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Help with one note adding space to PDF

So I bought this $1100 machine to replace a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 but I think I like the functionality of the android tablet better than this. Whenever I import a PDF into OneNote it adds a bunch of white space on the top and bottom. When I'm viewing the PDFs in reader it looks great. The slides take up the full page. But when I go to print PDF in any import into OneNote it looks like a shrink the PDF down and put it onto a piece of paper. Might end up returning this thing and sticking with my galaxy note. Also, I was under the impression that you could record audio while taking notes and if you go back to a certain part of your note you'd be able to play the audio from just that part. If I record a whole lecture taking notes the whole time I'm not going to want to start playing the lecture from the beginning if I just was wondering about one specific note. Anyway to do this?
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hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
There is a big difference between playing a slide and importing to onenote. One note is not powerpoint etc. It's main purpose is as the name suggests, for notes, hence the white "wasted" space, space for you to put notes.

And from my experience of importing to onenote, it is not shrinking anything, but rather it is importing in its actual size, as opposed to pdf programs etc which will stretch it to full screen.

Not really understanding why you want the slide full screen in a lecture though, are you nopt taking notes?
 
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supremekizzle

Member
There is a big difference between playing a slide and importing to onenote. One note is not powerpoint etc. It's main purpose is as the name suggests, for notes, hence the white "wasted" space, space for you to put notes.

And from my experience of importing to onenote, it is not shrinking anything, but rather it is importing in its actual size, as opposed to pdf programs etc which will stretch it to full screen.

Not really understanding why you want the slide full screen in a lecture though, are you nopt taking notes?

There is usually plenty of space on each slide to take handwritten notes on the actual slide if it were stretched to full. Guess I just prefer how lecture notes for android and the reader for SP3 handles PDFs: each slide gets its own page. Are there really no settings I can configure to achieve this? Don't want to return the device, but I'm so accustomed to Lecture notes that I don't like the idea of infinite space.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
There is usually plenty of space on each slide to take handwritten notes on the actual slide if it were stretched to full. Guess I just prefer how lecture notes for android and the reader for SP3 handles PDFs: each slide gets its own page. Are there really no settings I can configure to achieve this? Don't want to return the device, but I'm so accustomed to Lecture notes that I don't like the idea of infinite space.
You could use Drawboard PDF and it would do exactly what you are wanting or you can adjust the printer settings for the OneNote Printer experimenting a bit with what gives you the best results....

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supremekizzle

Member
You could use Drawboard PDF and it would do exactly what you are wanting or you can adjust the printer settings for the OneNote Printer experimenting a bit with what gives you the best results....

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Thanks. I'll play around with it. The main reason for wanting to use onenote was for the recording aspect, but it doesn't even sync up with my notes the way I thought it would anyway. Oh well. I've still got 13 days to make the decision to keep this or go back to my note...
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
There is usually plenty of space on each slide to take handwritten notes on the actual slide if it were stretched to full. Guess I just prefer how lecture notes for android and the reader for SP3 handles PDFs: each slide gets its own page. Are there really no settings I can configure to achieve this? Don't want to return the device, but I'm so accustomed to Lecture notes that I don't like the idea of infinite space.

Every pdf or powerpoint i import to onenote gets it's own page (i actually find it annoying, i've a touch screen device, i'd personally prefer to be able to scroll.

As suggested, try drawboard pdf.

I've yet to try any real recording, but i had also been under the impression that you could record a lecture, and then have the ability to play back a certain section of it based on a note that was made. Maybe there is a guide somewhere, but I've never looked as i quickly stopped recording lectures, my lecturers typically just spoke the slides, and anything that they expanded on that wasn't on the slide, i just made notes of beside the slide.

https://gigaom.com/2008/09/02/coolest-technol/

A very old post, but clearly this feature exists somewhere! Yet to use/find it though

I say keep playing around for the 13 days, and heck, if you're still unsure, return it, and buy another and have another X days to see if it works for you. For me, while the samsung models available could suffice, i just don't get on with their styluses, i love the surface pen, just feels so natural. I've never liked these twig like stylus'
 

bluegrass

Well-Known Member
"So I bought this $1100 machine to replace a Galaxy Note"
Great choice. I ditched my Android the first day I got my Surface & have never wanted to use one again. Same with my phone.

There are some good training applications for OneNote.
 
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supremekizzle

Member
Drawboard PDF seems to work much better. The slides appear to be much higher resolution and it gives me full page slides to write on, however, I dont get some of the benefits of OneNote such as audio. Why is Onenote lowering the resolution? I just feel like Drawboard does exactly what Lecture Notes does on my android tablet minus some functionality, actually. I feel this was a huge oversight by Microsoft. Too bad too, because otherwise it's nice to be able to have the one device that can take notes and access school websites and programs that would otherwise not work on my Android tablet. Decisions...decisions....
 
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supremekizzle

Member
Sorry to double post, but I want to give an update. I am so glad I bought this device. Change isn't easy, but once you switch from one OS to another for a few days you're able to really evaluate it after the learning curve. First off, I'm a retard. One note was making slides long because when I printed to one note, I had it in portrait. Smh at myself. It really is an awesome productivity program. Battery life is phenomenal. I get better battery life on my SP3 than I did on my Note 10.1 2014 and I'm running a FULL FLEDGED DESKTOP OS!!! That amazes me. My only remaining gripe is the fan. It's constantly running even when doing simple tasks like browsing chrome. Is this because I only got 4GB of RAM? If I return this one and get the 8gig version will the CPU not have to work as hard? I do notice some slow downs when using chrome and one note by themselves. Are these two programs too much for the 4GB RAM? Other than that, this device truly rocks. Thanks
 

ptrkhh

Active Member
My only remaining gripe is the fan. It's constantly running even when doing simple tasks like browsing chrome.
No, its because of Chrome. Seriously.
Chrome is the worst browser, in term of CPU usage and power efficiency. Especially when you watch videos, Chrome loves to use all the CPU resource available. Heck, it even managed to, single-handedly, take Core M down when playing HD content. Even at idle, Chrome doesn't let the CPU to get in low-power mode. That's why Chrome seems to be responsive.
Seriously, just avoid it at all cost.

As a bonus, youd get even longer battery life as well.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
Drawboard PDF seems to work much better. The slides appear to be much higher resolution and it gives me full page slides to write on, however, I dont get some of the benefits of OneNote such as audio. Why is Onenote lowering the resolution? I just feel like Drawboard does exactly what Lecture Notes does on my android tablet minus some functionality, actually. I feel this was a huge oversight by Microsoft. Too bad too, because otherwise it's nice to be able to have the one device that can take notes and access school websites and programs that would otherwise not work on my Android tablet. Decisions...decisions....

I have never considered onenote for annotating on top of slides. One note is for notes, and the ability of copious notes. I paid for drawboard, and it works great, but i can only annotate the slides. With onenote i annotate alongside the slides during the lectures, far more than could simply be put into the spare space in slides. And then when i'm doing the associated reading, i can then write pages of notes, all alongside one relevant slide.

It's all about what you need from the software, and other than the recording ability, it sounds like the surface is not what you need.
 
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supremekizzle

Member
No, its because of Chrome. Seriously.
Chrome is the worst browser, in term of CPU usage and power efficiency. Especially when you watch videos, Chrome loves to use all the CPU resource available. Heck, it even managed to, single-handedly, take Core M down when playing HD content. Even at idle, Chrome doesn't let the CPU to get in low-power mode. That's why Chrome seems to be responsive.
Seriously, just avoid it at all cost.

As a bonus, youd get even longer battery life as well.


Do you have any browser recommendations? I disabled an avast antivirus chrome extension that I had and that seemed to help exponentially.
 
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