OneNote 2016 Tutorial

If you are looking for a better way to take notes, then Microsoft OneNote 2016 is the tool for you. With its most recent update it now matches the look of Office 2016, and has some great new features you are sure to appreciate. It should be noted that MS OneNote is the only MS application that can be downloaded and used for free without a license to the MS suite or a 365 subscription. Rather, it is obtained through the Windows Store, Mac App Store or as part of the bundled Office suite download.

Office Lens

This is a sister application designed for all smartphone platforms. It allows you to take photos with your phone and send them to OneNote 2016. It can also convert images of block text or equations into computer formatted images and pages.

Send Notes

onenote 2016 tutorial send notes

You can now send the notes to yourself via email and send them to your OneNote 2016 notebook, so that you have all the notes for a project in one place. You can set this up by visiting the email settings page and choosing an address that you want OneNote to use. If your email address is not shown, select the “Don’t see the e-mail address you want to add” option and follow the prompts. (image from http://beebom.com/)

Sharing
Need to collaborate on a project? The new OneNote 2016 platform makes it easy to share your notebooks with others. Just select the person icon in the upper right corner and then select email, upload, or export your notebook.

Syncing

onenote 2016 tutorial syncing

You can now sync notebooks from across multiple platforms and multiple application versions. It is compatible with older versions of the product, so you can use it with the mobile version, OneNote 2008, or a Windows 10 computer. (image from http://beebom.com/)

Smart Lookup
Need to add images, or additional information to a Notebook? Just right click the item you want to add, and drag and drop the data into your notebook.

Tell Me
Like other update programs in the MS Office Suite, OneNote 2016 now has a Tell Me function. This allows you to use more features than before, and makes other features quicker and easier to access and use. To make use of the Tell Me feature, click or tap the search box, type in your question and, if a keyword is used then OneNote will find some possible answer for you.

Quick Notes

onenote 2016 tutorial quick notes

These are like mini Post-It Notes. They are separate notes that work independently from the OneNote window and don’t belong in any specific notebook. Rather, they stay in a space of their own, where you can move them to Notebooks – or not- as needed.

To use Quick Notes, even with OneNote 2016 closed, use Windows + N. To open additional notes, select Windows + Alt + N. (image from http://makeuseof.com/)

Page Templates

onenote 2016 tutorial page templates

If you are in charge of taking the minutes at meetings, find yourself making lists, or perhaps need to create cards that are text-based and equation-based, then the new page templates are perfect for you. The templates mean that you do not need to format a note for what you are doing, but can simply take advantage of a template created for the task you are facing, and be more organized in the process. (image from http://makeuseof.com/)

Version History
Need to keep up with the latest version of your notes? OneNote 2016 can keep track of previous versions rather than simply saving new info on top of them. You can access these earlier versions by going to the Ribbon and clicking the Recent Edits menu to select a specific time period and see all the changes made during that time. Perhaps, the only negatives in this feature is that it can only go back 6 months, and that the Version Histories take up data space, so you may need to delete them from time to time.

Internal Links
Another wonderful feature in the OneNote 2016 design is Internal Linking, aka clickable links. These links can take you to other notebooks, sections, and pages, which means that even in large notebooks it is easy to locate specific information. To create a link, right click on any tab and select the Copy Link option. Then paste it where needed.

Custom Tags

onenote 2016 tutorial custom tags
Making it even easier to organize your notes, is the Custom Tags option. These can be used with notebooks, sections, and pages and are used to connect notes across different sections or notebooks. OneNote features several types of tags – Important, To Do lists, phone numbers, passwords, as well as those you can customize – that make them even better for organizing information. (image from http://makeuseof.com/)