Hey guys,
i posted this over on the d20Radio forums regarding my SWSE game. I am so impressed with OneNote (both as a student and as a GM/DM) so i figured id pass this on for all the GMs out there using Word and folders to organise their games. This is a fantastic resource, so spreading the word
Anyway, ive just gone back to studying this year and a friend of mine introduced me to Microsoft OneNote, which is in my opinion the BEST piece of software microsoft has ever sold. OneNote is fantastic for GMs to keep their games organised, have easy access to resources etc. Thought id get anyone who doesnt know about it onto it because my life is in OneNote, SWSE campaign, and all my study notes/lecture slides etc
So first off, as an organisation tool you can see in the first screenie, my "Game" section. On the left are notebooks (I have an SWSE campaign notebook) and within it I have sections (top). Each section has pages(right). In the game notebook i keep basic records of what happened in that session, XP, plan new sessions and since my game is run using fantasy grounds (An online tabletop program) i put in screenshots of my game and the chatlog so I can look stuff up.
On that note, once youve run OneNote before on your computer, you can hit
Windows button & S and your screen greys out giving you a selector pointer. select a box on the screen and OneNote automatically screen clips whatever is in that box straight into itself, so thats how i take screenies of the game (or pics off the net, little tidbits i find on forums which might be useful later etc). Macs have a nice feature like that but windows is poorly lacking it. Its like an improve printscreen
Since im kinda new to the system ive used that to create a little notebook of basic rules and such for the game, using screenshots out of the sourcebooks. For little things its alot faster ie. clicking on my building encounters/XP tab than looking it up in the rulebook
Onenote also has a printer driver, so you can print a page directly into onenote. (doesnt work in 64bit windows as i sadly discovered) Useful for forum posts you think might be useful later (when you can just screenclip the useful bits) or as I use it, alot of the Wizards release extra content (creating encounters, the new starships/stations blog etc). Also MS released an update for office letting you create PDFs out of pages. Quick as anything you can convert a Onenote page (or word etc.) into a PDF and send/email it out
Even though i dont use it im pretty sure it syncs up with Outlook too.
Last pic in this example, you can place entire files into onenote and access them later, either printed or actually as a file to be opened later. I use this for some of the great generators people have made in Excel, for character creation etc. just putting the file into my notebook in case i want to use it later.
Thats the basics of onenote. If you have MS Office 2007, you have OneNote already. When you open it for the first time it has a notebook on using OneNote which is really easy to follow and get a handle on the program. Its pretty intuitive. Its great for random notes, planning sessions, record keeping and in my case, putting every single little thng relating to my studies in
Other Useful Features- Its got a built in searching feature which even picks up the text in images and makes them searchable! (Also lets you record and SEARCH through audio, tagging audio timepoints to notes you make which the recording is running!) Great for keeping track of things.
- You can also hyperlink between pages, interlinking resources related to each other (i use this more for my study stuff than SWSE but it is a nice feature)
- if you use a tablet PC/convertible tablet, OneNote is your best friend, supporting inking which is great for note taking over PDFs etc.
In terms of SWSE stuff from the screenies you can get an idea of how i use onenote sections in my SWSE notebook:
Ideas: random stuff i find on forums, ideas, stat blocks etc.
DoD Adventure: I printed some of the DoD adventures into mine to use them for my game. funnily im using them less than i expected :P
Gameplay: A page for each session, and subpages for things like planning, XP, chatlogs etc
SWSE: Rules, bits out of the books and useful resources (the starship sheets, ruels stuff i might need in a hurry
Records: Planets the chars have been, what happened there, chracters they've run into, what happened etc. Good way of keeping track of the universe
HNN Updates: My game has a forum where we organise sessions, chat about the game etc. I have a forum on there specifically devoted to news posts by the Holonet News Network, where the players get updates they would normally find on computer terminals. since my game is just post Order-66 these give abit of a universe feel to the game, as HNN goes from a pro-republic independant news service to the Emperors state controlled propaganda system
I write up those updates in OneNote then post them on forums (writing thigns for the first time on forums has never really treated me well!)
Being a student especially, OneNote is the best thing thats happened to me. As happened when my friend introduced me to it, i passed it onto a friend when we started studying this year and he too has his entire life in it now hehe. Not saying its for everyone (im sure there are people out there who love their own ways of organising campaign stuff) but i figure as long as people are aware of their options, thats the most important thing!
Hope this is helpful for someone
Linear Mode
