Using MS OneNote

[Mercule]

I picked up a copy of OneNote to help me organize my campaign. Problem being that I suck at organizing stuff. So, I'm hoping for some ideas and examples.

I know a few people here are using OneNote to track their campaigns. How are you using it? Care to share how you've got your tabs laid out? What do you use a new section for? A new page? What do you send to Word/Excel?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Sections are INTRODUCTION - MY WORLD - PLAYERS - HOUSE RULES - MONSTERS - MAP
Tabs are:
INTRODUCTION
...> Campiagn Overview
MY WORLD
...> The Campain Area
...> Orginzations
...> Places
PLAYERS
...> Player 1 Character Sheet (scaned)
........> Background Player 1
........> Notes Player 1
...> Player 2 Character Sheet (scaned)
........> Background Player 2
........> Notes Player 2
HOUSE RULES
...> Defining Evil in my Game
...> Rule 1
...> Rule 2
MONSTERS
...> The Villians
.......> Character Sheet (scanned)
.......> Character Sheet (scanned)
...> Monster 1
...> Monster 2
MAP
..> Campain Area
.......> Location 1
.......> Location 2

If you download the current patch you can PASSWORD PROTECT SECTIONS

 

[Mercule]

Do you take notes on the fly?

I've been trying to do this and then integrate them in with the other stuff. Example from a couple of weeks ago: I had to create a town on the fly (stupid wandering PCs), including a whole litany of NPC/tavern/shop names. Do I try to put this stuff in the right place off the bat, somewhere else, or not?

Otherwise, I like the organization scheme. But, let me ask you what the advantage of putting it into OneNote is over Word?

 

[Hand of Evil]

The use of tabs and sections are the key to using it over Word, makes navagation very easy, you also can seach the whole of the notebook.

Note 'flags' also allow you do sort and summaries on items, so if you flag an item you can idenity it later and as you can name note flags as you see fit you, you have options there too. Say you change the name of a note flag to 'city' and everytime you create a city/town you use that flag, you do the note flag summary 'by name' and search the entire book you would get all notes grouped together, these are hyper-links, so, clicking them will take you to them!

Note flags I have renamed: Plot Ideas - Cities - Character Info

I been looking at theme sheets too but have not done anything with them, I would like to build a log and format stationary, maybe soon.

I have yet to use it at the table but soon will be.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Oh, if you are using a table PC, see FORMAT - STATIONARY - BLANK - SMALL GRID this places grid paper as your background.

 

[Mercule]

Thanks for the input. It gives me some ideas to work with.

 

[Mercule]

Here's a maybe easy question: Have you found a way to link between items in OneNote? Perfect example is having a PC from a city and wanting to have a quick-link back to that city from the PC page. Or having a link to the stats for a recurring villain linked from an adventure.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is an issue for me, Onenotes does not have a hyperlinkink tool, I get around it by Word Search and list results provides list and link to words and phases and you can do the same with note flags, just insert a flag. You can also drag and drop from any folder on your PC to insert hyperlinks, if you go to your documents/my notes you cann see your sections and just drag and drop them that way BUT that is not tabs!

It is one of those items I hope they release in the next service pack, that and table creation.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, did a search of the Onenote site and found this:

To create a link to any section in your notebook, type file:, and then type the section's file name and extension (for example, to create a link to the General section, type file:general.one.)

Again that is section not tab.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, did a search of the Onenote site and found this:

To create a link to any section in your notebook, type file:, and then type the section's file name and extension (for example, to create a link to the General section, type file:general.one.)

Again that is section not tab.

Looking at this makes me think I would be better setting my tabs as sections and my sections as tabs. :\

So where I have
INTRODUCTION
...> Campiagn Overview
MY WORLD
...> The Campain Area
...> Orginzations
...> Places

I should go
CAMPIAGN OVERVIEW
...> Introduction
THE CAMPAIGN AREA
...> ?
ORGINZATIONS
...> The Cult of the Dragon
...> The Red Wizards
PLACES
...> The Weaver Forest
...> Hoblock Hollow