Things to know when running OneNote 2007 on Windows 7
Today, Windows 7 finally arrives in stores. In my personal opinion, it’s Microsoft’s best-ever operating system.
I’m not saying this because I work at Microsoft. I’m saying it because I’ve been personally using and thoroughly testing Windows 7 ever since its early builds were made available. The improvements that Windows 7 offers over its predecessor, Windows Vista, are plentiful, and the industry’s collective praise for them has been difficult to miss.
Though I must admit that I’ve personally had only very few issues with my various Vista computers at work and at home, I’ve sure had many an earful from my friends and family about it. Thankfully, with the arrival of Windows 7, we can usher in a new era of personal computing. I’m very happy about the immensely positive buzz about Windows 7 because it’s truly well-deserved. Hats off to the Windows 7 team. A job well done, guys!
As Windows 7 hits the stores today, I wanted to share a few tips about using OneNote 2007 on a Windows 7 PC. Whether you’re planning to upgrade now or later, I hope some of you will find this information useful.
Does OneNote 2007 run on Windows 7?
I’ve been asked this question quite a bit since the Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate were released for public testing. Now that the final version of Windows 7 has been released, let me officially confirm that OneNote 2007 runs great on Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate Edition. (I have not personally tested it on Windows 7 Starter Edition, so if anyone out there is running that, please share your experience by posting a comment here.)
The higher the edition that you purchase and install, the more functionality will be available to you in Windows 7. Wikipedia has posted an article with details about what’s included in each edition, so be sure to take a look before you make a purchase.
32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7... why should I care?
Feature-based editions aside, Windows 7 also comes in two different technical flavors — a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version. Up until recently, nearly all computers in the world ran 32-bit operating systems. Windows Vista Ultimate was the first edition of Windows to come with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, the latter for early adopters who could afford the then-costly hardware. Over the past year, mainstream PCs have gotten much more powerful and have begun to sell with considerable higher amounts of system memory, and more and more of these machines came with 64-bit Windows Vista pre-installed.
As of today, October 22, 2009, stores such as Best Buy as well as online retailers like Amazon, Dell, Alienware, HP, Gateway, and others will sell almost all of their PCs with a 64-bit version of Windows 7 pre-installed. This is because only 64-bit versions of Windows can take full advantage of higher amounts of system memory. If your computer comes with 4GB RAM or more, it’s a good idea to use a 64-bit version of Windows.
(If you can stomach a lot of geeky technical jargon, you can learn more about 64-bit computing over at Wikipedia. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!)
Does OneNote 2007 have any issues on a 64-bit version of Windows?
While OneNote 2007 works nearly as great on 64-bit versions Windows as it does on 32-bit versions, there is one notable exception: OneNote 2007 is a 32-bit application and its popular “Send to OneNote” print driver feature was not designed to run on a 64-bit operating system, no matter what version or edition.
A quick glance at the OneNote 2007 box spine confirms this:
Back when OneNote 2007 was first developed, there was a technical reason why this could not be supported. It wasn’t much of an issue then, mainly because most everybody was happily running a 32-bit version operating system like Windows XP or Windows Vista. Now that 64-bit computing has reached the mainstream at the same time as the popularity of OneNote is at an all-time high, this single feature limitation is something to be aware of.
If you’ve been using OneNote 2007 for a while and you’ve fallen in love with the Send to OneNote feature, then you may want to either opt for the 32-bit version of Windows 7 or try the Send to OneNote 2007 print driver solution for 64-bit Windows workaround that I previously documented here on my blog. Note that if you purchase Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate Edition, you’ll get both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions in one package, which means you can always opt to upgrade to 64-bit Windows 7 in a few months when the 64-bit versions of Microsoft Office 2010 programs will be released.
You can stay informed of development news, feature details, and eventual availability of OneNote 2010 by joining our Facebook group.
Now, let’s have a look at revealing a couple of useful OneNote 2007 features in Windows 7.
Unhide and use the OneNote 2007 taskbar icon on Windows 7
If you previously ran OneNote 2007 on any edition of Windows XP or Windows Vista, you may have never even noticed the so-called “OneNote 2007 Screen Clipper and Launcher,” a small startup program that keeps the OneNote icon in the notification area of the Windows taskbar active. In the later Service Packs on Windows XP and in all editions of Windows Vista, icons that appeared in the notification area would eventually and automatically disappear from view, as it was assumed that they would clutter up the Windows task bar. Rightfully so, because most programs place needless icons there, many of which have little (if any) functionality.
However, in the case of OneNote 2007, the little icon in the notification area is actually quite useful. It provides easy shortcuts to launch the OneNote program window, or perform any number of tasks without starting OneNote itself — including opening a new Side Note, starting an audio recording, creating a screen clipping, and setting the user’s preferences for controlling the functionality of the icon.
Like its predecessors, Windows 7 helps you reduce taskbar clutter by hiding passive icons. However, whether or not you already knew about the OneNote taskbar icon before today, the following procedure will restore the OneNote 2007 Screen Clipper and Launcher back where it belongs. Give it a try!
If you haven’t already done so, install OneNote 2007 on Windows 7, and then follow these steps:
In Windows 7, click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click to expand both the Microsoft Office folder and the Startup folder.
Here, you should see the regular Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 icon in the Microsoft Office folder. This is the main program icon for OneNote 2007. Whenever you click this icon, OneNote starts.
You should also see the OneNote 2007 Screen Clipper and Launcher icon in the Startup folder. This is the little program that provides quick access to OneNote functionality from the notification area of the Windows taskbar.
On the Windows 7 taskbar, click the small upwards-facing triangle icon (to the left of the clock on the far right side of the taskbar).
This will reveal any hidden icons in the notification area.
In the popup window that appears, look for the small OneNote icon.
Although you can right-click the OneNote taskbar icon here and use its features, the extra click to unhide it each time can become cumbersome. Let’s permanently unhide it.
At the bottom of the popup window, click Customize.
In the window that appears, you can modify the OneNote notification icon. In the drop-down menu next to Microsoft Office OneNote Quick Launcher, select Show icon and notifications, and then click OK.
Now the OneNote Screen Clipper and Launcher features are available by right-clicking the small OneNote icon that now appears near the clock on the Windows 7 taskbar.
While the icon is active, you can also use the Windows key shortcuts that are shown on this menu.
Whatever command is listed in bold text on this menu is the command that will execute whenever you left-click the OneNote taskbar icon.
The default setting for clicking the icon is to open a new Side Note (watch this video demo to learn more about this great OneNote feature), but you can replace this behavior with any of the other commands that you may use more frequently.
To learn how to change the settings for the icon, read Set the default action for the OneNote taskbar icon.
Unhide the Send to OneNote button in Internet Explorer 8
Windows 7 comes with the free Internet Explorer 8 Web browser. I understand and respect that users all over the world are free to choose alternate Web browsers, but I wanted to point out that Internet Explorer 8 has a very nice OneNote integration feature that you may not have known about. Because Internet Explorer also hides icon clutter, it’s easy to miss this feature. Thankfully, a few simple steps is all it takes to make this discoverable.
The following procedure only works on 32-bit versions of Windows, for the reasons mentioned earlier in this blog post.
If you haven’t already done so, install OneNote 2007 on Windows 7, and then follow these steps:
Launch Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7 and maximize the browser window.
Near the far top right corner of the browser window, click the chevron symbol ( » ) on the toolbar to reveal the hidden Send to OneNote button.
Although you can right-click the Send to OneNote button here to send the contents of the current Web page directly to OneNote, the extra click to unhide it each time can become cumbersome. Let’s permanently unhide it.
On the Internet Explorer taskbar (under the Search box), right-click in a blank spot near the left side of the Home icon.
On the menu that appears, click to toggle (in this case, un-check) the Lock the Toolbars command.
When you have done this, a toolbar handle (a vertical dotted line) will appear near the left side of the Home toolbar icon.
Click and drag the toolbar handle towards the left and watch the chevron symbol ( » ) on the toolbar disappear once you have fully revealed the hidden Send to OneNote and Research buttons.
Now you can easily click the Send to OneNote button whenever you want to send a Web page directly into your OneNote notebook.
Some Web pages are formatted in ways that change their appearance outside of a Web browser. If this happens with a Web page that you want to import into your notes, you can capture information as a screen clipping instead of sending the whole page to OneNote.
As always, your feedback is welcome. I’d love to hear your impressions of Windows 7 and about your experiences with using OneNote 2007 together with Windows 7. I hope you’ll enjoy the combination as much as I am.
Comments
Anonymous
October 22, 2009
Thanks for the great tips Michael! Retweeting so the world see's it.Anonymous
October 22, 2009
Thanks very much, Kathy! :)Anonymous
October 31, 2009
I've reinstalled MS Office on my new Windows 7 OS. Somehow, the Onenote Screen Clipper didn't appear upon installation. I can make it appear from inside OneNote, but it won't run on startup, as it doesn't appear in the startup folder. Suggestions? Reinstall?Anonymous
November 01, 2009
The comment has been removedAnonymous
November 01, 2009
Michael, Worked like a charm! Thanks so much for your help! I use OneNote constantly and not having the screen clipper was a real bummer. I'm so glad to have it back! Thanks for your help and a great post. Best, LisaAnonymous
November 02, 2009
Good to hear, Lisa. Thanks for letting me know. And thanks for checking out my blog. :)Anonymous
November 03, 2009
Hi, I use onenote 2007 among a few computers running Vista. My biggest problem with Vista was sharing the notebook (well, syncing) so I can work on it a bit here and a bit there and so on. No joy on Vista setting up notebook syncing/sharing using the onenote, and placing the book into the shared folder was a sloppy solution at best. Please tell me that sharing onenote2007 notebooks works like it should in Windows 7.Anonymous
November 04, 2009
Hi Michael, As someone who blogs about OneNote a lot, I would love to find ways to cross promote with you - whether we exchange links or you do a guest blog on the http://www.iheartonenote.com/ or whatever! Please contact me at info@iheartonenote.com to discuss. Cheers MarcusAnonymous
November 04, 2009
Eric, thanks for your note. OneNote does not control the file sharing features of the operating system, so the basic OneNote functionality will stay the same. However, Windows 7 does make it quite a bit easier to share files between two or more home computers on the same network. You have more options to do this than you did in Windows Vista. You can read more about this at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/File-sharing-essentials (check out the other topics on the Windows 7 Help & How-to site as well, there's a lot of good information available). Marcus, thanks for your note and suggesting the idea. I'll be in touch!Anonymous
November 04, 2009
Eric, Have you thought about using Dropbox to sync OneNote? (www.getdropbox.com) I have my OneNote notebook in the dropbox folder that I've set up on both my laptop and my desktop and it syncs perfectly! LisaAnonymous
November 12, 2009
I have found that the clipper does not do a perfect job. However, to overcome send to Onenote in Windows 7 64 I use Snagit to capture from any document or any part of a web page etc. and it sends it to OneNote offering to select the page etc. It works perfectly and offers editing and various other tools on the way. To me this is SendToOneNote.Anonymous
November 13, 2009
I'm a big fan of OneNote - I'm a journalist and use it for compiling my notes and research. There is however one minor problem I've discovered running OneNote 2007 with Windows 7. While Windows desktop search can FIND OneNote files - say if I search for a keyword. I can't then click on the found item in the search window and go to the file in OneNote. In effect, I have to open OneNote and start a new internal search. I'm not sure if this is a inherent bug in the program or something to do with the way my specific system is set up, but it's irritating.Anonymous
November 23, 2009
When I upgraded from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) OneNote's index disappeared. Can you tell me how to rebuild it? Many thanks.Anonymous
November 25, 2009
Nice Write up. I use OneNote 2007 on my tablet and have gone completely paperless while attending my college courses. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 and it has been running real well except when switching between tabs and pages, I have to click several times to switch - heard of this problem?Anonymous
December 02, 2009
I never had a problem using OneNote in Vista x64 or in Wndows 7 x64. The clipping function in Internet Explorer 8 worked fine, and the "Clip to OneNote" extension for Firefox worked fine (although it was a bit slow when clipping pages with lots of graphics. I have since upgraded the whole office package to the 2010 beta 64bit edition, and boy, I can tell you there is a noticeable performance improvement. You will want to switch to the new 64bit Office 2010 when it is released next year. The startup times for all office programmes is much snappier and the clipping feature of OneNote is almost instantaneous. Well worth the upgrade.Anonymous
December 10, 2009
Great tips! First time I have ever had online instructions that worked EXACTLY as they said. Thanks. BTW, Windows 7 is wonderful. I just upgraded from XP and would NEVER go back. THANKS!Anonymous
December 20, 2009
Send to One Note Button toolbar does does not appear when I'm working with IE 8 running windows 7 64-bit operating system. I'm using Microsoft Office Home Basic.