be easier to find if you organize them on subpages.
You can create pages based on decorative or functional page templates. Functional page templates include content templates that guide you in placing your own content.
Pages are contained within sections. You can create additional sections to organize different types of information, and you can organize sections in section groups.