Microsoft Releases OneNote 2003 SP1 Preview

In response to customer feedback, Microsoft has released a preview of Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). OneNote 2003, which debuted as part of the Microsoft Office System, lets you use a keyboard or Tablet PC stylus to input notes in a free-form fashion that's similar to taking notes on paper. The preview includes technical updates as well as feature enhancements that the company culled largely from feedback from newsgroups, surveys, focus groups, and customer visits.
  
"We went through the list of top requests and did everything that wasn't deeply invasive," Group Program Manager Chris Pratley told Paul Thurrott recently during a OneNote 2003 SP1 briefing. "We were able to make lots of changes people requested to take off the rough edges of the product. It was nice to have a quick-turnaround service pack where we could address these concerns."
  
The update contains a slew of features that concentrate on rich media, extensibility, better integration with Office, improved sharing and security, improved organization, refined searching, and Tablet PC enhancements. Some of the notable new features include:
   - the ability to record video notes
   - a new developer API
   - the ability to insert a document from Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, or Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 in a OneNote 2003 document
   - real-time OneNote 2003 document sharing
   - password protection and encryption
   - an improved UI
   - the ability to assign names to sub-pages and resize page tabs

Microsoft will release OneNote 2003 SP1 shortly after Microsoft Office System SP1 is released this summer. The preview is available for download now on the Microsoft Web site; note that it's a whopping 84MB download.