One Note and Dropbox Questions

[tonypitt]

I'm eagerly awaiting my SP3 i7. It will be my first Surface device. I'm starting now to make a list of all the software I need to install on this machine since I can't yet do anything else. I've never used One Note before, although I gather it is a major part of the "Surface lifestyle."

Through my employer I have the ability to install the full MS Office 2013. I'll be doing that on this device. As I gather that a version of One Note is already on the device, I'm not sure what that means for me. Is the SP3 version the "full" version?

I'm also contemplating a change in how I handle my work files. Right now I carry a 256 GB USB stick around with me. It is about half full. That stick gets differentially 'backed up' to Dropbox daily. I've always treated Dropbox more as a backup spot rather than as a working file location. I'm considering changing that now and having my SP3, my work PC, and my home PC all just work from Dropbox. The downside is that when I'm working on a PC that is not one of those 3, I'd have to login to Dropbox and download the needed file(s). That seems less convenient than just popping in a USB stick.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[sharpuser]

Hi, tonypitt,

Congrats on your forthcoming SP3 i7.

You will indeed have OneNote full version on your SP3.
I am also a DropBox user, but now use OneDrive for my file sharing. You will still have to login to OneDrive (actually, you login to your Microsoft account), but you will not have to 'download' the files, since Windows 8.1 is happy to access from a remote location, as a build-in to the OS.

Here's a good article for comparison of various cloud services.

 

[Kif]

I use both dropbox and OneDrive on my Sp3 with no issues so far.

Regarding OneNote check out this great article: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2014/07/14/using-onenote-with-the-surface-pro-3.aspx

I'm using the OneNote App right now even though I have the full version.

BTW: When you get your SP3 you can use launch Office 2013 and enter your serial number and you'll be good to go.

 

[tonypitt]

Hi sharpcolorado,

Thanks for the OneDrive recommendation. It looks really interesting. I suppose one thing that makes me hesitate a bit is the idea of having to move all that data from one service to the other. That's not a big thing, though. I'm also trying to decide how much I'll miss packrat. It seems that OneDrive has versioning (at least for Office-related files), but not persistent undelete. I'm going to have to assess that important that is to me.

You've given me some good ideas. Thanks.

 

[tonypitt]

Hi Kif,

BTW: When you get your SP3 you can use launch Office 2013 and enter your serial number and you'll be good to go.

Thanks for the link. I'll check that out. For you and any others, I'm wondering about the quote above. My work license is managed via a keyserver. When I install Office 2013 I put in the Microsoft generic key for volume licensing. That then triggers Office to go out and hit our company keyserver for actual authentication/authorization. (I can also do this manually by running a command at an elevated prompt.)

Does anyone know if that would work for what is preinstalled, or am I going to need to uninstall and reinstall using my work-provided media?

 

[jnjroach]

Hi Kif,



Thanks for the link. I'll check that out. For you and any others, I'm wondering about the quote above. My work license is managed via a keyserver. When I install Office 2013 I put in the Microsoft generic key for volume licensing. That then triggers Office to go out and hit our company keyserver for actual authentication/authorization. (I can also do this manually by running a command at an elevated prompt.)

Does anyone know if that would work for what is preinstalled, or am I going to need to uninstall and reinstall using my work-provided media?

Yes the Click 2 Run version of Office will respond to a KMS Server....(that's what the Office365 Version is as well)

 

[Kif]

DropBox is the bomb. I'm not seeing myself migrate off it anytime soon.

 

[pcreyn319]

OneDrive is now giving 1Tb of free storage to Office 365 subscribers. I ran into a snag the other day when trying to upload a single file over 2Gb, which is apparently unsupported at this time.

 

[cdf3]

OneDrive is now giving 1Tb of free storage to Office 365 subscribers. I ran into a snag the other day when trying to upload a single file over 2Gb, which is apparently unsupported at this time.

It would be nice to change over completely from DropBox to OneDrive, since OneDrive is cheaper in price. Unfortunately, I can't drag and drop folders to OneDrive using the web interface. I always get an error.

 

[sharpuser]

It would be nice to change over completely from DropBox to OneDrive, since OneDrive is cheaper in price. Unfortunately, I can't drag and drop folders to OneDrive using the web interface. I always get an error.

The best way is to install OneDrive, then drag and drop to your OneDrive folder.

 

[malberttoo]

I'm a heavy DropBox user, was before I got my SP3. BUT, I also wanted to give OneDrive a shot on the SP3 as well. Been using OneDrive since it was Live Mesh or whatever it was called back then.

Your usage habits are really up to you. It doesn't seem that big of a deal to me, to have open DB on the web and download files. However if you are always going to be carrying the SP3 around in a bag, then yeah not that big of a deal to stash a thumb drive or external drive in there.

Regarding OneNote- do yourself a favor, and seriously take the time to get to know it. Find the latest tutorials on the web, on the Office site, YouTube, etc. Find out what all it can do. At least give it a fair shake. I said it years ago on a forum that's gone now (R.I.P. GBM forum, we hardly knew ye...) the "tablet PC" form factor and functionality is cool enough... but OneNote gives it wings.

 

[tonypitt]

After doing some more reading, I think I've found a good solution. Even though I can get Office 2013 free through my employer, I qualify to buy Office 365 University. The price for this is $80 for 4 years. This provides 1 TB of cloud storage. So, even if I don't use Office 365, it's cheaper for just the storage. (I need to look at the differences between Office 365 and Office 13.)

Tanks, all, for the great suggestions.