Complete Guide to OneNote

Rating:
Summary: OneNote hits a high note
Review: A+ Press has arrived ahead of schedule with this book. OneNote was introduced late in 2003 and is used by just a few "cutting edge users" at this time.
The Complete Guide to OneNote by W. Frederick Zimmerman is one of two books on the subject of Microsoft OneNote currently published. Complete Guide to OneNote outlines the major features of OneNote and provides a very good description of how OneNote is integrated with out Microsoft Office products such as Outlook, Word and Excel.
OneNote is a note taking program that allows audio, text, graphics and html to be organized in one place on a computer. OneNote information can be send as an e mail attachment. OneNote can convert handwriting to text if you use a tablet computer.
I was impressed with the author's treatment of each of chapter. This book was very easy to understand and could be a reference or for a quick start guide.
I recommend Complete Guide to OneNote by W. Frederick Zimmerman. I suggest anyone considering using OneNote get a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: OneNote hits a high note
Review: A+ Press has arrived ahead of schedule with this book. OneNote was introduced late in 2003 and is used by just a few "cutting edge users" at this time.
The Complete Guide to OneNote by W. Frederick Zimmerman is one of two books on the subject of Microsoft OneNote currently published. Complete Guide to OneNote outlines the major features of OneNote and provides a very good description of how OneNote is integrated with out Microsoft Office products such as Outlook, Word and Excel.
OneNote is a note taking program that allows audio, text, graphics and html to be organized in one place on a computer. OneNote information can be send as an e mail attachment. OneNote can convert handwriting to text if you use a tablet computer.
I was impressed with the author's treatment of each of chapter. This book was very easy to understand and could be a reference or for a quick start guide.
I recommend Complete Guide to OneNote by W. Frederick Zimmerman. I suggest anyone considering using OneNote get a copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Place to Start with OneNote
Review: As a new OneNote user I found this book was a great guide to get me going. I read the book from cover to cover. The writing style is casual, but not cutesy. After reading a section, I found used what was described without having to thumb back through the book to read again how it worked. I am enjoying OneNote as a product and I believe that much of the productivity gains that I am experiencing come from having gotten off to a great start with this book.

Rating:
Summary: A unique perspective you won't get elsehwere
Review: I have written a favorable review of this book up on my blog (blogs.officezealot.com/chris) and really like it. First, let me say the book is clearly a reflection of the product. OneNote is a version 1.0 product and guess what, there are a lot of things about it that fall short. Because of this Fred has to spend a lot of time providing work arounds to help you squeeze OneNote in its weak areas.

I felt that there were so many work arounds it was annoying, though this is not Fred's fault, its clear weaknesses in the product. The thing I like about reading Fred's work arounds is that it confirmed I wasn't "crazy" or "missing" something. Sometimes you spend a lot of time trying to get a product to do something it just doesn't do, but you don't know that until hours are wasted. Fred's book has reduced my wasted time with OneNote. I now know where it fits and where it doesnt.

The thing I like the most about this book is that Fred doesn't just discuss OneNote but discusses the whole concept of Digital note taking, its history and even in light of other products. You can buy this book to learn about the product and you also get the side benefit of understanding at a higher level its place in the digital note taking world. I do hope Fred continues to update the book for SP1 and V2.

Chris
www.OfficeZealot.com

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing heavily padded book....
Review: Why is it that computer books never get proper proof readers?!! On the surface this looks to be a book that should have a large audience - OneNote is a powerful tool with very little information available to help unleash its power. The problem with this book is that it can't make its mind up whether it's written for the Windows newbie (painfully showing screenshots for every little action required) or for the Power User (too slow and time-consuming to plough through).

Ultimately it leaves both high and dry. Screenshot examples are inconsistent even at the most basic level (text talks of blank page backgrounds, but corresponding step-by-step screenshots show stripey pages; a list of Jazz author's keeps changing the order of the authors in subsequent screenshots without any rhyme or reason, there's no understanding of what non-US readers will see in terms of metric units etc etc). What should be a simple explanation of how to create a table (page 101) just doesn't work (this may be a software bug, but if so why describe something that doesn't work?!).

The long winding introductory chapter about note taking systems all the way since the mainframe is hardly relevant, nor is a long interview with Dr Miller about "the personal knowledge base". Frankly the chapters smack of "self indulgence", although they do help turn the book from an over-priced pamphlet into something resembling a real book.

Chapter 2 which labours the installation process to the point of tedium makes one think the book is aimed at the complete Windows novice and we're a quarter of the way into the book before a simple introduction to OneNote starts - with examples that just don't work on the production release (see tables example on page 101) or contain terminology that just confuses (the definition of what's a container can't make up its mind what's one container and what's two containers inside another container). Put simply, the book confuses rather than explains. The book is not cheap and frankly poor value for money. It may be that a good book is hidden away inside what's here and that a half-decent editor or proof-reader could sort it out, but I hadn't the patience to persevere with it after the first few chapters. Avoid!