In the design of a digital notebook, Microsoft OneNote is a place to create, collect, store, and search for notes. It’s a great program for organizing pieces of information that might not easily fit into the structure of one of the other Office programs. And when you store laptops on your network or in the cloud, you can access your data from multiple devices and even share it with others.

What can be included in OneNote?

With OneNote, you can organize notes by sections and pages in notebooks. These notes can include:

• Documents

• Email

• Chores

• Web pages and other hyperlinks

• Images, drawings and media

• Impressions

• Data from other Office programs

OneNote tips: content you can easily embed

OneNote is a very flexible application that can contain a wide range of content. You are not limited by page size or a linear structure. The Insert Ribbon tab gives you some ideas on the type of items you can easily insert into OneNote. Let’s explore these OneNote tips and more.

1. Record audio or video: No need to use your smartphone to record meeting notes or event videos. Just capture a video or audio recording directly within OneNote. It’s also easy to trim the recording and play the audio or video.
2. Archival printing: Do you want to capture a print without scanning a file or creating a PDF? From any Office program, simply choose Send to OneNote as the printer option. From this option, you can specify the name of the notebook, the section and the page where you want to capture the impression. You can also insert a hard copy directly from OneNote.
3. Attached file: When a print is not needed, add an attachment instead. The file can be opened directly from OneNote, although the attachment does not link to the source file that may have been updated.
4. Hyperlinks: Your OneNote notebooks can also store links to web pages, email addresses, or files on your network.
5. Tables and spreadsheets: When your notes require a more structured look or even calculations, add a table or spreadsheet to a notebook page. OneNote even supports equations and symbols for more detailed input.
6. Date and time stamps: As you create notes, adding a date and / or timestamp helps document your comments and additions, especially when sharing notebooks with others.
7. Tags, tasks, and to-dos: Organize your notes as action items by assigning tags to individual notes or items. A tag marks an item with a tag as to-do, important, or question. You will find these options on the Launch Ribbon tab or use keyboard shortcuts such as [Ctrl]+1 for Tasks to mark a note. Tags are searchable in notebooks so they can be easily located. To keep track, mark a to-do tag when it is complete or send it to Outlook to create an Outlook task.
8. Custom Pages: Although a rigid page structure is not required in OneNote, you may find it easier to work with some pages by modifying the appearance of the page. On the View Ribbon tab, change the page color, choose from a variety of ruled lines, or change the size and layout of the page view.
9. Drawings: Using a touch screen device or laptop and stylus, you can also create freehand shapes and drawings in a wide range of colors and widths. You will discover these options on the Draw Ribbon tab. If you don’t have a touch screen or stylus, OneNote also supports drawing with a mouse. At least if you’re a better artist than me!
10. Ink to text or Ink to math: Similar to the drawing tools, you can create freehand text in your notes. If your handwriting is legible, choose the Ink to Text feature to convert your handwriting to text.

Explore these OneNote tips to expand the variety of ways you can create, capture, and edit important content in your OneNote notebooks.