Microsoft’s note-taking app, OneNote, regularly receives new features, updates, and design overhauls to stay competitive. It still stands tall among the sea of new-age solutions to jot down notes and connect ideas and thoughts. If you are new to OneNote or thinking of moving your notes from another platform, continue reading to learn about Microsoft’s digital notebook.
When it comes tonote-taking apps, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Microsoft OneNote comes close to being the perfect note-taking app. Whether you are a student, professional, or a casual note-taker, OneNote has ample features to take notes like a pro.
Cross-platform availability
Cross-platform availability plays a huge role in a note-taking app. Your preferred digital notebook should be easily accessible on all your devices.
Microsoft OneNote is available on iPhone, Android, iPad, Windows, Mac, web, andtop Android tablets. Whether you use an age-old iPhone, Chromebook, or the latestSamsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, you won’t have difficulty finding your notes.
Note organization in OneNote
Unlike Evernote, OneNote doesn’t rely on tags to filter notes. It follows a traditional approach to organizing your notes. You can create different notebooks for various purposes and add several sections to them. Each section carries your OneNote pages. You can also create subsections for a better organizational structure.
For instance, if you want to arrange your university notes, create a Winter Semester section and add subsections like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and more.
It may seem confusing at first, but after you get the hang of it, you’ll appreciate OneNote’s unique approach to organizing notes. For example, you may create a Finance notebook and add sections like invoices, receipts, bills, and credit cards. Then, go to each section and the relevant pages to it.
Another neat flexibility is tags. You can tag a line or paragraph in OneNote and filter them with a single click. OneNote offers a long list of tags. You can also customize and create new tags based on your preferences.
If you use Sticky Notes on Windows or Samsung Notes on Galaxy phones and tablets, sync your entries to OneNote and check everything in one place from the Feed menu.
Microsoft OneNote features
There isn’t a shortage of useful features on OneNote. Let’s quickly go through some of the headline add-ons.
Microsoft OneNote offers a handy selection of templates to get started. They are neatly categorized into Academic, Business, Decorative, and Planners. you may also find and use a third-party OneNote template from the web or save your current page as a template.
Drawing tools
If you use OneNote on an iPad, Android tablet, or a 2-in-1 Windows device like a Surface Pro, use the built-in drawing tools to take notes on the go. You can also convert your handwritten math equations into typed numbers and symbols.
Web Clipper
OneNote Web Clipper is available on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and other major desktop browsers. It lets you clip an entire web page, region, or article. You can also bookmark a post to a section in a notebook.
Integration with Microsoft 365 apps
OneNote has excellent integration with other Microsoft 365 apps. For example, add and view your Excel sheet on a OneNote page, import Outlook meeting details and jot down useful notes before a Teams call, and use Microsoft Loop components. The latter is a new collaboration software from the software giant. Check our dedicated guide tolearn everything about Microsoft Loop.
Math equations
Built-in support for fractions, scripts, radicals, equations, trigonometric functions, and more is why OneNote is popular in the education sector. Apart from these formulas, OneNote supports basic math functions. You don’t need to reach out for a calculator while performing some basic formulas.
Other notable mentions include feature-packed mobile and tablet apps with widgets and stylus support, an excellent text editor, OCR to copy text from an image, the ability to link pages, and more.
Note-sharing and collaboration on OneNote
The entire collaboration experience is top-notch in OneNote. You can invite your team or family members to a notebook with different sharing settings and export a page as a PDF over an email.
When you generate a notebook link, you’re able to add an expiry date and a password to avoid unauthorized access.
Copilot in OneNote
Microsoft is readying Copilot support in OneNote. Copilot is an AI assistant based on Bing Chat. The software giant is expected to roll it out across all Microsoft 365 apps.
Copilot in OneNote can summarize your pages, create to-do lists, analyze your ideas, and rewrite existing notes for better clarity. you may also create new content like travel plans, campaigns, and personal goals with Copilot.
OneNote pricing
OneNote is free to download and use. Since OneNote uses OneDrive to store and sync your notes, you only need to worry about the cloud storage space. OneDrive comes with 5GB of free space. You must purchase a Microsoft 365 plan to unlock more space.
The Microsoft 365 Personal plan starts at $70 per year. It includes access to desktop apps and 1TB of OneDrive space.
Ditch the traditional pen and paper
There are dozens of note-taking apps, and OneNote stands out due to feature-rich desktop apps, cross-platform availability, a generous free plan, AI capabilities, and integration with other Office apps. What are you waiting for? Take it for a spin, access your notes on all devices, and live apaper-free life.
