In my opinion, one of the coolest pieces of software available for tablet PC's today as OneNote.  Microsoft OneNote is part of the Office Enterprise SKU of Microsoft Office 2007.  You can also purchase it separately and regardless of whether you have a tablet PC or not - it is a very useful piece of software.

I want to profile this little piece of software because it has a couple of uses that are unique to those wanting to study the Bible.

By way of introduction, here are some of my favorite features that you can take advantage of on any computer with OneNote:

• Store your notes as you would on paper - by folder and with tabbed names
• You can put anything into a note - ink, text, sound, images,files, folders, or whatever else you happen to have on your computer.
• You can record sound with it
• You can record sound in OneNoe from a meeting while you take notes
• When you've recorded sound and taken notes you can listen to the audio at the place where you wrote/typed the note
• You can share a OneNote note with other OneNote users on a network and contribute to the same note concurrently
• Search through all your notes (handwritten or typed) quickly and easily.
• The OneNote Printer Driver - more on that in a future post
• Do screen captures with Windows key + S
• File based - so it works with foldershare (see previous post on syncing)

If you have a Tablet PC (see intro to tablets parts 1 and 2), it will also allow you to handwrite with ink.  OneNote is pretty good at recognizing your handwriting should you want it do so.  In addition, because OneNote recognizes your handwriting you can search through your handwritten notes as well as your typed notes.

So how does this make any difference for believers?  Well, here is some of the things I use OneNote for:

• Lists (e.g. prayer lists, etc)
• Bible Study (particularly the observation stage)
• Taking notes in Bible Study or in church for sermons
• Don't forget to record the audio while you are at it :-)
• Writing out prayers
• Anything you'd normally use paper for
• And don't forget that you can search through it all - even handwritten notes.

As a comparison to paper the OneNote is even better on a tablet, but all these still apply whether you have a tablet or not.

In my next post I'll do a little more on how you can use OneNote and a tablet together for Bible study.