OneNote and OneDrive: naming notebooks

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It doesn’t seem like it would matter what you name a OneNote notebook, but I’ve found that it does. It seems that whatever you name a notebook, it will create a folder in Documents in your OneDrive. You won’t see it locally, but it’s there just the same. You can see it if go to your OneDrive online.

Why does this matter? Try creating a folder in OneDrive named Aardvark if you already have a OneNote notebook named Aardvark and you’ll get an error. I haven’t tested the reverse.

It may be best to adopt a unique naming convention for OneNote notebooks. Aardvark Notebook or Aardvark Notes, etc.

I’m not sure if it’s possible but I would prefer it if MS wrote the OneNote files to their own separate directory on OneDrive. I’m going to explore that, so if someone’s already been there, it would be helpful.

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Not sure but this may tie in with a previous post.
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//172961-OneNote-s-bipolar-nature?highlight=OneNOte

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Berton, that was my post originally and I started this separately rather than clutter up an already confusing topic.

I’m fairly sure there is a way to get OneNote store it’s online files someplace other than in Documents, but I’m not sure what that is. I suppose I could just take the hard road and create a separate directory (like Documents2) for my own stuff, but that seems a bit unnecessary.

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No, you are not restricted to create OneNote documents inside the Documents folder in OneDrive, whether you create the notebook from OneDrive’s web interface, or you choose to do it from your local OneDrive app.

1. In the former case, navigate to the folder where you want the notebook, then choose OneNote notebook and it will be created in the desired folder.

2. Using OneDrive 2016 (paid version), choose File -> New, choose One Drive as destination and then click the “link” at the bottom right, labeled Create in a different folder. You will be requested to login to your account (unless you have set it to be remembered) and you will be allowed to choose the folder where the notebook will be located.

I am not sure how this will impact the list of Notebooks offered, when choosing Open Notebook, from a local version of OneDrive. Of course, if you open the notebook from the web interface, there will be no impact.

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I have several notebooks and some of them I have in the Documents folder, and some are just in OneDrive without being in a folder.

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I have several notebooks and some of them I have in the Documents folder, and some are just in OneDrive without being in a folder.

Using which version of OneNote? As I pointed out, there are multiple versions of OneNote and only some allow you to do this.

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Rui, I’m referring to the copy OneNote stores in the cloud. It’s a bit confusing give that OneNote seems to store stuff in local file (if you have the paid version), cloud, backup, and cache, all of which are in different locations.

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My post describes options for the storing the file in OneDrive. It’s not a copy, it’s the “main” file for cloud notebooks (which then will have a local copy, backup, cache, etc).

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Let me try and describe this better.

When I create a new notebook, I don’t have a local .ONE file because I’m working with the free version but the same most likely applies to the paid version. There is a .URL file created in the OneDrive Documents folder. There is no option I can see to change where that file goes. The URL is the link to the the cloud drive version of the .ONE file that is available to other devices.

If I go to the cloud and look at what’s in the Documents folder, I will see a folder that corresponds to each of the .URL files I have locally. For this reason, I cannot create a folder in my OneDrive Documents that has the same name as a OneNote notebook because they both will attempt to create a folder of the same name in the cloud.

I’m not sure if there is a way to get OneNote to create the .URL files somewhere other than the root of Documents or if it would result in the ones in the cloud going to a different place, but I’d like to try.

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Let me try and describe this better.

When I create a new notebook, I don’t have a local .ONE file because I’m working with the free version but the same most likely applies to the paid version. There is a .URL file created in the OneDrive Documents folder. There is no option I can see to change where that file goes. The URL is the link to the the cloud drive version of the .ONE file that is available to other devices.

If I go to the cloud and look at what’s in the Documents folder, I will see a folder that corresponds to each of the .URL files I have locally. For this reason, I cannot create a folder in my OneDrive Documents that has the same name as a OneNote notebook because they both will attempt to create a folder of the same name in the cloud.

I’m not sure if there is a way to get OneNote to create the .URL files somewhere other than the root of Documents or if it would result in the ones in the cloud going to a different place, but I’d like to try.

I suggest you do it differently:

1. Open your browser and navigate to OneDrive and the folder where you want the OneNote notebook you want to create.

2. Click the New button and choose OneNote notebook from the dropdown.

3. Fill in the desired notebook name when asked.

4. Your notebook will be opened in a new browser tab. Click the option to Open Notebook in One Note (near the rightmost end of the menu) to open your new notebook in OneDrive.

Alternatively, use your OneNote app to open the notebook just created via your browser.

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2. Click the New button and choose OneNote notebook from the dropdown.

I don’t seem to be explaining this well, probably because we have two different versions of OneNote and it comes back to some substantial differences the full Office version of OneNote and the free (Office 2016) version.

The attached image is my OneDrive folder. The shortcuts are URL’s to the corresponding files in the cloud. OneNote puts those there and there is no option to put them else where. In Options, the location for New Notebooks is the OneNote directory in documents – that directory is empty – nothing I do puts anything there.

When I go online and view OneDrive that way, there are files there that correspond to the URL’s. These are, in reality, folders that contain my .ONE files which can be accessed by other devices. Since I cannot control where OneNote puts them, I have to take care not to try and create a folder with the same name as a notebook. I have no idea what might happen if I deleted the Documents directory but I would certainly lose my notebooks. Perhaps I shall have to concede that OneNote owns the folder and create a separate folder for myself.

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Have you tried the suggested steps, as I presented them? If so, where did the described process fail? If not, why not?

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Have you tried the suggested steps, as I presented them? If so, where did the described process fail? If not, why not?

It fails because there is no option to create a notebook as you specify. The only way to create a new notebook with the free version is from within OneNote itself and it gives you no choice as to where it is created because it doesn’t actually create a local notebook.

This is why I’ve had so many issues with OneNote. Everything published relates to the full Office version but the Office 2013/2016 version that MS is giving away doesn’t work the same. I’ve even finding some menu item are greyed out that work in the full version.

I made a mistake when I posted this thinking that this applied to both the free version and the paid version, clearly it’s different. If I could go back and change the thread title I would have stuck the word FREE in there somewhere. I really want to like OneNote, but the way MS has screwed around with the free version and their failure to distinguish between versions is making it very, very difficult.

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What has the OneNote version have to do with it?! I am telling you to use your browser – IE, Chrome, Firefox, or whatever other browser you use – to navigate to OneDrive, and create your Notebook from the browser, then use the browser to open the newly created Notebook in your local OneNote -> just open it in OneNote after having created it in the browser.

My step by step instructions are meant for a browser. So tell me, in which step do they fail? What step or steps cannot be implemented in your browser of choice?

Sorry to say it, you are being limited by your own perceived limitations of OneNote. You can just couple OneDrive and OneNote to do what you want and it’s doable – unless your free version cannot open a OneNote OneDrive notebook from a browser. That would be quite a severe limitation and I doubt that it is there.

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I am telling you to use your browser – IE, Chrome, Firefox, or whatever other browser you use – to navigate to OneDrive, and create your Notebook from the browser, then use the browser to open the newly created Notebook in your local OneNote -> just open it in OneNote after having created it in the browser.

It finally dawned on me that you were saying to go to OneDrive on the internet and create the file there. I was reading what you wrote as creating a new notebook on my local drive in my OneDrive folder – which I can’t do with the free version. What confused me is that you can actually use a browser to navigate and right-click to create files in the same way as you can with explorer.

I can do what you suggest, but if I don’t create the notebook in the Documents folder, it doesn’t open correctly locally. Not sure what the problem is but it doesn’t like it. If I keep at it, I can get it to open, but it’s like trying to push a string.

And to answer a slightly different question that I also was not following, I cannot open a ONEPKG. I found that out when I downloaded some sample documents.

Thanks for sticking with me. I knew you knew what you were saying. But the degree to which MS has fiddled with the free versions had me wondering if there might be a difference you were not aware of.

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I can do what you suggest, but if I don’t create the notebook in the Documents folder, it doesn’t open correctly locally. Not sure what the problem is but it doesn’t like it. If I keep at it, I can get it to open, but it’s like trying to push a string.

Have you tried to initiate the opening of the document in your app, starting with the browser – by this I mean opening the document in the browser and then clicking the menu option to Open Notebook in One Note (near the rightmost end of the menu)?

This works with a normal OneNote version, of course, and I would expect it to open with any version, but then one never knows. If you get it to open it this, you can just keep the notebook open and then accessing it simply from the list of open notebooks.

Does the free version allow you to navigate between OneDrive folders, when opening a Notebook stored in OneDrive? I mean, does file open behave like any other File Open options in Office, allowing to browse at will and then choosing the document you want?
I wouldn’t understand why any such functionality would be limited…

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Have you tried to initiate the opening of the document in your app, starting with the browser – by this I mean opening the document in the browser and then clicking the menu option to Open Notebook in One Note (near the rightmost end of the menu)?

Yes and no. If I create the notebook in the Documents folder or a folder below that, then open it this way, it will state that “The location may be unsafe.” but it will open it. However, if the notebook is outside of the Documents folder, then it won’t open it at all.

BTW, not sure if this is the same for you or different, but any notebook I create or open by any means will list the onedrive.live.com file name as the location. IOW, when you open it, it’s opening the internet copy. It’s not entirely clear what it’s opening if you are offline – presumably a backup or cache. There is a way to change the location but I may have made a mistake because I lost a notebook early on doing this. Might be time to create a test notebook and try again.

OK, I’ve made a discovery. I can create a new notebook from OneNotes on my machine. It will put it into the Documents folder on OneDrive (onedrive.live.com). But, I can then go to the properties and change the location to a different folder. That folder can either be a sub-folder in Documents or completely outside. It seems to be OK with that because it is controlling it rather than my trying to force it to do something.

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Ok, so your problem is solved. That’s something :).

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Ok, so your problem is solved. That’s something :).

Again, yes and no. This started because I tried to create a notebook with the same name as a folder in Documents and OneNote wouldn’t let me. That’s still the case, unless I do an end run around it by creating a notebook online first, then opening it – as you suggested.

At least now I understand what is happening and have found a couple ways to work around it. But from what I can see, it’s not all that happy about me fiddling around with the location. It will open them but it takes almost 3 times as long for some reason. So it’s probably best if I just let OneNote put things where it wants to and just live with it.

Now, can you recommend a good tutorial so I can figure out what to do with this program? :rolleyes:

P.S. I still need to find a naming convention to distinguish between all the different versions of things.
OneNote Office
OneNote Office Lite
OneNote Modern App
OneNote Online
OneDrive Local
OneDrive Online

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Again, yes and no. This started because I tried to create a notebook with the same name as a folder in Documents and OneNote wouldn’t let me. That’s still the case, unless I do an end run around it by creating a notebook online first, then opening it – as you suggested.

At least now I understand what is happening and have found a couple ways to work around it. But from what I can see, it’s not all that happy about me fiddling around with the location. It will open them but it takes almost 3 times as long for some reason. So it’s probably best if I just let OneNote put things where it wants to and just live with it.

Now, can you recommend a good tutorial so I can figure out what to do with this program? :rolleyes:

P.S. I still need to find a naming convention to distinguish between all the different versions of things.
OneNote Office
OneNote Office Lite
OneNote Modern App
OneNote Online
OneDrive Local
OneDrive Online

Doesn’t the version you use allow you to keep notebooks open? I never close the notebooks i use regularly, so they are always immediately available, regardless of where they are located (and these days they are basically online.

This also reminds me that at my last job, we used OneNote as a replacement for physical notebooks. This means we stored the notebooks in different OneDrive folders, depending on the project they were part of. This never brought any performance issues. Again, it will be even less a problem if you keep them open.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of a special tutorial that you can use. A quick search shows Lynda.com as source of complete tutorials.

However, I must ask, what do you think you need to know, in order to use it? It’s pretty much using it as you go along:

1 – define a hierarchy of notebooks, sections and pages (and subpages)
2 – start adding your data
3 – use predefined tags to tag whatever you want to be able to find quickly through the tags
4 – not sure if you plan to use audio and or video, but that is pretty straightforward as well

Here are some pointers from an easily found search link: http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-microsoft-onenote–cms-20281

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Most of those that are not in the documents folder I created using OneNote 2010.

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Most of those that are not in the documents folder I created using OneNote 2010.

If you follow this whole thread along with a couple others, it turns out the that “free” version(s) of OneNote are what might be called crippleware. They are based on the full Office version, but lack the ability to create local OneNote documents. This lead to no end of confusion on my part until I sorted out the fact that you can’t use it without a one OneDrive account because it’s going to create it’s documents in the cloud.

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