Getting Started with OneNote 2016

– Version 2.0

An Employment and Social Development Canada Employee Guide

Welcome to OneNote 2016

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook that provides a single place for all of your notes and information – everything you need to remember and manage in your projects or regular activities.

In OneNote, your notebooks never run out of paper. They are easy to organize, print, and share, and you can search all your notes quickly so you can find notes even if you forget where you put them. OneNote uses notebooks, sections and pages to help you stay organized.

This software will be new to many Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) employees, not having received emphasis in previous versions. If you used OneNote previously, anything you created will follow you into OneNote 2016, similar to other Office products such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

This guide will provide instructions for the most common functions, with steps on how to complete the basic tasks to get you started with OneNote.

Getting Started

To open OneNote, select your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs. You will find OneNote in the Microsoft Office 2016 folder.

To create a new notebook, select New from the File menu and save to an approved local or network location.

You can create multiple notebooks, and sections within each, to organize your work:

Once you have created your notebooks, you can take notes within these notebooks on the selected page:

Basic functions work the same as they do in other Office applications. The following image shows examples of elements you could add to your notes pages.

image shows onenote open with different tabs. shows pictures, tables, word documents and hyper links all on the same page

Tip: OneNote doesn't have a Save button. That's because you never have to save your work in OneNote like you do in other applications. As you work in your notebooks, OneNote automatically saves everything for you.


Using OneNote

Add or Rearrange Tabs and Pages

Select the + (plus sign) tab to add a new Section to a notebook. Right–click on any tab for other functions such as Delete, Move or Copy, Rename, or to change the section colour. Similar options are available for pages at the right-hand side of the notebook.

image shows onenote open with different tabs and a plus icon to open a new tab.

Insert Links

You can insert a hyperlink into your notes to make links to text, pictures and to other pages and sections of your notebooks.

Example: to add a link to an internet location, on the page where you would like the link added, select Insert, Link on the ribbon menu. In the Link dialog box, type or paste the location into the Address field and then select OK.

Add Files to Your Notes

You can keep all of your information about any subject or project together in one place, including copies of related files and documents:

Insert Pictures

You can insert pictures into your notes: select Insert, and locate the picture to insert from a stored location or from an online location.

Insert a Table

You can create and insert a table directly on a notes page by selecting Insert, Table.

Create Meeting Notes

In Outlook, open the meeting and select Meeting Notes from the ribbon menu. You will be presented with a dialogue box of your notebooks from which to select where to add the notes. Once you select the location, a new page will be added to start your notes. All relevant information about the meeting will be added to the note, including the date, time, those invited and the subject.


Customizing

Notebook Pane (list of notebooks)

The Notebook pane displays a list of open notebooks at the left-hand side of the screen that you can easily navigate among. To keep this list visible: select the first tab at the top left (i.e. name of the currently open notebook) to view a drop-down menu. At the top right corner of this menu, you will see the silhouette of a push-pin. Select this symbol to maintain the Notebook pane as an open feature.

Tags

Prioritize or organize notes with dozens of searchable tags from the default list, or customize your own tag.

Customizing View Settings

image shows onenote options page. Highlighting default font settings showing font, size, and font colour.

To customize default display settings, select File > Options > Display. Changes such as whether Page Tabs, Navigation Tabs, or the Scroll Bar will appear on the left of the interface, or if new pages have lines or not, can be made here.

image shows onenote options page. Highlighting display menu item.

Change note paper size by selecting View > Paper Size to change properties such as width and height.

Change the colour of your section tabs to be even more organized:

  1. Right-click the section
  2. Select Section Colour
  3. In the menu that appears, choose the desired colour

Note: You can also choose None if you prefer not to use any of the colours that are available in the Colour Picker. Customize the Quick Access Toolbar to streamline tasks to remove the ones you don't use, and to add ones specific to your work that don't appear in the list. To do so, select File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar, then move the desired tools from the main bank to your customized bank.