OneNote takes the clutter on your desk and puts it on your computer

Q: I noticed that the new version of Microsoft Office Home and Student comes with something called OneNote. What is OneNote?

A: The best way I can describe OneNote is that it is an organized, searchable brain dump that resides on your computer.

What started out as a fun way to keep virtual sticky notes on your screen has evolved into a full-fledged information system.

OneNote organizes information into notebooks which contain sections which contain pages. It’s really up to you how many of each of these you decide to use but to give you an idea of how they are used I’ll give you a quick run-down of how I use OneNote.

I use two notebooks, one for personal items and one for Noobie-related items. Inside the Noobie notebook I have several sections including sections for web site related content, phone calls and a catch-all articles and blogs section.

Throughout the course of my day, if I come across something I think might be useful for the Noobie web site, I open the web site section in OneNote, create a new page and type my thoughts on the page. This is the most basic way to store information in OneNote.

You can also use OneNote to capture web page screenshots, keep to-do lists, store meeting agendas and minutes and much, much more.

The idea is to put all of this information in one central repository so you can use it as a “one-stop-shop” when it comes to retrieving information. This is where OneNote shines. Using one universal search box, you can enter any search term you want and OneNote will display a list of every page, across every notebook, that matches your search criteria.

If this all seems a little confusing, just imaging no longer having those piles of papers stacked on your desk that you are convinced you will get around to going through some day. Instead, put all of that information in OneNote and throw away the papers. All of your information will always be just a few keystrokes away and you might even begin to recognize what your desk looks like again.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, April 13, 2007 on Tech Talk with Noobie, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday between 11:30 a.m. and noon. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .