Microsoft plays OneNote

Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 was originally announced last November, but is still only available in beta. A spokesperson for Microsoft said she did not know when the software would become commercially available.

According to the company, the application may increase business efficiencies by enabling workers to electronically capture, organise and store all their notes in one location–-a tablet PC, desktop or laptop–-instead of having some on paper, some on email and some in electronic document formats.

OneNote content can be integrated into other Microsoft Office applications, the company claimed. “It pairs the flexibility of a paper notebook with the organisational efficiency of digital content,” said Jeff Raikes, group vice-president of productivity and digital services at Microsoft. If used with a tablet PC, written notes created on the 'digital notebook' can be converted to text for storage in any centralised location, Microsoft said.

Picture files can be incorporated but not converted into text, the company added. The application is targeted at business users and consumers representing verticals such as engineering, project management, news media, professional services, and education, the company claimed.

OneNote requires a system equivalent to a PC with Pentium 133 MHz or faster; Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3, Windows XP or later; minimum 64 MB of RAM; 245 MB of available hard disk space with 115 MB on the OS hard disk; CD-ROM drive; a monitor with Super VGA or higher resolution; mouse; and tablet PC pen-input for 'digital ink' functionality.