dsymanow
04-18-2003, 05:44 PM
Just a few comments about the OneNote beta software.
This is potentially a "killer application" for the tablet PC. The features that it has for organizing data are outstanding. Microsoft got the analogy of the digital notebook exactly right.
Unfortunately, OneNote is crippled by the lack of a single feature - the ability to treat pages of the notebook as simple paper, just like the Journal application. Currently, OneNote fragments written text into pieces that are captured in "writing guides". It is difficult to write notes that are longer than a short sentence without OneNote breaking it into many over lapping and disjoint fragments of sentences. As best I can tell, there is no way to simply write a page of digital ink. OneNote insists on interfering with the writing process and breaks the text into pieces.
I think the writing guides will turn out to be one of those infuriating features that turn off a significant number of users. They make a key part of the application (capturing text) simply impossible.
Microsoft, please, just give us the ability to write pages of digital ink, just like the Journal application. If you do that, OneNote will be a winner. If you don't, OneNote will not be usable.
This is potentially a "killer application" for the tablet PC. The features that it has for organizing data are outstanding. Microsoft got the analogy of the digital notebook exactly right.
Unfortunately, OneNote is crippled by the lack of a single feature - the ability to treat pages of the notebook as simple paper, just like the Journal application. Currently, OneNote fragments written text into pieces that are captured in "writing guides". It is difficult to write notes that are longer than a short sentence without OneNote breaking it into many over lapping and disjoint fragments of sentences. As best I can tell, there is no way to simply write a page of digital ink. OneNote insists on interfering with the writing process and breaks the text into pieces.
I think the writing guides will turn out to be one of those infuriating features that turn off a significant number of users. They make a key part of the application (capturing text) simply impossible.
Microsoft, please, just give us the ability to write pages of digital ink, just like the Journal application. If you do that, OneNote will be a winner. If you don't, OneNote will not be usable.