How to Use OneNote (Notebooks, Sections and Pages)

OneNote is the odd one out among note apps, because a page works like a sheet of paper. You can click anywhere and type, drop a picture beside a paragraph, then scribble over the top. That freedom is what people love and what confuses beginners at first. Here is the structure, the first things to try and a few habits that keep a notebook useful.

How OneNote is organised

Microsoft describes OneNote as a digital notebook that gives you a single place for your notes and information. The structure copies a paper binder. A notebook holds sections (the coloured tabs), and each section holds pages and subpages. Microsoft stresses that OneNote isn't limited to any particular organising style, and you can reorganise whenever you change your mind.

Level	Think of it as...	Example
Notebook	A binder	Work, Home, Study
Section	A tab	Clients, Meetings, Ideas
Page	A sheet	Notes from Monday's call
Subpage	A sheet clipped behind another	Follow-up actions for that call

Type your first notes

• Anywhere on the page: click where you want the text and start typing. Click elsewhere to begin a separate note box.
• Page title: click the title area at the top and type. Titles show in the page list on the left.
• No title? Microsoft says if you leave it blank, the first line of your notes becomes the title.
• Handwriting: if your device supports it, use the Draw tab, pick a pen and write straight onto the page.

Add pages and subpages

To make a new page, click Add Page above the page tabs. To make a subpage, drag a page tab to the right until its title is indented. Subpages are a neat way to keep related notes together, and Microsoft says you can select a page group as a unit to copy, move or email it.

Add links, files and pictures

OneNote turns web addresses you type into links automatically. You can also select text or a picture, choose Insert, then Link, type the destination in the Address field and click OK. The links can point to web pages, other pages in your notebook or whole sections, which makes a contents page easy to build.

A simple structure that works

1. Create one notebook for each area of your life, such as Work.
2. Add a section for each client, project or subject.
3. Add a new page for every meeting or idea, with the date in the title.
4. Keep a 'To do' page at the front of each section for actions.
5. Once a week, tidy up: move stray notes to the right section and delete duplicates.

Find things later

Microsoft's pitch is that you can search all your notes quickly, even if you've forgotten where you put them. That makes OneNote good as a dumping ground: capture first, organise later. Use a few consistent words in titles, such as the client's name, and your searches will be much more reliable.

Share and sync

Store notebooks online and you can open them on any device. If you want other people to work in the same notebook, share the whole notebook from OneDrive or SharePoint. I cover sharing and syncing in more detail in separate guides, because both have their own quirks.

Mistakes to avoid

• One giant notebook. Search slows down and everything gets cluttered. Split by area.
• No titles. Untitled pages are hard to scan in the page list.
• Deep nesting. Notebook, section and page is plenty. Don't invent more layers.
• Never reviewing. A notebook you don't revisit becomes a graveyard.

OneNote is great for meeting notes, so my meeting notes to action prompt pack pairs well with it, and my guide to Microsoft tools for small businesses shows where it fits among the other apps.

Tips from daily use

• Put the date in the title of every meeting page, so notes sort naturally.
• Use a section called 'Inbox' for quick captures, then file them weekly.
• Link related pages together with Insert, then Link, so you can jump around quickly.
• Don't paste huge files into pages. Add files you need and keep large ones in a shared folder.
• Keep the notebooks you open every day small and recent, and archive old ones.

When OneNote is the right choice

OneNote suits free-form note-taking: meeting notes, research, study, planning, scrapbooks of links and pictures. If your notes are mostly lists of tasks, a task manager is better. If they're long, structured documents, a word processor is better. OneNote is strongest when you want to mix typed text, pictures, handwriting and links on one flexible page and find it all later with search. Knowing that stops you fighting the tool, and you'll find it's easier to keep notes tidy when you're not forcing it into a job it wasn't built for.

Getting a messy notebook back under control

If your notebook has grown wild, don't try to fix it all at once. Create a new section called 'Archive', move anything older than a few months into it, and carry on from a clean slate. Rename the sections you use daily so their purpose is obvious. Then take ten minutes to give untitled pages right names. Searching will work far better afterwards, and you'll stop avoiding the notebook.

My verdict

Use one notebook per area, a section per project and a dated page per meeting. Click and type anywhere, capture first and tidy weekly, and let search find the rest.

Frequently asked questions

How do I start using OneNote?

Create a notebook, add sections for topics and pages inside them, then click anywhere on a page and type.

What's the difference between a section and a page?

A section is a tab that groups pages. A page is where you take notes.

How do I make a subpage?

Drag a page tab to the right until its title is indented.

What if I don't give a page a title?

Microsoft says the first line of your notes becomes the page title.

Can I handwrite in OneNote?

Yes, if your computer supports handwriting. Use the Draw tab, pick a pen and write on the screen.