10 Reasons to Check Out Microsoft OneNote

Haven’t ventured into exploring Microsoft OneNote yet? Maybe you’ve seen colleagues using it in meetings or you’ve caught a glance at a training webinar that features it. If you’ve been thinking about it, we’re here to give you some tips and insight into why you should check it out.

Why You Should be Using OneNote:

1. You can connect the dots. Add document from your other MS program. Reference a budget? Pull it in from Excel. Discussing a presentation? Add it from PPT.
2. You can include a live moment in your notes. Want to capture a moment, or need to capture an important discussion for the official record? Just record audio or video, and insert it in your notes.
3. You can be more efficient. OneNote has search functionality across notebooks. Find what you need faster!
4. You can share notebooks in REAL time.

• a. You can take meeting or board notes and share then instantly. No follow-up email and attachment necessary!
• b. Create share files that enable others to see updates to projects, and even automatically sync notebooks with a colleague.
• c. Select ‘View Only’ or ‘Can Edit’ options, where any edit made will appear instantly for quality control.

5. You can manage tasks and your calendar time smoothly.

• a.       Looking at an action item in your notes? Mark something as an Outlook Task and create a reminder without ever leaving OneNote.
• b.       Create Tags that make sense to you – To Do, Follow-up, Boss Requests, etc. – and then you can filter by the later to more quickly focus your next steps.

6. You can make your To Do list better with eye-friendly formatting. Create checkboxes, which OneNote calls To Do Tags.
7. You can get quick access to your SharePoint site. You can program your SharePoint site to your OneNote shortcut bar for quick reference to shared resources or corporate documents while notetaking.
8. You can quick reference with internal and external links. Link to the web, of course! But you can also link to another page in your notebook, or even to another page in another notebook.
9. You can put your mind at ease.

• a.       Never have to worry about losing information. OneNote automatically saves all content you input into the program, operating like a functional database. OneNote has your stuff backed up 100 per cent!
• b.       You can keep things secure. You can password-protect a OneNote section with 128-bit AES encryption.

10. You can keep up with things anywhere. OneNote has free iOS and Android apps that allow you to access notebooks shared in OneDrive.

About the Author:
Heidi Souerwine is the Conference and Content Manager for ASAP, the APC, and EA Summit. Prior to moving to Maine and joining the ASAP team, she spent 15 years in Washington, DC managing training and events from 10 – 10,000 attendees for international membership associations, non-profits, and the federal government. Heidi is passionate about needs-based program development, purposeful event design, and cultivating active community and attendee engagement.