Work Smarter with Microsoft OneNote E-Book

Connie Clark

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 362

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Do you want to take your information and note organization to a new level? This book will show you how to use Microsoft’s organizational app, OneNote, to store endless amounts of information in a productive and organized way, including solutions for creating your notes and then sharing them easily with your team or department.
You’ll be guided through everything you need to set up a notebook and customize it to suit you or your team. The book will show you how to navigate through OneNote and search for virtually anything, as well as save time with all the shortcuts. You’ll discover that inserting information into your notebooks goes far beyond text, images, and videos, and also includes emails, links to documents, and clippings from the web. But it doesn’t stop there. Integration with other Microsoft products is key for making your experience successful, and this book demonstrates how to use OneNote with Microsoft Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. Beyond instructions and essential topics, this book also provides you with the motivation you need to make OneNote a habit as well as real-life examples of notebooks you can use.
By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use OneNote for everything and from every device. Even if you start a notebook on your laptop and continue it on your phone, you’ll find working with the app seamless.

Leseprobe

Work Smarter with Microsoft OneNote

An expert guide to setting up OneNote notebooks to become more organized, efficient, and productive

Connie Clark

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Work Smarter with Microsoft OneNote

Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Associate Group Product Manager: Alok Dhuri

Publishing Product Manager: Harshal Gundetty

Senior Editor: Nisha Cleetus

Content Development Editor: Rosal Colaco

Technical Editor: Pradeep Sahu

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Project Coordinator: Manisha Singh

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Hemangini Bari

Production Designer: Prashant Ghare

Marketing Coordinator: Deepak Kumar

First published: April 2022

Production reference: 1140422

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80107-566-4

www.packt.com

To my amazing husband, Perry, and my beautiful daughters, Ashley and Jessica. Thank you for all your patience and support during my first writing journey. Love you so much!

– Connie Clark

Contributors

About the author

With over 30 years of experience in computer software training, Connie Clark has taught and consulted with over 20,000 students. She helps to empower others and make them more productive with technology so they can achieve results. She's gained a reputation of teaching with patience and friendliness. She lives with her husband of 31 years and her two daughters on an acreage in Alberta. She likes to dance, but not exercise, always wanting things to be more fun and genuine. Check out her Mission Computers YouTube channel or reach out anytime by visiting her website.

I want to thank the people who have been close to me and supported me, especially my family – Perry, Ashley, and Jessica; my friends – Sherry, Sharon, Tobi, and Lori; and my loyal customers and business friends.

About the reviewer

Darren Austin is a consumer product executive whose career has been focused on pioneering many of the innovations that form the backbone of consumer technology experiences today – including mobile apps, messaging, e-commerce, location-based services, and cloud services.

He has over two decades of experience in leading product teams at early-stage technology companies as well as at established technology brands including Amazon.com, Motorola, AOL, Expedia, and Microsoft. He spent over 6 years at Microsoft in a variety of executive and leadership roles focused on education and collaboration products. During his time at Microsoft, Darren led the OneNote product team from 2015 to 2016.

Table of Contents

Preface

Section 1: The Anatomy of OneNote

Chapter 1: OneNote - How and Where to Use it?

Why use OneNote as your digital notebook?

Advantages of choosing OneNote

Differences between OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10

OneNote for Windows 10 version

OneNote version

Exploring notebook storage options

Location of your notebook

Account associated with the notebook

Accessing your notebooks from different devices

Opening OneNote from a different device/computer

OneNote web application

Summary

Chapter 2: Exploring Screen Layout and Toolbars

Understanding the layout of the OneNote screen on a computer

Understanding OneNote toolbars on a computer

The Home toolbar

The Insert toolbar

The Draw toolbar

The View toolbar

The Help toolbar

Exploring OneNote's right-click menus

Right-clicking a notebook name

Right-clicking a section name

Right-clicking a page name

Right-clicking within a notebook page

Right-clicking on Add page or Add section

Understanding the layout of the OneNote screen on mobile devices

The Settings screen for OneNote on your iPhone

Understanding the layout of the OneNote screen on an iPad or Galaxy tablet

Summary

Chapter 3: Creating Notebooks, Sections, and Pages

How to create a notebook

What to consider before creating your notebook

Should you make a notebook or a section?

Should your notebook be shared?

How to create a notebook on your computer?

How to create sections in your notebook

Renaming a section in a new notebook

Creating a new section

How to create pages in your notebook

Renaming an existing page in a new section of your notebook

Adding a new page

Summary

Chapter 4: Entering Information into Your Notebook

Understanding how OneNote uses containers to capture information

What does a container in OneNote contain?

Where you click first makes all the difference

Giving yourself space

Handwriting in OneNote

Handwriting in OneNote on your computer

Handwriting in OneNote on your tablet

Handwriting in OneNote on your smartphone

Using the Eraser or undo feature

Converting handwriting into typed text

Arranging your notes so they work well and look good

Basic text formatting

Highlighting text in your notebook

Using styles in OneNote

Customizing the look of your notebook and creating notes faster

Changing the page color of your notebook page

Adding rule lines to your notebook page

Setting up a default template

Summary

Section 2: Navigating, Searching, and Shortcuts within Notebooks

Chapter 5: Best Practices for Creation and Easy Retrieval of Notes

How moving or copying in OneNote behaves differently

Copying the entire container

Moving pictures to a better spot

Moving information to different pages, sections, or notebooks

Using OneNote on the smartphone or tablet to cut, copy, and paste

Keeping the end in mind

Don't be afraid to push the boundaries of your notebooks

Creating a system of best practices for sharing

Summary

Chapter 6: Categorizing and Searching Notes

Understanding the importance of tags in OneNote

Using tags, creating tags, and tag shortcuts

Applying tags to your information in OneNote

Creating tags in OneNote

Tag shortcuts

Working with tags – finding them, removing them, and completing them

Working with checkbox tags

Removing a tag

Finding your tags

Searching for notes in OneNote

Accessing your recent notes quickly

Summary

Chapter 7: Organizing and Easily Working with Pages, Sections, and Notebooks

Moving, copying, renaming, or deleting a section or page

Changing the sections in your notebook

Changing the pages of your notebook

Creating page or section groups

Creating a section group

Grouping pages together

Accessing your notebooks

Opening a notebook on another device

Closing a notebook

Password protection

Working with colors and sorting within OneNote notebooks, sections, and pages

Colors within OneNote

Sorting sections and pages

Getting to a page, section, or notebook without opening OneNote first

Summary

Section 3: Inserting Information and Links into Your Notebooks

Chapter 8: Adding Shapes, Videos, Web Pages, and More to Your Notes

Using the Draw menu to create shapes, do math, and highlight

Creating shapes

Doing math in OneNote

Highlighting with the highlighter pens

Inserting tables into your notebooks

Creating a table using the Insert toolbar

Creating a table using the Tab key

Using the Table toolbar

Inserting pictures, videos, or audio clips into your notebooks

Inserting pictures

Inserting videos

Inserting audio

Dictating is much better than typing!

Referencing a website with a touch of a button

Installing the Clip to OneNote extension

Summary

Chapter 9: Inserting Links and Attachments into Your Notebooks

Creating paragraph links in your notebooks

How to copy links from a paragraph

Creating section and page links in your notebooks

How to copy a link from a section

How to copy a link from a page

Editing your links and best practices for linking successfully

Best practices for creating links

Inserting documents or spreadsheets

Inserting a file from your computer

Linking to SharePoint files

Linking to files in Microsoft Teams

Summary

Chapter 10: Outlook and OneNote Belong Together

Sending emails from Outlook to OneNote

Using the Send to OneNote button

Dragging an email into OneNote

Using [email protected] to create a new note using email

Sending a copy of a OneNote page via email

Sharing a notebook link via email

Connecting Outlook appointments to OneNote

Summary

Section 4: Integrating OneNote with Other Microsoft 365 Apps

Chapter 11: Using OneNote Online with OneDrive, SharePoint, or Teams

Working with your notebook on OneDrive

Viewing your notebook file on OneDrive

Renaming your notebook

Sharing your notebook

Deleting your notebook

Moving your notebook

Working with your notebook on SharePoint

Creating a notebook in SharePoint

Adding a notebook to Microsoft Teams

Renaming a notebook in Teams

Understanding where your notebook in Teams is saved

Working with your notebook in Teams

Connecting sections of a notebook to a team channel

Showing changes by changing the view in your notebook

Summary

Chapter 12: Printing and Sharing with OneNote

Printing your notebooks is a different experience

Printing any document to OneNote

Sending information to OneNote from your smartphone

Sharing with OneNote from an iPhone or iPad

Sharing a picture or web page with OneNote from Android devices

Understanding the sharing of notebooks stored in Teams, SharePoint, or OneDrive

Sharing notebooks in Teams

Sharing notebooks in SharePoint

Summary

Section 5: Making Lasting Changes with OneNote

Chapter 13: Making OneNote a Habit

Making OneNote a habit

Getting others on board with OneNote as a habit

Replacing other methods

Starting with one thing

Moving to unconscious competence

Unconscious incompetence

Conscious incompetence

Conscious competence

Unconscious competence

Summary

Chapter 14: Customizing OneNote Settings

Settings for your notebooks on your computer and other devices

Settings in OneNote on the computer

Accessing the OneNote settings on your smartphone or tablet

Accessing the settings in the OneNote web application

Activating the Class Notebook

Working with Sticky Notes and Quick Notes

Understanding Sticky Notes in OneNote

Understanding Quick Notes

Summary

Chapter 15: Real-Life Examples of OneNote Notebooks

Exploring examples of notebooks used at work

Small business notebook

Project notebook

Professional Development notebook

Programs notebook

Board Member notebook

Making a TOC for your notebook

Touring my personal notebook examples

Summary

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

I couldn't function without OneNote. Years ago, in an attempt to become a better role model for my students, and as an advocate of a paperless office, I started my journey with this program. Microsoft introduced OneNote in 2002 so that we could capture notes easily and effectively. This organizational power and ease of notetaking are what I want to share with you in this book. OneNote is a brilliant application, bundled with other Microsoft products but often overlooked.

In this book, I will not only help you understand the importance of OneNote, but I will also take you through how to use the program, step by step. You will learn how to create a notebook, enter information, categorize and search your notes, organize your notebook pages and sections, add shapes, videos, web clippings, documents, and emails, and much more. You will even find out how OneNote works best with other Microsoft programs, such as Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

So that you can succeed in adopting OneNote and benefit from all the time savings it can give you, I will also share with you how to make OneNote a habit, real-life examples of possible notebooks, and best practices for working with OneNote.

Armed with all this, I am confident you will start the journey with me and become a OneNote fan and advocate.

Who this book is for

If you save notes on your phone, wear out more spiral notebooks than you can count, or are a Microsoft 365 user and need to keep track of information, then this book is for you. Beginner experience with OneNote is recommended to get the most out of this book.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, OneNote - How and Where to Use it?, shows you where OneNote notebooks can be stored and how they can be accessed from any device. You will discover how OneNote can be a great resource on smartphones as well as tablets and computers (PCs and Macs).

Chapter 2, Exploring Screen Layout and Toolbars, teaches you about the OneNote screen so that you can easily move around OneNote and take advantage of all the shortcuts. You will discover the toolbars that will help you make your OneNote notebook a powerful and exciting resource, whether on your computer or mobile device.

Chapter 3, Creating Notebooks, Sections, and Pages, teaches you how to create a notebook and then divide up that notebook into sections and pages. You will find out how to add or rename sections and pages and discover how this is possible from your computer or mobile device.

Chapter 4, Entering Information into Your Notebook, teaches you how to capture information in containers within OneNote, and how to work with those containers to your advantage. You will find out how to handwrite in your notebooks, not only from your computer but also from any mobile device or touchscreen. You will discover how to arrange your notes so they work and look good. You will learn how to highlight, use styles, and enhance your notebook pages with color or rule lines.

Chapter 5, Best Practices for Creation and Easy Retrieval of Notes, as to effectively take on a new application, it is best to give some thought to the best ways of applying that application to your everyday work, gives you ideas on how to build best practices for your notebooks and, as a result, create a better system for yourself (and others). We will also talk about how to move and copy information effectively in your OneNote notebooks.

Chapter 6, Categorizing and Searching Notes, teaches you how to set up a system of tags so that you can easily retrieve notes as well as have a visual display of notes that matches how you would capture information on paper. You will learn how to create checkboxes and add highlighting, stars, and question marks to your notes so that these notes become more meaningful and easier for you to read. All of this, as well as the search function and recent notes, will help you move through your notebooks quickly and easily.

Chapter 7, Organizing and Easily Working with Pages, Sections, and Notebooks, teaches you how to move, copy, rename, or delete any part of your notebook (sections or pages) or the notebook itself. You will find out how to access the same notebook on multiple devices and discover how to color code or sort your notebooks, sections, and pages.

Chapter 8, Adding Shapes, Videos, Web Pages, and More to Your Notes, teaches you the best ways to insert images, shapes, videos, audio files, tables, web pages, and formulas into your notebooks. You will find out how easy it is to do math on a notebook page. You will also learn how to use the highlighter pens and discover why you should take pictures from your smartphone or tablet while in your OneNote notebook. Finally, you will learn how to dictate to your notebook.

Chapter 9, Inserting Links and Attachments into Your Notebooks, teaches you how to create links within your notebooks so that you can move from one notebook, section, or page to another. You will learn how to create cross-references to your information from any notebook without having to retype or enter redundant information. You will also find out how to link or insert files into your notebooks. We will look at linking from OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams.

Chapter 10, Outlook and OneNote Belong Together, teaches you how to send emails from Outlook to OneNote. You will discover how to create an email address for your OneNote and learn about sending a page from OneNote via email. You'll also find out about a connection between Outlook appointments and OneNote.

Chapter 11, Using OneNote Online with OneDrive, SharePoint, or Teams, teaches you how to work with notebooks that are saved in OneDrive, SharePoint, or Teams. You will learn how to share notebooks and how to create a notebook from within Teams or SharePoint.

Chapter 12, Printing and Sharing with OneNote, teaches you how to print or share successfully from OneNote. You will also discover how to print from any application into your OneNote notebooks. You will find out how to send or share information to OneNote from your smartphone or tablet. You will also learn more about sharing notebooks within Teams and SharePoint.

Chapter 13, Making OneNote a Habit, helps you develop the consistency and commitment you need to make OneNote a powerful tool for your everyday work and personal life. You will also learn about how to get others on board with OneNote so you can easily share ideas and notes with others through OneNote. You will discover what it takes to develop unconscious competence with OneNote.

Chapter 14, Customizing OneNote Settings, teaches you which settings are crucial to your success with OneNote, while other settings are "nice to haves." You will learn how to access and change your settings to suit your needs. You will discover extra options available to you on OneNote for your computer and OneNote for your smartphone or tablet. You will also find out about bonus options such as the Class Notebook and Sticky Notes.

Chapter 15, Real-Life Examples of OneNote Notebooks, lets you explore examples of OneNote notebooks complete with their sections and pages, for work and personal use. Take a look at some of these real-life examples and copy them or tweak them so that you can save time in your notebook building process. Get inspired and get going!

To get the most out of this book

You will need Microsoft OneNote to follow along with the steps outlined in this book. You can find OneNote as an application included in Windows 10; we recommend this version as the book covers examples with this version in mind. OneNote is also available as part of Microsoft 365, but that OneNote version will look slightly different from the screenshots shown in this book.

OneNote is also available as a web application and an app that can be loaded on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. OneNote works well on Mac computers as well and most of the examples in this book will work in a Mac environment.

Chapter 1, OneNote - How and Where to Use it?, will walk you through how to set up OneNote on your computer, smartphone, or tablet.

If your Microsoft account is not allowing you to access shared notebooks, please seek the advice of an IT professional.

Any errata related to this book can be found at the following link: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Work-Smarter-with-Microsoft-OneNote.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781801075664_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Do a web search for the words clip to OneNote."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: "This Programs notebook is divided into sections with the name of each software program that I support."

Tip or Important Note

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Share Your Thoughts

Once you've read Work Smarter with Microsoft OneNote, we'd love to hear your thoughts! Please click here to go straight to the Amazon review page for this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we're delivering excellent quality content.

Section 1: The Anatomy of OneNote

In this section, we'll learn about the OneNote screen and toolbars. You'll discover how to easily create a notebook with multiple sections and pages and find out how to add notes (typed or handwritten) and even customize your notebooks to suit your personal style.

We'll learn about the advantages of OneNote and find out about the different versions available to us and all the different devices that we can access OneNote from. We'll get comfortable with all the menus and features in OneNote so that you know what is possible.

We'll then learn how to create well-organized notebooks with the right number of sections and pages and identify all the different ways to add information to our notebook pages. We'll also see how we can handwrite in OneNote, as well as customizing the look of our pages and text.

This section comprises the following chapters:

Chapter 1, OneNote - How and Where to Use it?Chapter 2, Exploring Screen Layout and ToolbarsChapter 3, Creating Notebooks, Sections, and PagesChapter 4, Entering Information into Your Notebook

Chapter 1: OneNote - How and Where to Use it?

OneNote is a Microsoft program like no other. However, before you can truly get a feel for OneNote, it is important that we identify why it is worth investing in.

There is an ever-increasing amount of information coming at each of us every day in many forms. With this information overload comes practical drawbacks: Where do we record this information?How do we remember what is important to us? Jotting down notes is usually a good solution to these issues, and in this chapter, we'll cover exactly why.

Microsoft OneNote is an application that is perfect for notetaking and capturing information in one place. Some examples of its usage are presented here:

Projects and meetings: You can use OneNote to capture everything that you need to run a project. Things such as your notes from meetings and emails can be stored side by side with drawings or images, document attachments, and links to pertinent files or websites; best of all, this information can be shared with everyone on that project.Ideas: As ideas pop into your head, capture them in OneNote. Organize these ideas and get working on them quicker because they will all be together and easier to retrieve.Personal information: Track any medical information for yourself or your family by taking pictures of prescriptions or writing down notes during doctors' visits. You can also include research done on the web as links in these notes. Recipes are another perfect example of ways to use a OneNote notebook. You can capture recipes easily by using the built-in camera feature and taking a picture of an existing recipe card or page in a book. You can also link to a website for your favorite recipe, jot down notes, or record a conversation about recipe ideas or ingredients.

In this chapter, we will discuss why we use OneNote, and how to get started with it. We start here so that you can set yourself up to take full advantage of the power and flexibility offered within this program. In particular, we will cover the following topics:

Why use OneNote as your digital notebook?Differences between OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10Notebook storage optionsAccessing your notebooks from different devicesOneNote web application

A goal for this chapter is to get OneNote installed on your computer as well as on your smartphone and tablet. This way, moving forward, you can follow along with the instructions in this book.

Why use OneNote as your digital notebook?

In this section, we will start by looking at why it's worth using OneNote as your digital notebook. Before we get into that, though, let's get a full understanding of what OneNote actually is.

OneNote is readily available to anyone. This application comes with Microsoft 365 and Windows 10, and you can also download it for free from Microsoft's website. Whether we take notes for ourselves or for the purpose of sharing with others, OneNote is an amazing solution that is an integral part of Microsoft 365 and integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Instead of using Outlook to send information about a project, use OneNote to capture all updates and references on a project shared with others. This is just one example of OneNote's ability to provide great solutions.

Aside from OneNote, our other methods of notetaking include old-fashioned pen and paper, the note-taking applications found on our phones (such as Apple Notes), and competing products such as Evernote. The downside of using these other note apps is the fact that they may not be available to you when you need them, or they may not be as integrated as OneNote can be with your current work.

In this section, we will focus on why OneNote may just be the best notes solution for you.

Advantages of choosing OneNote

Without further ado, let's look at the advantages of OneNote, assessing and comparing alternative options along the way, as follows:

Searchability: Find anything fast in OneNote is my motto. In OneNote, we can quickly search for a word or phrase, or even a special tag such as important or question. In this case, if you tag a number of notes as important or question, then you can find all those tagged notes with ease in the future.

The Evernote search feature works much the same as OneNote in terms of searching for words, phrases, or tags, showing the clear benefits of opting for digital notetaking applications such as these. Searchability is one of the big roadblocks we face with pen-and-paper notetaking: searching through your notes that were taken a while ago can be a time-consuming and laborious task. Furthermore, while the Apple Notes app does let you search for words, you cannot search for important notes or any other special category of notes.

Organization: Being organized is what OneNote is all about. You have many ways to organize your notes so that they are easy to see and retrieve. Not only can you easily retrieve notes by the title or page name, but you also have sections that help you organize similar note pages together. You also have the search feature, as mentioned in the previous point, that can help you to find almost anything.

In contrast to this, most other notes apps do not provide organizational options—it is up to you to make your note heading as specific as possible so that you can easily find it again in the list or gallery view. In Evernote, there is also a lack of organization by sections and pages; each notebook in Evernote has pages only, with no ability to divide notebooks by sections.

Going back to our physical notebooks, we simply jot down everything on the next fresh page of the notebook, with very little ability to revisit those notes quickly to organize them by category. This method of notetaking, which is sequential regardless of the topic, does not help us when we are looking for all the examples that meet the same criteria or all the information on one topic.

Cross-platform: You can install OneNote on any computer, phone, or tablet device. From all these devices, you can access the same notes; so, you can finish typing a note on your computer and then view it on your phone while you are away from the office. You can access OneNote from unlimited locations. Furthermore, OneNote can be synced locally with any of your devices so that if you have no internet access, you can still access your notes.

While the Notes app is very accessible from your iPhone, it does not provide a local synced copy for your computer. The Notes app on the iPhone will sync through your iCloud settings and give you access via your computer's web browser. Furthermore, Evernote will let you access notes from multiple devices but with the free version, you are limited to syncing only two locations. While your traditional notebook is portable, you will only have access to your most recent notes (unless you want to cart all of your full notebooks around!). You also risk the practicalities of leaving your notebook at home or even losing it altogether.

Keeping everything together: Using OneNote as your digital notebook will let you keep everything together. Not only will you have access to all notes you have written, but you can also have images, embedded videos, emails, documents, weblinks, web clippings, diagrams, and much more.

Furthermore, all this information will be available to others if you share your notebook with them; for instance, you may want to share notebooks with your team when working on projects or committees together. Sharing for personal use could be handy when planning a trip with friends or when coordinating a big event such as a wedding or anniversary party. Some other things to consider are noted here:

In your Apple Notes app, you can insert pictures, documents, and drawings, but unless you are on your phone or iPad, you cannot access this information and the sharing of notes is limited. Evernote keeps all your notes together but unless you have a paid version, you will not have everything on all your devices (keep in mind that you can only have two device locations with the free Evernote app). In addition to this, integration with Microsoft products is not available. For instance, the Teams integration is not an option unless you pay for Evernote Professional. A paper notebook can be full of character and overflowing with loose papers, ear-marked pages, highlights, and many other significant markers. However, this method can get messy and not really be the source of everything (as we may be missing the meeting agenda or other supporting documents that we still have to refer to on our digital devices).

To sum up, using OneNote as your notebook gives you the benefits of organization, searchability, and access to your notes and media anywhere, anytime. Because your OneNote notebook is digital, you can quickly access it on any device, and everything is together.

If you need to capture information for work or personal purposes, OneNote is your answer. There are different versions of OneNote, so let's explore that next.

Differences between OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10

OneNote has been available since 2003 and, as with any other software, it has been updated often.

At the time of writing this book, there are two versions of OneNote available, and they could both be present on your computer. This is a big confusion point for most people because someone in the office can open one version while others open the other version, and they will look slightly different. Microsoft was going to get rid of OneNote (2016) but because of all the comments from users, they decided to keep it. There are plans in the works for Microsoft to merge these two versions very soon. This book focuses on the newest version of OneNote, which is OneNote for Windows 10. In this section, we will compare the different versions of OneNote and how they differ from each other. Here are the current possibilities for the different versions:

OneNote for Windows 10: This comes pre-installed with Microsoft Windows 10.

Important Note

In Windows 11, OneNote will not come pre-installed, but you can still download OneNote from the Microsoft Store.

OneNote (formerly known as OneNote 2016): This comes with Office 2019, Office 2021, and Microsoft 365. We will refer to this version of OneNote as the OneNote app. If you have Windows 10 and Microsoft 365, it is possible that you have both versions of OneNote on your computer.OneNote for Mac: This comes with Office 2019, Office 2021, and Microsoft 365 or can be downloaded from the Mac App Store.OneNote for the web: This will be available to you if you store your notebooks in the cloud. This version of OneNote is accessible anytime, from any computer or device. All you need to do is visit www.onenote.com and sign in to your Microsoft account.

In this section, we will look at the unique characteristics of two of the versions that could be on your Windows-based computer: OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote (from Office 2019, Office 2021, or Microsoft 365). OneNote for the web is covered later in this chapter, while OneNote for Mac looks and works almost the same as OneNote for Windows 10.

OneNote for Windows 10 version

Here are some quick details about the Windows 10 version of OneNote. This may help you to identify which OneNote version you're using:

Notebooks must be stored in the cloud, on either OneDrive or SharePoint. This means you can access these notebooks on any device from anywhere. You can also access them offline, as there will be a cached copy of the notebook on your device.Notebooks cannot be stored on a local computer's hard drive.OneNote for Windows 10 does not work with earlier versions of Windows, which must be why they put Windows 10 in the name.There is no File menu.Sections are visible on the left side of the notes pages.

When people first use OneNote, they do not take note of where they started from: Was it the Windows 10 menu or the Office suite icons? I notice this happens often with my students when I am teaching how to use OneNote. Left-side tabs for sections means you are using OneNote for Windows 10, as seen in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.1 – Sections appear vertically on the left side of a notebook in OneNote for Windows

The location of the sections tabs is the easiest visual clue as to which OneNote version you are using.

OneNote version

When referring to OneNote, we are referring to the OneNote version that is part of Office 2019 or Microsoft 365. Here are some quick details about this version of the OneNote tool:

Notebooks can be stored on your hard drive, on the company server, or in the cloud (on either OneDrive or SharePoint).OneNote will work with Windows 8 and above.A File menu is available at the top left of the screen.Sections are visible at the top of note pages, like so:

Figure 1.2 – Sections across the top of a notebook in OneNote

Although there are some differences between these versions of OneNote, the majority of the features will work the same to provide amazing notebooks.

Where and how you store your notebook(s) is the next important step in creating accessible and shareable notebooks. Let's look at our storage options next.

Exploring notebook storage options

Each time you create a new notebook (you will learn how to do this in Chapter 3, Creating Notebooks, Sections, and Pages), you create a new notebook file, so you can decide each time where you want this notebook to be stored. All your notebooks can be stored in the same location and using the same account name and password.

For instance, if you only use OneNote at work, then you can log in to that notebook automatically with the Microsoft account that is already attached to your work computer. Furthermore, if you always share your notebooks, you could have Microsoft Teams as your location, then each shared notebook can be shared with the appropriate team. So, where can you store your OneNote notebook? This file type is very different from a Word or Excel file, for example. This file type will house all of your sections and pages in one notebook.

Each notebook you create is actually a separate file. There is no Save as button. Where you store this file and which account you attach to it is important, because you want to know how to access it again. The storage of your notebook will also affect your ability to share the notebook.

Let's look at your location and account choices so that you understand how this works. With notebook storage, we need to consider the following:

Location of the notebook fileThe account associated with the notebook file

In this section, we'll focus on these. To understand notebook storage better, we will explain the locations available and how accounts work.

Location of your notebook

While the OneNote app on Windows lets you store notebooks on local hard drives and on network shares, it is preferable to store them in the cloud so that you can access them from anywhere and from any device. OneNote for Windows 10 can only be stored on Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint.

If you are using Microsoft Teams, then you will be able to create notebooks, and these storage locations will be picked based on where you are in Microsoft Teams.

How does Microsoft Teams pick your notebook location?

If you create a notebook while you are in Microsoft Teams, there are two possible scenarios for where that new notebook will reside, as outlined here:

If you are in the Channel area of Microsoft Teams when creating a notebook, then that notebook is stored on the SharePoint site that is associated with that team.If you are in the Chat area of Microsoft Teams when creating a notebook, then that notebook is stored on OneDrive (the OneDrive belonging to the person that created that notebook in the chat). The following table tells us about the location of OneNote notebooks within Microsoft Teams:

Table 1.1 – Location of OneNote notebooks within Microsoft Teams

How you store your notebook depends on which version of OneNote you are using. Let's compare what's available for locations when we use OneNote for Windows versus OneNote.

Comparing the location for OneNote for Windows 10 with OneNote

You cannot save a notebook created in OneNote for Windows 10 on your hard drive, while OneNote (which comes with Office 2019 and Microsoft 365) can be stored on your local hard drive, on your company server drive, or on Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint.

Refer to the following table for location options:

Table 1.2 – Location of notebooks, comparing OneNote for Windows 10 with OneNote

Where you choose to store your notebook will affect whether or not you can share that notebook. Let's compare the OneNote versions and see which sharing options are available.

Sharing notebooks

Although you have lots of choices for the location of your notebook, sharing your notebook is not supported in all these locations. You will not be able to share a notebook that is located on your local hard drive. If you store a notebook on your company file server, the sharing of that notebook will inherit any rules of access that the file server location has, and sharing would have to take place in the office or through a virtual private network (VPN) (if outside the office).

Refer to the following table for sharing options:

Table 1.3 – Options for sharing OneNote notebooks based on the version of OneNote

The next consideration for your notebook storage is how much storage you have available with each option.

How much storage?

The amount of physical storage available to you for your notebooks is based on the storage available in the location your notebook is saved. OneNote itself has no storage limits.

Unless there are specific OneNote features that you need that are only available in the traditional OneNote app, we recommend using one of OneNote's modern apps (OneNote for Windows 10, OneNote for iPhone/iPad, or OneNote for Android) and using OneNote with the main account on your device (that is, a Microsoft account or a work/school account). This will ensure that all your notes are saved to the cloud and accessible on all your devices and will also ensure that you have full sharing capabilities.

Account associated with the notebook

When creating a notebook in OneNote, you will be prompted to log in to your Microsoft account. You may have a Microsoft account with your work email. If this account was set up with Microsoft 365 for Business, then this account is referred to as a work or school account. A Microsoft account is free for anyone, so it is possible that you have a personal Microsoft account as well. This personal Microsoft account could use any email address as the username.

With OneNote for Windows 10, you are always signed in to your Microsoft account. This account is set up under Accounts in your Settings area via the Windows Start menu: once on the Accounts screen, choose Your info to view the account you are signed in to. Note in the following screenshot, on the right-hand side of the screen, under CONNIE, the blurred line is where your Microsoft email account would show. You can link other accounts by choosing Email & accounts on the left:

Figure 1.3 – Microsoft account information (go to Windows Start menu, then choose Settings)

If you have a work or school account, it will show under the Access work or school option, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.4 – Microsoft account: Work or school account option

When creating new notebooks in OneNote, the account used will be the main account on your computer. If you have a work or school account, then that account should be the main one.

If you have already created a notebook using one of your accounts, you can access that notebook and specify the account you used.

If you are signing in to a computer at work, you may be restricted to a certain Microsoft account, as set up by your Microsoft administrator (or information technology (IT) professional).

In addition to using OneNote for work (or wherever that main account is), you may want to access your notebook(s) on your phone, a tablet, iPad, or another computer. Let's find out how easy this is to do.

Accessing your notebooks from different devices

One of the best things about OneNote is the fact that you can access it from any device you own. All it takes is for you to log in to the appropriate Microsoft account on that device and then start opening notebooks.

In this section, we will discover which other devices we can have our OneNote notebooks on. We will also learn how to set up OneNote on these other devices so that we can view and access our notebook(s).

Opening OneNote from a different device/computer

Let's say