Microsoft Office Labs’ Canvas for OneNote
Posted by Jacque on February 27th, 2009
According to the Seattle P-I’s Microsoft blog a new prototype called Canvas for OneNote is now available from Microsoft’s Office Labs. It is a way to look at more “natural ways” of interacting with software, says Labs General Manager Chris Pratley.
Canvas for OneNote allows users to see thumbnails of all the pages they have created within the organizing and note-taking program on one screen. You can zoom in to see a close-up of a page, double click to open OneNote and edit. Those with touch screens can use their fingers instead of a mouse.
You can make a thumbnail bigger so that you remember to come back to it, if you like. You can also look at all the pages modified within a certain time period. Move a slider to the left or right and see the pages highlighted.
Currently the application is up for download on the Office Labs Web site. “We want to see how people really use it,” Pratley said. Like the other prototypes on the site, Canvas for OneNote is for now “more science experiment than add-on.” Learn more and watch videos here. You’ll need Windows Vista and OneNote 2007 to use Canvas.
Other Office Labs prototypes available include an e-mail prioritizer for Outlook that automatically prioritizes e-mail for you based on information about the e-mail, and pptPlex which transforms PowerPoint presentations into a zoomable canvas, somewhat like the new Canvas for OneNote.
