Saturday, February 21, 2015

Ways & Whys to Lasso in OneNote

One feature often under-utilized in OneNote is the Lasso tool. On the Surface Pro, there are a few different ways to execute this feature since you have mouse, pen, and touch as options.http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/MTL/L5g/MTLL5gdTa.png See my video below for a demo, but here are the details:

The Ways

OneNote Desktop: Pen, Finger, or the Lasso Select button in the Draw toolbar. You can use the mouse to lasso or just select things with a basic square selector, but lasso is more precise (curves can go around other objects)

OneNote Modern UI app: Pen or Finger – no Lasso Select button (although Lasso options will show in the radial menu after you lasso something).

The Whys

http://screenshots.en.sftcdn.net/en/scrn/6653000/6653659/microsoft-onenote-2013-06-535x535.pngOneNote Modern UI app: Lasso’ing items is great for moving things around, and once selected, items like handwriting can be resized or stretched. The lasso is more precise than a simple mouse drag selection because you can curve the selection around close objects that you don’t want to be a part of your selection.

OneNote Desktop app: In addition to the above, in the desktop app there a ton of additional things you can do to a selected item, especially when it’s handwriting. You can change the size and color of the ink, turn your handwriting into Text, rotate it, and much more.

Here’s an old video where you can see the lasso in action, and hopefully get an idea about the practical use of it, especially when diagramming in OneNote.

Do you use the lasso tool?

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