Designed like a digital notebook, Microsoft OneNote is a place to create, collect, store, and find notes. It’s a great program for organizing pieces of information that might not fit easily into the structure of one of the other Office programs. And when you store laptops on your network or in the cloud, you can access your data from multiple devices and even share it with others.
What can go in OneNote?
With OneNote, you can organize notes by sections and pages in notebooks. These notes may include:
- documents
- Chores
- Websites and other hyperlinks
- Images, drawings and media
- Impressions
- Data from other Office programs
OneNote Tips: Content you can easily insert
OneNote is a very flexible app that can contain a wide range of content. You are not limited by page size or a linear structure. The Insert Ribbon tab gives you some ideas about the kinds of items you can easily insert into OneNote. Let’s explore these OneNote tips and more.
- Record audio or video: No need to use your smartphone to record meeting notes or event videos. Simply capture a video or audio recording right inside OneNote. It is also easy to trim the recording and play the audio or video.
- Archival print: Want to capture a print without scanning a file or creating a PDF? From any Office program, simply choose Send to OneNote as the printer option. From this option, you can specify the notebook name, section, and page where you want to capture the print. You can also insert a hard copy directly from OneNote.
- Attached file: When a hard copy is not needed, add an attachment instead. The file can be opened directly from OneNote, although the attachment is not linked to the source file which may have been updated.
- hyperlinks: Your OneNote notebooks can also store links to web pages, email addresses, or files on your network.
- Tables and spreadsheets: When your notes require a more structured look or even calculations, add a table or spreadsheet to a notebook page. OneNote even supports equations and symbols for more detailed input.
- Date and time stamps: As you create notes, adding a date and/or time stamp helps document your comments and additions, especially when sharing notebooks with others.
- Tags, tasks and pending tasks: Organize your notes as action items by assigning tags to individual notes or items. A tag marks an item with a tag such as pending, important, or question. You will find these options on the Home Ribbon tab or use keyboard shortcuts such as [Ctrl]+1 for To Do to mark a note. Labels are searchable on notebooks so they can be easily located. To keep track, check a to-do tag when it’s complete or send to Outlook to create an Outlook task.
- Custom Pages: Although you don’t need a rigid page structure in OneNote, you may find some pages easier to work with by modifying the appearance of the page. On the Ribbon View tab, change the page color, choose from a variety of ruled lines, or modify the size and layout of your page view.
- Drawings: Using a touchscreen device or laptop and a stylus, you can also create freehand shapes and drawings with a wide range of colors and widths. You’ll find these options on the Draw Ribbon tab. If you don’t have a touch screen or stylus, OneNote also supports drawing with a mouse. At least if you’re a better artist than me!
- Ink to text or ink to math: Similar to the drawing tools, you can create freehand text in your notes. If your handwriting is legible, choose the Ink to Text feature to convert your handwriting to text.
Explore these OneNote tips to expand the variety of ways you can create, capture, and edit important content in your OneNote notebooks.