OneNote is shipped with MS Office 2010 beta. It is the program I searched for in vain ten years ago. 

OneNote allows you to combine all sorts of media onto a single page or screen quickly and easily. In the first place, you can type anywhere that you want on the screen. Click where you want to type and simple write what you have to say. 

Windows 7 allows you to do screen snips - you can simply outline the area you want to copy and snip it. Past this wherever you want in OneNote. Copy a picture from the web and the link is automatically inserted onto the page. 

I used OneNote to do a mind-map. Then I added pictures. 

Sitting in a workshop there are some great tools on OneNote to get a really comprehensive picture. Turn on voice recording and the sound clip is saved right there on the page along with all your notes and pictures. If voice is not enough, then add video. Everything is right there at your fingertips. 

It all sounds so simple and it really is. Add links and start writing your reports - all on the same page. Things that used to be very difficult to do - like inserting an equation - are now simple. 

Many years ago I discovered Inspiration - an educational application that allows you to do some of what OneNote does now. But it was much more structured and not nearly as flexible and simple to use as OneNote.  

At last technology is beginning to do all the things that were merely pipe-dreams a few years ago.