Cause to Pause

If you are an MS Word or Powerpoint user and/or don’t mind the occasional foray in to IE, there is what could prove to be a very handy new feature in MS OneNote 2010.

By docking OneNote to the side of the desktop, any MS Office Word/PPT or IE web page that you are taking notes related to will automatically be linked in your OneNote text.

This can prove to be quite handy when doing research:

Notice the small IE icon next to the text “Articles from Christianity Today“. When you roll over the icon, you will get a popup preview window which links to the referenced page. This prevents you from having to do the “highlight-copy-hyperlink-paste” dance to get a reference in OneNote to a web page. Plus the added bonus of linking to Word or PPT docs. Often a thumbnail image is all it takes to refresh your memory.
Also applies to OneNotes in other notebooks. Email linkage is still performed the same way as it was in 2007.

I use OneNote extensively for Bible Study and small group prep. Having an easy reference library of notes from all the curriculum and books we have studied over the last couple of years, plus my own study has been invaluable. Automatic linkage to web sites such as Bible Gateway and Blue Letter Bible will just add to the resource.
The new side doc feature and linking may increase some of the functionality in the work environment for me as well. Especially in those situations where I am using it as a “clearing house” to manage multiple documents.

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