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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

YouTube

Demo oneNote

YouTube

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

(898)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
  • Real-time updating across the team
  • No longer needing to search as much for the proper presentation before a call
  • Sharing with end users made easier
As stated earlier, Evernote is a little better at mobile and list making. Especially when doing things like needing to record different media types [written, photos, audio recording]. That being said, if Evernote shut its doors tomorrow, I'd just download all of that content and import into OneNote. If the inverse were true, life would stink for the type of work that I do and how much I depend on it.
10
Sales and Sales Engineering
1
And that may be generous. Most of the OneNote support issues can be solved with a quick Bing inquiry.
  • Hardware and Software portfolio and keeping it up to date.
  • Customer presentations over PowerPoint for more versatile and conversation-based explanation rather than Death by PowerPoint.
  • Concept review for self-education.
  • See the OneNote over PowerPoint point made earlier
  • Communicating product updates
  • Collaboration - neither unexpected or innovative but it keeps us out of hot water in ensuring we are using the most current data
  • New hire onboarding materials
  • Pre/During/Post call or presentation checklist for follow up
I could not imagine living without it.
Yes
Evernote. I still use it for 'on the fly' type of things as well as saving web pages to read later but other than that, OneNote has an easier to navigate user experience.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
It handles multiple applications and rarely loses the formatting unless that is your wish.
I would not.
  • Coloring: As silly as this may sound, the makes finding sub-tabs much faster when flipping around.
  • Layout - Moveable and easy to customize to your liking.
  • Saving - If all of my other MS apps did this well, life would be easier.
  • Screen capture Win+Shift+S and you get the capture and can automate what gets down with it, simply coped for pasting purposes of sent directly to a predesignated spot in OneNote.
  • Sometimes format can be kludgey.
  • Different boxes on top of one another. You know how you can hit F2 in excel when you are in a cell with the end result of a formula, I'd like that same functionality in OneNote but all of the perimeters of the boxes get highlighted. This may exist but I have yet to find a shortcut.
  • Speaking of shortcuts, even though I did laud the screenshot and what comes after [as to where it get goes or gets deposited], I miss the shorter version of the screenshot shortcut. Also, and this is more OS blaming than OneNote, OneNote has to be open for the 3 shortcut functions to work.
Yes
The format seems to be better optimized for larger screens, so anything above a smartphone screen is ideal. It also eats a lot of storage on the mobile version.
Even if it's not intuitive, you can easily save your work until you can figure out how to do something.
Alan Matson, CCNA:S, MCP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use OneNote to share and sync our important client details for job visits, etc. Instead of having to publish a full suite CRM to manage customer calls we have templates created in OneNote that include the job details and blanks for the consultants to add notes for the work done and any recommendations. These pages can then be formatted and printed to PDF to provide to customer with the fixes and recommendations from the visit. Since all data is synced anyone can pull it up and there is always a backup copy on the cloud.
  • Note sync
  • Easy collaboration
  • Cloud backup of notes
  • Ability to make templates that are shared
  • Better layout
  • Make templates easier
  • More sharing options
I think it is best suited for collaboration of project ideas. Where it would be less suited would be for someone looking for a replacement for a full fledged collaboration suite.
  • Positive - Saved us money on finding a more expensive solution
OneNote was the best choice over Google Drive because Google keeps changing their products too often removing some features and adding others that we do not need. We also looked at self hosting with ownCloud but the ability to use OneNote on a multitude of devices and no purchase of hardware was needed by us to operate OneNote.
Yes
Owncloud, we wanted to look for a solution in which we did not have to self host and not have to purchase equipment to run it.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Vendor Reputation
The usability was the most important factor for us. We wanted something that can be synced between multiple devices including phones and tablets for consultants in the field.
Better field testing prior to purchase, we got lucky but this could have been a bad decision should it not have worked.
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