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Note-taking in OneNote is as easy as writing in a paper notebook, but in OneNote you can easily create space and add pages when and where you need them, move and format text anywhere on the page, search and instantly find the information you need, and tag important notes for follow-up.

In OneNote, your notes can also include any combination of typed text, pictures, and graphics — including any text and images that you capture from Web pages and other programs — as well as digital handwriting, audio and video clips, lists, and links.
 

What do you want to do?

Type or write notes on a page

Do either of the following:

  • To type notes, click wherever on the page you want the notes to appear, and then type your text. You can keep typing within the current note container that appears around your text, or click elsewhere on the page to create a new note.

  • If you're using a pen-input device or you’re using OneNote on a Touch-capable computer, click or tap the Draw tab on the ribbon, and then, in the Tools group, click or tap a pen color to use to handwrite notes anywhere on the page. To switch back to typing at any time, click the Type button on the Draw tab on the ribbon.
     

Move text on a page

Do any of the following:

  • To move text within the same page, move the mouse pointer over the text. When the note container appears, click the top edge of the note container, and then click and drag the container to a new location on the page.

  • To copy or move text from one page to another page, right-click the top edge of the note container, click Copy or Cut on the shortcut menu, and then paste the notes to the page you want.
     

Add space to a page

Do the following:

  1. Click the Insert tab.

  2. In the Insert group, click Insert Space.

  3. On the page, click where you want to insert more space, and then drag the pointer in the direction indicated by the arrow to insert as much extra writing space as you need.
     

Create a new page

In OneNote, a single page can virtually scroll forever, but it’s a good idea to use pages and sections effectively to help you organize your notebooks. When you want to add a new, blank page, do the following:

  1. On the right side of the OneNote program window, click the Add Page button above page tabs column.

  2. At the top of the new page, type a title into the header area. The page title you type there also appears on the page tab label for the new page you created.
     

Change the order of pages

Do the following:

  • To move a page in a notebook section higher or lower in the list of page tabs, click and hold its page tab and then drag the tab up or down to a new location.
     

Insert the time and date

Whenever you create a new page in OneNote, it is automatically stamped with the current date and time to indicate when the page was created. Depending on how you use OneNote, you can also use your computer's current date and time in your notes whenever you want to mark or track chronological events. For example, you can keep a log of phone calls received at specific times during the day by preceding the call details with the date and time of the call.

Do the following:

  1. Place the cursor where you want to add a date and time stamp in your notes.

  2. Do one of the following.

    • On the Insert tab, in the Time Stamp group, click either the Date, Time, or Date and Time button.

    • To quickly insert the current date, press ALT+SHIFT+D on your keyboard.

    • To quickly insert the current time, press ALT+SHIFT+T on your keyboard.

    • To quickly insert the current date and time, press ALT+SHIFT+F on your keyboard.
       

OneNote uses the date and time format specified in the Windows Control Panel. If you want to change the appearance of dates and times in OneNote, follow the steps below for your version of Windows.

  • Windows 10
    Close OneNote and open the Control Panel in Windows 10 (From the Search bar in the lower-left corner of the screen, type control panel). Click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Region. In the Region dialog box, on the Formats tab, choose the time and date formats you want, and then click OK. Any changes you’ve made will be applied to future date and time stamps that you insert; existing notes won’t be automatically reformatted with the new settings.

  • Windows 8
    Close OneNote and open the Control Panel in Windows 8 (Swipe in from the right—if you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner—and choose the Search icon. Type control panel). Click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Region. In the Region dialog box, on the Formats tab, choose the time and date formats you want, and then click OK. Any changes you’ve made will be applied to future date and time stamps that you insert; existing notes won’t be automatically reformatted with the new settings.

  • Windows 7
    Close OneNote and open the Control Panel in Windows 7. Click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Region and Language. In the Region and Language dialog box, on the Formats tab, choose the time and date formats you want, and then click OK. Any changes you’ve made will be applied to future date and time stamps that you insert; existing notes won’t be automatically reformatted with the new settings.

Create a bulleted or numbered list

Create a bulleted list

Bulleted lists are a great way to list items in random order, such as a shopping list.

Do the following:

  1. In your notes, place the cursor where you want to begin a bulleted list.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Basic Text group, click Bullets.

  3. Type the text for the first bullet, and then press ENTER to create the next bullet.

  4. Press ENTER twice in a row to end the bulleted list.
     

Tip:  To automatically begin a bulleted list, type * (asterisk) at the beginning of a new line of text, and then press the Spacebar.
 

Create a numbered list

Numbered lists are a great way to list items in chronological order, such as step-by-step instructions.

Do the following:

  • In your notes, place the cursor where you want to begin a bulleted list.

  • On the Home tab, in the Basic Text group, click Numbering.

  • Type the text for the first item, and then press ENTER to create the next item.

  • Press ENTER twice in a row to end the numbered list.
     

Tip:  To automatically begin a numbered list, type 1. at the beginning of a new line of text, and then press the Spacebar.
 

Add or edit a link

OneNote automatically creates link (formerly called hyperlinks) whenever you type or paste an Internet address or World Wide Web URL into your notes. Alternately, you can also use the Insert > Link command to create a link from text in your notes.
 

Add a link

Do one of the following:

  • In your notes, type or paste the Internet address that the link should point to. For example, to add a link to the Microsoft Web site, type http://www.microsoft.com (or just www.microsoft.com) and OneNote will automatically make the link clickable.

  • On the ribbon, click Insert > Link. In the Address box, type the Internet address that the link should point to, and then click OK.
     

Note:  To create links to other pages in your notebook, click the notebook section containing the page that you want to link to, right-click its page tab, click Copy Link to Page, and then paste the link wherever in your notes you want it to appear.
 

Edit a link

To change the Internet address an existing link in your notes points to, do the following

  1. Right-click the link whose address you want to change, and then click Edit Link.

  2. In the Link dialog box that opens, replace the URL in the Address box with the new one you want. If necessary, also change the descriptive text that appears in the Text to display box to match the destination of the new link.

  3. Click OK.
     

Remove a link

To delete a link without deleting the text from which it was created, do the following:

  • Right-click the link you want to delete, and then click Remove Link on the shortcut menu.
     

Add tags to important notes

OneNote provides several tags, such as Important and To Do, that you can apply to notes. Tags let you visibly prioritize or categorize notes and they can be used to group notes by classification or importance when searching your notebooks.
 

Add a tag to a note

Do the following:

  1. In your notes, click the text that you want to tag.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Tags group, click the tag icon that you want to apply. Use the arrows to scroll through the list or click the More arrow in the lower right corner of the list to show all available tags.
     

Search for tags

To quickly find all of your tagged notes (for example, to see all items you marked with the Important tag), do the following:

  • Click Home > Find Tags. In the Tags Summary task pane that opens, click any tag in the list to find and open the page that contains its associated note.
     

Save notes

Unlike other computer programs, Microsoft OneNote automatically and continuously saves your work while you work, which means there is never any need to save your notes manually.

You can freely shut down OneNote at any time and as soon as you're done taking notes. When you next start OneNote, it will automatically open the last page you were looking at and your latest changes will be recalled.
 

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