How do you search for section names in OneNote?

[Steven F]

I am using OneNote Sections for names of people but I may have hundreds of
names so I want to type in a name to find that Section but I can't figure out
how to do it. I know you can do a general search on all pages but I really
only want to Search the Sections. Also, I assume you cannot automatically
sort the sections alphabetically other than to do it manually - right?

Steve

 

[John Waller]

> I am using OneNote Sections for names of people but I may have hundreds of
> names so I want to type in a name to find that Section but I can't figure out
> how to do it. I know you can do a general search on all pages but I really
> only want to Search the Sections.

Search does not index text located in section tabs.
We use the section tabs for hundreds of names too but we also add the
name in the dotted header box at the top of the page content so that
search can index it.
We can find the section we're looking for quickly using search.

Also, I assume you cannot automatically
> sort the sections alphabetically other than to do it manually - right?

You can sort at the press of a button with the Sort Sections powertoy:
http://blogs.msdn.com/descapa/archive/2007/03/03/sort-sections-powertoy.aspx

Note: sorting can take a while (minutes) if you have hundreds of
sections to sort.

It won't sort automatically without you pressing the Sort Sections
button though (if that's what you meant). Once you create new sections
you must press the sort sections button again.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Steven F wrote:
>I am using OneNote Sections for names of people but I may have
> hundreds of names so I want to type in a name to find that Section
> but I can't figure out how to do it. I know you can do a general
> search on all pages but I really only want to Search the Sections.

As I has to detect right now,obviously on ON2007 there is no way for
search with section names.
Different in 2010. The search was highly improved and now a search with
the names of sections and section groups is possible and it's
super-fast.
There still is no way a search for section names only, however.

As the Beta is really solid, I'd suggest to download the Office 2010
Beta and install ON (you may leave out the rest).

> Also, I assume you cannot automatically sort the sections
> alphabetically other than to do it manually - right?

Not built-in.
But there is a PowerToy:
Sort Sections PowerToy (2007)
http://www.onenotepowertoys.com/index.php?s=sortsections

You might also have a look at
Sort Pages (2007)
http://www.onenotepowertoys.com/index.php?s=sortpages

Apart: I do not see which kind of information you want to keep in the
notebooks. But at first sight I seriously doubt that ON would be a
proper instrument for keeping data of "hundreds" of people. ON is good
for at least 1001 things <g>. But it is it not a replacement for a
proper database solution. You might re-think and include a database
application - f.e. MS Access - in your considerations.

HTH
Rainald

 

[John Waller]

> But at first sight I seriously doubt that ON would be a
> proper instrument for keeping data of "hundreds" of people.

Really depends what kind of data is being stored and how ON is used but
there's absolutely no reason that ON will not work well for this.

My wife runs a business teaching people to sing and has a staff of five
teachers who keep lesson notes (ON pages) for every student (one per
section) via shared notebooks.

We use OneNote for keeping data on hundreds of students (notetaking in
lessons) and it's excellent because it's less formal than a database.
Can type anywhere, add diagrams, quickly send data from a browser, add
tags for song suggestions and performance ideas etc.

We have about 1500 student records (grows daily) across a dozen or more
notebooks and OneNote has been the perfect application for the staff
since it was launched. They all love it because it fits in with their
workflow.

Sort Sections was a crucial powertoy for us. Before that, we were
sorting sections manually which was painful.

We're looking forward to the enhanced abilities of ON2010.

 

[coolnote]

Careful with that "sort sections" Powertoy. It removed all the sections that
had been kept in various groups and moved them to the notebook root when I
clicked on the notebook name and then clicked the sort icon. But if I clicked
on a group and then sorted, it only sorted the sections within the group.

 

[djprius]

On 2/1/2010 5:42 AM, Rainald Taesler wrote:

<snip>

> As the Beta is really solid, I'd suggest to download the Office 2010
> Beta and install ON (you may leave out the rest).

Rainald, how does one selectively install just ON in the 2010 Beta?
I downloaded the full version and did not see any place to enter which
of the programs I wanted installed (so I have Access, Sharepoint, etc.)
In addition, I prefer to keep Word 2007 during the 2010 Beta and NOT
have Word 2010 Beta because I find that when I load Word 2007, it takes
1 to 2 minutes to 'set up' EACH time I load it. Same thing happens
(takes 1 to 2 minutes) if I load the Word 2010 Beta.

David

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Thanks for your reply and the interesting scenario.

John Waller wrote:
>> But at first sight I seriously doubt that ON would be a
>> proper instrument for keeping data of "hundreds" of people.
>
> Really depends what kind of data is being stored and how ON is used
> but there's absolutely no reason that ON will not work well for this.
> ...
> We have about 1500 student records (grows daily) across a dozen or
> more notebooks and OneNote has been the perfect application for the
> staff since it was launched. They all love it because it fits in with
> their workflow.

Makes sense this way!
But for sure it affords a high amount of discipline.

Perhaps this learnt database-developer and -programming is still wearing
blinkers <gbg>

> Sort Sections was a crucial powertoy for us. Before that, we were
> sorting sections manually which was painful.

Oh yes. Only too important that the PowerToy - as well as "Sort Pages" -
still work in ON2010!!
The new version has not really gained much in the areas covered by the
PowerToys {siiigh}. It seems that developers excluded many things which
IMHO would be essentials for ON because of thinking that the needs would
be covered already ...

> We're looking forward to the enhanced abilities of ON2010.

Don't you use it already? Not even test wise?
I gave been working with it since July without any problems - side by
side with ON2007 (and most of the notebooks still in the old format).
As said the features for searching have tremendously been improved and
I'm sure that in your scenario you will benefit at lot from that.
In other areas mist urgent things gave been neglected, especially in the
field of "graphics". There still is no feature for grouping/anchoring
and annotating "images" (things printed into ON) still is as awful as it
ever was {siiiigh}.
And a terrible drawback for *me* personally is the fact that my way of
handling multiple languages has been destroyed (I had the language
selection with a ListBox in the toolbar and this is no longer possible
{siiiiigh}. And what makes things worse is the fact the option to "hide
spelling errors" still only works *globally* and there's no way to do
it per container/page/section.
Bad days to come ....

Rainald

 

[Rainald Taesler]

djprius wrote:
> On 2/1/2010 5:42 AM, Rainald Taesler wrote:
>
>> As the Beta is really solid, I'd suggest to download the Office 2010
>> Beta and install ON (you may leave out the rest).
>
> Rainald, how does one selectively install just ON in the 2010 Beta?

Easy enough (and as it always worked):
When the setup starts click on "Customize".
Then select what you want to install and what not.

> I downloaded the full version and did not see any place to enter which
> of the programs I wanted installed (so I have Access, Sharepoint,
> etc.)

So you were to quick and did not look carful enough.

> In addition, I prefer to keep Word 2007 during the 2010 Beta
> and NOT have Word 2010 Beta because I find that when I load Word
> 2007, it takes 1 to 2 minutes to 'set up' EACH time I load it. Same
> thing happens (takes 1 to 2 minutes) if I load the Word 2010 Beta.

Yes. That is because of the different settings.
This dies it happen with ON. Both versions can happily coexist and use
the same notebooks.

Go to "Software"/"Programs and Features" and select the Office Beta.
Then choose to change the install.
In the next dialog you can deselect everything you do not want to have.

Rainald

Rainald