Microsoft One Note

[berry]

I just wondered if there were any regular users of One Note who could answer a few questions about it's use. Thanks.

[heathicus]

I use OneNote very heavily at work. What kind of help do you need?

[berry]

Well I just discovered it and I'm a note taker so I thought this could be good.

So I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 HP and Office 2013. I also have a laptop, again Windows 7 HP but Office 2010. And finally a new Nokia Lumia 520 with Windows 8 and the mobile version of Office.

My understanding is, any info is stored in the Cloud or Microsoft's version of that.

1. Can I sync the 3 devices? (I'd be pretty happy if I could get the computers on the same page. I don't use a phone the way young people do.)
2. If yes, can you explain how?
3. I understand trying to delete a 'note' is a nightmare, true? Can you give a brief explanation of how to make that happen?
4. What are the security risks with using a Cloud for storage? I've always tried to keep my stuff here on my computer or an external hard drive.

No rush, whenever you get a chance to reply is good.

I appreciate whatever you can do to assist. Thanks.

Berry in St. Paul

[JPG]

Well I just discovered it and I'm a note taker so I thought this could be good.

So I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 HP and Office 2013. I also have a laptop, again Windows 7 HP but Office 2010. And finally a new Nokia Lumia 520 with Windows 8 and the mobile version of Office.

My understanding is, any info is stored in the Cloud or Microsoft's version of that.

1. Can I sync the 3 devices? (I'd be pretty happy if I could get the computers on the same page. I don't use a phone the way young people do.)
2. If yes, can you explain how?
3. I understand trying to delete a 'note' is a nightmare, true? Can you give a brief explanation of how to make that happen?
4. What are the security risks with using a Cloud for storage? I've always tried to keep my stuff here on my computer or an external hard drive.

No rush, whenever you get a chance to reply is good.

I appreciate whatever you can do to assist. Thanks.

Berry in St. Paul

IMHO avoid clouds.

I consider them to be a throw back to the 'computer room' idiom.

Not yet, but moving there for sure!

[Ed in Tampa]

IMHO avoid clouds.

I consider them to be a throw back to the 'computer room' idiom.

Not yet, but moving there for sure!

JPG
What comes around goes around. Of course it is throw back.

Did it ever make sense for most computer users that only wanted data to have to become system programmers and maintain the whole system?

People want computers like they see on star trek.

Make a request and the computer meets that request.

You don't have to worry about updating, viruses, system requirements, installs, downloads, uploads, formats or any of those things that entertain computer hobbyist.

In most business environments the PC acted like a dumb terminal. Few if any people using PC's ever installed a different program than what they were given to run on the PC on their desk, and none ever wrote one. All they wanted was data. What better to give data is the computer room with high speed access?

[heathicus]

Well I just discovered it and I'm a note taker so I thought this could be good.

So I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 HP and Office 2013. I also have a laptop, again Windows 7 HP but Office 2010. And finally a new Nokia Lumia 520 with Windows 8 and the mobile version of Office.

My understanding is, any info is stored in the Cloud or Microsoft's version of that.

Yep, it's stored in Microsoft's servers. I use their commercial/enterprise offering through work which is called Office 365 and OneDrive For Business. I'm not sure what the differences are between the commercial and private/individual offerings.


Using a "cloud" service basically means your data is on someone else's computer out on the internet somewhere. Ever uploaded a picture to this forum? Used Photobucket or Flicker or Picasa to share photos here? You've used a "cloud" service. I won't say "avoid cloud services" nor will I say "always use cloud services." That's a determination you have to make. Just understand that "they" have your data.

When using a cloud service, the big negative is that you are not directly in control of the security and safety of your data. Assume that if Microsoft has your data, the government has that data. Understand that there's always the risk of your data being accessed by hackers. Is your data sensitive and something you don't want Microsoft or the NSA to know about? Then don't use a cloud service.

The big positive of using a cloud service is that you are not directly in control of the security and safety of your data. Your data is in the hands of people who's sole job is to make sure your data is protected. Instead of a single hard drive on your computer, it's in a datacenter managed by server, storage, and network experts. It's stored redundantly across multiple storage systems and multiple data centers that are geographically separated so a disaster that takes out one won't result in the loss of your data. Yeah, there's the possibility of them being hacked, but that risk is not eliminated by you keeping your data on your hard drive if that hard drive is in a computer connected to the internet. And you don't have a full time staff of highly trained experts fighting against hackers.

At work, we've started using our OneDrive For Business to save a lot of our internal documentation to. But, we don't put sensitive information there - like administrator passwords. I don't care if someone gets a diagram of my network. But it's pretty handy to me to have access to that information from wherever I am.

1. Can I sync the 3 devices? (I'd be pretty happy if I could get the computers on the same page. I don't use a phone the way young people do.)

Yes, you can do that.

2. If yes, can you explain how?

On the PC, open the notebook you want to sync, then go to the File menu and click Share. From there you can set up a network share location. You'll want to choose "Web" and click the Sign In button. Provide your credentials for Microsoft OneDrive (you can use an existing Hotmail account if you have one, or you can create a new OneDrive account). Then choose if it's in a personal or private folder and click "Share Notebook."

Using the 2010 version on another computer (like my laptop), open OneNote, go to File, then Open. At the top of the list is "Open from the Web". Click the link for Microsoft OneDrive, and it should prompt you to log in. I'm already logged in so I don't know exactly how that process would go.

When I load OneNote on my tablet, after going through a few screens telling me how awesome OneNote is (this only happens the first time you open it), the first thing it does is prompt me to log in to my Microsoft (OneDrive) account. Once I log in, and it has synced, I go to Open Notebook and it shows my Notebooks that are in my OneDrive.

(Incidently, OneDrive used to be called SkyDrive. They had to change the name following a lawsuit in Europe because a company there already had service called SkyDrive. While they really only had to change the name of the service there, they changed it globally for consistency.)

You can also access your notes using a web browser. Just go to http://onedrive.live.com and log in.

I can send you screenshots if you need them. Sorry, but I don't know much about Windows Phone so can't give you any instructions there.

3. I understand trying to delete a 'note' is a nightmare, true? Can you give a brief explanation of how to make that happen?

Do you mean a whole Notebook? Or an element withing a Notebook? Deleting elements within a Notebook is pretty easy. If it's something on a page, just select it and press the delete key. To delete a page or a section, just right-click on it and choose Delete from the menu. OneNote does send deleted items to an internal Recycle Bin (not your PC's recycle bin). The Notebook Recycle Bin is located under the "Share" menu tab. From there you can delete things permanently.

I did some quick experimenting with removing a notebook from the OneDrive cloud service. I logged into OneDrive via a web browser ([url]http://onedrive.live.com)[/url], went to my Notebooks, right-clicked on one of them, and clicked "Delete." It went away. I went to my tablet and clicked Refresh, and the listing for it went away. Tried to open it from my PC and was unable to.

It was also sent to a "recycle bin" so I was able to restore it. On the OneDrive web page, I just navigated to the recycle bin and there it was. From there I restored it, but I could have also permanently deleted it. It was actually pretty easy.

4. What are the security risks with using a Cloud for storage? I've always tried to keep my stuff here on my computer or an external hard drive.

I got ahead of myself and addressed that above. To summarize, my guidelines for using a cloud service is to use it for data I don't want to lose and want to have access to wherever I am and where it makes sense. Don't use it for data I don't want anybody else to get a hold of. Digital pictures, personal documents and records I can't replace and don't want to lose if my computer catches fire? Yeah, I back that up to the cloud somewhere. DVDs I've ripped or software I've downloaded? No, I can buy and rip those DVDs again and re-download that software. Information I need access to when I may not be at my computer? Yep, put that on a cloud server so I can access it from my laptop or tablet or phone while on the road somewhere.



No rush, whenever you get a chance to reply is good.

I appreciate whatever you can do to assist. Thanks.

Berry in St. Paul[/QUOTE]

[JPG]

JPG
What comes around goes around. Of course it is throw back.

Did it ever make sense for most computer users that only wanted data to have to become system programmers and maintain the whole system?

People want computers like they see on star trek.

Make a request and the computer meets that request.

You don't have to worry about updating, viruses, system requirements, installs, downloads, uploads, formats or any of those things that entertain computer hobbyist.

In most business environments the PC acted like a dumb terminal. Few if any people using PC's ever installed a different program than what they were given to run on the PC on their desk, and none ever wrote one. All they wanted was data. What better to give data is the computer room with high speed access?

Good points.

Good 'backup'.

My point is do not put everything in there and only in there.

Only do useful work on non-connected machines.

Be suspicious on any thing 'downloaded'(not paranoid however).

If viruses are an exposure, do not put data on a 'connected' machine.

Your last paragraph does not mesh with my experience. So I guess I am an aberration! Make that an anomaly!!!

Heed Heath re sensitive stuff!:D


Finally 'back then' the computer room was under direct control of the business or a relatively small service provider.

Tis the proliferation of BIG data depositories(giga/tera/byte on PC's) and greater cloud capacity(more 'targets') that makes all this digital subterfuge feasible.

We come from opposite sides of the computer room wall!;)


Sad(?) was the day a telephone line was connected to the hardware in that room!:D

[berry]

Thanks Heath, I'll give it a go early next week.