Testing OneNote 2007

I'm currently on a quest to work out a robust and easy to use time management system using my tablet PC, my smartphone (duhphone), available software and the GTD system. GTD stands for "Getting Things Done" a method developed over many years by David Allen. This requires quite a major paradigm shift in the way you organise information and all the "stuff" that you have in some way committed yourself to doing. One of the key principles is getting all the thoughts out of your head and into a system on paper or in a computer. This is not a new thing in the blogospere, there's lots of people talking about GTD and trying to make it work with various software options.

I've found that there are an overwhelmingly large number of options from index cards, through configuring Outlook to make that work, to specific applications such as Thinking Rock or My Life Organised. Having tried about 5 different systems now I've realised that there really isn't a perfect solution, every system creates it's own extra headaches and workarounds which detract from the main purpose of making your life easy to manage! And it's a particularly personal process, so not surprisingly no one seems to be able to agree what is the best way to do it!

So I've decided to just plump for basically three options, based on software I've already got (Outlook/Onenote) and gut feel from what I've seen already. I will see if I can evaluate which of these will help me most in the long run.

1. OneNote 2007 and Outlook together
   
   1. Possibly with some Outlook add-ins:
      
      1. Taglocity
         
      2. Clear context
         
2. My Life Organised (MLO), maybe using Outlook to schedule tasks and OneNote to keep notes.
   
3. Toodledoo as a completey online option, perhaps integrated with GCal & Outlook calendar locally.
   

Another requirement is I have to record my work time, which I currently do with something called Standard Time. It would be really nice if I could use my task list as a basic project management system and be able to record my time spent against it. Not easy though and I've nearly given up on this aspect, although I'm still considering whether there is a way to export task lists into Standard Time, or perhaps some other time recording software like Time Tracker.

I really like the idea of using Outlook and Onenote together as:

1. I already have them and quite like the new 2007 versions.
   
2. They talk to each other quite well. It's dead easy to flag a line in OneNote as an Outlook task.
3. In some ways having a simple note based list could be a lot more manageable than the supreme cleverness of something like MLO, which may end up being hard to manage as you have to keep playing with settings to see the task you want...
   

I have just been playing around with the OneNote flags. I can see how I could use the create Outlook task (which flags the item with the red flag icon) as a !NA (next action) category. So I might have a great big long to do list (with the little tick box flags) and the one's that are next actions get turned into outlook tasks and have a red flag. Then when you do the note flag summary these appear in their own section and can be sent to a new page. I could also set up flags for other GTD contexts (@home, @work, @computer etc.). But there is no option for creating multiple level filtering. I'd really like to have a note flag summary where I can just search for one flag, by notebook location, or even better be able to combine searches for flags (@home AND !next action).

There is also some odd behaviour between OneNote and Outlook. It seems like you can control the Task created in OneNote, do things like change due date, delete it etc. and the changes show up immediately in Outlook. But it doesn't work the other way around. I tried to rename a task and change it's die date in Outlook, but the changes did not seem to synch back to OneNote.

And slightly frustratingly it doesn't seem to be possible to create Outlook category from a OneNote flag. SO if to do items are flagged @home, and you create them as task in Outlook, you can't transfer the context information. Grrrr.

So some slightly quirky and limiting behaviour here. This could be overcome, I don't know yet. The interesting thing with all these systems is how quickly you seem to come up against brick walls in the detail. However it is early days, I need to practice some more!

How do I... Publish my Outlook 2007 calendar on the Internet?

Ah ha! This might be what I've been looking for since February when...

It's a long story. My wife got a new phone and realised she could sync with Outlook ("Can I just carry around this phone instead of a filofax?"). This led to a discussion about "the family calendar"... "ZOIKS!" in the words of Scooby Doo. Of course she wasn't interested past the first 10 seconds, but 'I just couldn't let it lie'! Subsequently I spent way too much time experimenting with Outlook 2003 and various calendars and calendar sync programs. The result?

1. Outlook 2003 can't sync/share a live calendar over the internet unless you're using Exchange (don't use this at home folks) Server. There is a publish to a web page feature, but this is static and can only be viewed via a browser.

2. The only option is to sync via a shared calendar like Yahoo or Google. I nearly got this to work using a great little program called SyncMyCal and Google Calendar. It's 90% there... so what happened? Well it comes down to whether you want to share one calendar or have two separate ones, and whether you need to use Categories in Outlook. I'm using a GTD plugin to Outlook called Jello Dashboard which organises tasks, emails etc into groups by using categories. Whilst Google Calendars and Outlook seem to get on famously through their interpreter friend SyncMyCal, there seems to be some misunderstanding over Categories - bit of a touchy subject. Dunno what it is, I can't seem to get them through it and I am fed up with deleting duplicate, triplicate and quadruple calendar entries *sigh*.

3. Outlook lets you compare calendars side by side... gee whiz that's clever, unfortunately it's a terrible way to compare calendars. Anyone who's played calendar screen tennis knows that somehow the brain doesn't seem to want to do it (grrrrrr, I want to throw the mouse at the wall). The Google method of overlaying calendar info is much calmer and easier to understand.

The result? The extra difficulty of syncing through Google, plus the clunky way that Outlook compares calendars has sapped my enthusiasm. So, the calendar project is back on the shelf. We continue using family wall calendar (nice pictures), scraps of paper and the telephone ("sorry was I supposed to be home early tonight?"). I'm sure grown ups handle this fine and all we need to do is learn some basic life skills from our parents. But where's the fun in that with all these crazy technology toys to play with instead?!!

Ah, well there may be hope... I've just read this article: How do I... Publish my Outlook 2007 calendar on the Internet?

It seems that two copies of Outlook 2007 can sidestep their big brother exchange server and talk almost directly to each other via Live.com. Once this has been set up it would appear to keep running without prompting, AND you can now overlay information from two calendars. If this works, it could be a major breakthrough for family calendaring!! Wahoo!! (Sorry it's not that exciting I know).

It seems a bit odd then that this feature hasn't received more of a fanfare... Am I alone in wanting to be able to check the family calendar before I schedule an evening meeting in the pub... in mean... the conference centre. Perhaps Microsoft forgot to tell everyone and family people all over the place are just too busy cleaning up orange juice or poo to give a s**t. Or more worryingly is it another half baked feature that doesn't really work in practice?

Well there's only one way to find out. In the name of family calendaring I shall set out on a new quest to explore this area of Outlook 2007. Type into tasks: Download Outlook demo, Ghost backups of both machines. God I'm sad these days - but wish me luck anyway folks, I shall post here again on my return...

Is digital ink all it's cracked up to be?

There's an interesting question... Andy Moon has talked about his new tablet on Tech Republic. He is very glowing about it, so I thought I'd better add my 2 cents worth. After 2 years using a Tecra M4 I'm still keen, but perhaps a little more realistic about the current state of the Tablet platform for engineers and creatives like myself:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1076

Wow a Mac Tablet - oh Joy!

I just received a very interesting press release: "Axiotron to Demonstrate ModBook, the One & Only TabletMac". The ModBook™ is is basically "an after-market hardware modification kit, which allows standard off-the-shelf Apple® MacBook™ systems to be converted into high-end slate-style tablet computers." In other words you need to buy/supply the MacBook and then buy the tablet modification in addition.



If you think that there is a market for an Apple Tablet amongst the digital art/creative community (which I do) then this is potentially a very good thing. It could provide a pretty sneaky shoe-in for the Tablet format into the Apple stable. Basically Apple get to test the market by sitting back and watching what happens to Axiotron's Modbbook sales. If the interest and sales take off, then... "uh duh let's make one ourselves".

I think Axiotron have got the overall Tablet form right. Having used a convertible tablet for a year and a half, I've been looking for exactly one of these... a proper slate (no keyboard), but with a decent graphics card and a CD/DVD drive. One of the main things I've realised is that a convertible is a bit of a knobbled donkey. What no one seems to talk about very much is that you can attach a USB keyboard to a slate... best of both worlds. When I am sketching and taking notes I want a nice flat slate form, but I really don't want to try and write much more than 20 words in one block with the stylus - forgettit! Typing is far quicker and easier. So if you have a nice compact flat slate with an easy to transport and plug in keyboard - job's a good'un. At the moment though, no one makes a slate with a decent graphics card (pro CAD card anyone? Please?) and a CD/DVD drive. So the Modbook looks like just the right hardware format thing for a creative professional. Awesome.

The thing that really excites me though is what Apple have done with their iPhone. It goes to show that Apple are still able to take the bull by the horns and create whole new and totally better ways to interact with digital interfaces. Hopefully Modbook will take-off, Apple will jump in with their own tablet, cleverly merge the Stylus and touch screen technology from the iPhone and create a whole new interface "that just works" for the digital creative. There are rumours...

Hmmm, now all we have to do is convince SolidWorks to join in the Mac fun and hey I can sell my Dell Workstation to help pay for a Modbook. Woopeee.

See: Axiotron Modbook

Mac Users - Use Love to Switch Solidworks to Mac to Tablet.

Hello all you evangelical Apple Mac fanboys... I really need your help with something. You see I'd love to join you on happy Apple Mac cloud, but I'm anchored to Windows by two things:

1. SolidWorks (or "Sol-werks" as they like to pronounce it in Boston). The main software I use to design products is a fantastic 3D CAD application called SolidWorks - which only runs on the PC. We need Solidworks to make their fantastic software work solidly on the Mac. It would be a good match; Solidworks is a similar company to Apple, as they focus on making tools that actually work and are easy to use. Some official research I read recently showed that engineers could do things about 25% quicker on SolidWorks than ProE and others. They can do it quicker, more creatively and have more fun... Sound familar?

Now, Solidworks brings out a new version every year and apparently about 75% of the developments in each upgrade are customer driven, mainly from the "enhancement request" part of their website. This proves they are open to ideas... Sadly though "enhancement requests" are only accessible to those of us who are current subscription customers and therefore PC users. They'll not get much "move to Mac" persuasion from there. So how can you help Maccy Fan peops? Well maybe we could just use the good old banging on the front door technique; I'm sure if just 1 person a day dropped them an email here, saying something along the lines of:

Subject: Solidworks is great! Please make it for the Mac!

"Dear Solidworks
Come home Solidworks, we will embrace you and it is nice here...
Much love
Mac Users"

...then surely it's got to have an effect?? I couldn't resist that kind of love for too long personally.


2. Tablet PC... Ah yes this is a tricky one. I'm a tablet PC user. This is a great creative tool and I really like sketching on screen with Alias Sketchbook or taking searchable hand written notes in MS OneNote (one of the best things they've done). Frustratingly Apple doesn't make a tablet (wierd!?), so I'm stuck with Windows XP Tablet Edition.

The obvious question though is why isn't Apple making a tablet? In the same way Mac is really the soul home for SolidWorks, the tablet PC should be the wunderkind of Apple. I think they even had a go many years past. So orphaned by Apple, the tablet has been adopted into the great workhouse that is Microsoft. This is really sad, because as we all know, Microsoft's brilliance lies in copying and marketing rather than innovation.

This shows in the Tablet PC OS. Don't get me wrong, they've done a tremendous job getting the Tablet PC off the ground... but it's just typically "good enough". The problem is it's really just WinXP Pro with a few cool things added, and the Win XP interface is all designed around working with a mouse. Working with a pen really requires a different approach. I think Apple are the only one's who could design a brilliant world changing tablet interface - they've got the right mindset and track record in innovating OS interfaces to work with new input methods.

Oh man, just imagine working on a pen enabled Apple tablet that was as intuitive as pen and paper! Proper digital sketchbook - infinitely big, a way to record and organise all your ideas and develop your projects. I think it could be the platform of the future. So come on Mac people eveywhere, let's do us all a favour and push Apple to do this, they know they want to really! Does anyone know top brass at Apple? Is there an email address for Jonathan Ive? Can we start a petition?

Please help! I'd love to join you on the Mac cloud. It does look comfy.