Show All

Hide All

By Curtis D. Frye

Architects often encounter the need to change their original architectural plans as they cope with on-site construction issues. Make managing these changes easier by keeping accurate notes of your findings on the job site by using Microsoft Office OneNote 2003.

OneNote enables you to combine typed and handwritten notes, digital photos, screen clippings, and audio commentary in a single document. If you have wireless network access on a job site, you can send your notes from your portable computer directly to a client or a contractor to review initial thoughts about a suggested change before you formally present your findings.

Take notes in OneNote

When you're ready to start taking notes, start OneNote and follow these steps:

1. To create a new project folder, on the Insert menu, click New Folder.
2. Right-click the New Folder tab, and then click Rename. Enter the name of your project.
3. In the Title field on the notes page, type the title of your project or the purpose of your notes.
4. To add notes, click anywhere on the page and then enter your text. In this example, some on-site tasks were entered related to a proposed change required at a construction site.
5. To format your text, click Format and then click commands to change the font, add bullets or numbering to a list, or change the background color of your notes.

   

Supplement your notes with images and sound

OneNote puts at your disposal a variety of tools that you can use to supplement your notes with images and audio commentary.

Add digital photos

To enhance your notes, add digital photos. You can insert image files stored on your computer or downloaded from a digital camera.

To add a digital photo to your OneNote page

Add clippings from other documents

Using the screen clipping feature, you can add sections from other documents to your notes. In this example, a portion of a project cost worksheet was added that shows how much a proposed change would cost.

To add a screen clipping of a Microsoft Office Excel workbook to a OneNote page

Include audio comments

You can add audio notes to your OneNote document. Recording your speech can help you pack a lot of information into a very small space. Your spoken words can be transcribed later to capture them as text.

To add an audio comment

Changes to architectural plans often threaten to throw off schedules and increase costs. You need to be careful and thorough about how you communicate why changes are necessary. OneNote offers a wide variety of techniques to document your thoughts and communicate them clearly to your clients and contractors.

About the author   Curtis D. Frye is an industry analyst and author of Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Step by Step and several other books from Microsoft Learning.