OneNote vs Evernote, Complicated by Legacy and Transcript, Or There is More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

We all do stuff differently, research, input, choices of software, images vs none, digital vs hard copy.

My recent change of family history programs has re-fired my interest in getting digital files on my computer transcribed, input, linked, ON my database. I have also been switching from OneNote over to Evernote, but in a hit or miss fashion, partly because old habits die hard. I have been using OneNote for a few years, my use of Evernote is much more recent. And yes I have files and clippings in both.

My love affair with OneNote started waning a year ago when I had trouble moving the files to my new computer. I had noted about 6 months prior to the purchase of the new computer that there were some issues with OneNote.  Simply put, I had some corrupted files, and even though we tried diligently, Man and I could not fix it, those files just kept coming back. I believe the fix came when somehow I managed to copy all of OneNote files, except that rogue file to Dropbox and then into the new computer. We tried so many things, I won't even swear that is what worked. But, in the end, I managed to get OneNote to function on the new computer as it had on the old.

I had always loved, really loved the screen capture on OneNote. And, I used it a lot, for all kinds of things, some even genie related! If I happen across a colorful newspaper article, especially a short one, I will clip it to OneNote. I have clipped longer ones too, but that usually requires multiple clips, ending up on multiple pages in OneNote. Yes, there is a way around that too, a bit cumbersome, involving a lot of cut and paste.

I have clips in OneNote and in Evernote. Here is what I want to do, it may vary for you, remember, there is no right way and no wrong way, only the way that works for YOU!

I want to type up these newspaper clips and then include them in the note fields in Legacy.  Below, these are notes for Orville James Lashbrook, the portion that starts, "From the November 9, 1945 issue . . . " is a small humorous, color filled article I found about Orville.  It is placed in his notes chronologically, so as to build his "life story".

Back to my issues with OneNote, say I have a news article, I want to type it up and copy and paste the typed version into the notes for that person on my data base in Legacy. I may or may not decide to actually save the image and link it as well to that person. Saving the image is an entirely different issue, and is very easily accomplished with Adobe PhotoShop.

I want to do my typing like I can in Transcript. I love Transcript, don't you??  Let's digress just a moment to look at Transcript, hopefully it will help you understand what I am wanting to do with OneNote.

Below, screen shot of how Transcript works.  At the top is the image I am attempting to transcribe, below is my attempt at typing/transcribing same.

Yes, indeedy, I do love Transcript, but the screen clips I do in OneNote are not going to work in Transcript, unless I convert them to jpg files.  As I pointed out above, OneNote screen captures can be converted to jpg or other digital formats with Adobe Photoshop. I do convert longer articles and other screen captures, like parts of maps, just this way.  But, all depending on my mood and how important I feel it is to retain a copy of that short news article, I may decide I just want the transcription, and not bother to save the image.

Below:  A OneNote example.  Upper left is the news article image I did a screen capture of.  Down at the bottom is some additional information I copied to the page for sourcing purposes, date of the publication, web site, name of the publication, etc.  To the upper right you will see where I have typed/transcribed the news article.  Next desired step will be to highlight the typed/transcribed area and copy it (Ctrl V on a windows computer) and go to Legacy, open the note for the ancestor and paste it (Ctrl C on the windows computer) into that note field.

Trouble is, that I have discovered that when using OneNote I cannot copy the newly typed text and paste directly to Legacy note fields. I can do the highlight/copy/paste into the note field, and the words appear to have been posted into the note. However, when I exit the note field, yes, SAVING first, and then come back, whatever I have pasted is gone. Poof.  Just to be perfectly clear, I am NOT trying to paste in the image of the news article, I am trying to paste in the letters/words/paragraphs I have typed/transcribed.

I have come up with a work around, and here it is:  Do all steps required, highlight, copy, then, instead of pasting directly to Legacy, I paste into a word processor, Word Perfect is my processor of choice.  In Word Perfect when you are pasting, if you do so with a right click one of the choices is "Paste Unformatted Text".  I use that choice.   With the text now safely pasted into a Word Perfect document I repeat the highlight, copy procedure and NOW I go to Legacy and paste the text into the notes.  Again, to be clear as I can be, I am copying the typing from Word Pefect at this point, I can close OneNote down, it no longer is in the work procedure.

I am not thrilled with this extra step, cause, 1.)  I am lazy  2.)  I have so much of this work to accomplish  3.)  I am lazy, oh, I said that, didn't I??  It looks like I may be using Evernote for this kind of project from now on.  I tried the same type of typing/transcribing with Evernote, and the highlight/copy/paste from Evernote to Legacy was flawless.  No in between steps required.  Below, what a project looks like in Evernote:

If you look closely at this news article clipping you will note it is the same one I highlighted in the first photo, concerning Orville James Lashbrook and his opossum experience.

Between the issues I had in the past with OneNote and its corrupted file and the difficulty transferring it to my new computer, and the fact, that my brain never did totally comprehend some of the ways OneNote does organizational things, I figure OneNote heavy use is going to dwindle.  My organizational thoughts are more in line with the way Evernote does things, and I can use Evernote on my laptop and my Android tablet and have the ability to have the files synced.  In fact, I started this blog post on my Android with Evernote Sunday morning while Man and I were having breakfast at a little place near here, all you can eat breakfast buffet for under $8.00.  When I got back to Tana I synced the Android and my lap top and finished the post on my lap top.

Yes, mam, there really is more than one way to skin a cat, and for now, Evernote and Transcript will be doing my skinning!  Now, back to the typing and formatting and all that stuff, I have quite a few images to get out of OneNote, maybe I can flip them to Evernote?  Hmmmm, more contemplation, more clicks, more work.  Yes, I AM having fun!  I shall overcome!




* The disclaimer:  I was not paid by any of the entities herein mentioned, not OneNote, not Evernote, not Transcript, not Legacy, not Word Perfect, and not Adobe Photoshop.  They own the copyrights, they own the properties, in total.  I use the products, sometimes with marginal success, sometimes with huge success.  In many cases I have paid $$ to download and use these software programs.  In some cases, the software came loaded on my computer.  I am not suggesting you purchase or otherwise use any of this software.  This post has been about my experience, right, wrong, indifferent.  Let's see, I think that may cover all the ways I can disclaim any connection to the software and software manufacturers, if I missed anything, consider this sentence to be the cover all.

** If you stuck it out all the way to the end of this overly verbose post, give yourself a hand!  CLAP CLAP CLAP!  Thank you.
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