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12+ OneNote Templates for Productivity

Microsoft OneNote is a terrific note-taking tool, but you can do so much more with it. Whether you want to use it for managing a project, planning your workday, or keeping up with tasks, check out these OneNote templates for a quick start.

Quick check: did you optimize your desk for productivity , yet?

1. Project Overview

2. meeting notes, 3. to-do list, 4. daily work schedule, 5. weekly planner, 6. quarterly planner, 7. four quadrants of time management, 8. work notebook, 9. shared notebook for group project, 10. diary / journal, 11. cornell notes, 12. monthly calendars, onenote templates on etsy, frequently asked questions, built-in onenote page templates.

One of the best places to start with OneNote templates is the application. You can use the built-in project overview template and choose from a variety of meeting notes and to-do list page templates.

Open your notebook and go to the Insert tab. Select Page Templates in the “Pages” section of the ribbon. You may see a few listed but can also choose Page Templates at the bottom to view them all using the Template sidebar.

In the sidebar, you’ll see the templates grouped by category. Expand the Business category and choose the Project Overview template to add it as a page in your notebook.

Take advantage of the fields in the template for project, company, and presenter name. Add a description, project goals, resources, procedures, a schedule of milestones, current status, and related documents.

Also in the Business section of the sidebar, you’ll see several meeting notes template options. From simple to detailed to formal, each template offers something a little different. Select Detailed Meeting Notes .

Start with the meeting details, including the date, time, location, and agenda. Then, add the attendees, announcements, status of old items, a summary, and information for the next meeting.

Expand the Planners section in the sidebar to see a few different to-do list templates. The “Simple To-Do List” template gives you checkboxes with spots for your items, while “Project To Do List” offers a section for each project.

“Prioritized To Do List” uses three columns to divide your tasks by importance. Add items to the High, Medium, and Low Priority columns as you see fit.

Good to know : you can also find a selection of productivity templates for Notion !

For a neat schedule that helps you plan your day, look at this Daily Work Schedule from OneNote Gem .

Add the date at the top, then enter each task, meeting, appointment, and break. You can enter items in 30-minute increments but easily carry items over for long periods.

For the following day, either change the date and adjust the schedule or copy the page to start a new day from scratch. To make a copy, right-click the page name and select Move or Copy .

In the pop-up box, choose a notebook, then click Copy .

Struggling to manage tasks? Try the RICE prioritization method to decide what to do first.

If a daily work schedule isn’t your thing but planning your week is, then this Weekly Planner from Calendar Labs is for you.

Enter the week’s start date at the top, then plan your week with a section for each day. Use the lines within the sections to add appointments and to-dos for your business or personal items.

Like the Daily Work Schedule above, you can make a copy of the template for the upcoming weeks.

Quarterly Planner from Calendar Labs is perfect for planning your year in three-month increments. It comes complete with U.S. holidays in the Notes section, with matching red dates on the calendars for each corresponding month.

To switch to the next quarter, just select the page on the right or left, depending on your notebook layout.

The Four Quadrants of Time Management template from OneNote Gem is great if you practice the Eisenhower method of task management. It allows you to easily prioritize everything on your plate.

You’ll see helpful prompts for the types of tasks you should add to each quadrant. For example, the Crisis (urgent and important) quadrant should include items like pressing problems, reworking, and rush deadlines.

For more on this technique, take a look at our article on how to use the Eisenhower matrix to manage your tasks .

For a different type of template, take a look at this Work Notebook from OneNote Gem . This is a preassembled notebook with pages for meeting notes, planning, travel, projects, and research.

When you visit each page, you’ll see helpful examples of what to include, as well as useful tips and keyboard shortcuts for OneNote .

Rather than create a notebook and add all of its pages from scratch, you can get a jump start with this Work Notebook template.

Similar to the Work Notebook template, look at this Shared Notebook for Group Project template from OneNote Gem . You’ll find several sections for you and your team to keep up with your next project.

You can enter goals and a schedule, drafts, research items, tasks and issues, team information, and meeting notes – all in one handy notebook.

Share your notebook as you would anything else in OneNote. Select Share at the top, then Share Entire Notebook . Upload it to OneDrive if you haven’t already, and share the link with your team members.

Remember, you can choose from Edit or View permissions or adjust those sharing settings later.

For jotting down your thoughts, activities, and memorable events, you can use this Diary / Journal notebook template from Auscomp . The notebook offers sections for both Monthly and Daily entries.

In the Monthly section, you’ll see spots for your entries to the right of the dates. To move to another month, simply choose the page. You can use the helpful instructions at the top to add a new day and remove or modify entries.

In the Daily section, choose the month and date in the pages area on the left or right, then just add your diary notes. Similar to the Monthly section, you’ll see instructions to add a new day, month, and year, which is a good way to keep your diary updated.

For a diary notebook that you can quickly jump to while working in other areas of OneNote, this template is just right.

If you use the Cornell Note Taking System , then you’ll like the Cornell Notes template from OneNote Gem . This nicely color-coded template offers red, yellow, and blue for your Cues, Notes, and Summary.

The Cues and Summary each have a few bullet points to get you started. The “Notes” area has “Record,” “Predigest,” “Recite,” “Thinking,” and “Review” ready for you to add your items.

Remember, you can make a copy of the page to use for other days or note-taking sessions. Right-click the page, choose Move or Copy , pick a notebook, and click Copy .

Notegram offers a few useful templates, including a quick way to add monthly calendars for the whole year to your OneNote notebook.

Rather than manually downloading a template, log into Notegram using your OneNote account, click Save on the template you’d like to use, and it will automatically show up in your default OneNote notebook , typically under Quick Notes .

If you’re downloading the monthly calendar, select the month and year before saving a copy. You can make the weeks start on Mondays by unchecking Sunday first . The calendar template itself is basic, which makes it a great printable or an empty canvas for your annual event or vacation planning.

While all of the options on this list are free as of this writing, there are some wonderful paid OneNote templates on Etsy . The templates vary in price, starting around $2.

Visit Etsy and type “OneNote template” into the search or check out some of these affordable options.

• OneNote Digital Planner : daily, weekly, and monthly interlinked planners with both Sunday and Monday versions
• OneNote Project Management Planner : scope of work, schedule, budget, organization chart, and project trackers
• OneNote Project Management Template : project proposal, risk management, issue tracker, schedules, and contacts
• OneNote Planner for Professionals : calendars, tasks, vision board, to-do list, journal, and trackers for tasks, habits, and ideas

Couldn’t find the right template? You can find more OneNote templates on these sites.

Is Microsoft discontinuing OneNote?

OneNote for Windows 10 will continue to receive support until October 2025. After that, you’ll need to use the OneNote application. It comes with Microsoft 365 but can also be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

To see which version you have, look for the “File” menu. If you see this menu, you are using the OneNote application. If you do not see this menu and see “OneNote for Windows 10” in the title bar, that’s the version you’re using.

Can I save a page I create as a template in OneNote?

Absolutely! If you create a page that you want to use as a template, go to the “Insert” tab and select “Page Templates -> Page Templates.” When the Templates sidebar opens, click “Save current page as a template” at the bottom and give it a name.

Can I automatically open a template with a new page?

You can set a default template to open each time you add a page to a section in your notebook. Go to the “Insert” tab and select “Page Templates -> Page Templates.” In the sidebar, use the drop-down box near the bottom to pick a default template.

Image credit: Pixabay . All screenshots by Sandy Writtenhouse.

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With her BS in Information Technology, Sandy worked for many years in the IT industry as a Project Manager, Department Manager, and PMO Lead. She wanted to help others learn how technology can enrich business and personal lives and has shared her suggestions and how-tos across thousands of articles.

5 Best Sites For Free OneNote Templates

Microsoft OneNote is an automatic note-taking application that helps to save and sync your notes as you work. OneNote allows you to easily create templates, but you’re also able to import ready-made templates that are freely available on the internet.

In this article, we’ll let you know how to install OneNote templates and cover 5 of the best websites to source free OneNote templates for your projects.

How to Install Templates In OneNote

Installing a template in OneNote is incredibly easy.

If you’re using OneNote 2016, simply double-click the template file (if it’s inside a .zip file, open this first and then double-click the template). OneNote will display a message saying “To get the most out of OneNote, move this notebook to OneDrive. Click here to move.” Select the message to move the file.

Next, select Insert > Page Templates.

Next, select Save current page as a template . The template will now be available in My Templates .

If you’re interested in getting the most out of OneNote, check out our guide . 

Auscomp offers 10 free OneNote templates. Additionally, Auscomp offers professional and work bundles as paid options. They also have a range of OneNote tutorials, which makes them a great place to start if you’re learning how to use the program.

The 10 free templates they offer are:

• Diary/Journal
• Cocktail Recipes
• Finance & Budget
• Family Tree
• Travel Checklist
• Moving House
• Cooking Recipes

These templates are freely available, however, Auscomp asks that you pay for them if they are used for work.

2. OneNote Gem

OneNote Gem is a website that offers several Microsoft add-ins and templates, both free and paid. They offer several free templates including:

• Weekly Homework Assignments (two templates)
• To-Do List (three templates)
• Birthday and Anniversary Calendar
• Weekly Appointment Calendar
• Daily Work Schedule (two templates)
• Pre-Travel Checklist
• Cornell Notes Template
• Four Quadrants of Time Management
• Stave (for music notation)
• I Read a Book Template

In addition to this, OneNote Gem also offers free notebook templates . These include work and student notebooks that provide sections for planners, meetings, classes, and so on. They also have free notebooks for group projects as well as a personal diary. 

Finally, OneNote Gem also offers several free OneNote add-ins that can enhance the functionality of the app. It’s a great one-stop website to get everything you need to make the most out of OneNote.

3. Onetastic

Onetastic is a OneNote add-in that uses macros to perform repeatable tasks within OneNote. They provide hundreds of macros that can perform functions such as search & replace, sort, insert monthly calendar, and more.

To use Onetastic, you will have to download and install their freely available program . Once this is done, you can head to their Macroland tab and search for macros. Onetastic provides up to 20 macros free, after which you will have to purchase a yearly subscription at $15/year. 

Their macros aren’t exactly templates, but used correctly they can act as templates and save you a lot of time. These include:

• Monthly Calendar
• Monthly Calendar With Task List
• Yearly Calendar
• Weekly Planner
• Daily Planner

To install these, select the macro you would like, then select Download .

You should receive a message to allow the site to open the onetastic link. Select Choose Application , ensure that Onetastic Macro Installer is highlighted, then select Open Link .

It should open in OneNote. Select Run without installing . A pop-up should appear in OneNote. Fill in the required fields to insert your template. Keep in mind you have to have a page open to add these templates to.

4. Notegram

Notegram allows you to quickly save template files via your Microsoft account. Simply sign in to Notegram with your Microsoft account, select the template you desire and select Save . It will now appear in your default notebook section.

Notegram includes 11 free templates, including:

• Day Planner
• Accounting Journal
• Customer Service Survey Form
• Customer Service Values
• Trip Planner
• Journal Entry
• LA Hacks Checklist
• Document Annotation

5. Simplify Days

Simplify Days is a website that provides solutions to become more digitally organized. They offer a pack of free digital templates if you sign up to their website . You simply need to provide a name and email address and Simplify Days will email you five templates along with an instructional video on how to install them. 

These templates include:

• Capsule Wardrobe Template
• Costco Grocery List Template
• Packing List Template
• Party Guide Template
• Work Order Template

These are provided as Evernote templates , however, it’s easy enough to copy and paste the information into OneNote and create a template. 

Getting Organized

OneNote is a fantastic solution to organizing your notes and keeping track of your life. Hopefully, the free templates we’ve listed can help you complete your goals and are helpful for your organization.

If you know of any other free template sites, please let us know in the comments below.

Jake Harfield is an Australian freelance writer whose passion is finding out how different technologies work. He has written for several online publications, focusing on explaining what he has learned to help others with their tech problems. He’s an avid hiker and birder, and in his spare time you’ll find him in the Aussie bush listening to the birdsong. Read Jake's Full Bio

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Strategic Plan Template for Onenote

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Subcategory
• Get started in seconds

Crafting a strategic plan is like setting sail on a journey towards success. But fear not, as ClickUp's Strategic Plan Template for OneNote and more is here to be your guiding star! This template empowers business leaders to:

• Define long-term goals and strategies with clarity
• Allocate resources efficiently for optimal results
• Track progress towards key objectives for organizational growth

Don't navigate the business landscape blindly—let ClickUp's template be your strategic compass to steer your organization towards victory! 🚀

Strategic Plan Template Benefits

Crafting a strategic plan is crucial for steering your organization toward success. With the Strategic Plan Template for Onenote, ClickUp, & More, you can:

• Provide a clear roadmap for achieving long-term goals and objectives
• Define actionable strategies to drive business growth and success
• Efficiently allocate resources to maximize productivity and efficiency
• Track progress towards key milestones and adjust strategies as needed

Main Elements of OneNote Strategic Plan Template

To effectively create and execute strategic plans, ClickUp’s Strategic Plan Template for Onenote, ClickUp, & More offers:

• Custom Statuses: Track progress with statuses like Approval, Design Layout, and Published for each phase of your strategic plan
• Custom Fields: Capture essential details with custom fields such as Channel, Allocated Budget, and Audience to ensure comprehensive planning and execution
• Custom Views: Visualize your strategic plan in various ways with views like Event List, Event Calendar, and Event Purpose to monitor progress and align goals

This template equips business leaders with the necessary tools to streamline strategic planning, enhance collaboration, and achieve organizational objectives effectively.

How To Use This Strategic Plan Template In ClickUp

Absolutely, here's a detailed guide on how to effectively utilize the Strategic Plan Template in ClickUp:

1. Define your objectives

To kickstart your strategic planning process, clearly outline your organization's short and long-term objectives. Whether it's increasing revenue, expanding market reach, or improving customer satisfaction, having well-defined objectives is crucial for setting the direction of your strategic plan.

Utilize Goals in ClickUp to establish and track your organizational objectives effectively.

2. SWOT Analysis

Conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to assess internal capabilities and external factors that could impact your organization's growth. Identifying these factors will help you develop strategies that leverage strengths and opportunities while addressing weaknesses and threats.

Use a Table view in ClickUp to organize and analyze your SWOT analysis findings efficiently.

3. Develop Key Initiatives

Based on your objectives and SWOT analysis, outline key initiatives that will drive your organization towards its goals. These initiatives should be actionable, measurable, and aligned with your overall strategic direction.

Create tasks in ClickUp to break down key initiatives into smaller, manageable action steps for your team.

4. Set Milestones

Establish clear milestones and timelines for each key initiative to track progress and ensure accountability. Milestones act as checkpoints to measure success and make necessary adjustments to keep your strategic plan on track.

Use Milestones in ClickUp to mark important dates and achievements within your strategic plan.

5. Assign Responsibilities

Assign roles and responsibilities to team members to ensure accountability and ownership of key initiatives. Clearly defining who is responsible for each task will help streamline execution and avoid confusion.

Utilize Automations in ClickUp to assign tasks automatically based on predefined rules and criteria.

6. Review and Adapt

Regularly review your strategic plan, monitor progress towards objectives, and adapt to any changes in the internal or external environment. Flexibility and adaptability are key to ensuring that your strategic plan remains relevant and effective.

Set up recurring tasks in ClickUp to schedule regular reviews and updates of your strategic plan to stay agile and responsive to changes.

By following these steps and leveraging ClickUp's features, you can create a robust and actionable strategic plan to drive your organization towards success.

This template is originally designed for use in the ClickUp platform, but you can easily export this doc for use in OneNote, or even just copy-paste the contents into your platform of choice.

Get Started with This Strategic Plan Template for Onenote, ClickUp, & More

Business leaders and executives can leverage the Strategic Plan Template for Onenote, ClickUp, & More to map out long-term goals and strategies for organizational growth.

To get started with this template, follow these steps:

Begin by adding the template to your Workspace and specify the location where you want it applied.

Invite key stakeholders to collaborate on the strategic planning process.

Utilize the template's features to streamline your strategic planning efforts:

• Define each strategic initiative with statuses like Approval, Design Layout, Draft Copy, Ideation, Published, Schedule.
• Customize your plan with 10 custom fields including Channel, Allocated Budget, Content Type, Month, Hashtags, Audience, Voice, Event Approval, Purpose, Files.
• Explore different perspectives with views like Event List, Event Calendar, Event Status, Event Purpose, Getting Started Guide.
• Update statuses as you progress through each phase to keep stakeholders informed.
• Monitor and analyze the plan to ensure alignment with organizational objectives.

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Productivity

Use OneNote templates to streamline project management

Here's how to use OneNote templates in Windows, create your own OneNote templates, and even use a workaround to make OneNote templates on Mac and the web.

How to use a OneNote template

OneNote templates let you create new notes that already have the design and layout you need, quickly. That's great if you need to jot things down in the moment but still want to stay organized—like when you're taking notes during a meeting or are planning that week's grocery list with your partner. You can also use templates to retroactively format notes written on a blank page. 

You can use a OneNote template in just two quick steps: 

In the OneNote ribbon, click Insert , and then Page Templates . A new Templates sidebar will open with template categories.

Granted, the decorative templates are pretty cheesy, with stock photos or clipart of books, day planners, and flowers and hearts among the options. But the business templates can come in handy, since they start you off with an outline and the note sections you need to include.

Once you've used a template before, it'll show up in the menu under the Page Templates button. Just click the down arrow under that button, and select the template you want to use. That's a simple way to grab a template without having to open the sidebar.

Tip: If you'd like to use the same template for all new pages in the current notebook section, click the dropdown box under Always use a specific template in the Page Templates sidebar to choose the template you want.

Create your own OneNote template

The great news is that you can turn any page or note from OneNote into a template to be applied to new pages with just a few steps:  

Make a new note with the items you want on the template—or open a note that already has the text you want for a template. 

Add placeholders for the things that might change , perhaps DATE for the date or SUBJECT for meeting notes. 

Then open the Page Templates sidebar again, and click the Save current page as a template link at the bottom. Give your template a name, and click Save .

The next time you make a note, you'll find your own OneNote templates under the My Templates group in the sidebar.

Make OneNote templates for Mac, web, and mobile

The desktop version of OneNote for Windows is the only version that supports templates officially—but you can still make and use your own templates in every other version. Just follow these steps.

Make your template note as normal, writing the text and adding the formatting you want to the note. Add as many template notes as you want to that notebook to keep all of your templates together.

Right-click on your note, and select Copy .

Go to the notebook where you want to make a new copy of your template note. Right-click again, and select Paste .

That'll give you a fresh copy of your template note wherever you choose—and will leave your original template note ready for use again next time.

Right-click on your note, and select Copy Page to …

Choose where to put the new copy.

A similar trick works in OneNote's mobile apps. 

Open a notebook with your template notes in it.

Tap the Edit button at the top, and select the note you want to make a copy of. 

Tap the copy icon at the bottom (looks like a box with an arrow), click Copy , and choose where you want to make a new copy of that note.

It'd be great to have full OneNote templates on Mac, web, and mobile, but for now, this workaround gives you most of the features of templates.

Download OneNote templates for Windows

Microsoft includes only a handful of useful templates in OneNote, so if you don't want to create your own from scratch, it might not feel super useful. But there are plenty of other places on the web to find OneNote templates. Here are a few sources: 

Make OneNote more efficient with automation

Add notes on onenote for upcoming google calendar events.

Add new OneNote notes to Notion as pages

Copy new Evernote notes to your OneNote notebook

Create OneNote notes from new or moved Trello cards

Related reading:

This post was originally published in December 2016 by Melanie Pinola. The most recent update was in March 2024.

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Hannah Herman is a copywriter and native New Yorker. She's written extensively on automation, but her real jam is creative, catchy taglines. When she's not writing, she's probably walking around the city and trying to look at her phone less.

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Powerful business plan templates

Plan for the future, no matter what your business plans are or the size of your business with these designs and templates. whether it's just one big project or an entire organization's worth of dreams, these templates will keep you and your company on track from ideation to completion..

Put your ideas to work with simple templates for every business plan

Every successful business took a lot of planning to get there, and these templates will be cornerstones of your future success. Whether you're looking to attract new business, pitch your services or reimagine your company, with these simple, customizable templates at your fingertips you can turn complexity into something tangible. These templates can become marketing assets or simply remain internal touchpoints for your team. And as your dreams change, you'll always have this template to refer to – it's easy to change what exists on paper. If you're a small business, focusing on your niche can help you dominate in your field, and you can forge a plan to figure out exactly what that niche might be and how to target your ideal customer . When it's time to share your vision with stakeholders, craft a presentation that outlines your plan succinctly and with style. Let these templates from Microsoft Designer be your partner in business strategy for years to come.

Apply a OneNote template to a page

A OneNote template is a page design that you can apply to new pages in your notebook to give them an appealing background, a more uniform appearance, or a consistent layout.

Note:  If you're interested in simply changing the color of one of your pages in OneNote, see change the background color of a page .

To apply a template, do the following:

On the ribbon, choose Insert > Page Templates .

In the Templates task pane, click the small arrows next to the category names to expand them.

To apply a template to a new page, select its name in the list. If you don’t like your selection, select another template to replace your previous selection. You can do this repeatedly until you find a template that you like.

When you’re finished, close the Templates task pane and then take notes on the new page whenever you’re ready.

OneNote comes with several built-in page templates, including decorative page backgrounds, planners, and To Do lists. If you’d like, you can also create your own page template or customize an existing one .

Note:  Many template designs include content that appears in specific places on the page. That's why OneNote templates can be applied only to new pages that don’t already contain any notes. If you want to apply a template to a page that already contains notes, first create a new page from the template you want, and then copy your existing notes into it.

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How to Use OneNote for Project Management

By: Shubhangi Pandey | Published on: Apr 6, 2023 | Categories: BrightWork 365 , Collaboration , Microsoft 365 | 0 comments

We’ll take a closer look using OneNote to manage projects: combine OneNote and Outlook, organize content with Tags, project wikis, work in Microsoft Teams, and use Power Automate workflows to save time.

Jump to a Section

Work with outlook and onenote.

• Create a To-Do List
• Using Tags to Organize Content

Create a Project Wiki

Collaborate in microsoft teams.

• Save Time with Power Automate

Challenges to Using OneNote to Manage Projects

Integrate onenote within brightwork 365 templates, collaborate with onenote in microsoft teams and brightwork 365, manage projects and portfolios with microsoft 365.

See how you can start any project using templates for Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Teams.

Using OneNote for Project Management

OneNote is a versatile digital note-taking tool for capturing and organizing notes and ideas. There are also a number of ways that you can incorporate OneNote into your collaborative project management workflow:

• Organize project information: OneNote is a great tool for organizing project information such as project goals, timelines, budgets, and team members. You can create a dedicated notebook for your project and use sections and pages to organize information.
• Track tasks: OneNote can be used to track tasks and to-do lists for your project. You can create a table with columns for tasks, deadlines, priority, and status, and use checkboxes to mark tasks as complete.
• Brainstorm ideas: OneNote is a great tool for brainstorming and collecting ideas. You can use the drawing and sketching tools to create mind maps, flowcharts, and diagrams, and you can use tags to categorize ideas.
• Manage meetings: OneNote can be used to manage meetings by creating meeting agendas, taking meeting notes, and tracking action items. You can create a dedicated section for meetings and use templates to streamline the process.
• Collaborate with team members: OneNote can be shared with team members, allowing everyone to view and edit the same information. You can use the commenting and tagging features to collaborate and communicate with team members.
• Capture and organize project-related information: OneNote can be used to capture and organize project-related information such as emails, web pages, and documents. You can use the OneNote Web Clipper to save web pages, and you can drag and drop files into OneNote to save them.

Integrate OneNote with Outlook to organize tasks,  meeting notes , and content in one place.

This ensures your team can access important information, for example, stakeholder feedback, at any time.

To get started, you’ll need to connect OneNote and Outlook.

OneNote and Outlook: Store emails

Surface key information and keep everyone in the loop by adding emails to relevant project notebooks.

Open the relevant email and click the OneNote icon. Pick the relevant notebook and section.

The email is stored as a new page.

Likewise, you can share a page via email from OneNote.

Go to the required page and select ‘Home’ on the main ribbon. Choose ‘Email Page’ and compose your email as needed.

OneNote and Outlook: Create Tasks

Creating tasks in OneNote using Outlook is quite straightforward.

In this instance, I will add the new task ‘Project Charter Update’ to the ‘Weekly Tasks’ page of my notebook:

OneNote and Outlook: Manage Meetings

Using OneNote to document project meetings is particularly helpful for remote team members who cannot attend a session due to time zone differences.

Firstly, schedule the meeting in Outlook.

Select ‘OneNote Meetings’ in the ribbon.

Create a To-do List

I regularly use the To-Do list feature in OneNote to track small items or ideas when I’m working on a project.

There are two ways to create a list.

Use Tags to Organize Content

Tags  are a simple way to organize pages in OneNote allowing users to annotate their notes.

Tagging content also helps when searching for tasks or notes.

A wiki is a collaborative website or platform that allows users to create and edit content collectively. Wikis are designed to be easy to use and facilitate collaborative work among a group of individuals. Wikis typically allow anyone with access to the platform to create, edit, or delete content, which can include text, images, videos, and links.

Get more from Microsoft Teams by using OneNote to collaborate with remote team members.

You don’t even need to create a new Notebook – it’s automatically generated every time a new team is created in Microsoft Teams.

Add the Notebook  as a tab  to the relevant channel to make it easier to find.

• Use OneNote instead of the standard Teams wiki to record notes, training guides, feedback, and so on.
• Collaborate during video meetings with your team.
• Embed audio and video messages to share with remote team members for feedback and input.
• Use OneNote as a whiteboard during calls. The options in the ‘Draw’ tab are ideal for planning and brainstorm sessions.

Save time with Power Automate

Microsoft  Power Automate  is a no-code solution that allows users to create workflows to automate repetitive tasks.

While OneNote is a useful tool for project management, there are some situations where it may not be the best fit. Here are some reasons you might not want to use OneNote for project management:

• Lack of real-time collaboration: While OneNote allows for collaboration, it may not be as real-time as other tools specifically designed for project management. In addition, some users may have difficulty accessing the OneNote notebook if they don’t have a Microsoft account or if they aren’t familiar with the tool.
• Limited project management features: While OneNote has many useful features for managing project information, it is not specifically designed for project management. Other tools may have more advanced project management features such as Gantt charts, time tracking, and resource allocation.
• Difficulty in managing large projects: OneNote may not be the best tool for managing large or complex projects, as the organization and navigation of information may become unwieldy.
• Lack of advanced security features: OneNote does have basic security features such as password protection and encryption, but it may not meet the security requirements of all organizations.

Using OneNote In Your Project Management Process with BrightWork 365

While there are several instances in which OneNote may be suitable for managing work and collaboration, we just noted a few of the reasons OneNote is not a full-fledged project management tool.

That is where BrightWork 365 comes in!

BrightWork 365 ties together several powerful solutions including those in your organization’s instance of Microsoft 365, allowing you to leverage fully your investment in Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform.

BrightWork 365 centralizes all of your project processes and information in one hub, working across Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office suite, Power BI, Power Automate, SharePoint Online, and OneNote.

The BrightWork 365 Communications tab provides a comprehensive method for capturing various communication related activities at the project, program, or portfolio level.

To access Communications, click on the Communications tab. The initial screen will display a history of previously entered Communications items. Click “+” to create a new Communications item of type Appointment, Email, Phone Call, Note, or OneNote.

With Microsoft Teams integration, BrightWork 365 provides powerful options for staying connected and keeping your projects organized.

See how you can manage projects with Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneNote.

Shubhangi Pandey

Shubhangi is a product marketing enthusiast, who enjoys testing and sharing the BrightWork 365 project portfolio management solution capabilities with Microsoft 365 users. You can see her take on the experience of the template-driven BrightWork 365 solution, its unique project management success approach, and other personalized services across the site and social channels. Beyond BrightWork, Shubhangi loves to hunt for the newest Chai Latte-serving café, where she can read and write for hours.

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What Microsoft Product Is Good for Outlining a Business Plan?

• Small Business
• Business Planning & Strategy
• Business Plans
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How to Create a Business Plan as an Entrepreneur

What factors make the difference between a good business plan & an excellent one, what is a productivity suite in computers.

• Two Types of Lists in PowerPoint
• Uses of Microsoft Word in Business

Your business plan is your roadmap to success, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. This three-to-five year planning document lays out all the parts of your business needs so your business can grow and succeed. Microsoft Corporation makes a number of software packages to assist in creating your business plan.

One software package to incorporate your business plan elements together is Word, Microsoft’s word-processing program. Business plans include descriptions about who you are, what your business is, how you plan to make the business work, why your business is unique and financial information about the business. Word processors, like Word, are designed to help you compose, edit and format long documents like a business plan. In a Word document, you can include text and graphics, create tables and charts, make a table of contents and add footers and headers. Microsoft Word has a number of templates to help you get started creating your business plan. Some of these templates already have a business plan laid out for you including a cover page, table of contents, section headers, places for your cash flow analysis and resume.

Business people on the move should consider using Microsoft’s electronic notebook system OneNote to outline a business plan. You can use OneNote online, via your mobile device or on your computer to take notes, draw pictures, grab links and store media about your business. You can tag your notes for easy organization later on in an outline. In the outline, you can drag and drop all the elements into hierarchical sections using the context menu. OneNote is integrated so you can drag and drop elements from other programs such as Excel or Word into the outline. You can record business meetings and add them to your outline. OneNote’s drawing feature allows you to create a business process flow diagram to help keep you organized. You will find a number of templates in OneNote to help with your business plan such as a research facilities checklist or a project management notebook. You can share your notes with your business partners and everyone can edit notes.

Business plans have to be presented to financial backers, future employees or business partners. One tool to use to shorten the business planning process is a presentation tool like Microsoft PowerPoint. PowerPoint’s outline feature helps keep your slides in order and can be easily rearranged by dragging and dropping the outline or by moving slides around in the slide sorter. PowerPoint has templates you can use to create your business plan and integrate documents from other programs such as Word and Excel in the plan. You can easily move your presentation from your computer to a mobile device to the Web for presenting to prospective backers of your business.

Excel, Microsoft’s spreadsheet program, can help you crunch numbers and create tables and charts needed as part of your business plan as well as outline your business plan. Like other Microsoft products, Excel has business plan templates for creating a business plan, a business planning checklist and a five-year plan. You can add documents to Excel from Word, PowerPoint or OneNote to Excel or write in the spreadsheet like you would in Word. You can add links, graphics and, of course, numbers.

• SBA: Create Your Business Plan
• LifeHacker: Five Best Outlining Tools
• Inc: Business Plan PowerPoint Template
• Microsoft Office: Basic Tasks in Word 2010
• Microsoft: OneNote

Translating technical jargon into everyday English is one of Anni Martin’s specialties. She is an educator and writer who spent over 13 years teaching and creating documentation at the University of Missouri. She holds a Master’s Degree in educational technology as well as Bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri.

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12 Ways to Run Your Life Like a Boss With Microsoft OneNote

OneNote can be your one-stop-shop for everything from organizing information, via managing projects, to keeping a daily journal. Here we propose a dozen ways in which you can use OneNote.

Keeping on top of everything in your life—from to-do lists and finances to the articles you read and the random ideas you have—can be a nightmare. All of these things will often be found in different places, saved to entirely different apps, or not even documented at all, to begin with.

OneNote, a free note-taking app from Microsoft, is one great way to round up all odds and ends in your life. It's not perfect, but these OneNote hacks, tips, and tricks will help you make the most of what it does offer.

1. Organizing Information

With OneNote, you can set up different notebooks for entirely different parts of your life. Within each notebook, you can create tabs, and within those tabs, you can store individual notes. These notes are indexed and searchable, so you'll be much less likely to lose something important in the long term.

This structure makes for a logical way to organize potentially thousands of notes within a single app, in much the same ways as you would organize a ring binder.

Some examples of OneNote notebooks include notebooks for school, broken down by subject, and OneNote notebooks used to keep track of bills and other expenses. How you organize these notes is entirely up to you.

2. A To-Do List That Works

You could choose from a number of powerful to-do list apps, but if you like OneNote, the app can certainly stand in as a serious competitor.

You can use OneNote as a master to-do list, populating a page with a long string of things that need to be done. A more useful option, however, would be to create something like you can see above.

This is a Kaizen setup, where your aim is to move tasks from left to right, depending on their current status. You can easily add a new table for each project that you're working on, dragging and dropping them wherever you like.

I've also included a checkbox shopping list, which is another way you can organize lists in OneNote. This could be set up as a separate note and then shared with your partner, allowing them to add to the list as necessary.

3. Tracking Your Fitness

If you need a habit tracker, OneNote is more than capable. Some of our favorite OneNote organization examples include templates that help you keep track of your personal health and fitness levels.

If you want to keep things simple, you can create a new notebook for each aspect of health and fitness that you want to track. You can then create a basic table to document what's important.

Alternatively, if you're using the Windows version of OneNote, you're actually able to import an existing Excel spreadsheet into OneNote . This means you can find a fitness tracking Excel template and use it right from within OneNote.

4. Project Management

If the simple Kaizen to-do list setup isn't enough to help you manage your projects, OneNote can be used as a complete project management tool, as well.

Depending upon the complexity of your projects, you may want to set up a new notebook for each one. Within these notebooks, you can add detailed to-do lists in OneNote , track emails, share information, create a team wiki, and document meeting notes. You can then share all or part of this notebook with your team members.

If you want a step-by-step guide to all of this, the video below will help:

If many of your projects are similar, you can also create OneNote templates ; these make starting a new project extremely easy.

5. Managing Your Finances

The easiest way to track your finances in OneNote is to import a suitable Excel finance spreadsheet into your OneNote notebook and keep it up to date within the app. If you're a Mac user, you'll first need to create a simple table.

Another handy feature here is the ability to store all of your receipts in OneNote. To do so, download the OneNote app to your smartphone; this app lets you take snaps of each of your receipts conveniently. Be sure to send these to a dedicated section in OneNote, just so you're able to manage them all easily and at-a-glance.

The app's OCR, or optical character recognition, makes each of these receipts readable. You can search for dates or items quickly instead of sifting through huge piles of fading pieces of paper.

6. Setting Goals

Another popular way to organize goals in OneNote is to create a new tab titled “Goals” and then create a new page for every new goal. Each page will then become a OneNote project dashboard for everything that you want to achieve.

On this single page, you can create schedules, list your action items, store research (A lot easier if you use OneNote's Web Clipper ), jot down notes, and keep a record of your progress. Having all of this relevant information in one place helps you stay extra focused.

7. Daily Journal

Journaling can help improve productivity and reduce stress. There are tons of ways to get started; OneNote is definitely an option to add to that list, where you can create a single note to keep adding to regularly.

If you're not sure how to start journaling with OneNote, examples of daily topics include:

• Gratitude : list one thing that you're grateful for.
• Intention : how do you want to be today? Focused? Spontaneous? Light?
• Priorities : what are the three most important things that you want to do today?
• Progress : what progress have you made toward your goals?
• Opportunity : every day can be an opportunity. What will be yours today?
• Request : ask for what you need, from yourself, from your family, and from the universe.

The type of journal that you start is up to you. Among these could be a gratitude journal, weekly overviews, daily snapshots, and random reflections. The list goes on.

Whichever you choose, creating a quick journal template is easy. The template above was written by one of our own writers for an article looking at seven different types of journals you can keep .

This could be used simply as a way for you to clear your mind of distractions each morning, or a way to relive special memories.

8. Master Lists

If you're the kind of person who loves to keep lists, you probably have a huge list of movies you want to watch, books you want to read, and bands you want to listen to. Instead of leaving these scattered around your hard drive, why not import them into OneNote?

This should be as easy as copying/pasting them into a single note and maybe adding a check box next to each one. This allows you to see all of your lists in one place; if you need to store more information, you might want to separate each of these master lists into different notes.

9. Your Content Repository

The amount of content we consume these days is astounding. Not surprisingly, we forget most of what we've seen as soon as we're done with it. To combat this, there are some useful OneNote integrations you can use to keep track of that content.

To set any of these up, you'll need a free IFTTT account. As soon as you do, you'll be able to:

• Send your Instapaper items (or highlights)
• Save any articles you star in Feedly
• Save videos you've liked (or added to Watch Later) on YouTube

For any other content you come across online, simply use OneNote's Web Clipper to save these directly to a specific notebook. If you wanted to, you could even turn OneNote into your own RSS reader .

It won't take long until you have an impressive library of interesting content you can look back upon and search through whenever you like.

10. Social Media Photo Backups

If you're paranoid about losing the photos that you've posted to your social media accounts, you can back these up to OneNote with a little more help from IFTTT.

To name one example, you can have all of your Instagram photos saved to OneNote . It's a quick and easy operation; just hit the switch and go.

11. Simplify Life With Checklists

Are there little things in your life that you're constantly forgetting? Sometimes, it can help to create processes or a series of checklists for these things to make each step easier to remember in the future. Your OneNote dashboard is the perfect place to do this .

This could be a list of things to pack for a vacation, things to leave for the babysitter, or things you'll need to throw a party. If all of these lists can be found in a single OneNote tab, you'll never forget anything again.

12. Brainstorming and Note-Taking

Finally, one of the most widely-applicable OneNote ideas: note-taking and brainstorming.

When taking notes, you can insert screenshots, lists, text, tables, and images. Inserted drawing elements like lines and arrows help you make mind maps, laying each idea out clearly for the future.

Related: Little-Known Microsoft OneNote Features You Will Love

OneNote Hacks for a More Orderly Tomorrow

OneNote makes storing all of this information and keeping it organized a straightforward and simple matter. Your ability to tailor the program to your needs, in particular, makes it an incredibly versatile all-in-one productivity app.

By using some of the ideas above, you could easily take things further—you can keep a list of contacts, a gallery of business cards, a list of online subscriptions, and much more with ease. Anything that you need to get out of your head can be stored in OneNote for you to access at a time that's more appropriate.

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4 Best Free Microsoft OneNote Templates You Must Try

Afam has been a content writer with Guiding Tech Media since August 2023. However, his experience in tech writing dates back to 2018, when he worked as a freelance writer for Make Tech Easier. Over the years, he has grown a reputation for publishing quality guides, reviews, tips, and explainer articles. His work is featured on top websites, including Technical Ustad, Windows Report, and Next of Windows. He has training as a Microsoft Certified Professional and has covered more Microsoft-related guides on these platforms.

Microsoft OneNote is a robust information-gathering and note-taking app available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. You may even use OneNote on the web . If you don’t want to start anything from scratch, you can use ready-made templates to kick off your joureny. Some of the best Free OneNote templates may be a nice way to get the best out of it.

We have checked several templates, and compiled some of our favorites in this post. These will include OneNote template options for work, task management, and more. Let’s get right into it.

How to Install or Apply a OneNote Template to a Notebook

On OneNote, you may use the built-in templates or download free or premium templates on the web. To use the built-in templates on OneNote, you’ll need to create a page or Notebook and then apply the template to your page. The steps below will guide you through this process.

Step 1: Click on the Windows Search icon on the Taskbar, type OneNote , and click on the OneNote application.

Step 2: Click File at the top-left corner.

Step 3: Click New on the left sidebar. On the right, select a location where it will get saved, give it a name, and then click Create Notebook.

Step 4: Click the Insert menu and select the Page Template option.

Step 5: Expand a template category on the rightmost pane, and click the template you need to use.

Alternatively, you may install downloaded third-party templates using the steps below:

Step 1: After downloading a template, extract it into the path below:

Step 2: Double-click the extracted folder, click the For OneNote Desktop folder (your PC may have a different folder name), then double-click on the OneNote templates file.

Step 3: Give the File a name and click Create.

1. Diary for OneNote

This template is free for personal use and is available for the desktop and online versions of OneNote, just like all the other free OneNote templates.

This diary template provides ample flexibility to write or record audio and video. You may start small and regularly build up your content or the frequency of entries according to your schedule. It allows you to write about anything, so it’s a perfect way of keeping tabs on school, fashion, friends, travel, aspirations, and more.

The template gives you two entry options: Daily and Yearly. The daily option is perfect for more comprehensive entries and allows you to create a new page for a new day. You may use the Yearly option to enter overviews or shorter entries. The main pages of the Year option are months; you may create new rows for day entries on the month.

Download Diary for OneNote

2. Finance for OneNote

This is a free OneNote template from Auscomp. It is a comprehensive finance NoteBook to help you simplify the management of your finances. The template includes a section for tracking your income and lets you see the expenses flow. You may create a budget and track your investments with this template.

While it seems like a robust solution, it is intuitive and relatively easy to use. It allows the flexibility to add or remove sections, and you may include your branding and change the formatting.

This free template includes watermarks, just like some of the other free options.

Download Finance for OneNote

3. Things to Do OneNote Template

This is a very simplistic to-do list template. While simplistic, it still incorporates essential features like task, priorities, and deadline tracking. It is an excellent template for simple project management since it is very user-friendly.

By default, it comes with the following categories: Phone calls, Errands, Correspondence, Projects, and Miscellaneous tasks. However, you may edit these options or add more personalized categories. Whether you want to use it for your personal lists or professional, the flexibility to change the categories name makes it suitable for either.

Download Things to Do for OneNote

4. Personal Notebook Template

This is an excellent free OneNote template for recording personal information. You may store information like confirmation numbers, website account user names, frequent flier numbers, bank details, and other information.

By default, you get six categories: Personal information, Shopping, Books, Movies, Music, Travel, Receipts, To do, and Miscellaneous. The To do category makes it a decent OneNote planner template option, as you may keep tabs on tasks and their progress. As the name sugggests, it’s best suitable to record and track your personal details.

Download Personal Notebook

Getting the Best From OneNote

While OneNote has a bunch of built-in templates, you can always spice up things with the third-party ones. Using third-party templates may help you get more out of the Microsoft OneNote . Whether you’re writing a diary or keeping track of your finances, OneNote is quite flexible and capable of letting you manage your data efficiently.

If you plan to use any of the templates mentioned above, we would love your thoughts on them in the comment section.

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Last updated on 22 September, 2023

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The Beige Journal

in Digital Planning , Featured · November 19, 2022

How to use OneNote for your digital planner

Disclosure: This website is a participant in various affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com . As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We also participate in other affiliate programs and may earn commissions through purchases made through our links. Any opinions, reviews, recommendations, or endorsements expressed on this site are our own and are not influenced by any third-party products or services being promoted.

OneNote is a digital note-taking tool that can help you plan and organize your life. Whether you’re a student, an entrepreneur, or just someone looking for a better way to keep track of your tasks and ideas, OneNote has everything you need to streamline your planning process. In this post, we’ll explore the key features of OneNote and how you can use them to take your digital planning to the next level.

What's covered in this post

Create Notebooks and Pages

OneNote is organized into notebooks, and each notebook is made up of pages. To start using OneNote for planning, you should create a new notebook specifically for your planning. Within this notebook, create pages for each area of your life that you want to plan. For example, you might have a page for work tasks, a page for personal tasks, and a page for your grocery list.

Make Use of Tagging

OneNote lets you tag pages and sections to help you categorize and organize your notes. To make the most of this feature, create tags that correspond to the different areas of your life that you’re planning. For example, you could create tags for work, personal, and grocery. Then, when you create a new note or task, you can tag it with the appropriate category.

Take Notes in a Variety of Formats

OneNote offers a variety of ways to take notes, including typing, handwriting, drawing, and audio recording. This makes it a versatile tool for planning and taking notes. If you prefer to type, you can type out your notes, lists, and tasks. If you prefer to handwrite, you can use the drawing feature to jot down notes. And if you need to capture an audio recording, you can do so right in OneNote.

Use the Task List Feature

OneNote has a built-in task list feature that makes it easy to keep track of your to-do items. To use this feature, simply create a bullet list of items and then check them off as you complete them. OneNote will also keep track of the date and time that you completed each task, so you can see at a glance how productive you’ve been.

What are OneNote Templates?

OneNote templates are pre-designed pages that you can use to quickly and easily set up your digital planning in OneNote. They are created by designers and developers, and they come in a variety of styles, designs, and formats to suit your personal taste and needs.

Use OneNote Templates from Etsy

OneNote templates from Etsy provide a quick and easy way to get started with digital planning. These templates are pre-designed pages that you can use to jump-start your planning process. They come in a variety of styles and designs to suit your personal taste, and they’re often customizable so you can make them your own.

One of the benefits of using OneNote templates is that they save you time and effort in setting up your own pages. Simply download the template you like, open it in OneNote, and start using it right away. With templates, you don’t have to worry about figuring out how to organize your notes and tasks; the template takes care of that for you.

Another benefit of using OneNote templates is that they provide a structured framework for your planning. This makes it easier to keep track of your tasks and stay on track, and it helps you be more productive and efficient.

Does OneNote support PDF templates?

Yes, OneNote supports PDF templates. You can import a PDF template into OneNote and use it as a reference while taking notes.

In conclusion, OneNote is a powerful digital planning tool that can help you keep track of your tasks, ideas, and notes. By using the key features we’ve outlined in this post, you can take your digital planning to the next level and achieve your goals more efficiently. Start using OneNote today and see for yourself just how powerful it can be!

Check out these OneNote Planners on Etsy!

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Organization > How to use OneNote for tracking expenses and budgeting

How to use OneNote for tracking expenses and budgeting

Maybe you’ve gotten the hang of budgeting by now but haven’t quite figured out where to store all those expense receipts. Or maybe you’re still in the beginning budgeting process and need some place to take notes and brainstorm about your spending habits. OneNote may surprise you with its functionality as your new expense tracking tool.

Why use OneNote for budgets and expense tracking?

There are a few advantages to using OneNote for expense tracking and budgets rather than separate programs or specialized apps for each. While you can make a basic budget in OneNote by inserting a table, and OneNote can do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems for you, you also have the option of linking to an Excel spreadsheet and doing more intense budget analysis in there. So even if you decide not to fully utilize OneNote for budgeting purposes, OneNote can serve as the organizational hub for your financial planning. Here’s some other reasons to try using OneNote to keep track of your spending on a regular basis.

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Keep your thoughts, content, and lists handy with OneNote

• OneNote is free with M365 subscription. Rather than finding a whole separate program for your expenses and paying a separate software or subscription cost, discover what you can do with OneNote, which is included in your M365 subscription.
• Easily correlate your budget and expense needs with the rest of your life. If you’re already using OneNote as a to-do list and a planner, cross-referencing your budget before you go buy groceries or those concert tickets just got a little bit easier. All of your important information is in one place that you’re very familiar with, so you’ll know exactly where to look when needed, and this can help foster those spending and savings habits you want.
• You can update your notebook on the go. Not only can you sit down at your desktop to go over your monthly expenditures, but you can also take notes while you’re out and about with your tablet or smartphone—perfect for keeping track about how much you’re spending each day or in specific places and if any unexpected, unplanned expenses pop up.
• Share with family members and colleagues. OneNote’s cloud storage means that not only can you access your budget and expense notebook from anywhere, but you can share it with those who need to know what’s going on moneywise in your household or business. Collaborate on budget ideas, easily consult your budget goals, or upload receipts to a shared notebook or tab. Remember that you can also password protect certain notebooks to limit as well as facilitate access to more sensitive and personal information.
• It’s easy to include receipt files in your notebook. Collecting receipts for reimbursement or tax purposes? If you have OneNote on your smartphone, simply snap a photo of the receipt, and the details should automatically populate with OCR text reading. For a more low-tech list, you can also scan your receipts and link the image file to the relevant date or purchase. Tax professionals recommend storing the last seven years of receipts when it comes to business purposes, and rather than finding a physical place to put all that paper, you can simply keep an easy-to-use digital record in the cloud.
• OneNote is customizable for you. Unlike just a mere spreadsheet, OneNote can be a place where you jot down ideas and observations, such as things you’re looking forward to buying, dates of a certain sale, or times of year you notice expenses rising or prices dropping. You can also upload bank and credit card statements as PDFs if you need to pore over them as you plan out your monthly budget, or even link your account login pages for easy reference. If you’re not a spreadsheet person, feel free to list all your expenses in the body of your notebook—but remember that you’re always welcome to embed links to whatever Microsoft program helps corral the information you need, including Excel and Word.

With these benefits in mind, when it comes to budgeting, why not give OneNote a try? And for a free and simple way to store mountains of expense receipts, OneNote can’t be beat.

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Technology for teachers

Lesson Plans in Onenote – How to Get Started

Have you ever started planning a lesson or theme and ended up having notes, hyperlinks, and material scattered everywhere? Then it’s about time you got started collecting your precious resources in OneNote for seamless planning between devices! In this post, I’ll cover how to create your lesson plans starting in OneNote.

Why Not Just Stick to Pen and Paper?

When I started working as a teacher, I always started drafting my lessons using regular pen and paper before moving everything to a Word document.

Using a pen and writing things down, be it on paper or a tablet makes it easier to structure your thoughts as well as to see if you’ve missed something.

Several studies are showing that taking handwritten notes beats using a keyboard when it comes to remembering what you’ve written.

One such study made in 2014 by Princeton University and the University of California, brings up the problem with students using a keyboard to take notes.

The students are usually able to collect more of what the professor said, more or less word by word – but they hadn’t processed the information as much as when using longhand and writing in their own words.

It’s a bit more difficult to find similar studies comparing handwritten notes on pen and paper, to that of using a stylus and tablet. One article published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, also mentioned on New Atlas and Neuroscience News , indicates that handwritten notes on regular paper still win over more modern technology.

Part of the explanation had to do with a tablet being less tactile than regular paper. Personalization of notes was mentioned as one key to memorizing things better.

This is something similar to when you read on a tablet or when you read a physical book. From personal experience, it’s easier to pick up a book and find where you left off even if your bookmark fell out than doing the same on a tablet.

Another explanation as to why regular handwritten notes are better than a keyboard suggested here is that writing by hand is slower, making it a more focused experience.

So Why Move From Pen and Paper to Using a Digital Notebook?

First of all, paper and liquids don’t make a good match and the last thing you’d want to happen is to accidentally spill water, coffee, or your beverage of choice on your precious draft. On second thought, a laptop, phone or tablet doesn’t like liquids either so keep that away from your planning!

Second of all, as teachers, we rarely work all our hours at school. And if you want to continue planning at home, you don’t want to have your notes left on your desk. Keeping your planning with you on your device of choice can be helpful, to say the least.

Having a digital notebook means you have a great place to collect your resources! And the best part? They’re safely backed up and ready to go. As soon as your notes have synced, it’s easy to start planning on one device and continue on another. This is why saving your lesson plans in OneNote can be of use, but how do you get started?

How you wish to structure your notes is really up to you, but if you’re familiar with the basic structure of OneNote, then you need to decide if you wish to have one notebook for each course, or if you wish to use sections and/or different pages.

If you want to learn how to use OneNote then you can take a look here to learn more about how the program works, or here to learn more how to use it as a teacher together with some ideas/tools for your students.

The choice is really up to you, but having a system helps!

From the start, you can just start typing on a page as you would do in a regular document. The program has some basic formatting for text, but you can also change the way a page is displayed and if you wish to use a stylus and take handwritten notes instead.

Using page templates is another way to customize and make the most use of your pages. There are many different templates to choose from, but it’s also easy to create a layout you like and save this as a template.

You can even set custom templates to be standard to use for new pages in a section, saving you some precious time.

Having a digital notebook also comes with another benefit: it can serve as a place to collect links, pictures, PDFs, embedded videos and so much more!

If you like to save things on your OneDrive and provide a link from there to your lesson plan in OneNote, this is an easy thing to do. I would advise you to use a link from your Office365 login rather than say Windows Explorer though.

The reason is if you use the latter option, you will most likely have to log in to view the file. If you use the Office365 link, however, you get to the file right away.

This is something I tried last semester. I made lesson plans in OneNote, making sure I had all resources saved and collected in one place before moving the lesson plan over to the Learning Management System (LMS) that we use at my school ( Itslearning ).

This way it was easy to see if I had forgotten something and if I had put things in the right order.

To summarize, there is no one size fits all when it comes to creating lesson plans and the choice is up to you as the teacher.

Pros of handwritten notes could be that they take more time to create, the downside is of course that they are easier to lose if you haven’t saved them in another form or fashion as well.

Handwritten notes can be useful since you can customize them pretty much any way you want. However, some parts of this can be replicated using a stylus and tablet as well.

Digital notetaking might be less useful for memorization according to recent studies, but for creating lesson plans and having the ability to add links to resources they certainly do a great job!

For some making and saving lesson plans in OneNote can be a lifesaver, but it all comes down to how you prefer to work and what suits your needs best.

Having the right tool for the right task can make all the difference!

How do you prefer planning your lessons?

Language teacher interested in reading, art, games, and how technology can help out in everyday life.

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What is Microsoft OneNote and its Features

Imagine a digital notebook that adapts to your every thought, whim, and inspiration. That’s the magic of Microsoft OneNote, a powerful note-taking and organization tool designed to capture your ideas across all your devices. OneNote transcends the limitations of traditional note-taking. Whether you’re a pro on Windows, a perfect organizer on Mac, or a mobile note-taker with iOS and Android, OneNote seamlessly syncs your notes, keeping them accessible anytime, anywhere. In this article, you’ll get to learn about the features and benefits of Microsoft OneNote. Let’s get started!

Table of Content

What is Microsoft OneNote

• Core Features of Microsoft OneNote

Collaborations and Sharing of MS OneNote

Microsoft onenote: cross-platform syncing, microsoft onenote advance features, microsoft onenote new features, faqs – microsoft onenote uses and features.

Microsoft OneNote is a digital note-taking app developed by Microsoft. It provides a single place for keeping all of your notes, research, plans, and information. It’s like a digital notebook for capturing and organizing everything across your devices.

OneNote is designed for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. You can jot down ideas, keep track of classroom and meeting notes, clip from the web, or make a to-do list3. It also allows you to draw and sketch your ideas.

Features of Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote Features and functions are given below for your reference. Explore the essential features that make OneNote indispensable,

• Notebooks: Create digital notebooks to organize your thoughts, research, and projects.
• Sections and Pages : Organize content hierarchically for easy navigation.
• Tags and Labels: Use tags to categorize and find specific information quickly.
• Search Functionality: Effortlessly locate notes using powerful search capabilities.
• Web Clipping: Clip web pages, articles, and images directly into your notebooks.

Let’s break down how Microsoft OneNote fosters collaboration in simple terms,

Real-Time Collaboration

• Imagine you and your colleagues working on a project together.
• With OneNote, you can edit the same digital notebook at the same time.
• It’s like having a virtual whiteboard where everyone can contribute simultaneously.
• No more waiting for email attachments or outdated versions.

Shareable Links

• Think of OneNote pages or sections as individual pieces of content.
• You can create special links to these pieces.
• Share these links with others, and they can instantly access the exact content you want them to see.
• It’s like giving someone a direct map to a specific spot in your notebook.

Integration with Microsoft Teams and Office 365

• Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform for teams within an organization.
• OneNote seamlessly integrates with Teams and other Office 365 apps.
• You can embed OneNote notebooks directly into Teams channels.
• This means your notes are right where your team communicates and collaborates.

Here’s an explanation of how Microsoft OneNote ensures seamless syncing across your devices,

Cloud Sync (via OneDrive)

• Imagine you’re taking notes on your laptop using OneNote.
• With cloud sync, those notes are automatically saved to your OneDrive account.
• Now, when you switch to your phone or tablet, open OneNote, and voilà! Your notes are there too.
• It’s like having a magical backpack that carries your notebooks everywhere you go.

Offline Mode

• Sometimes, you’re in a spot with no internet (like a remote cabin or a long flight).
• No worries! OneNote has your back.
• You can work offline, jot down ideas, scribble sketches, and make edits.
• Once you’re back online, OneNote syncs up, merging your offline changes seamlessly.

Ink and Drawings

What is it? OneNote allows you to use a stylus or touch input to create handwritten notes and sketches directly in your digital notebooks.

Why it’s awesome Capture your ideas naturally, just like using pen and paper. Annotate diagrams, draw mind maps, or jot down quick thoughts. Perfect for artists, students, and anyone who loves the tactile feel of writing.

Audio Recording

What is it? OneNote lets you record audio alongside your notes.

Why it’s handy Imagine attending a lecture or a meeting. Hit the record button in OneNote, and it captures the spoken content while you take notes. Later, you can play back the recording and sync it with your written notes.

Math Equations

What is it? OneNote supports typing or inking mathematical expressions using LaTeX.

Why it’s cool Need to write an equation? No problem! Use LaTeX syntax (like $$ f(x) = \frac{1}{x^2 + x} $$) to create complex math formulas. Perfect for students, engineers, and scientists.

What are they? OneNote offers pre-designed templates for various purposes.

Why they’re useful Templates save time and maintain consistency. Choose from meeting agendas, project planners, travel checklists, and more. Customize them to fit your specific needs.

Here’s an explanation of the new features of Microsoft OneNote. Let’s explore how Microsoft OneNote benefits different types of users,

For Students

• Organize Class Notes: OneNote allows students to create digital notebooks for each subject. They can neatly organize lecture notes, handouts, and study materials. No more lost papers or messy binders!
• Research Repository: Students can clip web articles, research papers, and relevant information directly into their notebooks. It’s like having a personalized research library.
• Collaboration: Group projects become smoother with shared notebooks. Students can collaborate on assignments, share ideas, and track progress together.

For Professionals

• Project Management: OneNote acts as a central hub for project details. Professionals can create project-specific notebooks, and add meeting minutes, task lists, and project timelines. Everything stays in one place.
• Meeting Minutes: During meetings, professionals can take notes directly in OneNote. The real-time collaboration feature ensures everyone stays on the same page.
• Brainstorming and Ideation: Creativity flows freely in OneNote. Professionals can brainstorm ideas, sketch out concepts, and visualize solutions.

For Creatives

• Inspiration Board: OneNote becomes a canvas for creatives. They can collect visual inspiration—whether it’s art, design, or photography—and organize it in notebooks.
• Design Iterations: Creatives can sketch, annotate, and iterate on design concepts. Whether it’s a logo, website layout, or interior design plan, OneNote keeps its ideas alive.
• Visual Storytelling: Writers, illustrators, and content creators can weave narratives using text, images, and drawings. OneNote becomes their storytelling companion.

In the end, whether you’re a student struggling with classes, a professional managing projects, or someone who simply wants to stay organized, OneNote offers a powerful and versatile solution. With its flexible note-taking features, seamless organization options, and incredible accessibility across devices, OneNote empowers you to capture your ideas, boost productivity, and collaborate effortlessly. So leave the paper clutter and sticky notes, and embrace the digital age with Microsoft OneNote.

What are Microsoft OneNote features?

Microsoft OneNote key features are, Flexible Note-taking Organization Powerhouse Cross-Platform Access Collaboration Magic

What are the benefits of using OneNote?

OneNote Benefits, Boost Productivity Goodbye Paper Mess Work Anywhere Teamwork Wins

What is the best use of OneNote?

Best Uses of OneNote, Note-taking for Students & Professionals Project Planning & Research Digital Bullet Journaling Shared Family Notebook

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