Microsoft Delivers on Customer Requests in OneNote 2003 SP1 Preview, Quickly Taking OneNote to the Next Level

Editor’s note – Nov. 19, 2009 –
customer references were updated in this story.

REDMOND, Wash., April 20, 2004 — Responding to enthusiastic feedback from OneNote (TM) users, Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of Microsoft ® Office OneNote 2003 Service Pack 1 (OneNote SP1) Preview, a software update that delivers technical updates and feature enhancements requested by customers to help them better capture, organize and share their notes and information. Customer feedback from newsgroups, surveys, focus groups and customer visits directly impacted 90 percent of the new SP1 features, including increased integration with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, the ability to copy notes from a Pocket PC into OneNote, and the ability to password-protect notes.

“A strong measure of OneNote’s success in meeting the needs of information workers is the enthusiastic feedback we’ve received from early customers. These customers are telling us that OneNote is helping them be more productive, and that they are engaged in the product’s future development,” said Peter Pathe, corporate vice president of Office Authoring Services at Microsoft. “The OneNote product team’s responsiveness to requests for feature enhancements in OneNote SP1 is a great example of Microsoft’s commitment to delivering valuable innovation to our customers.”

OneNote 2003 is a groundbreaking application for desktop, laptop and Tablet PC users. Since its release in October 2003, it has been applauded for improving productivity for individuals and teams by allowing them to capture and use their notes more effectively. While research from Microsoft shows that over 90 percent of adults in the United States take notes, few products have been developed specifically to aid in the process of capturing and managing this information. OneNote provides users with an easy and intuitive way to capture thoughts and ideas, which often serve as the basis for further documents such as presentations, memos, papers or speeches. Furthermore, the integration of OneNote with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions and Microsoft Windows® SharePoint (TM) Services enables users to easily share their notes and collaborate with team members.

Having listened to customer requests, such as those for easier ways to organize notes and more stationery options, Microsoft designed SP1 to help information workers share notes and information with their teams, enabling them to be more productive and collaborate more easily.

“OneNote integrates the traditional note-taking process into the electronic world,” said Joshua Duhl, Research Director for Content Management and Rich Media at IDC. “By allowing users the latitude to type notes or diagram and handwrite notes naturally, to incorporate and annotate images, slides and rich media (audio and video), and then organize, collaborate and share those notes securely with others, OneNote removes constraints that have historically made note-taking on computers awkward. As a result, OneNote may have a profound effect on how typical office workers and students interact with information and each other.”

New Features Included in OneNote SP1

With SP1, customers will benefit from changes ranging from user interface enhancements to major updates that will help users capture rich information in their notebooks, organize that information more efficiently, and use it with other Microsoft Office programs. With improved sharing and security capabilities, customers using desktops, laptops or Tablet PCs can improve how they work with one another and share information with their teams. The updated features include these:

More Rich Media in OneNote

  • Copy notes from a Pocket PC or Smartphone. Users can take written and audio notes on the go with a Windows Mobile (TM) -based Pocket PC or Smartphone; the notes are automatically copied into OneNote when the device is synced with the PC.

  • Record video notes. Users can save important meeting or event details by using a webcam or camcorder to synchronize video notes with typed or handwritten notes.

  • Capture screen clippings. Users can easily capture screen images directly into OneNote. Content is captured with time and date stamps and URLs to help users manage notes effectively.

  • Import pictures into OneNote. Users can better illustrate notes and ideas by adding scanned images or photos taken with a digital camera or webcam.

Extensibility

  • Extend OneNote using simple API. SP1 adds the ability for third-party developers to build add-ons for OneNote to import additional data types into a user’s notebook, allowing for integration with other products and devices.

Better Integration With Office

  • Insert documents from other Office programs into OneNote. Users can insert Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint® documents into their notebook as pictures and annotate them with typed or handwritten notes.

  • Import meeting details from Microsoft Outlook. Users can insert all meeting details from Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 into OneNote for future reference.

  • Create Outlook contacts and appointments. Users can send contact and appointment information to Outlook 2003 to easily access and use it later.

  • Publish pages to Microsoft Word. Users can easily create formal documents by sending notes to Microsoft Office Word.

Improved Sharing and Security

  • Share OneNote sessions in real time. The same note pages can be simultaneously viewed and edited by multiple users in different locations.

  • Password-protect and encrypt notebook sections. Password protection and encryption can help users ensure that only they or those with permission can view specific sections of their notebook.

  • Share with others using SharePoint. Users can place notes on a personal site or a team site on Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Windows SharePoint Services more easily. If the decision is made to publish to a SharePoint site, a separate pane will appear that guides the user through the process, making this feature even easier to use.

Improved Organization

  • Assign names to subpages. SP1 delivers on the No. 1 user request: Users can now specify a title for subpages that are part of a group.

  • Further customize note flags. Users can track important action and to-do items with more customizable note flags.

  • Explore new stationery options. Users have more flexibility to customize notes with new stationery options.

  • Manually insert date and time. Notes can be time-stamped so users will know when they were taken and ensure that information is current.

  • Resize page tabs. Users will be able to view full page titles easily with resizable page tabs.

  • Change date and time on page header. Users can edit the date and time in the page header to be able to easily sort and refer to notes later.

Refine scope of searches. To help them quickly find information, users can refine the scope of their search before they begin it, choosing to search a single section or an entire notebook.

Easier Tablet PC Inking

  • Delete or erase notes more easily. Users can strike specific text with a simple pen gesture, or erase more naturally with pencil-like erasing improvements.

  • Choose from new pen style options. Users will be able to write in the style they want, using customizable pens and new pen colors.

Availability and Pricing

OneNote SP1 is scheduled for release following the Microsoft Office System Service Pack 1, which will be available worldwide in 19 languages in summer 2004. The SP1 Preview will be available as a free download from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/office/onenote/SP1/ .

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Microsoft, OneNote, Windows, SharePoint, Windows Mobile, PowerPoint and Outlook are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

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