Newsletter Archives

• Longstanding feature requests, and their status

  Posted on May 29, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  We’ve been waiting a long time for the OneNote features promised in 2019.

  I asked Microsoft to tell us what’s coming when.

  The very first time I heard about OneNote, at a press briefing for Office 2003, I saw how useful it would be — but there were also some things that I thought wouldn’t work. I went over to talk to Microsoft’s Chris Pratley and spent the next 20 minutes trapping him in a corner between the wall and the lunch table, making suggestions and asking for changes, before a PR person tactfully extracted him.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.22.0, 2023-05-29).

  OneNote Features, Newsletters, OneNote, Status, updates

• My favorite OneNote tricks

  Posted on April 24, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Once you get all your useful information into OneNote, there are some ways to make things go faster.

  For a long time, one of the most common feature requests for OneNote was already in the product — being able to have more than one window open at once. It just wasn’t easy to find. There are useful tricks like that in OneNote. Here are my favorites.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.17.0, 2023-04-24).

  OneNote Newsletters, OneNote, tips, Tricks, Usability

• What’s wrong with OneNote — and what you can fix

  Posted on March 27, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote is one of my favorite applications — but one that frustrates me far too often.

  It’s not me or you — it’s OneNote. Here’s a quick rundown of the annoying things that are just too hard (or downright impossible) to use, and some tips about how you can make those annoyances less so.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.13.0, 2023-03-27).

  OneNote Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote 2016, OneNote 365, OneNote for Windows 10

• Why sharing in OneNote isn’t easy, and how to fix it

  Posted on February 20, 2023 at 02:42 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  It will get simpler eventually, but for now you must plan ahead and double-check which account you’re using.

  OneNote automatically syncs all the notes you create between all the devices you use it on — and those don’t have to be only your own devices. You can share notebooks with other people and — as long as they’re stored somewhere they can connect to — they can see and update the information in OneNote. The same goes for your own multiple Microsoft accounts, such as work and personal; you can get access to your notes from both.

  But there are a few quirks to the way sharing works in OneNote that can trip you up if you’re not clear about how it works. There are also some long-standing frustrations and limitations that we’re still waiting to see fixed.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.08.0, 2023-02-20).

  OneNote Microsoft Account, Newsletters, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, OneNote, sharing

• Getting everything you care about into OneNote

  Posted on December 12, 2022 at 02:44 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote becomes increasingly useful as you put more and more of your information into it, and there are many other ways to do that besides typing or using copy and paste.

  Last time, I looked at why you might want to pull different kinds of information into OneNote. There are lots of tools in OneNote itself for doing that, as well as browser extensions and third-party services that can help.

  You can also do many of these things in the Windows 10 OneNote app, but because that won’t be getting new features, I will discuss only how to do them in the desktop OneNote app.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.50.0, 2022-12-12).

  OneNote Newsletters, Notes, Office, OneNote, Screen capture

• Why would you use OneNote at all?

  Posted on November 21, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  If you’ve never seen the point of a digital shoebox for notes, here are some ways of putting OneNote to use that could change your mind.

  From the feedback I get when I talk about OneNote, it’s clear that there are plenty of devoted fans and heavy users out there. But I also get questions asking why you should use OneNote, and what it’s good at.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.47.0, 2022-11-21).

  OneNote Excel, Newsletters, Notes, OneNote, Organization, Word

• Only Microsoft could make getting to one OneNote this confusing

  Posted on November 7, 2022 at 02:45 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.45 • 2022-11-07

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote for Windows 10 isn’t gone yet — but things are getting simpler.

  Well, maybe a little.

  As I’ve explained before, the OneNote app that came with Windows 10 will be going away; it’s getting replaced by an updated version of the desktop OneNote program. Microsoft recently took the next step toward that end by removing the OneNote for Windows 10 app from the Microsoft Store and replacing it with the desktop app, now called simply “OneNote.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.45.0, 2022-11-07).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  OneNote Microsoft Store, Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote for Windows 10

• How to fix the most common OneNote sync problems

  Posted on October 24, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  If OneNote stops moving your notes around properly, you can usually get it unstuck with these steps.

  Last time, we looked at how OneNote sync works and how to fix basic problems (What to do when OneNote won’t sync, 2022-09-19). However, there are some common sync problems where you need to dig a little deeper or do some extra work yourself.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.43.0, 2022-10-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, OneNote, Synchronization

• What to do when OneNote won’t sync

  Posted on September 19, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  The Windows desktop OneNote app has tools to help you understand and troubleshoot sync issues, but don’t rush into anything.

  The beauty of OneNote is that when you drop information into it, you have it at your fingertips on every device you use without the effort of copying files back and forth. That’s great until the sync system that makes that happen hits a snag and your notes stop showing up everywhere.

  There are some common problems that you may run into with OneNote and fixing them is often simpler than the cryptic error messages would suggest, especially once you understand how sync works.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneDrive, OneNote, Synchronization

• Where to store your OneNote notebooks

  Posted on August 22, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.34 • 2022-08-22

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote is meant to be one place for all your notes, but even though it’s great to have one location to look at all your notes, you might want to have a bit more control about where those notes are actually stored.

  For many users, it might seem as if you didn’t have a choice: unless you’re using the Windows desktop version of OneNote and you paid for a license, your notebooks must be stored in OneDrive. That’s what allows them to sync onto any device you use — PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, or anything with a suitable Web browser.

  But even though your notebooks must be stored in OneDrive, they don’t need to be stored in the same OneDrive account you use for other things on that device. You can even open notebooks that are stored in someone else’s account, if they share them with you.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.34.0, 2022-08-22).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Collaboration, Microsoft Accounts, OneDrive, OneNote, Synchronization

• Getting to one OneNote on Windows

  Posted on June 27, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  It’s finally becoming less confusing to pick the right Windows OneNote app, but you still have some decisions to make.

  After 16 years of OneNote, you might have liked the fresh new look of OneNote for Windows 10 and the way it could sync custom tags from one device to another. If that was the case, you might have liked Microsoft’s 2018 claim that it was “making OneNote for Windows 10 the best version of OneNote on Windows.”

  The official angle then was that no new features would be coming to OneNote 2016.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.26.0, 2022-06-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote, OneNote 2016, OneNote 365, OneNote for Windows 10

• Why there isn’t just one OneNote

  Posted on June 13, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.24 • 2022-06-13

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote started out on Windows, and it’s been a sleeper success — but getting the full set of features has been confusing.

  OneNote was always intended to be the one place that you put your notes — and all the other information you need to hang on to — “Things to do, important stuff to remember, things to review, and a bunch of stuff you think you might need some day but can’t be sure,” as Chris Pratley put it when describing his original idea for OneNote back in 2000.

  It’s supremely useful for that.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.24.0, 2022-06-13).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, OneNote AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, OneNote