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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

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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

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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

(898)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-24 of 24)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Being a Managed Services Provider I need to take a lot of notes and store most of them. I wanted software that would replace having to use so much paper and than having those papers filed away which takes time and valuable space in a one room office. OneNote solves all of that by being my only note taking software as well as organizing all my notes in digital notebooks.
  • Simple and easy to use interface
  • Organize notes just like a traditional notebook binder with tabs
  • Able to see and use all notebooks on mobile phone
  • Implement MFA ability to specific notebooks instead of using a password
OneNote is best for individuals or organizations that want to reduce paper and paper storage such as notebooks and binders. Also good for those that need access to such notes on the go using a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. May not work well if the notes you have are highly confidential and contain sensitive information.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Onenote as a personal checklist for our organization. It is also used within the department for collaboration on projects, tracking meeting agendas and notes, and the status of projects. We use it every day within the department to keep projects on track an
  • Creating separate tabs and sub-tabs to help organize
  • The ability to copy and link pages to be shared with other members (even without OneNote access)
  • The ability to share Notebooks with groups within the department
  • Creating and editing tables could be improved. Would be helpful if rows could be hidden in tables
  • The table's copy & paste options are cumbersome, often resulting in incorrect cell placement
OneNote helps with department-wide collaboration on projects and meetings. The notebooks sync quickly allowing multiple users to see edits and notes in real-time. The ability to add attachments, photos, and links, all in one place helps with organization. It also works very well as a task list/checklist with the ability to flag tasks that will sync to outlook and provide reminders. There is also the option to add checkboxes, images, and highlighting for visual reminders.
Jill Liegghio | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OneNote for personal note taking as well as creating shared notebooks for different teams and projects. Our team note books include sections for meeting notes, work instructions, frequently used sites and contact information. As a manager, I have sections for future team and project strategies as well as staff pages for information tracking and development planning.
  • OneNote provides a safe space for data storage. If you’re someone who needs to write things down, this is a much safer replacement.
  • It allows data to be well organized in pages, sections and sub-sections.
  • You’re able to send notes to attending via email with a simple click.
  • You can create shared note books for collaborative data sharing.
  • Shared notebooks can be added to your personal notebook with real time syncing.
  • You can add links to frequently used sites that can be accessed with a click.
  • Your OneNote books are backed up into the cloud and can be accessed through mobile devices.
  • It has a cool new feature for simple math that will calculate formulas when typed into a page.
  • The cloud version of the software - which can be added to Teams sites has limited features and isn’t as easy to navigate. It would be great if this version had more features.
  • You can create templates for recurring notes - like meetings. However, saving something as a template is not easy to find in the software. I always have to look this up on the internet.
In my opinion OneNote is a must for anyone who does business. It’s versatile, stable and sustainable. It can keep private information private - like passwords. It can be used for collaborative work - like standard operating procedures. It is fairly easy to use and far superior to pen and paper. When used for meeting notes, it can be flagged with icons that are searchable - like ideas or important items. You can even create Outlook tasks on the fly.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our department is using OneNote. I am pretty sure many people in my organization use OneNote. It is an excellent program for multi-user collaboration. I use it to create training manuals so that I can share them with my team. I also use it to manage my own workload. We can make notes, drawings, screen clippings, attach emails, and audio commentaries, which is excellent.
  • It's great that I can use it on Android, Apple, and Windows devices. It syncs perfectly with phone, desktop so i can access any information anytime.
  • The user interface is simple and thought out. Very user-friendly.
  • You can take notes - you can draw or write or record your voice in the middle of your notes as you wish.
  • It allows you to link different pages, add calendar, add notes, create templates, and save them.
  • It can add some formatting options, like headers, dark mode, and some organizing features which are included on the desktop app.
  • It doesn't have Integration with Google calendar & Gdrive.
OneNote is well suited if your purpose is to take notes, share with the team as it allows you to tag people, notes, calendars, etc. It syncs well with your desktop app, so you can access anything anywhere you want. I like how many different formatting options there are, and its syncing ability. I use one note for business meetings for note-taking, and I love how I can upload screenshots or pictures, charts, and graphs, etc.
December 05, 2019

OneNote Review

Jeff Henkel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OneNote mainly for copying web addresses and articles into one location. I have multiple tags all for different uses. I find that sometimes when I am researching an issue for a client, instead of printing out the article I tag it under various topics in OneNote. In addition, while I am searching for information on one topic I may run across another topic that sparks my interest. So OneNote has become the one place where I can not only place research topics for current use but also store ideas and resources for future problem solving or brainstorming.
  • OneNote is a great tool for storing ideas that can be accessed for future use.
  • OneNote works great for storing "how to's" about workflow and work ideas that I don't use often. I don't have to worry about remembering where it is or how to do it.
  • OneNote is an excellent tool for having all you want or need in one place. I use it for both personal and work.
  • Since I use Office 365, I sometimes have difficulty with the sync feature. It doesn't always seem to sync immediately between the desktop and the cloud versions.
  • Sometimes the different types of ways to save a web page or document don't display properly. It may be the difference between the desktop and the online Office 365 versions.
OneNote works for copying web addresses and web articles. If you like to have all your resources in one place and want to organize them by topic or otherwise, OneNote is perfect. I have used OneNote only slightly for entering fresh data and ideas and it seems to work well. I just love that instead of having to copy or print documents or webpages all over the place I can have everything in one place.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OneNote individually, departmentally, and interdepartmentally throughout the entire organization. It is an excellent tool for capturing notes, meeting minutes, checklists, and project-related tasks. It enables collaboration and improves communication by allowing shared notebooks that multiple users can edit at the same time. It also automatically tags edits with the user's initials who made them, thereby providing a basic level of traceability.
  • Creating task lists and daily notes that can link to Outlook.
  • Generating collaborative content that is easy to search and edit.
  • Creating "live" work instructions that can be updated and maintained.
  • Creating basic wireframes and prototypes for software development.
  • The table editing tools are too simplistic and lack the features found in other Office products.
  • Some content loses its rich text formatting when being pasted into OneNote. A workaround is to paste the content first into Outlook or Word and then copy/pasting that into OneNote.
  • Microsoft is moving away from a local install of OneNote, which means notebooks have to be in the cloud in Office 2019. This will actually reduce the usefulness of OneNote in some environments and opens the door to competitor products.
  • Update: Microsoft has now announced that it will continue to support OneNote 2016 through 2023. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Your-OneNote/ba-p/954922
It is well suited for capturing weekly departmental task lists. For example, each week we create a new page in a shared departmental notebook. In this new page, each department member enters his/her top 3 accomplishments for the week and the top 3 things which the member will attempt to accomplish in the coming week. We then use this page during our Monday morning stand-up meeting and it helps provide an agenda, structure, and discussion points for the meeting.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the entire Microsoft Office suite at our company and everything ties into Office. We use Outlook for email, Skype for Business as our chat/virtual meeting environment, OneDrive as our cloud storage, and of course OneNote as the preferred note-taking utility. Everyone in the company has a license for Office, including OneNote and it is the main utility that is supported by our IT department.
  • Integration with other Microsoft Office products.
  • Syncing between multiple accounts if needed.
  • Syncing between desktop and mobile applications.
  • The ability for multiple users to collaborate on the same notebook.
  • The software seems a bit heavy and takes up space, which seems normal for Microsoft software.
  • I have to re-enter my login information frequently to keep syncing between different computers and mobile applications.
  • The clip to OneNote tool is a good start but it would be nice to also have a small "sticky notes" type application that ties into OneNote.
If you use Microsoft Office products then OneNote should be your go-to tool for note-taking. You can have private notebooks that can be sorted by projects and pages (meaning you can organize a LOT of notes quickly) and you can also share certain pages with other people so you can collaborate together. It also tracks changes between different users, similar to Word, which makes it easier to know who made certain changes and when. If you are not a user of Office then there are other options that may integrate into your work utilities better, but for my company, it's a no brainer.
September 26, 2019

OneNote for Education

Amy Welsh | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is currently being used by our entire organization. We use OneNote Class Notebooks to interact with our students both inside and outside of class. I post content, assignments, assessments, remediation and extension for my students to access. I also interact with my students by providing feedback in their notebooks. We also use OneNote as a way for faculty to collaborate.
  • I love that OneNote syncs between all my devices, so no matter what - I am able to access my information.
  • The collaboration between myself and my students in invaluable. My students have instant access to my content, notes, etc.
  • As a department, we are able to share information almost instantly to collaborate even when we can't meet in person.
  • I would like to see the desktop version of OneNote continue to be supported.
OneNote is great for collaboration - and for situations where you want to write and type.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is frequently used by employees within the organization to keep track of information and tasks in Audit. It is used by employees in multiple areas of the organization to keep track of tasks and remember important information given to us by clients.
  • OneNote is really intuitive, especially if you have used other Microsoft office products.
  • It allows you to organize your notes easily and in a way that is logical to the user. It makes it easy to have your notes in a way that makes sense to you, including multiple pages and tabs.
  • I really like that you are not just tied to text. You are able to use videos, images, audio and other forms of media or notes that you may have taken.
  • I love how easy it is to search through your previously written notes for information when you are going back through them
  • While I haven't experienced this directly, I know people have concerns regarding the security of OneNote. I don't think this is a dealbreaker if you have other security software.
  • I guess the mobile version could be better, but the desktop version is really great and its all I really use. OneNote really lacks any problems. It is a well-designed program.
OneNote is appropriate for personal use by employees. It's really useful for individual employees who need help with task management or who take in a lot of information as part of their jobs.

It is not great for collaboration as everyone has different note-taking styles. While OneNote accommodates individual note-taking styles, it is not great for collaboration because of how customizable it is.
Kaleb-John Loo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is great for taking notes and sharing them within your company. It allows for a lot of customization and has many macros and plugins that make note-taking very efficient. Then, the information can be given to anyone by simply sharing the notebook. OneNote also allows users to access their notebooks from any computer as long as they have access to their account. This means that you can take your notes anywhere and work on them at your leisure. OneNote provides a lot of options and is very easy to use to organize notes.
  • Sharing notebooks with anyone.
  • Sync account on any computer and access notes.
  • Easy to use interface allows for easy organization.
  • Shortcuts for linking.
  • Use of templates.
  • Different versions of OneNote have changes that take getting used to.
  • There is a difference between the OneNote Windows App and the OneNote program that seem restrictive.
  • There are things you can do in Word that it seems like you should be able to do in OneNote.
OneNote is good when you want to keep an ongoing record of notes. It has a standard organizational structure to start off with that will be sufficient for a large majority of note keeping. It is extremely useful when you want to maintain your notes on any device without having to worry about saving separate documents for each note and then having to worry about being able to access the notes from another computer. OneNote, however, does not replace the other products in the Office Suite such as Word or Excel.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is used by several of the sales agents in my department as a digital file folder. It becomes home to all the important information needed for a sale: web research, budget projections, proposals, important emails from clients, brochures for the client, and anything essential to the travel project we are working on. It is a wonderful way to combine information from different programs into one location. For example, you can easily read emails and a printout of a spreadsheet without leaving the program.
  • Data Gathering - It is extremely easy and efficient to get information into OneNote. Outlook has a button to send emails directly to the program, there are browser add-ons to clip research, and you can print to OneNote from any program. Once in the program, filing the information into the right note/tab is a sinch.
  • It is not complicated. Several of my tech-challenged coworkers, use this program with ease. I even hear comments about how much they like it.
  • The styling and formatting options of the notes are limited.
  • Sizing an embedded spreadsheet is challenging.
  • Table columns auto size unnecessarily.
OneNote is great for projects. It can hold information in notes, notebooks and various tabs. This helps keeps projects organized and the information you need just a click away. It is also easy to share information with teammates. The online, desktop and mobile versions are handy when you need a cross-platform solution for your note taking needs.
Joel Brache | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is used to capture notes throughout the whole organization. Many employees open multiple notebooks in OneNote so that they can share information between departments and so that they can segregate information appropriately. We use OneNote as a tool for capturing meeting notes, project information, account information, and just about anything a user wants to keep track of. With OneNote syncing across all of a user's devices, it opens up the ability for employees to look up information wherever they are and whenever they need it.

Now that we have deployed Office 365, the use of OneNote has increased as has the overall productivity of our employees. Not only are notes now on the cloud and no longer on individual computers, but it is much easier to share notes, restore them, and keep them up to date. I always have multiple notebooks open so that I can separate any personal notes from my business notes. I often find myself looking up information on my phone that I entered on my computer. This is extremely helpful in meetings and when I'm out of the office or on my own personal time.
  • OneNote synchronizes across platforms very quickly. I often find that notes entered, or updated, on my desktop are synchronized to my laptop and smartphone well before I ever open them up to access the information.
  • OneNote has apps for just every major platform available. This includes Windows, iOS, and Android. The web app has plenty of features so you won't feel let down if you have to access your notebooks through a browser.
  • The multimedia features of OneNote are wonderful. I can draw pictures, add sound bites, add videos, add files, and much more. This helps me capture the full context of a note, including any references that I might need, all within the note itself. I don't have to go outside of OneNote to find a video clip, logo, or soundbite.
  • It is not always clear where your OneNote files are kept. I prefer to keep all my OneNote files in the cloud, but the actual location of those files in OneDrive can sometimes be a mystery. If I install OneNote on my home computer, I have to open up my work OneNote in the browser and then sync it to my PC. I'm not able to find and open the file in OneDrive through File Explorer.
  • The ability to find notebooks that are shared with you is getting better, but it can sometimes be difficult to locate the right one. I often see duplicate notebooks and end up opening up the wrong one. Would be great if Microsoft only showed you links to notebooks that were actually available to you.
  • Microsoft is shifting away from OneNote 2016 and moving people on to OneNote that comes native with Windows 10. The interface is different enough that I don't like it. I am staying with OneNote 2016 because of the ease of seeing multiple notebooks open at the same time and being able to get to the exact information I need quickly. If you don't like the native OneNote built into Windows 10, you won't like the future of OneNote.
Because the information is encrypted, I choose to keep account information (user names and passwords) in OneNote. I segregate my corporate and personal account information into separate notebooks so if one Notebook is compromised, I don't compromise all my account information. That segregation is one of the features I like the most since I can have a notebooks open for personal, business, personal business, and a shared family at the same time. I like the ability to segregate information and fine OneNote well suited for managing segregated information.

If you are not using the cloud to synchronize your OneNote notebooks, I think OneNote becomes less useful. Being able to access your information across devices is a particular strength to me. OneNote will let you keep information local only, so if that's how you want to roll, you can do that too.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my current organization, OneNote is installed as part of the Office suite but not promoted or encouraged to use. At my previous company, as an organization, we used it for notetaking, storing documents, and team collaboration.
  • It is a very easy notetaking platform. It allows the user to create their own electronic notebook, organizing it in sections and pages. It autosaves as well.
  • It integrates with Microsoft Office suite very well, especially Outlook. Content can be initiated from other Office applications and sent to OneNote. I particularly liked bringing scheduled meeting information in Outlook directly into OneNote before taking meeting minutes or personal notes.
  • If your organization uses SharePoint, then it can be a great collaboration tool. Notebooks can be shared among teams to collaborate and share notes, ideas, and documents.
  • I would like to see some sort of validated version where notebook entries could be published in some kind of locked-down fashion inside an enterprise version, and have digital signatures built in for legal purposes. For example in a research laboratory environment.
  • Easier video and audio recording capture right into the notebook.
  • Ability to play a video file that is stored in a OneNote page.
OneNote is definitely well suited to take notes, as if you were taking notes in a spiral notebook or a composition notebook. What makes it much more powerful is that it can be edited at any time, and it is searchable.

It is less appropriate if used as a document storage library. I have seen teams store files directly in OneNote notebooks to share files, but this might cause storage issues as the OneNote notebook file itself will grow very large.
Brad Bratcher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, my team and I use OneNote in the O365 version. We use it so that we can update our product and procedure notes and illustrations in real time. Moreover, when giving customer presentations, I have found that this is more organic and less formal than presenting a Powerpoint deck. It enables much flexibility to show the flow of the recommended solution and allow the customer and I to come closer together in understanding what we are looking to solve. The OneNote search feature enables the 'jumping around' rather than the stilted flipping through slides looking for the right thing.
  • Tabs-Enabling quick look up even without using the search feature. Also, because of the sub-tabs, items can be updated quickly and neatly.
  • Search-As the content grows, this is without a doubt one of the more used features and it does not disappoint.
  • Multi-Format and document linking. If there is something that is customer facing, I put these things into the short version when I am giving my presentations.
  • Writing - With the growth of tablets, this seems to be a no-brainer. However, I use it to overwrite illustrations. Again as with the advantage of presenting in a more natural flow, using the pen/highlighting tools to draw attention is invaluable.
  • The phone app is too 'heavy.' A large download.
  • Lists - I still keep the ToDo's on Evernote but hope that OneNote updates this to something a bit more friendly and maybe even something that can be written at the desk and then deployed to the phone.
  • The cells on top of cells sometimes are frustrating when you are copying and pasting from one document to OneNote.
Well Suited: Portfolio 'Bibles' - Just like the old 3 ring binder notebooks that salespeople used to haul around, OneNote is the digital equivalent but much more tidy and less bulky.
Less Appropriate: Generating new content. Because of its amorphous [for want of a better term] nature, it is easier to go to another application in the office suite and drag/copy over to OneNote rather than starting and finishing within OneNote.
June 24, 2016

Best Note App Ever!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OneNote for personal note taking for classes or just general things I need to write down during the day. I am constantly making and editing to-do lists and OneNote makes it really easy to do so on the go. I always have my phone on me at the very least so taking notes across different platforms is really convenient.
  • The mobile version is wonderful.
  • Love being able to use a stylus.
  • Android has a floating badge that stays on screen to allow quick access to notes anytime.
  • Updates can cause more problems than they solve sometimes.
OneNote is a great note taking app for everyone, students specifically. Sharing your notes is a breeze, which is helpful for collaborating or even just helping out a friend. Sometimes I even use it to make a grocery list to send to my boyfriend.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I employ OneNote across my Windows 10 desktop, my Linux laptop (OneNote online), and on my Windows 10 Mobile device. The seamless and rapid syncing of note content across my devices is very useful and makes OneNote a great productivity tool.

One of the biggest advantages to OneNote when used stand-alone (not in the context of Office 365 or Enterprise use with Lync/etc) is the rich data that can be imported, captured, or recorded with & in OneNote. If you can see it, hear it, or think it, you can put it in OneNote with ease.
  • Cross-device syncing (I can get my notes nearly anywhere). Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and the web. Linux is a notable omission, but the OneNote webclient is acceptable for now.
  • Rich data capabilities. Photos, videos, drawings, voice recordings, files, tables, etc.
  • Ease of use is quite high. The mobile app is very smartly designed with a UI that morphs based upon orientation and screen resolution, exposing finer controls when needed.
  • Quick start-up time, especially with more recent builds of the mobile app
  • Linux support with a native program. Office for Linux wouldn't hurt, either.
  • Ability to log more rich data from various attached sensors on devices: Geolocation, temp, humidity, RSSI, etc. Anything that Windows can access.
  • Improve first-use sync/download time and experience. Toggling an option to enable background downloads of all content is not intuitive, and waiting to retrieve content when you view a note is not pleasant.
  • Better Share To OneNote functionality from Windows 10.
Any situation that calls for a centralized way to store notes and other data, OneNote is easily the best tool that I can think of. Previously, I toyed with Evernote but I found that OneNote offered me a much more pleasant experience and supported my devices better.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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