Here are 10 hacks to make you look like a OneNote pro…
How to copy text from a picture into a note
Did you know you can copy the text from pictures into your OneNote notebook? For example, a menu for an event. First select the picture and copy it into your notebook. Right click on the picture and you see an option to “copy text from a picture”. Click somewhere else in your notes and hit ‘paste’. OneNote’s ‘optical character recognition’ picks up the text and pastes it into a new note. Voila – you can send out menu options to everybody for the Christmas party.
How to create coloured notes
So, you’ve created a page full of different notes. Want to make some of them stand out? Click your cursor into the box and select the text you want to be a different colour. Head to “Insert” and “Table” and select a table with one row and one column, so effectively the text is inserted into a box. The “Table Tools – Layout” tab will appear and you can select “Shading” to colour your notes.
How to highlight your notes
You can also highlight any of your text by heading to “Draw” and selecting a thick pen in the colour of your choice. But if you try draw over your text, you end up with a wiggly line right? When you have selected your pen, under the DRAW menu, if you then head to shapes and select a straight line, anything you now highlight will be in a straight line!
How to set up templates for different activities
On the 2016 desktop version, you can create a series of different templates from minutes to project plans. Click on “Insert” then “Page Templates”. The templates panel will appear on the right, with a selection of templates.
How to create a quick table whilst typing
OneNote allows you to create a table under the “Insert” tab, but did you know you can also do this from your keyboard? Within your note, type your column name, then hit the Tab key on your keyboard. A table is automatically created. Hit Enter to create a new row underneath.
How to use OneNote as a calculator
Need to quickly add something up? Type your calculation (e.g. 156+147, or 3*15) followed by = then hit the space bar or Enter to get the answer.
How to share a notebook to another account
If you want to share a note from your personal account to your work account, head to “File” then “Share”. You will first need to save this on to OneDrive or SharePoint. Here you can ‘get a sharing link’ to enable you to send a link to your notebook. You can send it to yourself, so you can store in another notebook, or you can send it to someone else.
How to clear up your notebook before sending to someone else
It’s a good idea to tidy up your notebook before sending it elsewhere by removing past versions. The “History” tab saves various revisions of your notebooks. Here you can empty your recycle bin or delete all versions of your notebook under page versions.
How to create a contents table for all your notes
Want to create a contents page with links to all your various notes? First, open a new note titled Contents (or whatever you choose to call it). Head to your first note and click on the selection handle (the little grey arrow at the top left-hand side of the note). Right click and select “copy link to paragraph”. Go back to your contents and paste this as your first item. A link will appear. So, your contents table is essentially a list of hyperlinks to various places within your notebook.
How to switch off the mini toolbar
The mini toolbar appears above your text when you’ve written something and can get a little annoying. You can switch this off by heading to “File, Options” then uncheck the “show mini toolbar on selection”.
If you found these hacks useful, you’ll love the OneNote Bundle in our Members Club, which provides a thorough overview of every aspect of OneNote and how to use it efficiently. The OneNote Bundle will be released shortly! Check out further details on the Members Club at https://www.execangels.org/membership/%5B/et_pb_text%5D%5B/et_pb_column%5D