tools

OneNote

Having used Trello, Notability, Google Drive/Docs, Evernote, iOS notes and countless other note taking apps and software products over recent years, I’d say I’m fairly well positioned to pass judgement on OneNote.

Made available freely by Microsoft (when?) there are different versions available as apps on iOS and android devices and Windows 10. The full version is available via Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription, or via older non-subscription installations of Microsoft Office – like the Office 2013 product I have.

So, what is OneNote? At its core, it’s a note-taking app, but it’s so much more powerful than that. It’s a collaboration platform; it’s a virtual, access-anywhere collection of notebooks; it’s a powerful, easily-searchable, online filing cabinet for thoughts, documents and ideas. And best of all for me, is the seamless way it integrates across devices.

A typical use-case for me will start with me capturing some ideas on my iPhone, writing out some bullet points. Then when I’m on my commuter train, I’ll pull out my iPad, connect to OneNote and continue expanding on those ideas, sketching out concepts or diagrams with my finger or stylus. Once in work, out comes the laptop and again, connecting to OneNote, my notebook will sync and I’ll pick up where I left off, refining the content I’ve been working on throughout my journey to work. There’s no complicated method of transferring files and thinking about file formats. It just works. Without any complications. And it’s all so very user friendly!

What does it look like? Take a look at this intro video from Microsoft…

There’s a simple but intuitive structure:

  • You have notebooks, which I equate to the likes of a physical ring binder or folder.
  • Within each notebook, you have sections. These are tabbed areas within the notebook. So again, continuing the physical metaphor, these would be the coloured dividers that are typically used in a ring binder.
  • Each section can then have a series of pages and sub-pages.

Features I think are important:

Collaboration

  • Not only editing the same document at the same time, but also version tracking and the ability to highlight changes made by others.

Screen clipping

  • Much more powerful than standard print-screens, especially with a dual monitor setup.

Offline editing

  • Start online, continue offline, or vice versa. The system flexibly syncs with devices so your content is available wherever you want.

OCR

  • Taking picture of a page of notes or a whiteboard discussion and converting that to OneNote text, which then, naturally becomes editable and searchable.

Embedding files

  • You can import content, or simply attach files – which is great if you’ve got source documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, etc. so all your reference material is kept in one place.

Printing from Word to OneNote.

  • If like me, you’ve got a lot of old Word Documents, you don’t have to convert these individually to be available in OneNote. You can simply print to OneNote (tip: change advanced options in OneNote so that it creates a single note, rather than individual pages for each page of the Word document!)

Print from OneNote.

  • The other way around to the point above, but OneNote’s desktop version allows you to easily export to PDF and Word, or even as a OneNote file to send to someone else if they’re not on the same sharing network.

Password protection (in full/desktop version only)

  • Lock individual pages or sections behind simple passwords.

Tags

  • Add tags to documents to assist with searching. There are a range of tags available, from critical items, remember for blog, phone numbers, addresses, etc. then once the tag is added, simply “Find Tags” on the menu bar will show these tags in your documents. Very quick and very easy to use!

Checkboxes

  • Actually a kind of tag, but really easy to use. Highlight a list of content and press Ctrl+1 and the list is instantly converted to a checkbox list. Press Ctrl+1 again and the checkbox(es) will be ticked, to mark as complete. And press Ctrl+1 a final time to remove the checkbox. Again, all checkboxes show up in the “Find tags” menu option, showing in the To Do list – across all pages and sections in your notebook. There is the option of splitting this by section or notebook too, in case you have lots of lists.

Keyboard shortcuts

  • There are tons of keyboard shortcuts available in OneNote (as with most Microsoft product). The checkbox Ctrl+1 is just one of them. For a complete list, check out the Microsoft page here.

Subpages

  • As your OneNote use expands, you’ll find that some sections end up having a lot of pages. To help manage these, it’s possible to nest some pages as subpages, underneath others.  And (see OneTastic comment later) there are also some powerful macros available to help with this too, like the very helpful automatic Table of Contents in current section, for example.

Powerful search (also integrates with Delve via Office 365)

  • The search facility is quick, accurate and powerful – and if you’re a full Office 365 user, your OneNotes will start being indexed and presented through Delve too.

Cloud based, so is accessible anywhere

  • This universal accessibility has to be one of the biggest selling points for OneNote. It just simply works. And although cloud based, syncs with devices so OneNotes can be edited offline too when you’re out of wifi range.

Integrates with personal OneDrive.

  • Easily share content to/from OneDrive and with others. Your personal OneDrive has tons of free storage – as OneDrive comes with a very handy 15GB free for personal use. Which if you’re only using it for OneNote storage will take a very long time to fill up. If you’re using OneNote at work too, you can also easily switch from different OneDrive accounts, so you can (if you want) easily access your work-based OneNotes to continue that urgent writing when you’re out of the office – even on your iPhone/smartphone.
  • And if you need more OneDrive space, you can secure an extra 0.5GB of space for every individual you refer to the service, up to a maximum of 10GB. Here’s my OneDrive referral so if you haven’t already signed up, please do use my link! Thanks.

I haven’t taken the plunge yet and opted for a personal Office 365 account.  At £5.99 a month, it’s not exactly cheap… But that’s only for one personal computer. For a household (up to 5 computers + mobile devices), it’s £7.99 per month. As a Netflix and Amazon Prime household, that’s another subscription too far, especially with an older non-subscription version of Office working absolutely fine. The subscription model that Microsoft, Adobe and others are adopting is another story though…

There’s also a useful community around OneNote that has extended the platform with some very helpful macros and plugins. The very excellent OneTastic provides a very good selection of these that can easily be added to the desktop app (but as far as I’m aware, is restricted to the full desktop version (not the Windows 10, iOS or Android apps), but very helpfully creates some very useful shortcuts to make life even easier with OneNote.

So, to wrap up, I highly recommend getting to grips with OneNote.

Links to OneNote:

Windows app

iOS app

Android app

How to easily create your own font

I’d often wondered how easy it would be to create my own font and having seen various pixel based, graphical editors always placed it in the too-complicated or too-hard camp. But I came across this tool called MyScriptFont the other day which promises to make the process significantly easier.

First of all, there’s no on-screen editing. You simply download a template grid and then using a medium thickness black felt tip, write in the alphabet in uppercase and lower case, along with the main numbers and punctuation. Additional symbols are optional, which in the interest of speed and testing it all, I opted against. Then it’s simply a case of scanning your grid in to your PC and uploading it to the MyScriptFont website.

Once it’s online, the site does its thing and provides you with either a True Type Font (TTF) or OTF which you can download and then easily install into your own machine.

I created mine in about 5 minutes – which you can view or install from here, if you like. It’s not perfect, as I accidentally crossed some of the guide lines so the loops on some of my letters have been cut off during the scanning process, but it was so easy to do, I just felt it worth sharing on here. I’ll shortly be revisiting the site and taking more time on my grid so I can have a perfect font!

Where the site might have a few drawbacks is in foreign language support, or for those instances where pixel perfect accuracy is required. It’s also quite tricky, as I found, to fill in the whole grid without making a mistake… so, unlike me, take your time and do it slowly! And make sure your felt tip pen doesn’t start fading half way through writing.

In terms of applications, there are a lot of paid font solutions out there that designers and organisations use and pay for, but this one is absolutely free – and pretty unique too. It’s not going to be suitable for every application, but the speed at which you can get your own custom handwriting based font is hard to complain about.

PDF splitter free online tool

Occasionally I have to work with some huge documents, typically as PDFs, but I don’t always have my laptop with the full Acrobat package on it. When that happens, and I need to break the PDFs up, I use a free online PDF splitter tool called PDFSplit! – which is available here.

It can extract all pages in a PDF to individual PDFs, or just grab a certain section of a PDF and save it into a new file. It’s quick. It’s online. And it’s free.

Video download tool

Continuing the theme of highlighting free online tools that I’m finding useful, there’s a tube downloader that’s got a great range of download options and approved sites. It’s called Tube Offline and is a firm favourite of mine.

Obviously you need to check the legality of downloading and storing videos that are available online, but it’s been very helpful to capture some online videos so they can be watched offline, when I don’t have an internet connection. Kids’ cartoons, training videos, fitness lessons – download them for free with this tool and they can then be stored on your iPad, iPhone or other mobile device to watch when you’re on the go. 

And if the file you download isn’t in the right format, this file converter here is pretty handy too, which also includes a download option to grab videos straight from online streams. Or the online converter tool – here – which I’ve highlighted previously.

Why I like Flipboard

Flipboard has been around for a while now and was arguably one of the ‘killer apps’ of the first iPads. It has certainly stood the test of time too and has evolved over the years. More recently, there’s been further development which has seen new features added, improving the overall appeal of the platform. It’s one of those apps that I have on all my devices.

Aggregated content

Flipboard originally started out offering aggregated content and it’s clear this is where its strength lies. Rather than subscribing to countless individual newsletters and feeds from the sites and publishers that you’re interested in, you can just create your own custom magazine, choosing the content you want from the publishers you’re interested in. Flipboard takes care of the hassle and presents the content in an incredibly user-friendly digital magazine format.

Self publishing

My magazine that I self publish is available here. I use it to store and share the stories that I find interesting, curating content from across the web and social platforms – typically spanning the usual topics of personal finance, technology, health and general news or current affairs. Occasionally, there are some instructables and DIY guides that I find interesting and would love to have a go of when I have more time, so I add them to my Flipboard magazine knowing that they’ll be there at a later date when I need them.

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Bookmarklet

The bookmarklet is invaluable for curating content as you’re browsing the web. Simply go here and drag the Flip It button on to your bookmark bar. Then as you’re browsing the web if you see something interesting and want to add it to your magazine, it’s as simple as clicking this button. If you have multiple magazines, you can choose which one to send it to and you can also add your own comment or thoughts on the content as you do so.

Web access

One of the major recent changes the team at Flipboard introduced, was the ability to access the platform via a browser. Previously confined to the app on a mobile device, it’s now possible to browse Flipboard online, through a browser. It’s not as pleasant a user experience (unless you have a touch-enabled screen) as the mobile device, but sometimes it’s helpful to be able to quickly access one of your magazines for some content you’ve saved or curated for referencing later.

Where to get it

Flipboard on the web – here (and Flipboard Editor – here)

Flipboard on itunes – here

Flipboard on android – here

Easy laptop upgrades

Lenovo X201I’ve just had to go through a full install of Windows 7 on my refurbished laptop in the process of upgrading it, and either I’ve become more competent, or it’s a lot easier than it ever was previously (with earlier versions of Windows and other laptops). After years of swearing by desktops and the ease of replacing components as a means of upgrading and squeezing that extra period of life out of the machines, I opted for a refurbished laptop earlier this year. I’ve actually bought exactly the same model as the laptop I use at work, a Lenovo X201, as I’ve been so impressed with its robustness and balance of size, speed and performance. But I knew, from some casual research online that it was also relatively easy to upgrade.

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Online marketing planning case study

chessMy blog so far has been a place for me to share things that I find interesting as well as helpful tips and information that I’ll often refer back to myself. It’s almost like having a personal set of bookmarks that are accessible everywhere I go without having to use any bespoke service.

However, a friend has asked me for some advice regarding their newly launched online business and since I happen to work predominantly in the online / media / marketing world, I thought this blog is as good a place as any to write up my suggestions.

Although I’ve intentionally kept the name of the company anonymous, the principles behind maximising online opportunities for an online retailer apply can be applied by anyone.

The background

The company my friend works for is a niche SME online retailer that has decided to branch out in to a new range of products (home accessories and home gifts) outside of its existing offering (beauty products). Rather than expand the existing successful brand, a new separate entity has been created. A good, well designed web site has been constructed; an expansive range of over 400 niche products has been selected and available from launch at competitive prices; and some initial social media activities have been undertaken. So far, so good – they’re sounding like they’re doing a lot of the right things – but what can they do to take things to the next level?

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How to match and find a font

fontsHaving had to recently undertake a project to redesign some corporate literature and align new marketing materials with concept designs, I found that I’d inherited some design work from a predecessor but only had the flat image files, so had no way of knowing what fonts were used in the designs. I was sure I’d know if it was a standard font, but as these weren’t… I didn’t know quite how to start. Obviously, this led to a trip to Google and the result was me finding a handful of very helpful web sites that I want to note down here so that a) I don’t forget them, and b) other people can perhaps benefit from them too. All these services I used are completely free online.

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Free online pic resize tool

If you need to resize a photo, but you’re away from you main PC – ie on a tablet or netbook, and don’t have access to your regular imaging application, then this handy online pic resize tool is invaluable. It’s free too.

http://www.picresize.com/

More webmaster tools

Continuing on from my last post about domain name alternatives (HERE), there are other tools freely available online that should be part of any webmaster’s toolbox. This post will include links to the ones that I use most frequently and have found easiest to use.

There’s no point in struggling through with your web site, you may as well take advantage of the free resources that are available to you – and there are lots! All you need to know is where to look for them.

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