OneNote DROE AutoHotkey Tool
As promised in my previous post on “Bending OneNote and Outlook to Fit my GTD System“, here is the tool I use to drive my DROE (Daily Record of Events) in OneNote. This is a configurable tool built using AutoHotkey. Note that the tool is a compiled executable, so you do not need AutoHotkey installed to use it.
What the DROE tool does is give you a handy shortcut to quickly open OneNote, jump to the top of your Daily Record of Events (DROE) page, insert a time stamp, and begin capturing thoughts before they slip out of your head. The tool replaces the standard Sidenote shortcut (Win-N) with the new function. You can still open OneNote in full/normal mode using Win-Shift-N.
There are also some additional features included in this tool: Ability to paste without formatting, ability to use the Mac-like shortcut (Alt-W) to close a window, and additional shortcuts for bullets and manual time stamps. Each of the features can be individually enabled or disabled through the INI file.
Version 0.1 (still Beta of course!) and the installation instructions can be found on my new Downloads page. Please try it out and let me know what you think.
-Carl
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 : AutoHotkey, DROE Tool, OneNote : 18 Comments
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18 Responses to “OneNote DROE AutoHotkey Tool”
December 12th, 2007 at 1:49 am
[…] The other thing you’ll notice is that I tend to only have one page that stays in my @DOING tab. Other pages come into the @DOING tab, and I either deal with them immediately or move them to the @FOLLOW_UP tab. The page that always stays there is my “DROE” page. This name is a hold-over from my Franklin Planner days where notes were captured on a page titled “Daily Record of Events”. This is a running life log where I capture notes, ideas, jotts, meeting minutes, etc. The DROE is driven by a set of AutoHotkey scripts that allow me to quickly open OneNote and jump to the top of the DROE page, automatically enter a time stamp, and start typing before the idea slips out of my head. I will share my OneNote AutoHotkey tool in a future post. UPDATE: Here is a link to the DROE tool! […]
December 26th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Here are some comments that were posted to another page that readers may find useful. I’m reposting them here for convenience only:
December 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm - tripp castell Says:
I like the idea of the tool but unfortunately I am having difficulties with it. When I hit WIN N Onenote will come up to my DROE page I made but will just sit there without inputing the date time stamp. Then a few seconds later I will get an error box stating “Timed out waiting for Onenote”. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
December 19th, 2007 at 6:04 pm - carl Says:
Thanks Tripp, it’s either a bug in the tool or it’s a problem with your INI file. The good news is that it is still launching OneNote and finding your DROE page. From there, the tool looks for your DROE window to be active before inserting the time stamp at the top of the page. It uses a loose string match on the window title to do this (based on your inputs in the INI). I just sent you an email asking for more info. If there’s an issue with the tool I’ll get a new version posted. Thanks, Carl
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm - Steve B Says:
Carl, I’m getting the same issue (almost) as Tripp. I’m running Onenote 2007 and Vista 32 bit. I don’t get the time out error, but win n causes my DROE page to open, then the cursor jumps into the title bar of the page, with no date and time stamp I’ve double and triple checked the ini file and followed the steps exactly. If I’ve messed it up, I can’t see where. Any further suggestions? By the way, thanks for some fantastic help and advice on these pages.
December 23rd, 2007 at 10:26 pm - tripp castell Says:
Steve, I had this same issue too. The problem is in onenote. Make sure your new page in onenote isn’t autostamped with the date. Look at your one note page just below the title box. Do you see a date? If so highlight it and delete it. Then rerun the tool and it should work or at least it did for me. Great tool. I will be getting a lot of use out of it! Tripp
December 24th, 2007 at 3:45 am - Steve B Says:
That’s exactly right, Tripp. Thanks for the info and a Merry Christmas to all!
December 26th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Tripp - Thank’s for sharing this. Based on your suggestions, I have a new version that attempts to handle multi-line titles and I will update the instructions with tips that include deleting that date/time field from the title. I also made the logic case insensitive so that it will find the window more easily and not time out. I’ll get the updates posted shortly.
-Carl
December 28th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
The new version is now available - see this post.
-Carl
January 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Carl - I have downloaded the lastest version and followed the posted tips. I still do not get the date/time stamp. Outlook opens to my DROE page and does nothing. Also, none of the hotkeys work with the exception of Win-N and Win-LftArrow.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Sorry, I typed Outlook in my previous comment, but meant OneNote.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Sadi - Sorry to hear your having trouble with the tool. Do you get a pop-up dialog that says “Timed out waiting for OneNote”? If yes, then it may be an issue with either the Page_Title or DROE_Link parameter in your INI file. Please re-check these and also ensure that the names are not enclosed in quotes and that there are no hidden carriage returns. Sometimes these can sneak in there if you are editing in NotePad.
If you are not getting the “Timed out waiting for OneNote” message, then it may be an issue with the format/layout of your DROE page. Please see the recommendations in Sections 2.1 and 2.2 of the README file (green & red arrows).
If those suggestions don’t help, please email a screenshot of your OneNote DROE page and a copy of your INI file to c-a-r-l a-t Manage-This.com.
Thanks,
Carl
January 21st, 2008 at 1:23 am
I just posted a new version of the tool (version 0.3). Please check out the Downloads page. There was an issue for Windows Vista users. I had to change the method used for sending text due to a difference in the keyboard hooks in Vista. (I only have WinXP, so thanks to Antonio for helping me troubleshoot this!) There are also some nice new shortcuts in there for Outlook task & email creation.
-Carl
April 9th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Carl:
I’ve been using the DROE tool for a week. It’s a good way for me to capture the bits and pieces of the day that would ordinarily sit on a piece of paper. The next step is how to incorporate DROE with a Outlook Add-in called Clear Context (excellent product). I do have one question. I know that the date stamp can be modified to suit one’s needs. Can the color of the stamp be changed as well - it would allow for a quicker note v. datestamp recognition:
April 16th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Keith - Thanks for the great suggestion. I’m finally working on a new version of the DROE tool. I’ll see if there is a way to make the time stamp more visible.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for this great tool. BTW, ctrl-shift-K and ctrl-shift-M work fine with Outlook 2007.
At the risk of seeming greedy, here are 2 features that you might consider, don’t know how involved they are:
1)a hot key that would take any highlighted text in and open window, open up the DROE onenote page, then paste that text into page underneath the date/time stamp. This would approximate what the evernote clipper tool does so well.
2) the ability to set up two separate hot keys that would go to either of two pages.
But what you’ve done so far is just fantastic and I really appreciate it! Thanks again…
June 27th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Just found a glitch with Outlook 2007. this hotkey disables using ctr-shift-K/M from within Outlook. Nothing happens. Works fine from any other programs, though.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Steve - Thanks for the feature suggestions, both would be reasonably easy to implement. I’ll consider those for a future version.
With regards to the CTRL-SHIFT-K/M when the Outlook window is open, it’s a bug in the DROE tool. It causes those hotkeys to be ignored both in Outlook 2003 & 2007. I plan to fix that in the next release. As a temporary work around, just click the desktop before you use the shortcut… I hope to have a new release out in a few days.
-Carl
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Carl,
Great job. I devote two days (24 hours) of my holiday to find definitly a tool for GTD on NET. You are the the best :-). I am still waiting for your final opinion about ClearContext and your “bendings” OneNote.
But even I download your latest (20 July) DROE tool I have same problems. e.g. ALT-RIGHT SHIFT blocked, close windows (vista+office 2007); alt k/m can not find the right path (it wants OUTLOOK in OFFICE11 but I it is in OFFICE 12).
And the most primitive question - how can I put “text separator bar” preparing DROE page. It alway apears in floating text body. Then your “cursor” insert next text in the same body. Pity.
I forgot - I installed on polish version of vista+office. So names of catalog structure in your .INI considerably differ.
Thank you for your job,
Jacek
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Jacek,
Thank you for your comments… Let me see if I can address some of your DROE_Tool issues:
1. With regard to “ALT-RIGHT SHIFT”, do you mean the WIN+Right_Arrow shortcut? There may be some timing issues with that shortcut, I’m looking into it.
2. For the path to Outlook, you must set the real path by editing the INI file. The values in there are only examples. If that’s not the issue then please provide some more details.
3. For the text separator bar, there is a really strange feature of OneNote… When you copy plain text and paste it back into OneNote or into another application, it usually wants to paste it as an image. I’m not sure why OneNote is set up that way. I would recommend using the WIN+V shortcut that is part of the DROE_Tool file to paste it as plain text. That way, the separator bar will be in line with your notes and everything will run smoothly.
Hope that helps!
Carl
July 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thank you for your suggestions. Everything works fine on my HOME computer (XP, 2007). Now I’ll check it again on my notebook (vista,2007). Do me a favor and give me an advice, problem: WORK, HOME, NOTEBOOK all of them”my” computers and necessity of synchronisation all of them - DROE files (@DOINGS, @PROJECTS, @FOLLOW)UP, @DONE). I don’t trust OneNote methods. Maybe I don’t understand it well. But what about Groove? I am using it strongly. BTW acording me, Groove is the second briliant application after NortonCommander in computer software history. But the 3.11 version not 2007 :-). Pitty.
Thanks again,
PS. Discount on ClearContext does not work
yet …
I’m extremely courious your opinion about coexistance new version of ClearContext and your DROE tools.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Jacek,
Glad to hear everything is working. If synchronizing your lists across multiple computers is important, I would seriously consider the new EverNote 3. There is a free version that gives you a monthly storage limit of 40MB (which goes a long way). In addition to PC and Mac clients, you can also access everything on the web. I am trying it out now, it’s pretty slick.
I have also heard of people using Allway Sync (freeware) to sync OneNote and other application settings. I have not tried it myself, so I can’t really comment on that one.
Also, the discount on ClearContext seems to be working still - I tried it again after I saw your comment. If you enter managethis in the Coupon Code box then click the Recalculate button, it will update the total to show the discount.
Hope that helps!
-Carl
September 28th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Carl,
Any chance we could have the plain vanilla AutoHotkey code for this, instead of the compiled exe? Would love to incorporate the relevant bits into my AutoHotkey script.
Many thanks,
Tom