Lining up text with OneNote

Earlier this week I got an email from a student that just had started using OneNote and was inquiring about the ability to have text "snap" onto the lines in OneNote. I though it was an interesting question and one I did at one time ask myself. I have a solution that seems to work for me but I wonder what everyone else's solution is that has faced this problem so if you have a better solution please post and help me and this student as I feel my solution may not be the best out there. Here's the email and my response.

The Question
I just started with onenote and have been unsuccessful in trying to get
my text to line up with the college rule theme I want to use for
notetaking. Whenever I type something with the default font, onenote
actually fits in two lines of typed text into the space between two
lines of college rule. If I change the font size/type, the text does not
line up at all with the college rule background. How do I get my text to
match the college rule?

My Response
OneNote doesn't play nice with matching up text with the lines. If you have ever played with GoBinder which is another note taking program it is much more friendly with this and "snaps" onto the lines no matter what font and text you use. If you like OneNote though I have my own personal way of dealing with this issue but there may be others.

First I would head over to the Microsoft community stationary page. Go to the lines and shape page and you will see a bunch of stationary that you can download. For example there is one called "narrow lines" If you download this stationary and apply it to a page I find that Verdana font (my personal choice) with size 14 fonts matches up pretty good with the lines. "Tight lines" seems work ok with Times New Roman size 12 and "very narrow lines" works well with Verdana size 10. Of course as soon as you insert a picture or anything it tends to through the spacing off a bit, but you can usually put it in the right spot.

I should remind you that if you print out your notes the lines will not be there so typing with the lines is just a personal preference. If you really want that notebook feel with the lines and the text snapping directly to the lines I would check out GoBinder as it is much better at handling this in my opinion. Basically I use the lines for writing on with my tablet and turn the off completely if I type.

Hope that helps!

Jason

posted by Jason Dorko at 12:25 PM 0 comments links to this post