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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

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

(1-25 of 51)
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Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OneNote on a daily bases with my organization for meetings, tasks, ideas, technical writing, notes, reminders and schedules to name a few. It automatically saves so I don't have to along with saving a backup wherever I need it to be. I connect it to my phone so I have it everywhere I go since it is connected to OneDrive. I can add emails and pictures along with other programs into it to help me when needed. It connects to browser and server links so I know where to look up procedures. It lets me categorize my jobs and it is easy to search for them with the Search tool. I can record notes and keep them all in one place. I can share my notes with others. If I am working on a tablet I can even write my notes down in OneNote using my stylus.You can draw, sketch, highlight, and format in this program. Enter graphs and spreadsheets, presentations, along with videos. You can lock pages or folders using a secure password. I use this for my sensitive items. This program is a great knowledge base product to use for technical instructions and training. I even use it for my yearly Goals and it keeps me on track to set and complete these goals. I have never has a problem with this product that needs to be addressed.
  • Organizes my thoughts and ideas
  • Minutes on our team meetings
  • switches from one device to another easily and quickly
  • Saves instantly
  • Password protected pages and folders
  • searching for what you are looking for easily
  • adding graphs, pictures, recordings, videos and much more
  • Drawings and sketches are very easy to do from a tablet
  • You can't send emails or meetings from Outlook to OneNote
  • Recover deleted notes if there is no backup
  • Schedule a meeting from OneNote to Outlook
  • Share your OneNote book thru Teams
This product is a great organizer for your tasks, thoughts, and documentation. It works great to share with your coworkers and your other devices and to have them all in one place. Password protect your folders and pages for privacy. You can insert emails, spreadsheets, graphs and charts, along with videos and pictures. It can't create a meeting to your Outlook calendar or Teams meetings.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
i use one note for taking call notes. have it organized and shared with my teams either via email or via teams group chat. it serves well for me to collaborate as well
  • Categorizing. this useful as i work with multiple stakeholders in the organization
  • Creating a checklist. i can conjure a checklist depending on the meeting requirement which is a really cool thing to do
  • ink to drawing or writing feature
  • can be used to integrate into power BI or MS project applications
  • live feed of the people who are collaborating and those who dont
One note is well suited for
1. taking meeting notes
2. creating checklist
3. categorizing per department/ project
4. quick diagram creation
March 07, 2023

OneNote

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
OneNote allows us to take digital hand written notes with clients converting notes into the CRM easily and effectively. It allows additional notes to be inserted into previous notes, time stamps for industry compliance and best of all convert the notes to PDF at the end. It works naturally within the Microsoft Office environment and industry specific software platforms
  • Note taking
  • Handwritten notes
  • Convert notes to PDF easily
  • Sometimes notebooks and certain pages are hard to find but the search function assist with this
Handwritten notes are helpful during client meetings and the best part is having the program handy without worrying about pen and paper. At the end the notes are easily converted to PDF instead of worrying about scanning.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Organization, utilization, productivity, etc. Used for all our billable tickets and ticket notes, as well as logins, etc.
  • Productivity
  • Organization
  • Easy of Use
  • Speed
Mobile app could be better. However, hard to ask for more. We love it, extremely recommended and crucial in our position!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use OneNote daily for everything from taking basic general notes to recording meeting minutes and attendance for our project meetings. OneNote is very handy for offline note taking as well as being able to share entire notebooks with colleagues that we all can add to whenever we need. This software is great for collaboration.
  • Allows collaboration
  • Easy notetaking
  • Great for keeping you organized
  • Layout tabs could be better
  • More toolbar options
OneNote is well suited for digital notetaking. The software helps keep all of your notes organized in one place so you never have to carry around multiple notepads or writing utensils which take up space and may get lost. OneNote can be backed up on OneDrive which means you will never lose your notes and they are available on all of your devices immediately.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I mainly use OneNote to backup data from Facebook (posts in my own small group) and to use each note (each post is a new note) as a to-do list putting them in different sections of a notebook once the issue is raised in it has been handled. I use Pabbly to integrate between the two.
  • It has Notebooks and sections and then individual notes allowing organisation.
  • They are multi-format - Pictures, words, formatting and can move things around the page.
  • The information is accessible both online and offline once synced to the computer (Windows 11).
  • It has image searching.
  • It would be helpful to be able to work with multiple notes at the same time.
  • Search isn't always perfect.
  • It'd be great to be able to edit the order that the notes are in based on a specific format (date/name/format etc).
It's appropriate where someone is using notes across multiple devices, has a Microsoft office plan, and is just needing it for general notetaking using multi formats. It's not so helpful for someone who doesn't have a Microsoft office plan and needs to deal with multiple notes at the same time or sort by specific measures.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OneNote across the whole organization. Associates use it to organize their workflow.
  • Autosave feature saves as you go so you never lose work.
  • Tags are really helpful. Note things as you go and access them later with Find Tags.
  • OneNote works with Outlook so you can email pages directly from a notebook.
  • Create tasks that sync with Outlook.
  • I would like to have more Word formatting options available.
Using OneNote has helped me organize my workload at the office and at home. I work more efficiently and effectively with all my notes in one place.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
OneNote is being used on an individual basis throughout the organization. Because it is now freely available, many users use it as their preferred note-taking platform for jotting down notes, action items, and capturing other content for later consumption. OneNote enjoys integration with the Microsoft Office suite of tools and as a result, users enjoy integration with OneDrive for Cloud syncing and other benefits.
  • This is good at capturing multiple sources of input - drawings, web clippings, graphics, and others. This enables you to enrich your notes with any and all relevant content, without necessarily needing to remember where it came from.
  • Share the notes with my colleagues.
  • Ability to save audio notes.
  • Ability for my colleagues to update the notes.
  • SSL handling.
  • feature for my colleagues/team members to update the notes.
  • Dev tools all should be based on the eclipse side
1. OneNote's integration with OneDrive ensures that individual's notes are always safe and secure, taking away the tedious responsibility of backup from the user, and makes it happen seamlessly in the background.
2. OneNote can be used for multiple purposes. It definitely improves my daily productivity and thereby improves performance.
3. Notes security is top notch. Starting at the network port level down to field level encryption.


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 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is currently being used in my organization. We use it to keep attendance and logs in our meetings. OneNote has allowed my department to keep track of important action trackers and their progress.
  • Easy to use.
  • Very organized.
OneNote is well suited for companies that are looking to manage their meetings in an very organized way. OneNote allows companies to keep track of past topics from previous meetings and to keep track of important actions that need to be completed by employees.
Gavin Scott-Miller | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company provides a Microsoft 365 license to its employees. So having the application pre-installed was what made me look into it to begin with. Our company uses it to varying degrees, though I personally use it as a repository of all information that isn't better suited as a full fledged document.
  • Cloud Syncing. It is great to just open the app on any computer or phone and have everything you need right there
  • Outlook integration. It is really easy to take notes from meetings and sync right to the calendar, as well as sync todos with outlook
  • Flexibility. Its really nice to be able to use OneNote however best suits you. You can create templates for these as well
  • Task management (it would be nice for one note to be able to send notifications to your device)
  • Integrations with other services (Ifttt, etc.)
  • It would be great for the iPhone application to support drawing
OneNote is really great for taking quick notes. It is also great for smaller 'documents' that you will reference frequently. I think that it is less well suited for more full document management. OneNote is NOT Microsoft Word, and OneNote is NOT Microsoft Excel. If you keep this in mind. Then OneNote will be great!
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.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is being used on an individual basis throughout the organization. Because it is now freely available, many users use it as their preferred note-taking platform for jotting down notes, action items, and capturing other content for later consumption. OneNote enjoys integration with the Microsoft Office suite of tools and as a result, users enjoy integration with OneDrive for Cloud syncing and other benefits.
  • OneNote handles cloud sync across multiple devices extremely well. It syncs my notes between my Home computer, my work computer, my iPad, and my iPhone all without issue.
  • OneNote's system for organizing notes is very hierarchical which is beneficial if you think that way. Personally, I find it easy to organize my notes by Notebook, Section, and the headings for each entry, enabling a simple yet very well organized note taking system.
  • OneNote is also good at capturing multiple sources of input - drawings, web clippings, graphics, and others. This enables you to enrich your notes with any and all relevant content, without necessarily needing to remember where it came from.
  • OneNote could improve on its web clipping features. Evernote still beats it in terms of robustness, but OneNote is sufficient for most purposes.
  • OneNote could also improve on its tagging system. Its the other major way of categorizing notes, which Evernote uses to great effect, but OneNote de-emphasizes this in favor of a hierarchical ordering.
  • This is a silly point, but it drives me mad. OneNote's free-form editing on pages, meaning you can click anywhere and start editing makes for sloppier notes that aren't as well aligned. This could be an enjoyable feature for some, but for me, I like my pages orderly.
OneNote is extremely well suited if you have Notes that generally fall into less than, say, 10 categories. That makes it easy to set up 10 different notebooks, or 10 different sections within a single notebook for those topics. Any more than that, and the hierarchical model starts to break down, and that's where tag-based organization becomes stronger. However, if you have a small number of categories, I prefer the hierarchical way that OneNote organizes, making it generally pretty easy to find the content you were looking for.
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.
September 10, 2019

OneNote is the one you need

Lukas Sundahl, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used in our department to keep track of various contract documents. It helps us organize everything that relates to a specific contract in one place. It helps keep everything organized and in a format that allows for expedited retrieval. The time stamp feature allows us to organize content so the most recent updates are at the top.
  • It is so easy to organize your data by topic.
  • OneNote is user friendly and it can quickly be picked up by people who have never worked with OneNote before.
  • The features are very similar to other Microsoft Office products which makes using it and sharing with other employees simple.
  • It is an affordable way to group and organize company information.
  • It would be nice if OneNote had some more robust table features.
  • I would like to see Linked Notes with an improved way to connect to Excel.
  • OneNote could have more drawing tools added to make it that much better.
OneNote is well suited when you have data that can be organized by department, job, contract, etc. Each tab in OneNote allows you to quickly add documents and hyperlinks to quickly get users the data they would need instead of navigating a shared network drive. OneNote allows you to quickly create new Notebooks allowing users to move to a new notebook at a specific time interval.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My entire organization adopted OneNote as a part of our shift to using the new suite of Office 365 applications exclusively. OneNote has helped to streamline collaboration across different organizations and business units at my company. It is an excellent tool for housing and organizing large bodies of information that can be shared with different users or be private. It serves as a scalable option to house anything from meeting notes, agendas etc., across the whole organization.
  • OneNote is very easy to navigate and is user-friendly, and Notebooks within the application are convenient to share making it easy to scale to new users who are not familiar with the platform
  • I enjoy being able to house meeting notes, agendas and other collateral content for different projects and programs with both individual stakeholders as well as with different project team using different notebooks and sections.
  • I can use OneNote to share documents, edit files and collaborate with other stakeholders offline.
  • While OneNote is easy to use overall, sharing Notebooks with different stakeholders can be challenging and I often have syncing issues with notebooks that are shared with other users.
OneNote helps improve collaboration for groups who may not all work in the same location which leads to improved business process improvement, agility and outcomes. I use OneNote to organize and collaborate around several projects and programs I manage forward that involve various stakeholders across different organizations and locations to collaborate around shared initiatives.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is installed on everyone's workstation, as part of the Office Suite. Individuals can use it as they want, as a personal productivity tool, and also some teams are using it to gather and share knowledge among the team members. In the past, project-based teams also used it as a collaboration tool, to share notes, follow-up tasks etc., but I think this use case is now fulfilled by other products, which are designed for project related collaboration.


  • Because of its flexibility and ability to hold different types of content (text, images, tables), it is a great tool for collecting content from different resources and organizing it in one place.
  • Technical support analysts are using sections for their support case analysis; they paste pieces of logs, screen-shots, document their steps in troubleshooting etc., all in one section, to get the full picture yet stay organized.
  • The logic of content structure; Notebook>Section>Page>Paragraph, allows you to manage and collect all needed information by the areas of the user's responsibility. For example; each of my projects has its own section, in which each page is a task.
  • Using the search functionality isn't comfortable; the search is run from a small text box at the corner of the window, and results are listed there as a narrow list of pages, without the context of the search-terms (no snippet, in other words). Searching by Tags is also uncomfortable and not intuitive.
  • Lacking integration with Outlook; because many people are using Outlook as their main tool for time management and self-productivity, it would have been great to have more options to export, or even better, export and link paragraphs to Outlook items like the Calendar and Tasks list.
  • Although there is an option to open an Outlook Task linked to a tag in Onenote, that isn't enough. Also, there is no option to tag people from the organization's directory, and that would have been great, especially for teams that are sharing sections.
  • The Draw options are not as far-reaching as in other Microsoft product (e.g. Word). Especially important is the option to group objects together and keep them as one image.
Organizing data and information objects, according to your own logic of structure. For example, organizing all info about the cases you are working on, so each case will have a dedicated section or a page. Collaborating with colleagues who are working together on a project, so they can share a notebook, a section, or a page, and from there share meetings notes, lists of action items, links to other resources, and more.

December 17, 2018

Review: OneNote

Chris Hecox | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OneNote is a powerful tool for personal note taking and client organization. OneNote makes locating specific notes easy using tags and search functions. I use OneNote personally and know others that use it as well.
  • OneNote has an excellent organizational system. Users can create a multitude of folders and subfolders, then drop whichever notes and files into each that they'd like. It's quick and easy to create notes and begin typing away. You can also draw images or insert pictures and hyperlinks.
  • OneNote has a great mobile app. You will need to wait for it to sync, but once this is done, you are able to take notes on the go, or reference notes taken on your laptop/PC.
  • OneNote makes locating notes/files easy and fast. You can search for keywords and instantly be able to reference any notable files or notes you've taken. Finding specific information is extremely fast, which makes for quickly referencing things in meetings on demand.
  • OneNote's interface is very quick to learn. It is not dissimilar to Office and other software, so the learning curve is short.
  • OneDrive can sync into OneNote, making for fast usability between the two.
  • You can import catalogs of notes from other users, but this process is not an easy one. It messes up some of the functionality of previous notes, and it's not user friendly to import. This is mitigated by sharing your notebook with another user instead of exporting it. This process is simple, but if you want a separate copy of a catalog, it's not easy to do.
  • You are able to click anywhere into a note to begin typing in that location. It's a nice feature because it's more freeflow than other document process programs (Word or Google Docs) but it's a learning curve, honestly. You won't think much of it at first, but if you prefer a more straightforward document style, it's a bit jarring.
OneNote is great for note taking for personal use. It's good for referencing clients as well. I imagine it could be useful in a small business to help take notes on what certain clients are expecting and how to address them when meeting together. This could be useful to share among business partners as they prepare for meetings and for them to be mindful of how best to be respectful and effective.

I find it's most useful for personal note taking and organizing data.
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