If you have Office, chances are you have OneNote. But what is this little-known Office tagalong? Simply put, it is software used for taking notes, because, let’s face it, bringing pen and paper to that business meeting is going out of style fast.

One possible question is why not just use Microsoft Word? You can, but OneNote takes note organization and sharing to the next level. Just look at this Microsoft commercial where poor Dad is working with an ever-expanding shopping list on his OneNote phone app, while his kids are filling in the list in real time at home.

That’s OneNote.

But sharing is just one feature. OneNote‘s roots are as a notebook replacement tool. Comparing to Word again, imagine for every meeting you save different Word files in different folders, doing your best to mimic the “file cabinet” approach to organizing. If you forget which folder or subfolder you jotted a note in, or you gave the file a poor name, you’re in for a treasure hunt.

If you’ve been on that frustrating hunt before, then OneNote will be a breath of fresh air. When you open OneNote, all your notes are simply there – organized into notebooks (left), tabs (top) and pages (right). There are no separate files to open.

And the feature list goes on. Want to search your notes? Click in the Search box. Want to write something in the bottom-right corner of the page? Click, type. Want to email your note to someone? Click, emailed.

OneNote makes it simple. So ditch the intimidation factor and open up OneNote – and let me know how it goes!

P.S. If you like the idea of note sharing from your PC to your phone, but your version of Office is OneNote-free, you have other options: For the serious note taker who wants bell and whistles, the free EverNote is top notch, and for a simple note app that prides itself on speed, Notespark is a bargain at $4.99.

Author: Ryan Donelan
rdonelan@microknowledge.com

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Category: Tech Tips