Michael Moser wrote:
>I wanted to document all steps to install a larger program package
> using OneNote by taking "clips" (i.e. partial screenshots) and adding
> red circles around stuff that I had selected or entered.
A most common task, for sure.
> This worked at first quite nice. However, the clips and the drawing
> elements (ovals) seem to be on different "layers" (or whatever). When
> I later insert something on that page above, all the screenshots get
> pushed down (which is what I want and expect) but the red ovals stay
> where they were and hence now highlight wrong positions and my note
> thus becomes complete garbage.
>
> How can I "merge" or group the images/clips with the drawing elements
> so that they stick together?
ON does not have the most urgently needed (and most often asked for)
feature for grouping and/or at anchoring.
And this will not be available in ON2010 either. {siiigh}
Therefore one has to use workarounds.
The one suggested by "JohnForAmerica" (nice pseudo, BTW <bg>) - i.e.
working with a screen-clip - works nit is nit too versatile and means a
loss if quality if the involved images (especially if it's PDFs imported
into ON.
I for one prefer different ways:
a) For commenting PDFs I use the PDFAnnotator (a fantastic tool not only
but especially for TabletPCs)[1] prior to importing.
Most PDFs I leave outside ON, however, and just link them. This way I
can easily change or add comments. And I keep them in Adobe's
"Portfolio". Huge advantage: Windows Search does easily find the content
and show it in the Explorer's "Preview Pane" which is not available for
ON data (the lack of a preview-handler [iFilter] for ON is another
serious shortcoming <!!>).
b) For screen-shots I take ON's clipping feature rather seldom and only
for "easy go lucky" tasks.
If it's something I want to work on I use SnagIt[2]. This app is a
professional instrument for taking screen-shots of all kind (incl.
scrolling windows <!>) and commenting/manipulating those as well as any
other sort of images. It has a lot of fine drawing tools, tons of stamps
etc.
I'm also using it for commenting images held in ON: copy + paste into
SnagIt, manipulate them there, then copy + paste back into ON.
c) For easy things the following works fine:
(aa) Comment/highlight the items in ON;
(bb) take the "lasso" for marking the whole of the wanted objects;
(bb) copy the selection and paste it into a graphics tool. My favorite
in so far is "IrfanView", a fantastic piece of freeware which IMHO is a
true must-have on each computer
;
(cc) Use copy + paste to bring it back into ON. It's just *one* object
now.
All that are just workarounds.
ON ought to have the basic instruments built-in.
Shame on the developers team
Rainald
