January is a time for big consumer electronics sales. The Super Bowl alone is responsible for thousands of Americans upgrading their television sets to watch the big game. I was at CES in Las Vegas early this month and I have to say that the television manufacturers put on quite a show; they had some of the most impressive booths in the entire place. I admit that after seeing all of that electronics glory at CES I became inspired. So I started the hunt for my own new TV set. My favorite result from the introduction of all of the new 3-D televisions is that it has driven down the price of the regular HD ones. Turns out it's a great time to buy.
I don't know how you approach buying a new major item for your house. Some folks are quick-turn shoppers - make the decision to buy (this step is optional), head out to the electronics store, look around, and go home with something. Me, I like to do research. I check out all of the product reviews,
microsoft Office 2010 License, browse the different online shopping sites,
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, ask friends for recommendations, and so on. I end up collecting a lot of stats: price, size, weight, display technology, speaker wattage, number of inputs, and even power consumption which these days can be a big factor (I have a plasma TV from a few years ago and let me tell you that one makes the electric meter outside spin and spin, not to mention the fact that it really warms up the room). I also collect a lot of notes: product review quotes, site links, pictures of top/front/back and the connections, notes on reliability, etc. I used to keep track of everything in Excel, which is good for all of the numerical data but hard on the text and media. Now I am a total convert to OneNote.
My two biggest tips for shopping with OneNote (1) use the screen clipping tool and (2) print your online receipts to OneNote.
I make a new Section in my Shopping notebook for whatever product I'm looking at. Then I make new pages for each model as I do my research. I use the Screen Clipping tool (just press <Windows Key>+S if you've run OneNote at least one time) to grab clips from web pages I visit. I type notes into the margins. I even use my mobile phone to take pictures if I see something in a store that I want to remember: a special item, a special price,
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Microsoft Office 2007 Product Key, etc. This mobile note taking works great on Windows phones,
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As I am collecting my research I reorder the pages in the section based on my current feeling of top choice. It's easy to drag and drop the pages in OneNote to reorder them. That way I can come back and remember what my top pick is and what I'm comparing it against.
Then comes the all important time to make the purchase. This time, Crutchfield.com got my business. I always find their product reviews and product information great, and their sales staff are very helpful. I'm an online shopper, so even if I do a lot of research in stores, I'll most often ultimately order through an online site. Maybe it's because I do most of the actual purchasing late in the evening after everything's closed. But the Internet is always on.
And when the purchase is done, what to do with that final confirmation page in the browser? Easy, just Print it to your OneNote notebook. You can use the standard Print command from any app, and just choose "Send to OneNote" as your printer choice. You'll get a nice digital version of the printout in the section of your choosing. I do the same with the emails that contain the tracking numbers and so on - print them to OneNote for safe keeping as well.
I print the receipts to the same section as all of the product info, so I remember what I bought, when I bought it, and what else I considered at the time. I have a separate section for all of the online receipts that didn't come as the result of any research. Scary to see how much I spend at Amazon.com.
So there you have it. My research is done, my new TV is on its way; it will be here in plenty of time for the Super Bowl. Too bad the Seahawks lost to Chicago last week. I guess this year I'll be watching the game mostly for the commercials.
- Chris
read more about OneNote on the OneNote blog
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Office Professional Plus 2007 Key Shopping with Mi
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