Geeks Unite - I Heart OneNote!

What is OneNote, you ask? Alas, let me tell you! If you have read this far back in my blog - http://missrecruiter.blogspot.com/2008/04/green-recruiting.html -you'll know that I'm a little bit of a tree hugger and really love to proselytize a paper-free office.  Down with paper resumes, manila file folders and big boxes of people's confidential information lying around a cube farm! Dell is a leader in the environmental responsibility space and even collects all our pre-employment paperwork and offer letters electronically... this makes me really proud.


OK, back to my point. For those of you that also love clutter-free offices, OneNote is an amazing electronic organization tool. It allows the user to create notebooks, and folders within those notebooks to store notes, documents and projects. URLs, screenshots, and emails can be embedded into OneNote with a simple right click of the mouse, as well.


For recruiting, I use it to keep all my candidate interview notes (rather than writing them),  record intake sessions with managers, and track activity for certain teams or requisitions within a folder. I keep my to-do list there, take and store meeting notes, and track my performance management actions there, as well. For my team, each member has a tab, and I tuck away notes regarding coaching and accomplishments, so at the end of this year, I'll have all that information organized. I even started a folder for blog ideas. I just started a skeleton for a post to be published on Dell's external corporate blog Direct2Dell. Standby for that posting soon!


I also have a personal notebook as well. Each of my kids has a folder, and I track personal projects like the kid-free vacation to Maui I'm planning in September (had to throw that in there, because I'm counting down the days!) - I have my itinerary, rental car confirmation/ receipts, hotel confirmations, excursion ideas, etc. all in one folder.


If you're interested in learning more about OneNote, but don't know where to start, check out the links below. This awesome tool is definitely Miss Recruiter recommended!

Get started with Microsoft Office OneNote 2007

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote-help/get-started-with-microsoft-office-onenote-2007-HA010032521.aspx

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_pB12Aw6fQ&feature=related