We already know that the “Send to OneNote” issue on machines running the 64-bit version of Vista won’t be addressed until the next release of OneNote. I’m sure that the problem affects very few individuals as well, since there are very few Tablet PCs capable of running the 64-bit version. If you’re one of the few, the proud, the 64-bit inkers, then here’s a little workaround for you.Dan Escapa offers the solution steps for you, but it’s only a partial workaround as OneNote won’t OCR your artifact under this method. You’ll end up using another program to send your output to a TIFF image format, which you can then insert into OneNote for markups. Part of me wonders why you can’t just the included Snipping Tool to bypass the installation of another app, but I don’t have a 64-bit Tablet PC to test with. I know you can’t save a snip as a TIFF file, but wouldn’t a JPG work for a single page of info and accomplish the same thing?

You may have seen me venting over Microsoft’s ridiculous failure to supply a 64-bit virtual printer driver for OneNote’s great "Send to OneNote 2007" feature.  This is the feature that is a must-have for me as I routinely print documents directly into OneNote 2007 for reference.  The HP tx2051 Tablet PC that I am evaluating came with 64-bit Vista Ultimate installed and this is how I discovered that the Send to OneNote feature does not work (nor install) on the 64-bit version of either WinXP or Vista.  The GottaBeMobile guys were also surprised to hear this and this week since they were at the MVP Summit on the Microsoft campus they asked the Redmond folks if they are going to release a 64-bit driver for this feature:

64-bit support for the Send-To printer will not becoming until OneNote 14 releases to the public. There are no plans toaddress this with a patch or service pack. So, if you rely upon theSend-To feature in OneNote, I’d recommend sticking with or going backto 32-bit Vista.

So the answer is clear, if this feature is a must for you then don’t even consider 64-bit Windows because Microsoft not only doesn’t have your back but they’ve painted a big, red target on it.

Can’t say that I’ve ever needed to do this, but I can see why some folks might want to view two sections in OneNote side-by-side. It’s actually quite easy and Dan Escapa’s method can be applied to many apps in Microsoft Windows.1. Just click “Window” in the menu and choose “New Window” or CTRL+M; your choice. This will open up OneNote in a second window.2. In your Windows Taskbar, CTRL-click both active OneNote Windows to select them.3. Right-click on one of the OneNote selections in the Taskbar and in the pop-up menu, choose “Show Windows Side by Side”Now you’ll have both OneNote sections sharing an equal portion of the screen so you can cross-check facts, update older notes, or whatever. Steps 2 and 3 above can be applied to any active windows by the way: you always have the option to show active windows side-by-side with this approach.

Firefox users rejoice! The “Send to OneNote” feature that’s native to Internet Explorer can be replicated in Firefox with the “Clip to OneNote” extension. The extension was originally written for Firefox 1.5 and OneNote 2003, but with some help from other sources, Amit shows how to enable it for Firefox 2.x / 3 and OneNote 2007. You’ll need the original extension installed and then you’ll create two new configuration keys in Firefox. Once done, you’re good to go. Amit has the simple instructions over at Digital Inspiration that provide all the details.Once installed and configured, you’ll have a right-click option in Firefox. Simply highlight any parts of a web page (text, pics and links) and then choose the Clip to OneNote selection in the right-click context menu of Firefox. Anything you’ve highlighted will be sent over to OneNote for later use.

Craig Pringle pointed to a handy feature of OneNote today that I have totally missed before.  I use OneNote very heavily and have never seen what Craig pointed out and it is going to be a huge time saver for me.  What I often do is take notes in OneNote while referring to information in another program or window and I have always toggled between the two windows while doing so.  It works OK but it’s a pain to keep jumping between OneNote and the other window while taking notes.  Craig points out that in OneNote you can tell it to keep the OneNote window on top of other windows meaning you can take notes on your OneNote page while keeping the other program open for reference.  Talk about a big time-saver in this situation!  Thanks for pointing out the obvious to us, Craig!

In my Flu-recovery mode, I neglected to point out the anticipated OneNote powertoy earlier this week. Thankfully, several of you reminded me via e-mail which tells me two things: you like free powertoys and my personal memory leak issues are now public. As expected, the free add-on helps you mark and later retrieve favorite bits in OneNote, similar to bookmarks in a browser. With it, you can tag a page, section or notebook as a favorite, making it easier than ever to quickly navigate to the content you need. A handy little function for when OneNote’s awesome search feature might be overkill.

There isn’t much info to go on, but there’s a good chance we’ll see a new OneNote Powertoy arrive early next week. There’s some last minute testing going on, so of course, all bets could be off but you’ll want to watch for it. What is it? Only a hint can be given at this point on the unsupported function: it will help you “through the maze of notebooks”. Should be interesting, especially for folks taking advantage of the multiple notebook feature in OneNote 2007. Thanks for the tip, Phil!

This free powertoy should be incredibly useful for anyone who purchased a Tablet PC but then later added Microsoft’s OneNote. Windows Journal comes with every Tablet PC to give you a basic note-taking application, but it’s fairly bare-bones. You can ink and convert your writing to text with Journal, but if you really want to step it up, you’ll want to explore OneNote. Ahhh… but therein lies the problem: what can you do with all of those older notes from Windows Journal once you add OneNote to your software stable?Up until last month, not much. Dan Escapa points out an importing tool developed by Lin Wang that solves the issue. Lin’s free Journal to OneNote Importer saves all that inking effort with an external application to pull in your notes. Sweet!

Kevin’s note about note taking pointed to an interesting paper note-taker and how that system works well for him.  I have to admit I got a bit dizzy looking at some of those busy note pages shown in the article but my motto is "always use what works best for you".  That said, the paper notepad doesn’t cut it for me because left to my own devices I am far too disorganized to be able to maintain a paper note system.  I did that in the past and spent much of my time, often unsuccessfully, looking for that nugget of information that I needed and knew existed in my notes somewhere.  Several years ago I gave up on that futile effort and my digital note system has worked flawlessly for me since.  Here’s how my digital notepad works for me.

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Dan Escapa addressed this particular issue at the OneNote Extensibility blog and I’m sure we’ve got a few 64-bit Vista users that might be impacted. Some folks are looking for the incredibly useful "Send to OneNote" function in OneNote 2007 on Microsoft Windows Vista, but they’ve come up dry. We knew the feature uses a print driver, but what we didn’t know until Dan shared the news was that the feature isn’t available in the 64-bit version of Vista:

"…the Microsoft Office Document Imaging tools are not available on 64-bitand therefore the Send to OneNote print driver isn’t available."

Microsoft and the OneNote team are definitely aware of the issue and Dan hopes to have it addressed in the future. No promises at this point, so keep your fingers crossed.