Built into Windows 10 and 11 integrated with Microsoft 365, OneNote is a robust note-taking app that’s free to use. Here’s how to get up and running with it quickly. Credit: Microsoft A note-taking app can be helpful, especially if it enables you and your co-workers to collaborate on ideas. Microsoft OneNote is an excellent tool for the job. It’s pre-installed on Windows 10 and 11 and is included with a Microsoft 365 subscription. But anyone can download the app and use it for free. This guide walks you through the basics of using OneNote, focusing on OneNote for Windows 10, the version that comes with Windows 10 and 11 and that’s available for download in the Microsoft Store. Other available versions include a more fully featured Windows desktop app, a web app, and apps for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android. These may look or function a little differently than described here, but the basic functionality is similar. This guide will describe notable differences in the features and interfaces of the web and mobile apps that will be helpful for you to know. Get started with OneNote OneNote uses Microsoft OneDrive (or OneDrive for Business) to sync the notes you create to the cloud, so your notes are always up to date across all your devices. Thus, the app requires that you sign in with a Microsoft user account. If your company uses Outlook or you have a free webmail account on Outlook.com, for example, you already have a Microsoft user account. If not, you can sign up for one for free. To understand how to work in OneNote, it’s helpful to first know its organizational structure: A Microsoft user account can contain multiple notebooks. Each notebook can contain multiple sections. Each section can contain multiple pages. (OneNote refers to an individual note as a “page.”) This organizational structure is reflected in how OneNote’s home layout is presented. When you launch OneNote, maximize its window so that it fills your PC’s display. On the vertical toolbar along the left, click the Show/Hide Navigation button. (It’s above the magnifying glass icon.) OneNote will arrange its layout like so: Along the left is a toolbar with the Show/Hide Navigation icon at its top. Clicking the magnifying glass button opens a search pane, and clicking the clock shows recent notes. To the immediate right of the Show/Hide Navigation icon is the name of the currently opened notebook, and there are two columns below this notebook’s name: The first column lists sections and the second lists pages that are contained in this notebook. The right half of the OneNote window shows the currently selected page. IDG OneNote shows notebooks, sections, and pages in the left columns, with the current page showing in the main window area. (Click image to enlarge it.) Clicking a section name will show in the column to its right a list of the pages under this section. And clicking the name of a page opens the page in the large pane to its right, where you can then view the page’s contents, scroll through it, and edit it. When you click the Show/Hide Navigation button, the currently viewed page will become bigger, and the column listing the sections and pages will be removed. Click the Show/Hide Navigation button again, and this column will return. Along the top of the OneNote window, clicking View will open a toolbar that allows for other ways to view a page, such as zooming in or out, or launching the page in a new window. The first time you launch OneNote, there won’t be any sections or pages, but it does create a new notebook for you to start with. Note that there’s no Save command in OneNote; everything you do is saved automatically. In the OneNote mobile app: To see the list of notebooks on your account, tap the Notebooks icon at the lower left. Tap a notebook to open it. The screen will switch to another screen that lists the sections in the notebook. Tap a section to open it. The screen will switch to another screen that lists the pages that are under it. Tap a page to open it. You can scroll throughout the page. IDG The OneNote Android app showing a notebook’s sections. Create notebooks, sections, and pages When you create a new notebook, section, or page, you’ll be prompted to type in a name for it. Create a new section or page: At the bottom of the second column, click Add section or Add page. Create a new notebook: Click the name of the notebook that’s currently open in OneNote. (This name is to the immediate right of the Show/Hide Navigation button.) At the bottom of the Notebooks pane that opens, click Add notebook. IDG Click Add notebook at bottom left to create a new notebook. Switch to another notebook: Click the name of the currently opened notebook to open the Notebooks pane. Any other notebooks associated with your account will be listed on this pane. Click the one you want to switch to. In the OneNote mobile app: To create a new notebook or section, go to the screen that lists notebooks or sections, tap the + icon on the upper right, and enter a name for the new notebook or section. To create a new page, go to the screen that lists pages and tap the + icon on the lower right. This action will open a new page on the next screen. IDG Click the + icon at lower right to create a new page. (A page is the same thing as a note.) Work with frames on a page When you start typing anywhere in the body of a page, a frame appears around it. The more lines of text you enter, the taller this frame becomes. You can adjust the width of the frame by dragging its right border line. You can move the frame to another spot on the page by clicking, holding, and dragging its top border line. IDG A frame appears around text you type on a note. When you click on another area of the page, the frame around the text disappears, leaving behind the text inside it. When you click on the text again, the frame around it reappears. This framing interface lets you create groups of text that you can move around on a page. You can even move one text group over another text group — the one on top will become transparent over the second. This gives OneNote pages more flexibility than you get with the typical left-to-right, top-to-bottom approach of many note-taking and word-processing apps. IDG You can move each group of text in its frame. Format and tag text OneNote for Windows 10 uses a simplified version of the Office Ribbon running across the top of the screen. It’s divided into tabs where you can access different toolbars with commands for formatting text, inserting images and other elements, changing a note’s design, and more. You can change several aspects of text using the Home tab’s toolbar. If it’s not open already, click Home to open this toolbar. Change text formatting: Highlight the text in a frame on a page. Then, from the Home toolbar above, select a formatting function such as font name, size, highlight color, or text color. You can also format lines of text to be a bulleted or numbered list. A bullet icon or number will be added to the left of the first line of text you type. Thereafter when you press the Enter key, the next line will also be preceded with a bullet or the next sequential number. IDG Formatting text as a numbered list. Tag a line of text: Put the cursor in the line of text. On the Home toolbar, click the downward arrow to the right of the Tags button (a box with a checkmark and a star). From the dropdown menu that opens, select the tag that you want applied to this line of text. This puts an icon at the beginning of the line of text, such as a checkbox for “To Do” or a star icon for “Important.” You can also create a new tag name and select an icon for it. IDG You can enhance text with interactive checkboxes or other icons. The checkbox that designates a line of text as a To Do item is interactive. Clicking the small box will mark it with a check. In the OneNote web app: You’ll find several more preset tag types. In the OneNote mobile app: To add text to a page, tap the spot on the page where you want to put it. The on-screen keyboard of your phone or tablet will open with a toolbar along the top of the keyboard. Icons on the toolbar let you insert To Do, bulleted, or numbered lists; format text in various ways; embed selected text with a web link; or insert other elements described later in this story. IDG Formatting text in a note in the OneNote Android app. Add images, media, and other elements To add images, tables, video, and other elements to a page, place your cursor at the spot on the page where you want the element to appear and click the Insert tab at the top of the OneNote window. IDG Adding a table to a note. The toolbar that appears lets you insert the following items: Table: Clicking this button opens a panel that lets you select the number of columns and rows you want for a new table by dragging the pointer. You can adjust the width of a table by clicking on and dragging the right side of its frame. You can move the table itself to another area on the page by clicking on and dragging the top side of its frame. To adjust the sizing of the columns of the table, click on and drag the vertical lines inside the table. Inside each cell of the table, you can type text or numbers, and even add a picture, as described later. IDG A table can contain text, images, and more. File: Clicking this button opens File Explorer. You can select a file on your PC’s drive or OneDrive. When you insert a file, it appears as a shortcut on the page. If it’s a shortcut to an .EXE file, clicking it will run the program on your PC. Otherwise, clicking the shortcut will load it inside a corresponding app. For example, if it’s a .DOCX or .DOC file, the document will launch and load inside Microsoft Word. Clicking a shortcut to an audio or video file will launch your PC’s default media player. Printout: Clicking this button also opens File Explorer. You select a PDF on your PC’s drive or OneDrive. All of the PDF’s pages will be added to the page as a series of images. When you click any of these images, eight dots appear at its sides and corners. You can click on and drag these dots to resize the image. Pictures: Clicking this button presents you with three ways to add a picture to a page: From File lets you select an image file on your PC’s drive or OneDrive. From Camera lets you snap a photo using your PC’s webcam. From Online lets you add an image that you find via Microsoft’s Bing search engine. IDG Adding a picture to a note. Remember that the image will appear wherever your cursor is on the page when you click the Pictures button. That means you can click inside a text frame or table cell to have the image appear there. When you click any image that’s been added to a page, eight dots appear at its sides and corners. You can click on and drag these dots to resize the image. Online Video: This lets you enter the link to an online video on a site such as Giphy, Vimeo, or YouTube. A thumbnail of the video will be added to the page. When you click the thumbnail, the video will play. You can resize this thumbnail like any other image, as described above. Link: You can apply a clickable web link to a word or words on the page. First, copy the web link to your Windows clipboard. Next, highlight the word or words on the page. Then click the Link button, and on the panel that opens, paste in the web link. Audio: A simple audio recording and playback tool will appear along the top of the OneNote window when you click this button. You can record a voice memo if your Windows PC has a microphone. The recording will appear on the page as a shortcut to an audio file. Meeting Details: Clicking this button will let you insert meeting details from your Outlook calendar, including time, date, place, and attendees. There’s also a place for you to add notes from the meeting. (If you don’t see the button, click the down arrow icon at the right end of the Insert toolbar and select Meeting Details from the dropdown menu.) IDG Inserting meeting details from Outlook into a note. In the OneNote mobile app: To add images or other elements to a page, tap the spot on the page where you want to put this item. As mentioned in the previous section of the story, the on-screen keyboard of your phone or tablet will open with a toolbar along the top of the keyboard. In addition to the text formatting options described above, you can click the camera icon to insert a picture taken with your device’s camera or one that’s already stored on it, click the microphone icon to record a voice clip using your device’s microphone, or click the paperclip icon to attach a file that’s stored on your device. Add drawings and change the page background You can enhance your note by drawing on it or changing its design. To add a drawing: Click the Draw tab at the top of the OneNote window. This opens a toolbar that lets you draw on the page, choosing from a range of colors and line thicknesses, or insert shapes such as ovals, rectangles, and triangles that can be used to quickly put together diagrams. You can also use these tools to draw on top of images that you’ve added to a page. IDG The drawing tool lets you add quick sketches or diagrams to a note. To change the page background: Click the View tab at the top of the OneNote window. To change the page’s background color, click the Page Color button on the toolbar that appears and select a color from the panel that opens. To add horizontal or grid lines to the background, click the Rule Lines button and make a selection. In the OneNote mobile app: To add a drawing to a page: On an opened page or new page, tap the marker icon at the upper right. This will open a very basic drawing toolbar, which includes different markers, an eraser, and a cut-out tool. On Android you can tap and hold a marker until a panel opens that lets you change the color or thickness of the marker. IDG The drawing toolbar in Android. Organize your notes To access your notes more efficiently, it’s worthwhile to think about how you want to organize them. You can create multiple sections within a single notebook for different projects, or create separate notebooks for different purposes. If you change your mind, it’s easy to reorganize in OneNote. Move a section or page to a different spot in its column: Click and hold its name, then drag it up or down the list to where you want to move it. Move or copy a page to a different section: Right-click its name and select Move/Copy. Select the section that you want to move or copy it to, and then click the Move or Copy button. Move or copy a section to a different notebook: Right-click its name and select Move/Copy. Select the notebook that you want to move or copy it to, and then click the Move or Copy button. Delete or rename a section or page: Right-click the name of a section or page and choose Delete Section (or Delete Page) or Rename Section (or Rename Page). IDG The right-click menu for a section of a notebook. (Click image to enlarge it.) Move a notebook: At the top of the second column, click the name of the current notebook. In the list of notebooks that appears on the Notebooks pane, click the notebook’s name and drag it up or down in the list. Rename a notebook: At the top of the second column, click the name of the current notebook. On the Notebooks pane, right-click a notebook’s name and select Nickname Notebook. Delete a notebook: Oddly enough, you cannot delete a notebook from the OneNote app. You have to use the OneDrive mobile app or web app. Your OneNote notebooks are saved in the Documents folder; you can delete them from the mobile app or web version of OneDrive. (But you cannot access these OneNote notebook files from File Explorer on your Windows PC — they do not appear in File Explorer.) In the OneNote mobile app: To move a section or page elsewhere in the list, tap and hold the name of the section or page, then drag it up or down in the list. IDG To move a section, tap and hold it, then drag it up or down. To copy or move a page to another section, tap and hold on the name of the page to select it. Then tap the icon of a page with an arrow over it — in Android it’s at the upper right, in iOS at the bottom of the screen. Select the section to move the page to, and also select Create a copy if you keep a copy in its current location. To delete a section or page, tap and hold the name of the section or page to select it, then tap the trash can icon. To rename a section, tap and hold on the name of the section to select it. Then tap the cursor icon — in Android it’s at the upper right, in iOS at the bottom of the screen. To rename a page, first tap to open it. Next, tap the first line of text at the top of the page. Delete this text and enter a new name for the page. Search your notes On the left toolbar, click the magnifying glass icon to open the search pane. Click the All Notebooks dropdown to narrow the search range: you can search for words or phrases through all your notebooks, the current notebook, the current section, or the current page. If you’re looking for pages that are marked with a particular tag name, click Tags. The search will look for tags that match the words you enter. Search results appear on this pane; clicking a result will open the page that it appears on. IDG Searching in OneNote. Add multiple Microsoft accounts You can sign in with two or more accounts at once to access notebooks belonging to each one, without having to sign out and back in with a different account. This is helpful if you have a Microsoft account for work and another for your personal use. With a work or school account, you may see notebooks listed that you haven’t created but have been granted access to. For instance, Microsoft Teams records a team’s notes in OneNote, so if your company uses Teams, you will likely see a shared team notebook. Sign in with another account: Click the three-dot icon at the upper right of the OneNote window and select Settings. On the Settings pane, click Accounts, and on the panel that opens, click Add account. Add notebooks from another account: At the top of the second column of the OneNote window, click the name of the currently open notebook. On the dropdown list that opens, click More Notebooks… On the panel that opens, select the notebook(s) you want to add. In the OneNote mobile app: In Android, tap the Notebooks icon on the lower left, then tap More Notebooks. On the next screen, tap Add account. On the next two screens, you’ll be prompted to enter the email address of your other Microsoft user account(s). In iOS, tap the Notebooks icon on the lower left, then tap your profile picture or initials at the upper left. Tap Add or Switch Accounts, then tap Add Account. After you’ve logged into another account, tap More Notebooks on the main screen, then choose a notebook from the screen that appears. Share and collaborate There are two ways that you can share and collaborate with others on your notes. Share a web link: Right-click the name of one of your notebooks, sections, or pages and select Copy Link to Notebook (or …Section or …Page). This generates a link to the item, copying it to the Windows clipboard. As with any ordinary web link, you can paste it in an email, instant message, document, etc. Anyone who has a link to one of your notebooks can see all the sections in it and all the pages under each section. If it’s a link to a section, they can see only the pages under that section. A link to a single page allows them to see only that page. Share a notebook with specific people: You can alternatively invite specific people to view and edit the notebook that’s currently open in the OneNote app. Click the Share button on the upper-right corner of the OneNote app. The Share pane will open along the right, prompting you to enter the email addresses of the people you want to share the notebook with. IDG Use the Share pane to share a note with specific people only. On this pane, “Can edit” in the dropdown means the people you’re sharing the link with can change anything about the item, such as adding elements to pages or changing the text on a page. Their changes will be synced to your copy of this item on your PC drive and OneDrive. If the person has edit access to your notebook, they can change any sections and pages within it. Clicking the Can edit dropdown and selecting Can view will restrict your recipients to viewing the contents of the notebook (including its sections and pages). They won’t be able to edit it. When you click the Share button, an email will be sent to these addresses, containing a link that can be opened only by the recipients. Stop sharing a notebook with a specific person: Click the Share button again. From the Share pane, click the recipient’s name and then click Stop sharing. Restrictions: If you’re using OneNote under a work or school Microsoft account, sharing is governed by your organization’s rules. For instance, some organizations may not allow you to share notebooks to anyone outside your organization. In the OneNote mobile app: To share a notebook in iOS, open the notebook, then click the three-dot icon at the upper right and select Share Notebook. On the screen that appears, you can choose either to invite specific people to the notebook or to copy a link to the notebook that you can send it to others via email, instant message, text, etc. If you choose Invite People to Notebook, a screen appears that lets you enter email addresses or names of contacts in your address book. By default, people you invite can edit the notebook. To make it view only, turn the Can Edit switch off. Tap Send in the upper-right corner to send the invitation. If you choose Copy Link to Notebook, you can make the link View Only or View and Edit, which means anyone with the link (not just those you send it to) can make changes to the notebook. When you’ve made a selection, the link is copied to your clipboard. In Android you can only send a copy of a page to other people, which doesn’t allow for collaboration. With the page open, tap the three-dot icon on the upper right and tap Share page on the panel that appears. On the next panel, select the format that you want to send the page in: PDF or Plain Text. The Android share panel will open along the bottom, presenting a variety of ways that you can send the page to others. For example, if you select the Gmail app, then a new email will be created, and if you chose Plain Text on the previous panel, the text of the page will appear in the composition window of this new email. If you chose PDF previously, a pdf version of the page will be attached to the email. In the OneNote web app: With the notebook open, click the Share button on the upper right. On the “Send link” panel that opens, there’s an area at the top where you can invite specific people to the notebook and an area at the bottom where you can copy a link to the notebook that you can send to others. IDG It’s a good idea to change the web app’s default “Anyone with the link can edit” settings. (Click image to enlarge it.) In both areas, the default permissions allow anyone who clicks the link to edit the notebook — not just people you’ve invited specifically. Frankly, this is a feature you probably should not use. Instead, use one of these safer options: If you want to invite specific people to edit the notebook, click Anyone with the link can edit at the top of the “Send link” panel. On the panel that appears, click Specific people and then click the Apply Back on the main “Send link” screen, enter the email addresses of those you want to invite, optionally type a message to them, and click Send. Only people you’ve invited will be able to view and edit the notebook. If you want to allow anyone with the link to view the notebook but not edit it, click Anyone with the link can edit at the bottom of the “Send link” panel. On the panel that appears, uncheck Allow editing and click Apply. You can then copy and send the link for others to view and share. 3 extras in the OneNote web app The web version of OneNote includes a few additional tools and options that you might find useful. Switch between the classic and simplified Ribbon: The OneNote web app includes the classic version of the Ribbon interface, which provides a lot more detail and context about the functions on the top toolbars. This classic Ribbon interface is similar to the one in the Windows desktop version of OneNote. IDG You can switch between the simplified and classic Ribbon in OneNote on the web. To switch between the classic and simplified Ribbon interface in the web app, click the down arrow icon toward the upper right (below the Share button). On the panel that opens, select Classic Ribbon or Simplified Ribbon. Spellcheck: This tool can be used to quickly check the spelling on a page or automatically indicate words on a page that are misspelled. You can also select a language other than English for the spell check. At the top of the OneNote window, click the Home tab. On the toolbar, click the down arrow to the right of the abc icon and select the spell check function you want. Page Versions: If you’re not happy with recent changes to a page, you can go back and restore an older version of it. Open the page in the main window of OneNote. At the top of the OneNote window, click the View tab, then click Page Versions in the toolbar. In the column that lists all the pages in a section, you’ll see one or more dates that represent older saved versions of the current page listed directly below it. To view an older version, click its date to open it. To restore an older version, right-click its date in the page list column and select Restore from the pop-up menu. This action will replace the page with this older version. What was the current version will then be moved down in the versions list to become the most recent older version. IDG In the web app, you can choose an earlier version of the note to go back to. This story was originally published in July 2019 and updated in August 2022. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe