OneNote: the best application Microsoft has produced, and it is totally free

[owgpz]

I have been using OneNote professionally and personally for many years, and for me it is the best program Microsoft has ever offered. A few years ago, they decided to make it absolutely free even if you do not own MS Office. I'm now retired, and use OneNote for my recipes, shopping lists, and of course, RV traveling. The nice thing is that once you create a OneNote notebook, you have access to it from your phone, tablet, or PC. In fact, I can be shopping and my wife can add an item to my shopping list and it will appear on my phone as I browse the grocery aisles.


Recently I purchased a Rand McNally OverDrv RV GPS which is built on an Android tablet platform - it runs OneNote along with the GPS unit so I can easily see any road notes I need for my trip. I do not fully trust any GPS because they all have taken me to rat holes from which it is difficult to extract oneself towing a trailer, so these days I do a Google map, and even satellite images of critical intersections to be sure I will not encounter problems. All of these are entered into my "Road to..." entry in OneNote, and is easily seen on the GPS screen as we are traveling (my wife is the navigator).


Using OneNote you can clip screen captures of anything, and keep a log of your trips so you can remember what you did last year so you can adjust for next time you visit that location.


Here are a couple of screen clips of two of my notebooks to illustrate some of the potential:

 

[SpencerPJ]

Great post, thanks for sharing.  I'll look into that.

Don't know if I like the idea of wife adding to grocery store list while I'm there though 

 

[Krow1]

I use Evernote, also free (there are paid versions with features I don't need). Besides saving text notes, with Evernote you can scan documents then search on text within the doc.  What's amazing is that it does this EVEN WITH HANDWRITING.  I photographed all my mother's handwritten recipe cards and can search them for any text on them!  I'm still dumbstruck every time it finds and highlights text I search!  Of course the handwriting has to be reasonably legible, though not as perfect as you would think.  You can also clip from the web into Evernote.  I use that feature for saving recipes I find online. 

I've have Onenote and have used it a bit but don't think it has the capability of Evernote, though maybe I'm wrong. I have no affiliation with either software company.

 

[PJ Stough]

Great post, thanks for sharing.  I'll look into that.

Don't know if I like the idea of wife adding to grocery store list while I'm there though 

Better than having to make a second trip. 

 

[Seilerbird]

Better than having to make a second trip. 

That depends on how ugly the wife is. ;D