OneNote Service Pack Adds Features

Support for new types of data (including video), better collaboration, and better integration with other applications are highlights of the first service pack for OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking application. Although part of the Office System, OneNote is sold separately from the Office suite and is most useful on a Tablet PC, where it can take advantage of the Tablet’s digital inking technology—two factors that limit its audience today. But Microsoft’s decision to broadly release a free preview of OneNote with the new service pack could convince IT departments and laptop users to take another look.

What’s New in SP1?

Introduced in Oct. 2003 as part of the Office System 2003 launch, OneNote combines the user friendliness of a paper notebook, such as the ability to write anywhere on a page and never having to click “Save,” with the benefits of digital technology, such as searchability. OneNote is best suited for a Tablet PC, where handwritten notes are recognized and can later be searched by keyword or converted to text. But because OneNote supports many other types of input, including keyboard, hand-drawn and imported images, and digital audio (and now video), it can be useful on other PCs as well—for taking notes during meetings or phone conversations, for instance.