Microsoft OneNote and Evernote are the two standout note-taking appns in this category. Both products have advantages and disadvantages. If you want a free app, OneNote is far superior. As long as you’re prepared to pay its high fee, Evernote features a unique structure that makes it simpler to organize, categorize, discover, and share information.
OneNote is a creation of Microsoft, the American software behemoth that supplies the majority of PCs across the globe with its Windows operating system. Microsoft has created an extensive array of consumer applications, like OneNote, several of which are free to use, aside from its primary operating system.
What will you see here?
Cost
OneNote requires a Microsoft account, although it is not required to be paid for. All one need is a free Outlook.com login. For free, OneNote may be downloaded for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. A web app is also available. It has nearly no functionality limitations and is free to use. If you have a premium Microsoft account, you receive a few more tools, including Sticker and Math. OneNote free users receive 5GB of storage. A free edition for educators is also available, and it comes with 1TB of online storage.
The OneNote app’s full functionality and access to additional storage require a premium Microsoft 365 subscription. You have a choice between the Family plan, which costs $7.99 per month and offers 6TB of storage for up to six people, and the Personal plan, which costs $5.99 per month and offers 1TB of storage.
ou may download the app or use the web-based interface to access OneNote.
Design
OneNote features a well-known three-panel design. A collapsible menu with the choices Notebooks, Search, and Recent Notes is on the far left. When you pick the first option, a selection of available notebooks displays, and the pages of the selected notebook are displayed to the right. It resembles the structure of a typical tree folder. The contents of the selected page are shown in the main window.
OneNote only displays recently used notebooks by default, so you probably won’t see all of your notebooks when you initially set up the program on a new device. You must search for and reload a notebook on OneDrive to access the one you haven’t used in a while. It doesn’t take long to locate and choose them, but depending on their size, loading them may. Considering how many notes one has and how one needs to arrange them, it could be annoying and cause you to work less efficiently.
The remainder of the window reloads to show the sections and pages of the selected notebook when you choose one. The other notebooks all vanish.
Features
To use OneNote, you need a Microsoft account. Many individuals already have one; if you don’t, you can easily make a new one whenever you like. If you want to get the most out of the note-taking tool, choose the app version because the web-based version is deficient in several functions found in the native app.
Making notebooks is the primary feature you should pay attention to. As many digital notebooks as your allocated storage allow can be created. The critical distinction between this digital notebook and a hard copy one is that you have an infinite number of virtual pages. One can type as much text as one like on each notebook page.
OneNote’s text editor has the appearance and feel of a simpler version of Microsoft Word. Your text can be formatted in a variety of ways. You can bold, italicize, or underline text, for instance. The software offers a choice of more than three dozen fonts, so you may even alter the font of the text. Similarly, you can alter the text’s color for aesthetic or educational reasons.
On the notepad, you may also draw things with your fingers, a stylus on a mobile device, or your mouse and touchpad on a desktop computer. As with any standard drawing tool, you may alter the line thickness and select colors when drawing.
Collaboration and Management
How you set up your OneNote account should be influenced by how OneNote enables sharing and teamwork.
In this case, the Notebook > Section > Page > Subpage structure is crucial. The limitation on notebook-level sharing is the cause. You can send someone a link to a page or part, but they need access to the entire notebook to use it. You may decide if the access is editable or just for viewing.
A PDF must be sent to the recipients if you want to share only a single page rather than your whole notebook. Therefore, it is not ideal if you wish to work with others.
You may provide others access to modify notes in a shared notebook, a process known as co-authoring. Like how they may appear in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, many users can edit a single file concurrently in this manner. Co-authors can view the whole notebook, even if you only want them to work on a single page, and you can only share the entire notebook, not just a piece of it when co-authoring.
Tags
Regarding tags, Microsoft Onenote uniquely uses them. Like on Twitter, several websites and apps allow you to create tags by prefixing any word with a #. In other programs, like Evernote and email, you first develop tags before adding them as you see appropriate to notes. When you begin typing, the app will automatically recommend all the tags you’ve already created so that you don’t make almost identical tags. This is all handled very differently in OneNote.
OneNote comes with a tonne of predefined tags that you can use right away, with examples being “definition,” “question,” and “to-do.” The content’s tags don’t represent overarching topics. They resemble flags you might place on a page to highlight a particular point. You may create additional theme tags by adding the symbol # before any term on the page, such as #marketing or #data. The issue here is that close duplicates are pretty simple to produce. For note-taking software, everything is quite strange.
Search Tool
OneNote’s search function has recently been enhanced. OneNote used to exclusively search notebooks that had been downloaded to the gadget you were using when you searched for a keyword or tag. Now it looks through all of your notes, including those not kept locally, and notifies you if it discovers a match. The corresponding note is opened when the notebook has been downloaded.
Support
If you have a premium Microsoft 365 account, you may contact direct customer support by
Microsoft’s official support website covers the OneNote app in its area. Many user manuals, how-tos, and user instructions for the program are available on this website. It’s a helpful tool for free and premium users to understand OneNote and fix frequent issues with the note-taking application.
Is Google Docs superior to Microsoft OneNote?
It all comes down to own choice and program usage patterns. OneNote and Google Docs are both cost-free and widely accessible. Better organization and editing features are available right out of the box with OneNote. In terms of template support and in-the-moment collaboration, Google Docs leads.
What is Microsoft OneNote’s primary goal?
OneNote is an electronic notepad that syncs and stores your notes as you work. Insert information from other applications or websites or type it into your notepad. Make handwritten or drawn notes about your thoughts.
Conclusion
Note-taking software OneNote has several functions. With a premium Microsoft 365 account, you receive a tonne more space in addition to the many features it gives for free. Except for Evernote, practically all other note-taking programs are far less sophisticated than OneNote.
OneNote is dependable, although it may or may not meet your needs for some functions.
