Tag: one note

The Problem with Using One Note for Work

The caveat – I love using One Note. I think it is one of the best apps that Microsoft ever made.

The problem – Microsoft does not understand sharing, what it truly means, and why clamping the file down to the computer that created it is a bad idea.

I’ll elaborate. There are certain times when I do not want data I create for work purposes to be solely on the work machine I created it on. Why not, you may ask? Excellent question. Sometimes it can be a security issue where I may not entirely trust our IT department to back up the data or more often than not, I just want to have access to that information from various devices. I could be out at the mall and get a call from work that requires that I look at some of my data. It has happened more often than one might expect.

One Note is not friendly to this type of use. I cannot create the notebook in Dropbox and then use their app to see that notebook across platforms. That is not sharing. For instance, I’ve created a great notebook on my work computer which is a Surface Pro but I can’t access that notebook on my MacBook Pro. I know that I should be able to. That isn’t the reality.

I’m sure tons of techie folks will challenge what I’ve said. Whatever you suggest will never make One Note work the way I think it should.

Microsoft Word to OneNote

I have been using Microsoft Word to keep a master document of everything new I learn about my job. It was an idea that I got from someone I used to work with and it was a great idea at the time.

As of this writing, my little document has grown into something a lot less managable.

I’m going to start converting my documentation over to OneNote. I saw a co-worker using it the other day for the exact same thing I do and it looked like it worked much better. I also believe the search function is a bit more advanced.

I don’t know why I’m posting this on my blog.

Talking to myself, I suppose.