Using OneNote For Screen Captures

I have discovered a cool OneNote function that you would not think of using OneNote for. But it works really well.

When you install OneNote, a little component of OneNote called SideNote gets installed. It shows up in the task bar next to the time in an icon with a N in it. When you click this icon a special OneNote page comes up which allows you to add quick notes to your notebook, a real nice feature in itself. However, if you right click the SideNote icon you will have a pop up menu that allows you to select "Create Screen Clipping". When you select it, your desktop will dim out and you will have a selection tool displayed. You can use the selection tool to highlight the area of the screen that you want to get a screen shot of. The screen shot will appear in a new OneNote page where it can be saved or copied to another application like an Outlook mail message or a Word document.

I have found this function to be very helpful in documenting how to do a specific function in an application.

Look at ME!

I'm not a big PowerPoint user but I do use it on occasion to do seminars or training. Sometimes you may want to blank the presentation out so that the audience focuses on you and not the slide that is being displayed. This is actually pretty easy in PowerPoint. Just hit the "B" key and the screen will go black or hit the "W" key and the screen will go white. Of course make sure there is enough light so people can see you!

Get a Closer Look

Have you ever linked to a website and found that some of the text is just to small to read? If you are using IE 6 and have a mouse with a scroll wheel there's a neat trick you can do that will enable you to read that small text.

While you are on the web page, hold down the Ctrl key while moving the scroll wheel forward or backwards. The size of the text will increase and decrease with the scroll wheel movement.

This also works in Word, Excel, OneNote, etc. Maybe you don't need those new glasses after all!