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OneNote

OneNote

Overview

What is OneNote?

Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.

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Recent Reviews

My Software Preferences

4 out of 10
May 05, 2023
Incentivized
We used it for content development within Teams. Separated out different projects in the tabs etc. it was alright, the only thing that was …
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OneNote

9 out of 10
March 07, 2023
OneNote allows us to take digital hand written notes with clients converting notes into the CRM easily and effectively. It allows …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Microsoft OneNote

Free

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Onetastic for OneNote

YouTube

Demo oneNote

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Office 2010 - OneNote 2010 demo för skola

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Microsoft OneNote 2010 Demo - Organize your Notes

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SharePoint 2010 Create OneNote Documentation Library

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OneNote Demo - Windows 8 RT Surface

YouTube
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Product Details

What is OneNote?

OneNote Competitors

OneNote Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.

Evernote are common alternatives for OneNote.

Reviewers rate Usability highest, with a score of 9.5.

The most common users of OneNote are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(899)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(51-70 of 70)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 13, 2016

OneNote for us

Barrett Ford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
With so many staff using different devices working together has been a difficult thing for much of our staff to do. We had been on the hunt for something that would help with the ability of groups to work together. We stumbled across OneNote after hearing some other groups had been using it and were really enjoying it. We had started using it as a demo group and saw all the functionality we could use. The addition of being able to use pens that are on so many devices has been a great boon for our staff.
  • Cooperatively work with other people.
  • You can use touch screen devices.
  • You can use pens that are coming with devices now, such as the Surface and Ipad Pro.
  • Easier to work cooperatively.
  • A more streamlined interface
Ideal for sure when staff needs to work together no matter where they happen to be working either in the same area or even different parts of the country. While it is very versatile, the share and functional part of it is not as easy going as using Google Apps. It should be noted that it is a much more robust program.
Ben Tusa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is available to all users in my organization. It's not something anyone is required to use. It's available as a tool and my team has adopted it as our primary means of documentation.
  • One of the best things about OneNote is the ability to quickly enter data of many types without much effort. There are many different types of intake methods from browser extensions to mobile devices and of course the traditional desktop.
  • I find it very comforting that I can quickly record information about something then go back and easily reformat it.
  • As a team we share a single OneNote so it makes updating or sharing info very simple.
  • Users can manage multiple personal OneNotes along with the one we share as a team.
  • Maybe a little better integration with native spreadsheets. Currently it appears to force your spreadsheet info into a choice of several predefined formats.
  • Page updating for our International users is definitely slow at times.
It's great for sharing info within a team but if you want to export that info it can be a bit clunky.
March 22, 2016

Cleaner notes

dan berezowski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is used to keep track of information that users would typically put onto physical sticky notes that in the past could have been lost or misplaced. Using OneNote allows sticky notes type of notes to be stored digitally and also allows us to quickly find notes. OneNote is also used to save a list of items that pertain to a particular task that we need to perform periodically. One such example is the steps required to file a batch of UCCs, there are several steps we must take to extract the data from our system and import it into our UCC partners' system, after which we must also extract responses and return the responses to our system.
  • Notes on procedures taking several steps
  • Sharing notes
  • Storing notes digitally so they are not lost
  • Better encryption options
  • Ability to use personal clouds
OneNote is well suited as a replacement to physical sticky notes.
Shannon McNamara | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OneNote on my Surface Tablet Pro - mainly as the Windows version of Evernote (even though yes, you can use Evernote on Windows as well). I find it an easy way to keep track of all my notes, and I love the built in organizational system of OneNote as well. Lots of times I have hundreds of documents, and I want to be able to easily access them and switch from one to the next without having to go into my documents, open other folders, etc. It's nice to know that all of my important notes can literally be accessed with the touch of a button (by touching the top of surface pen).
  • Ability to write notes with your pen as well as type notes - love being able to switch between those options!
  • The ease of access with opening.
  • The organization built into OneNote - the tabs and folders.
  • Formatting issues - the space to write originally does not go across the entirety of the screen.
  • More color coding options - yes I know this is the lamest 'con' ever haha but I use color coding for all my organization and would love more colors!
  • Emoji integration would be incredible.
It would be incredible for teams who all use OneNote - because the integration of being able to share and collaborate on notes can be very useful. However, since most people seem to be Mac users - then it's definitely hard to collaborate if only half can use all of the features of OneNote.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is used more for personal use vs. a collaborative tool than on an organizational basis. The problem with this is that this is more for smaller ideas and great for combining notes in a meeting and such. However, if the people that are given this do not have a real organizational use, then it will most likely be used only as a personal note utility.
  • Personal record keeping.
  • Scheduled tasks and timelines.
  • Collaborative thoughts on meetings.
  • Keeps the classic Microsoft look and feel, so it's easy to use if one is familiar with MS Word.
  • Collaborative tools are only as good as those that use it. If your team does not share each others notes then the program is almost useless.
  • The program could be better in terms of how well the application runs, at times it feels slow. Along with this, the applications on devices could have been implemented better on devices such as iPhone and Android.
I would recommend it for users that have a specific need for it. There are other products that are free that can basically do the same thing on a more personal level. It is not a must have.
February 25, 2016

The paper free advantage

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have been using OneNote as a paperless filing system for project notes, support documentation and archival of information. This addresses the issue of limited storage space at my workstation. It is also much more efficient to search through OneNote than it was to sort through binders or file folders for information that I needed to complete my work. Another advantage is the OneNote notebooks can be saved on a shared drive allowing others to access my information for their own use.
  • OneNote allows me to print directly from my email to the notebook. This allows me to save information without needing to re-type it or to save the email off to my computer somewhere.
  • OneNote is easy to manage and organize. The pages/tabs structure is flexible and easy to manipulate once created.
  • OneNote also allows for hyperlinks to other sources of data. For example, when I need to know where the budget information comes from I can create a hyperlink that will take me directly to the final budget report.
  • Renaming a workbook, once created, is challenging. Especially if it is located on a shared drive.
  • I struggle sometimes moving a section or a page from one workbook to another workbook.
  • OneNote sometimes corrupts when moving a created workbook from a personal drive to a shared drive.
OneNote is well suited for the paperless work environment. It allows for storage of information without taking up physical space in the work area. If I take my laptop to a meeting I can record my notes directly into OneNote and easily refer to them later. If I do not have my laptop and need to make notes on paper I can easily scan that document and add it to my OneNote at a later date. There are occasions when working on a new project where it is easier for me to jot my brainstorming notes onto paper as I am working through a solution. However, I am then able to capture those thoughts by scanning them back into OneNote.
Ilicia Lopez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I'd be lost without Microsoft OneNote! OneNote is basically a notebook which lets you have pages of notes or text in one place. I use OneNote for ideas, meeting notes, project notes and as a small task tracker. I export meeting invitations to OneNote and take my notes for the meeting. It's great because it shows meeting participants. I don't carry a paper notebook around anymore.
  • Exports meetings from Outlook
  • Drawing capability
  • Stores notes with several subpages
  • PDF viewing capability
  • Phone app for Android (have not seen it out there)
  • OneNote to Outlook Calendar capability
OneNote may not be for everyone. I would recommend it to anyone that has to organize thoughts per project and task. It is also great to add in voice or video recordings for a meeting. This product is ideal for anyone that needs to take minutes for a meeting and send them out. OneNote makes it easy.
Anita Arguello | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Everyone in the company has access to OneNote; some departments used it as a shared notebook for information and tacking of workload. Individuals use it for their own benefit. Productivity and having information available to a group to access immediately.
  • Enhances your paperless office environment
  • Easily access important information that you need
  • Search capability to find what you need
  • Remembers websites you retrieve information from.
  • Allows you to attach pictures, videos and record
  • Hard to think of anything you haven't thought of
Ease of use for the users.
Always available.

Microsoft OneNote is the best software that was ever invented. It helps you streamline your productivity with the added benefit of making you more productive and organized. I have used it daily for the last 3-years and it has made me more efficient about getting information quickly. How can I count the ways it can assist you. Hmm, let me try!

1. Enhances your paperless office environment.
2. Easily search for the answer you need.
3. Easily integrates with all the Microsoft Office tools including the Web.
4. You can print directly to OneNote.

These are just some of the highlights of what the tool can do. I am 95% paperless and I found once I integrated the use of OneNote into my process it streamlined everything for me.

How? You receive an email with information that you need to retrieve later down the line. Just click on the icon that sits in Microsoft Outlook to send it to OneNote. OneNote opens up you select the section you want to store it in. Bam it’s there, forever until you delete it. This also works with Word, Power Point etc.; just select print to OneNote and Microsoft takes care of it for you in a couple of minutes.

Instead of trying to remember where you saved the information, just open OneNote and do a search and it’ll tell you where it is within the notebook.

Another great feature of OneNote is its capability of remembering where you copied and pasted information from a website. Ever saved a blurb from a website only to forget where you got it from. Not anymore, with Microsoft OneNote; any time you paste anything from the internet, OneNote automatically pastes a link to the page you got it from. Makes it easy for you to refer back to the website you originally got the information.

You don't even have to save your work; OneNote automatically saves your work once you close out of it.

You don’t have to take a class to learn how to use it. I taught myself and was able to get a notebook created. There are numerous YouTube videos you can watch for free that can teach you if you want a visual.

I can go on and on and still not touch he surface of everything it can do.

Start using it and you’ll love it.
Melissa Esquibel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OneNote across our organization for various purposes. Primarily, we use it manage work assignments and travel. We use it to collaborate with our business partners and conduct research projects as well. For us, the biggest bang for the buck is its portability to various platforms and devices, Mac, Android, phone, tablet, computer.
  • Portability to popular platforms - When I travel, my entire itinerary is visible at a glance on my Android Ap. My right hand person is a Mac guy. So, he can use what he likes and I can use what I like and we both know what's going on with a project or assignment.
  • Content agnostic - There's virtually no type of content that can't be included in a OneNote notebook. I send e-mail messages there, insert PowerPoint slides, capture audio and video, as well as cell phone camera content on my Android phone. You can type, draw, capture screenshots. Nothing is off the table.
  • Nimble - We can start collaborating on an idea with a partner on a single page in a single section, then grow that notebook to be the project repository, and finally the location for all finished work.
  • Affordability - Free is a pretty good price!
  • I would love to see OneNote offer an option to sort pages within a notebook.
  • The look and feel of the online version is substantially different from the desktop app. Would be nice if they were more alike.
  • Tags are a great way to get an additional "layer" of organization. However, searching for tags is a little clumsy. Would love that to be a little more elegant.
This tool is ideal for managing projects, organizing travel, collecting research and collaborating.
February 25, 2015

A Super Powered Notebook

Bridgette Barry | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is implemented across the organization but it is up to the individual to learn it and incorporate it into their day to day job. It is an excellent resource to replace and enhance the use of traditional pen and paper.
  • Organization of day to day meeting and task notes- The best thing about OneNote is the ability to organize notes to make them easy to access and use as needed. The sections can be used to create a category and pages of notes can be added as subcategories to that section (think of a paper file folder filled with documents). The search functionality allows you to use any word within any file to easily locate a particular note page. Extras such as "to do", "important" tags and "question" tags make it easy to find and and sort by these categories as well.
  • Easy to Use- One note is so much like a traditional notebook, file cabinet and MS Word that getting started requires little or no training. The product is very intuitive to organize and use with only a small learning curve. All of the editing is very similar or the same as MS Word so anyone who can use Word can use OneNote.
  • Easy to Enhance with References- Beyond the ability to create and organize notes, OneNote allows you to easily insert links to web pages, other files such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint, photos, audio and video recordings and drawings. This makes it very easy to locate anything refereed to in the notes.
  • Ability to share notebooks with others- Although the product offers several ways to share with others it is confusing to decide which option to use and in some cases requires the user to create a Windows Live ID. This has made it challenging for me to use OneNote to collaborate with others.
I would recommend OneNote for any situation in which notes are taken such as schools, trainings and meetings. Although it's easy to fall back to old school pen and paper, the enhanced abilities of OneNote to let you add supporting links and documents, save to a cloud environment, organize and find makes it far more usable.
Ray Ideen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is used throughout our organization. It assists areas in many ways, but specific to my area, we use it as an information repository and a central point of reference for many topics, from meeting agendas, notes, and attachments to policy and proceedure housing.
  • OneNote makes organization easy!
  • OneNote can serve as a central repository for an entire department's materials.
  • OneNote can also capture just your own personal information. It's all about how you set it up and use it to organize information.
  • If you do not understand the basic structure of how to setup a OneNote database, it can be cumbersome to learn at first.
  • Regarding a shared OneNote database: Your organizational structure may not always be how someone else would structure information.
OneNote is fantastic at organizing information.

During selection, ask for specific examples of how information could be organized to generate ideas about how you would organize your content.
Ausrine Pasakarnyte | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
OneNote comes with a standard MS Office package. I have to stress that it is not a compulsory tool to use throughout the organization but rather something to be used on a personal level. I am not sure about my other colleagues, as this is a personal preference tool.
I personally choose to use it for training purposes, mainly organizing loads of different information.
  • With all other online tools in place one might think there is no need anymore for OneNote, however it has some capabilities that not all little note organizing apps and programs have. For example it has built in calculation tools. You start writing e.g. 100 / 2 = and once you put space after = sign you get your answer. I have not seen other note compiling apps do that.
  • It gives the feeling of an actual note book with all the tabs of important information you want to store. Compared to other note keeping products where it is more tag based.
  • I love the search option, that is so convenient.
  • Screen clipping is much more convenient than any other program.
  • Sharing could be little bit easier.
  • I feel it has a little bit bulky file appearance (a folder with multiple files). I would say, it is not anymore OneNote but Multiple notes (even though it compiles it all together pretty nice).
I personally really like OneNote for developing procedures. You know when you start creating department procedures there are more and more things that pop out that need to be elaborated. Well as a draft version, before it gets published on the company online platform, it is a perfect place to organize your thoughts.
Eugene Bodrero | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and thoroughly enjoy OneNote. I picked up two desktop licenses for the additional functionality over the free version, one license is for my Surface and one for my workstation. The handwriting capability of the Pro 3 is marvelous, especially within OneNote. The OneNote Desktop application can search handwritten content.

The terrific search capability, combined with the handwriting recognition, allows me to finally dispose of my binder full of notes that I can't search. Too much information was being lost and had to be recreated each time I needed it. Export capabilities give a range of formats for sharing and backing up data. The master files are stored on my OneDrive account. Notebooks can also be shared with your individual personal and business Live.com accounts or with other Live.com users.

I use OneNote 2013 as a standalone application and do not use MS Office, we use LibreOffice for all documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. So, there is some integration with Outlook that I am not taking advantage of.
  • Great handwriting recognition when used with Microsoft Surface Pro.
  • Excellent search capability, even finds handwritten notes.
  • Can convert handwritten text to printed text when selected.
  • The OneNote Windows 8 app has some great features that are optimized for the touch screen interface of Surface. The OneNote 2013 Desktop lacks this, but the quicktools do help.
OneNote combined with Microsoft Surface can effectively replace my paper note pad, dramatically enhancing the value of my notes.
Jeremy Ma | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I do not use OneNote at my current job. As far as I know, it does not solve any business problem. It may be a choice for some employees to use OneNote when they are in a meeting, and want to take notes of the things people are discussing in a meeting.
  • I really enjoy how you can really write anywhere on the page. It's just like an actual notebook! This allows for more flexibility in what your notes look like, as opposed to dealing with alignments and margins in Word.
  • This software allows for touch and pen input (if your computer supports it) and it is really useful when you can't quite express something in words.
  • With Office 365, OneNote can now be synced with OneDrive, which is included in Office 365. This allows your notes to be accessed from any computer or device with an Internet connection.
  • Microsoft OneNote can't be accessed from a mobile web browser.
  • OneNote is a paid service.
It's appropriate whenever you want to take note of something around you. It's more appropriate in the workplace and in school, because it looks like an application you would use professionally. It's not so much something you'd use on a vacation or when you're with friends.
July 03, 2014

OneNote Review

Brooke Eby | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it to keep and share notes about my accounts.
  • Ability to share knowledge by making a OneNote public
  • Organization- keep all my tabs/notebooks to keep my accounts well managed
  • Wish I could right click on any tab in a notebook and send it in an email
  • Formatting can sometimes be tricky with free floating space- maybe create some basic templates within OneNote that can be utilized
It is great for account management and managing people.
June 30, 2014

OneNote Rocks!

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Microsoft OneNote in our Application Support Department (Information Services), in order to standardize our internal department daily procedures, such as Month-End Processing steps, Database Backup/Restore steps, etc., to basically retain a common documents reference point for our Application Support Team. We found OneNote to be extremely helpful in helping us to simplify our day to day responsibilities, and whenever a key business process changed, we could easily update our internal docs on the fly. I highly recommend OneNote as a means of both organizing and standardizing IT procedures, so that if a key person leaves your company, you don't end up having all of your expertise walk out the door.
  • Easy to use.
  • Built-in document time/date stamp.
  • Nice look and feel.
  • Not easy to insert new paragraph block.
Which version of Microsoft OneNote should my organization use?
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote currently isn't being used at my latest venture; however, I wish it was. Evernote has become a primary competitor for filling in such a gap, but their lack of grouping and stacking folders within notebooks makes management much more tedious. Historically, I used OneNote for all meeting minutes and recaps pe project, as well as managed all general knowledge storage, including contact details and interaction history, URLs of important sites, system admin accounts per server, etc.
  • Ability to stack and order files into folders and folders into books, creating hierarchies of data
  • Strong search functionality
  • Quick responsiveness... No lag
  • Ability to share books, with specific access rights, across the enterprise
  • Please support more graphics. Often I want to embed a video model directly, for example.
  • Please support video and audio files. All mediums of content should be organizable, and openable directly.
  • If sharing a book, allow different depths that can be shared and greater granularity as to who can do what with the shared material. Can we edit one page at the same time? Can we edit two pages at the same time? Can you delete the bottom of the tree? Can you delete the top of the tree?
It is suitable for multiple projects; and/or a project with multiple hands in the pot all trying to manage it to fruition.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
OneNote is used by everyone at our organization. More by those who understand it's value than others. It is a great alternative to Word and File Explorer for creating, storing, and accessing content.
  • OneNote is easily accessed and usable immediately. Quickly, easily, and efficiently.
  • There is no save in OneNote. Being on the cloud all content in OneNote just "IS". No more lost work for lack of saving.
  • OneNote is highly searchable. All content in OneNote is not only easy to access and find using the taxonomy available in the app, but by using tagging and the powerful built in search capabilities, you can get to any of your content easily.
  • Sharing notebooks is a breeze and allows for fast and easy collaboration in real time with others. Even if they do not have the app themselves.
  • Honestly, I have a hard time finding what OneNote cannot do. My experience is that through using your imagination and creativity, especially as the app can be used in conjunction with others, you can do nearly anything within reason and that would be expected of the app.
  • I do wish that you could save files of greater than 100MB in OneNote. This would allow the use of embdedded video for instance.
I think OneNote has value for everyone. As notetaking software as Microsoft calls it or the full-on productivity system that it is and as I call it. Who can't find a use for such software? Especially when it is so user friendly and efficient?
June 24, 2014

OneNote Rocks!

Bryan Jacobs | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
OneNote is being used sporadically throughout the organization. The sales team uses it to take notes during meetings. I specifically have different notebooks for different items. In my Work notebook I keep notes for internal meetings and create "To-Do" items which show up as tasks in outlook. I love that the two can interface very well and I know what my task list is even when I'm not in OneNote.
  • Record Meetings
  • Save annotations with notes or use a pen on a touchscreen laptop
  • The web clipper piece is great for screenshots and showing exactly what you were looking at or getting pictures to add to the notes.
  • I would like to see it integrate with other products like Excel better.
  • The recording is tough to find unless you know exactly where it is. It would be nice to have it more accessible.
  • When writing with a pen on a tablet, the touch options need to be easier to navigate. Sometimes it's difficult to erase while you are trying to write notes while in the middle of a meeting.
People who are using Outlook and Microsoft products should use OneNote. Now that OneNote is available across all of your devices there really isn't a scenario where it doesn't fit. You should consider trying OneNote and using some of the features and functionalities to see if fits for you. Most everyone uses Microsoft Office products, so why not use the note taking and web clipping/screen shot taking application.
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