With the release of Office 2003, Microsoft released a new application, OneNote.  OneNote, as the name suggests, allows you to create notes in a notebook-like interface on your PC or Tablet PC.  These notes can then be put into a variety of formats or into web pages so they can be shared.  It has been one of the more well received applications in the Office lineup and one I personally find very helpful in my corporate environment.

With the release of Office 2007, Microsoft has updated OneNote and along with the desktop version have included a OneNote Mobile edition as well.  The new mobile version allows you to create, edit and view OneNote files that you have created either on your PC and synchronized with your Windows Mobile device or on the device itself.  While it does not have the robustness of PhatWare's PhatNotes (see my review of PhatNotes here), it is a lower cost alternative and achieves the desired goal:  Organized notes!

In order to use OneNote Mobile you will need to have Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 installed on your PC.  OneNote 2007 is a part of two Office 2007 Suites - Ultimate and the Home & Student edition - or can be purchased separately.  OneNote 2007 requires approximately 1GB of disk space and you will need Windows XP (SP2), Server 2003 or Vista as your Operating System.  Once it is installed and started on your PC,  connect your Windows Mobile Professional (PocketPC) device to your PC via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) and you will be prompted via a bubble reminder on the OneNote 2007 System Tray icon that you can installed OneNote Mobile on your device.  If you click on that bubble reminder, the installation process for OneNote Mobile is started and you can install the application in either your device's memory or on a storage card.  Additionally, once the installation is complete, you will need to instruct ActiveSync or WMDC to synchronize your OneNote files if you choose to do so.  Synchronizing of files allows you to create or edit files on either your PC or your device and have it synchronize with the other. 

Figure 1:  OneNote 2007 Desktop Interface

Figure 2:  OneNote Synchronization In WMDC

The OneNote Mobile interface is straightforward and uncluttered, something that makes using the application easy.  Simply begin typing or handwriting your note (depending on if you have handwriting recognition software installed on your device).  While you are typing a note you can format text in a variety of ways by tapping the Menu>Format menu.  From here you can bold, underline, italicize or strikethrough text in your note.  Note however that you are not able to change the text color or the font size.  Lists, both numbered and bulleted, can be created as well from the Menu button.

Figure 3:  The OneNote Mobile Interface	Figure 4:  Text Formatting in OneNote Mobile

As you are creating a note within OneNote Mobile, you are also able to insert a picture or recording into that note.  To do either, tap the Menu soft key on your device and select Insert Picture or Insert Recording.  If you choose to insert a picture, an Explorer window is opened allowing you to choose pictures from your My Pictures directory on your device.  If the picture you wish to insert is not in that directory, you can navigate to any directory to retrieve it.  You will note that once you insert a picture into your note that it is only a thumbnail of the image.  If you want to display the image in full screen simply tap it.

Figure 5:  Insert Picture Explorer in OneNote	Figure 6:  Picture Inserted into A OneNote File

To insert an audio recording into a OneNote file, tap the Menu>Insert Recording menu and a small, movable audio recording bar is displayed.  To start your recording, tap the Record button and then the Stop button when you have finished.  Next, tap OK on the menu bar and an audio icon is now displayed in the OneNote file.  To play the recording simply tap the icon and Windows Media Player will be opened and the audio played.

It is important to note that with Picture and Audio files inserted into OneNote files, they are kept - as is all the formatting of your note - when you synchronize with your desktop PC.  This is a big advantage over Outlook Notes or text files which have limited abilities or loose formatting when synchronized.

Figure 7:  Audio Recording Toolbar in OneNote Mobile	Figure 8:  Audio Recording Icon in OneNote

One of the best features of OneNote Mobile is the ability to access your device's built-in digital camera (if it has one), take a picture, and insert that picture into your OneNote file.  This is a great way to capture whiteboard sessions or flipcharts while in a meeting yet keeping everything in one "package" with OneNote.  To do this, tap the Menu>Take Picture menu which will start a digital camera application within OneNote.  Once started, you can adjust the white balance, resolution and other aspects of the picture before taking the picture using the Action button on your device.  Once the photo is taken, you are shown a preview then by tapping OK, the image is inserted into your OneNote file.  Like any other inserted image, the digital camera image will be synchronized to your PC if you have set up synchronization.

Figure 9:  Digital Camera Applet in OneNote Mobile	Figure 10:  Inserted Digital Camera Picture

Overall OneNote Mobile does a good job but it is clear that this is the first version of this application.  Many of the features that are in OneNote for PCs are lacking as well as more advanced editing features such as text color and file categories.  OneNote Mobile is clearly a step in the right direction over a plain text file and is generally more convenent to use than Word Mobile (which does have more advanced editing features). Still, if you are a "power notes" taker, OneNote Mobile is not going to meet most needs.  You will need to look at an application such as PhatWare's PhatNotes Professional for that.

For more information on Microsoft OneNote, visit the Microsoft Office website at this location.