Learning Tech in Little Bursts: OneNote and Evernote

An excellent way to learn technology is in short bursts. Today, we’ll look at OneNote and Evernote and how you can put them to work in your law practice. It’s the latest from the WSBA’s Practice Education Center.

Email may be saved as ordinary text documents in word processing program folder structures, or in Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. Set up a folder for each new client and save correspondence with each client via email in the folder as you go.

Case Notes
The legal pad in the client file is the most used system for recording events as they occur. You may also enter the event on a timesheet. Then you enter the event on a pre-bill. Instead, think about using Outlook for recording events as they occur. If you’re already using Microsoft Outlook, OneNote is an Outlook plug-in and Microsoft’s answer to Evernote (which you can also get a plug-in for).

First, open OneNote on your desktop. Begin to populate it with pages labeled by project/matter, by research topic, or by parties — whatever works for you.

Next, go into Outlook and click on the email, calendar event, or task you wish to save in OneNote. Click on the OneNote icon (located on the Home ribbon under Email and Contacts, and on the ribbon when you go into a specific task or calendar event). It will pop up with your labeled pages. Select the page that email goes under.

You can save emails, websites (it will list the site and what it looked like that day, like a screenshot), pictures, charts, notes — whatever you want to put on that page. Each page is under one main topic. Label the top of that page in such a way that you can easily find it later.

An excellent way to learn technology is in short bursts. Today, we’ll look at OneNote and Evernote and how you can put them to work in your law practice.

Email may be saved as ordinary text documents in word processing program folder structures, or in Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. Set up a folder for each new client and save correspondence with each client via email in the folder as you go.

Case Notes
The legal pad in the client file is the most used system for recording events as they occur. You may also enter the event on a time sheet. Then you enter the event on a pre-bill. Instead, think about using Outlook for recording events as they occur. If you’re already using Microsoft Outlook, OneNote is an Outlook plug-in and Microsoft’s answer to Evernote (which you can also get a plug-in for).

First, open OneNote on your desktop. Begin to populate it with pages labeled by project/matter, by research topic, or by parties — whatever works for you.

Next, go into Outlook and click on the email, calendar event, or task you wish to save in OneNote. Click on the OneNote icon (located on the Home ribbon under Email and Contacts, and on the ribbon when you go into a specific task or calendar event). It will pop up with your labeled pages. Select the page that email goes under.

You can save emails, websites (it will list the site and what it looked like that day, like a screenshot), pictures, charts, notes — whatever you want to put on that page. Each page is under one main topic. Label the top of that page in such a way that you can easily find it later.