Office 365:
OneNote
American University
Office of Information Technology
Training Unit
MS Office 365: OneNote
Create a new notebook........................................................................................................................................................... 1
Type or Write Notes in the Browser ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Change Default Font Options .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Add Links ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Internal Links ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Insert Pictures ......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Draw a Table ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Add More Pages ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Add More Sections .................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Work together in a notebook ................................................................................................................................................. 6
Dock to Desktop ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Align Objects Using Custom Color Rule or Grid Lines ............................................................................................................. 7
Quick Notes ............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Page Templates ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Custom Tags .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Link Notes Between PowerPoint Slides and OneNote .......................................................................................................... 11
Save Your Notes .................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Share Notes Online ............................................................................................................................................................... 11
Work Together in a Notebook .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Password Protect Note Sections in Microsoft OneNote ....................................................................................................... 12
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ONENOTE
If you do a lot of notetaking, attend multiple meetings during the week, and collaborate with others on projects, then
OneNote can keep all that information neatly organized. All your notes—even words in pictures—are searchable inside
OneNote, and they’re stored in the cloud and immediately accessible via the OneNote apps for any platform.
With OneNote Online, you can use your web browser to create, open, view, edit, format, and share the OneNote
notebooks that you created on OneDrive.
CREATE A NEW NOTEBOOK
Login to office.com with your myAU Portal userid/password and select OneDrive.
Click New > OneNote notebook, and give the notebook a name. Then, click Create.
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If you’re using OneNote 2016, click File, New. Then, select OneDrive, Browse, and give the notebook a name.
Your OneNote notebook will display:
TYPE OR WRITE NOTES IN THE BROWSER
OneNote Online lets you edit your cloud-based OneNote notebooks by opening them in your browser and then typing
anywhere on its pages. In addition to typing and formatting text, you can also add images to your notes.
There’s no Save command in OneNote Online. All of your work is saved automatically and continuously. If you change
your mind about something you’ve typed, added, or deleted in your notes, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or ⌘+Z (Mac) to
undo your last action.
Tabs along the left side of the screen represent sections, which contain pages, to help you organize your thoughts.
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CHANGE DEFAULT FONT OPTIONS
Desktop versions of Microsoft OneNote allow you to specify default font settings for notes. To open OneNote in the
Desktop, do one of the following:
Then, click File -> Options -> General
ADD LINKS
Whenever you type text that OneNote Online recognizes as a link (also known as a hyperlink), it automatically formats it
as one. For example, if you type www.american.edu into your notes, OneNote Online turns that into a link. In this
example, clicking the link will open the Microsoft website in your browser.
You can also manually insert links into your notes by doing the following:
1. Select the text you want to link.
2. Click Insert > Link.
3. In the Link dialog box, type the link’s destination URL into the Address field and then click Insert.
NOTE: To edit or remove a link, right-click it in your notes, and then click either Edit Link or Remove Link.
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INTERNAL LINKS
Another organizational feature of OneNote is the ability to create Internal Links, or clickable links that take you to other
notebooks, sections, and pages. The larger your notebooks and the more notes you have, the more useful this feature
becomes.
To create a link, right-click on any tab — whether notebook, section, or page — and select the Copy Link option. Now all
you have to do is paste it somewhere. If you want to link a page, there’s an easier way. Just type [[, the name of the
page verbatim, and then ]]. This will automatically convert it into an internal page link.
INSERT PICTURES
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On any page, put the cursor where you want to insert the picture.
Click Insert and then do one of the following:
Click Picture to insert a picture file from your computer.
Click Online Pictures to search for and insert pictures from Bing Images.
DRAW A TABLE
Tables are a great way to organize information in your notes. To create a table in OneNote Online, start by drawing a
simple grid.
1. Click Insert > Table.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the grid to select the table size you want, and then click the left mouse button to
create the table. For example, selecting a 4x6 table would create a table with 4 columns and 6 rows.
To quickly modify a table or any of its parts, click in any table cell, and then click the Layout tab that appears on the
ribbon. The table tools you find here let you insert and remove rows and columns, select cells and cell ranges, show or
hide table borders, and align table cells the way you want.
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ADD MORE PAGES
For more room in any section of your notebook, you can add as many pages as you want.
Do either of the following:
1. On the left side of the screen, over the column of page tabs,
choose Add Page.
2. Type a page title into the heading area at the top of the page, and
then press Enter.
NOTE: To change the order of your page tabs in the sidebar, click and drag
any page tab to a new position.
ADD MORE SECTIONS
To better organize your notebook into different categories, you can add as many sections as you want.
Do either of the following:
1. On the left side of the screen, over the column of section
tabs, choose Add Section.
2. In the Section Name dialog box, type a meaningful
description for the new section, and press OK.
NOTE: To change the order of your section tabs in the sidebar,
click and drag any section tab to a new position.
WORK TOGETHER IN A NOTEBOOK
Working together in a notebook is a good way to brainstorm ideas or do research for a group project.
OneNote Online shows you updates as they happen, and you can see who did what on the page: Go to View > Show
Authors (click it again to hide author names).
OneNote keeps the notebook in sync with everyone, even if they’re using different devices.
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DOCK TO DESKTOP
Microsoft OneNote can be docked to one side of your desktop by using the Dock to Desktop feature. This allows the
program to be easily accessible as you work on your projects in various applications. In fact, you can dock several
OneNote windows to your desktop.
Select View -> Dock to Desktop or New Docked Window.
ALIGN OBJECTS USING CUSTOM COLOR RULE OR GRID LINES
By default, the OneNote interface is blank white. If you need to work with images and other objects as well, you can
show and customize rule lines or grid lines. These do not print, but serve as guides while you create or design your
notes.
Click View -> Rule Lines.
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QUICK NOTES
Quick Notes are like Post-It Notes: they’re separate, minimal note windows that act independently from the main
OneNote window. They don’t belong to any particular notebook either. Instead, they just sit in a collection of Quick
Notes.
You can launch a new Quick Note even when OneNote is closed using the Windows + N keyboard shortcut. If you need
to launch additional ones, use the Windows + Alt + N keyboard shortcut.
PAGE TEMPLATES
Instead of recreating the layouts of those notes every time, you can set up a Page Template that you can invoke when
creating new notes, which can save you a lot of time.
USE A TEMPLATE
To use a template as a new page in OneNote, first make sure you’re in the correct section of the Notebook you want to
place the new page into. Then, navigate to Page > Page Templates.
You’ll be presented with several different categories of templates that serve difference purposes. There are blank pages
that simply add a shade of color or change the paper size you’re working with, as well as more detailed templates for
specific usage cases, like to-do lists and skeletons for lecture notes.
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EDITING TEMPLATES
You may find a template that would work better with a few of your own tweaks. OneNote makes it easy to customize
templates to your liking. First, open up the template that you like and create a new page with it in place.
Make your changes to the template. For example, add/remove images, change the paper size.
Finally, re-open the Templates menu that we started with, if you’ve already closed it. At the bottom, there’s the option
to Save current page as a template. Click on this, then choose a name to save it under when prompted to. Now, you’ll
be able to select your customized template just as you would any other.
CUSTOM TAGS
OneNote’s system of organization is already good with its notebook/section/page approach to notes, but you can get
even more granularity by using tags. Tags are good for relating notes that exist across different sections or notebooks.
For example, above is a recipe notebook with a section for Lunches and a section for Dinner. There are tags for Chicken,
Beef, Pork, and Vegetarian which can be applied to notes in both Lunch and Dinner sections — and these tags come in
handy when searching.
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LINK NOTES BETWEEN POWERPOINT SLIDES AND ONENOTE
Another application for meetings is the ability to take notes to PowerPoint slides, right from OneNote.
In PowerPoint, an option is available to Share to OneNote. You can also select OneNote Linked Notes (an add-in
download may be required) under the Review menu in the desktop version.
SAVE YOUR NOTES
OneNote Online doesn’t have a Save button. That’s because you never have to save your work in OneNote.
As you work in your notebooks, OneNote Online automatically saves everything for you — no matter how small or large
the changes. This frees your mind to let you think about your projects, thoughts, and ideas instead of thinking about
your computer files.
If you change your mind about anything you’ve typed, added, or deleted in your notes, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or ⌘+Z
(Mac) to undo your last action.
SHARE NOTES ONLINE
Because your notebook is online, you can share it by sending a link instead of an email attachment. By clicking the link,
people can read your notes in their web browser.
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WORK TOGETHER IN A NOTEBOOK
Working together in a notebook is a good way to brainstorm ideas or do research for a group project.
OneNote Online shows you updates as they happen, and you can see who did what on the page: Go to View > Show
Authors (click it again to hide author names).
OneNote keeps the notebook in sync with everyone, even if they’re using different devices.
PASSWORD PROTECT NOTE SECTIONS IN MICROSOFT ONENOTE
Within a OneNote notebook, you can password protect a given section by right-selecting the tab for the section then
Password Protect. A side bar pops up on the right in the desktop version of OneNote, giving you ways to customize
these settings.
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