blobbing copycat: Using OneNote for Travel ?

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Using OneNote for Travel ?

Hello everyone!

Every once in awhile I get questions about one of the programs in the Microsoft Office suite: OneNote.? What is it?? What does it do? If you have a full version of Microsoft Office 2010 installed on your PC, you might have OneNote, and if you?ve never used it before you may be wondering why you might use it.

OneNote is a digital notebook. You can collect all your notes and materials for your next project, activity, plan, or even your next vacation, in one place.? The best part?? It doesn?t matter what the information is or where it comes from, you can store it in your notebook.? Pictures, text, audio, video, even info you find on websites- these are all things you can place in your OneNote notebooks.?

But how can you use it?? Well, if you?re reading this blog there?s a good chance you like technology and enjoy travelling the world, and OneNote provides a lot of solutions for someone like you.? Here are some ideas if you want to try it out:

1) Planning your Vacation? simply
You have been researching for weeks and now you have information everywhere: hotel reservations, e-mail contact information for guided tours, restaurant phone numbers, even maps to and from your destinations. Keep everything together in one notebook with OneNote.? You can even make different sections for every aspect of your trip!

2) Scrapbooking and/or journaling your amazing HAL cruise? digitally
I see lots of guests journaling with Microsoft Word and they become frustrated when they?re trying to add multiple photos.? Inevitably they won?t all fit on one page, and then they end up with an awkward page break.? Don?t get me wrong, Word is amazing for a lot of things, but if you want more flexibility and the look of a scrapbook OneNote might be a better option.? Plus, you?ll never run out of paper like you might if you brought a handwritten journal or hardcopy scrapbook on your cruise.? But if you do want a hard copy version at some point, you can print out your notebooks directly from OneNote!

Want some ideas?? Check out this notebook on Seattle (home of Holland America Line and Microsoft?), it?s part scrapbook and journal, part guidebook.?

3) Planning a group or family trip?easily
So the family is going on vacation together?? Whether you have a group of 5 or 50, planning with a group is never easy, but OneNote can make it easier!? Tired of sending a million e-mails back and forth and getting lost in multiple conversations regarding schedules, budgets, and activity plans and requests?? Create a OneNote notebook (You could even create different sections of your notebook, one for each person in the group), and then upload it to SkyDrive.com and share it with everyone who?s joining you on the trip (more info about SkyDrive.com and how to sign up below).? That way you can all add your ideas and requests for the trip to one location online, accessible from any computer or device (like a tablet or smartphone) that?s connected to the internet.? No more long e-mail conversations to sift through! Did I mention that you could do all that, share and collaborate with your friends and family, for free????

HELPFUL LINKS
Basic Info and ?How-To? instructions for OneNote

OneNote Blog ? keep up with new features and get helpful tips and tricks

Check out OneNote TripBooks- 40 travel bloggers made notebooks about 40 different cities and you can see them all here. Get ideas for your own TripBooks or use one of them to help you plan your next trip.

Remember, you can use the OneNote Office Web App online at skydrive.com for free if you don?t have OneNote installed or want to try it out before you purchase.

Skydrive.com is a free service, but you will need a Microsoft Account.? Don?t have one?? Sign up here!? Get 7GB of storage space for your photos, documents and your OneNote notebooks!? Share your files with friends and family and access to Office Web Apps for free!

Hope I?ve given you some ideas on using OneNote for your next trip. Enjoy your travels, wherever they may take you.

-Techspert Krista, ms Maasdam