Free note-taking software trial marketed to UW students

Microsoft Corp. is capitalizing on college lectures to promote its new computerized note-taking software, OneNote, at universities across the country, including the UW.

By offering free downloads to students, Microsoft hopes to jumpstart sales of a program that has been relatively unknown since its 2003 release.

OneNote is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, but packaged separately from PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Entourage.

The program works alongside tablet PCs and Windows-based laptops to allow on-screen writing or typing in a digital "notebook." Transfers of online text and graphics, and the capability to process handwritten diagrams differentiates OneNote from other word processing programs in a way Microsoft hopes will attract large-volume note-takers.

"It's perfect for notes, so where else do you go but colleges?" said senior Adam Thorne, a spokesman for the UW's OneNote promotion. "I'm not someone who knows exactly how the program is working, but I know it makes things easier."

Microsoft created the OneNote Campus Representative Team in conjunction with the student marketing company Mr. Youth. Thorne and other "student ambassadors" were given a $1,000 marketing budget to draw other students to the free trial version of OneNote.

"Because the product is so new, most people don't know about it," said Alex Robinson, Microsoft's OneNote product manager. "That's why we've created the Campus Representative Program and why we've made this special 180-day trial available exclusively to students."

At www.onenotecampus.com, students who enter their name, university affiliation and e-mail address can have a download code e-mailed to them. The program automatically deactivates after 180 days and then can be purchased by trial users for half the retail price.

"Once users get hooked, 90 percent will recommend the program to their friends," Thorne said. "When universities are aware of this product, it'll become a staple like PowerPoint is for lectures, Word is for writing papers and Excel is for accounting students."

While the software's online privacy statement guarantees information will not be used for commercial purposes, some students may still need to be convinced there are no strings attached to the offer.

"Things like the 'free' pizzas out on 17th [Avenue] where you have to sign up for a credit card make people less inclined to try the download because they're waiting for the catch," Thorne said. "We're not trying to sell a product right now -- we're just trying to get users."

For each OneNote download activated, Microsoft has agreed to donate between 20 and 40 cents to The Kyle Charvat Fund, created for Thorne's Theta Chi fraternity brother, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2002. Thorne's goal is to get 1,000 students to download the trial software.