Microsoft OneNote 2003

Tried the trial version of Power Point which created one heck of a mess with my Works program. First of all, it converted the Works Suite 2004 program into Microsoft office 2003. When the expiration ran out, my Works program along with Word became totally inoperable.As I did not receive a response from microsoft support team until several hours later,I resolved the problem, painstankingly myself. First if all there was no explanation that the 'power point' trial version would be referred to as "Microsoft office 2003". That made it almost impossible to identify in order to remove the program, as I didn't know if the Office 2003 was my original program that came with Works , or if it was Powerpoint.I did note 'trial version' so I removed it.Then after removing it, my own Works program remained totally inoperable and Word deleted automatically. Finally I resorted to using 'system restore"as I was getting "fatal error " messages and a black screen,when I tried to uninstall the trial program. Later I had to eventually download my original program. As it was a trial version, microsoft staff would not assist me over the phone, but then this is stated in the trial version offer. I found the Microsoft web site to be totally useless. The entire ordeal took me at least 3 hours to resolve after numerous trial and errors. As I am obviously not computer savvy, this resulted in frustration and anxiety as I really did not know what I was doing throughout the ordeal. I WILL NEVER AGAIN TRY ANOTHER TRIAL VERSION OF ANY MICROSOFT PRODUCT.For those of us 'computer challenged", it would be helpful if these offers provided clear information as to what the product will do to your system, and simple steps to resolve the problem. Could they not just state "Power point" will from herein be referred to as Microsoft Office 2003, which will convert all of your exisisting 'word" programs into a new version'"When the trial version expires,you will have to remove it and reinstall your original software if you choose not to purchase the product."

I take courses with lot's of formulas in the notes. OneNote lacks a convenient method for entering formulas. Drawing a formula also looks very ungly. The concept is good, but it still needs a fair bit of work to make it practical for every student. The free form note taking features is handy, but I suspect a page layout software would work better than one note at the moment. Given the high price tag, I suggest science and math students try out the software before buying.

Above all, a notetaking program is supposed to make it easy to organize and find notes. With that purpose in mind, certain omissions in the program startle.

Ordering notes within a section is as easy as it should be, but why did Microsoft make it hard to organize across sections and even harder to organize across folders? You can transfer a note from one section to another, but you cannot transfer it to a specific location within the section in a single operation. To transfer between folders, you have to use ordinary drag and drop. Software is supposed to make these processes easy, not complicate them with an anachronistic imagry of paper sections.

Organizing and reorganizing is of the essence for notetaking, and the Office suite, of which OneNote is part, has a multi-clipboard. Why did Microsoft omit giving OneNote access to the Office clipboard, when OneNote is the Office product that needs it most. The functionality is already present in Office; Microsoft had to go out of its way to omit this functionality for OneNote.

The saving grace of OneNote is that the underlying technology is very powerful. It gives you the ability to take notes by various means and to put them anywhere you want on the page. The core technology is powerful, but the feature set MS has chosen to develop lacks a rational foundation and appears impulsive.