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Think of Quick Notes as the electronic equivalent of a little yellow sticky note. Unlike paper though, Quick Notes (formerly Side Notes) are instantly saved to your OneNote notebook so you can search and organize them.

Create a new Quick Note while OneNote is running

  1. On the View menu, select New Quick Note.

    Screenshot of the New Quick Note button in OneNote 2016.

  2. Type your note in the small note window. You can format the text using the commands on the mini toolbar that appears.

  3. Repeat the steps for any additional Quick Notes that you want to create.

You can move Quick Notes anywhere on your screen and leave them there for as long as you want. When you’re done with a Quick Note, close its window.

Note: Closing a Quick Note window doesn't delete the note. OneNote automatically saves your Quick Notes. Quick Notes are stored in the Quick Notes section in your default notebook. You can find them quickly by opening your Notebooks list (click the down-arrow next to the name of your notebook and look at the bottom of the list for Quick Notes).

Create a Quick Note when OneNote isn’t running

You can create Quick Notes even if you haven’t opened OneNote.

  • On your keyboard, press Windows + Alt + N for each Quick Note that you'd like to create.

Pin important Quick Notes to your screen

If you’re using Quick Notes to keep small reminders and important information visible at all times, you can pin them so that they stay visible over any other windows on your computer screen.

  1. In any Quick Note that you want to keep visible, on the toolbar, select View > Always on Top. (If you don't see the toolbar, click the ... at the top of the window.)

  2. Move each pinned note to the position of your screen where you want to keep it displayed.

  3. To unpin a note, select Always on Top again.

Review all your Quick Notes

No matter how or when you created them, you can easily look through your Quick Notes anytime.

  1. Near the top of the current page, select the name of your current notebook (for example “My Notebook”).

  2. At the bottom of the Notebook list, select Quick Notes.

    Screnshot of the OneNote 2016 Notebooks pane with Quick Notes highlighted

  3. In the Quick Notes section, select the tabs of the notes you'd like to review.

You can keep Quick Notes filed in the Quick Notes section, or you can move selected notes to other parts of your notebooks. To move a page, right-click the page tab, choose Move or Copy, and follow the prompts.

Create a Quick Note while OneNote is running

  1. Click View > Window > Send to OneNote Tool > New Quick Note.

    Manage Quick Notes with the Send to OneNote Tool

  2. Type your note in the small note window. You can format the text by using the commands on the mini toolbar that appears.

  3. Repeat the previous steps for any additional Quick Notes that you want to create.

You can move Quick Notes anywhere on your screen and leave them there for as long as you need to refer to them. When you’re done with a Quick Note, close its window.

Note: Closing a Quick Note window does not delete the note. Like regular notes, OneNote automatically saves your Quick Notes as soon as you’ve created them and whenever you edit them, so you can refer to them later. Quick Notes are stored in your notebook’s Quick Notes section, which you can get to from the bottom of your Notebooks list.

Create a Quick Note when OneNote isn’t running

You can create a Quick Note even if you haven’t opened OneNote.

  1. On your keyboard, press Windows + Alt + N.

  2. When the Send to OneNote window appears, press N to create a new Quick Note.

  3. Type your note in the small note window. You can format the text by selecting it and then using the commands on the mini toolbar that appears.

  4. Repeat the previous steps for any additional Quick Notes you want to create. 

Note: Even when OneNote isn’t running, any Quick Notes that you’ve created are automatically saved to your notebook’s Quick Notes section.

Pin important Quick Notes to your screen

If you’re using Quick Notes to keep small reminders and important information visible at all times, you can pin them so that they stay visible over any other windows on your computer screen.

  1. In any Quick Note that you want to keep visible, click View > Always on Top.

  2. Move each pinned note to the position of your screen where you want to keep it displayed.

  3. To cancel pinning a note to the top of your screen, repeat step 1.

Review all of your Quick Notes

No matter how or when you created them, you can easily look through all of your Quick Notes whenever you want.

  1. Near the top of the current page, click the name of your current notebook (for example “My Notebook”).

  2. At the bottom of the Notebook list, click Quick Notes.

  3. In the Quick Notes section, click the tabs of the pages you want to review.

  4. Repeat the previous steps for any additional Quick Notes you want to create.

You can keep Quick Notes filed in the Quick Notes section, or you can move selected notes to other parts of your notebooks.

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