I recently started using Microsoft OneNote for all my note-taking tasks as it works on Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone and iPad. It also does inking well with the Microsoft Surface Pen and Apple Pencil.
The app comes on almost every platform and has both powerful features and a simple interface. Here we focus mostly on Windows, but not entirely. See our previous 14 OneNote Tips and Tricks for more information on how to use the program more effectively.
Send to OneNote Printer
After users install OneNote, the program places a new printer driver in your Windows Printers and Devices section. When you find something you want to send from another program to your notebook, print it in OneNote. No matter how you print using this application and choose the OneNote printer driver.
Let’s say you want to share something between people in your office or home. You can share your OneNote Printer on the network and others can add the driver to their computers. They can then print to your OneNote Notebook.
The program will create a new page with the image of the printed document or photo. Find it by opening the program and going to the Quick Notes section. By default it will appear as Untitled Page at the top of the list. This is true whether you are printing something to OneNote or someone else is using the shared printer driver.
Change OneNote Notebook Names Explorer or Finder
For some reason, OneNote does not allow you to rename a Notebook within the program. You can pretend to change it and it will look like it has changed. However, you cannot find the new name when you search for the notebook in your file browser. You will find the old name as it does not change the laptop name on the hard drive or SSD.
Changing the filename requires the user to open the file program, Windows Explorer on Windows and Finder on Mac.
If you store OneNote notebooks here, go to your OneDrive folder. If not, find the OneNote folder. Find the notebook you want to permanently change. Right-click the name in Windows Explorer or Mac Safari and select Rename.
Clip Websites from Clip to OneNote
Microsoft made an extension Microsoft Edge, Chromium and Firefox this allows you to clip web pages to your notebook. Install the Clip to OneNote extension and sign in to your Microsoft account. Go to the page you want to crop. Click on the icon from the browser’s extensions. It will open a window that takes a picture of the page and offers several options for cropping the page.
Among the options…
Below the list of options for what to crop, there is a drop-down box that allows the user to choose where to place the crop. By default, it places the clipping in the Quick Notes section of OneNote. When you’re ready, click the Clip button.
Take Screenshots on Surface Pro with OneNote
You can easily take screenshots using OneNote and Surface Pen on Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Set this from Settings in Windows 10. Go to the Devices section and click on Pen & Windows Ink from the list on the left.
Scroll down until you see the Pen and Windows Ink section heading (see below).
The first set of combo boxes controls what the Click Once setting does. Click the drop-down box to choose what you want the operating system to do when you quickly click the button at the top of the Surface Pen. In the screenshot above I set it to open Windows Ink Workspace.
The double click popup is what I used to take a screenshot. I selected “Send screenshot to OneNote” from the dropdown box. When I double-tap the top button on the opposite end, it takes a screenshot and sends it to the Quick Notes section. I chose to launch OneNote when I held the button down.
Create Subpages in OneNote
Organize your notes using subpages. We do this by creating a section inside a notebook. Let’s say you have frequent meetings with a group of people in your organization. You want to find group of people by name, such as teachers. Then, at the bottom of this Teachers page, you may want to create pages for each meeting titled With the meeting date or a specific group of teachers, such as First Grade.
Animated video shows adding subpages in OneNote 2016.
Create the teachers page or the homepage name you want to create. Add a description to the page to let you know what this page group contains. For example, if you are making a homepage for a particular project, define the project. Then add a new page to the section and give it a title. Hover over the page title on the right side of the OneNote screen. You will see a small plus icon appear. Click to add a new page. Then give that page a title. If you want it to be a subpage under another page, click the tab on the right and drag it to move it a little to the right. You can also drag these tabs to the left to switch to the main page. Put multiple levels at the bottom of the pages if you want.
Adding Images to OneNote from the Web
You can add images from the web using the Clip to OneNote extension as we explained above. You can also add them using the OneNote Printer Driver. However, if you work in OneNote and want to add a specific image you have stored on OneDrive, Facebook and Flickr. You can also find an image online using Bing image search.
Place the cursor on the OneNote note page where you want to insert the image. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon, and then click the Online Pictures button from the Insert ribbon. A dialog box opens. If you’re signed in to OneDrive, by default it shows Bing Image Search and OneDrive. You can also add Facebook and Flickr by clicking these icons at the bottom of the dialog. After doing that, you will need to link your Facebook and Flickr accounts and it will look like the screenshot above.
Click one of the options to add an image. Enter what you’re looking for in Bing Image Search and it opens a page that loads images from Bing. If you don’t find what you’re looking for right away, you can continue searching. Once you’ve done that, click the image and then click the Add button.
Other services add images the same way, with only minor changes. You can also add other media from the Add ribbon. Play with various media formats.
Use OneNote for Knowledge Organization
OneNote offers a variety of ways to organize your personal and business information. For example, create a To Do list by adding checkboxes to a list from the Home tab. Find the To Do Tag button on the Ribbon towards the right end.
In Windows there is a section called Tags. It’s located just to the left of the To-Do button on a Mac. See the picture above. You can add questions, contact information, a Critical tag, or a few dozen other items. These help you quickly add visual tags to your notes, which is helpful when searching.
Get OneNote on Other Platforms
As we said at the beginning, OneNote also works on Mac, Android and iOS. Go to your app store and install the free app from the App Store.
After installing OneNote from Mac App Store, Google Play store or iTunes App Storeopen and sign in. Finds your notebooks in Microsoft OneNote and offers to sync them to Mac, Android device or iOS device.
Draw or Write with Pen in OneNote
Some people don’t mind drawing or writing in OneNote, but the app has great tools for inking. This works better on the right device like:
Click the Draw tab on the Ribbon. It looks different depending on the operating system you are using. For example, here is the Draw tab in OneNote 2016 for Windows.
Here is the Mac version of OneNote.
Note that the Windows version offers more tools and customization.
Click the Pen, Marker, or Highlighter tool. This will bring the color and pen size sections of the tab to life. Choose a color and pen size. The Windows version offers some predefined pens just like the Mac version.
Syncing Drawings on a Device with a Stylus
If you love to write or draw but mostly use OneNote on a device that doesn’t have a good pen, consider drawing or writing on a device that does. If you have a tablet, get a pen for it. Draw or write on the device with the pen and then sync the note with OneDrive.
