What’s New in OneNote 2010?
Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by OneNote in Help Articles
Microsoft OneNote gives you the ultimate place to store and share your information in a single, easy-to-access location. You can capture text, images, video and audio all in one place to keep your thoughts, ideas, and important information readily available. By sharing your notebooks, you can simultaneously take and edit notes with other people or access your notes from multiple computers. You can also take OneNote on the road with you by posting your notebooks online and accessing them from virtually anywhere by using the Web or a Windows Mobile-based smartphone.
Microsoft OneNote 2010 offers several new features in addition to improvements and enhancements to features introduced in previous versions. This article summarizes the most significant changes to help you plan your upgrade from OneNote 2007 or OneNote 2003.
Universal access to all of your information
With OneNote 2010, you have virtually uninterrupted access to your notes and information by providing the ability to access your files from anywhere you are — whether at work, at home, or on the go.
- Sync to the cloud (Windows Live, SkyDrive)
Your notebooks are available anywhere from any computer. This is in addition to the other ways you can sync your notebooks (file shares, SharePoint, USB drives, and so on).
- OneNote Web App (not available in Beta)
You can access and edit an entire notebook from a Web browser, even on computers that don’t t have OneNote 2010 installed.
- OneNote Mobile
Use a compact version of OneNote on your Windows Mobile-based smartphone. You can now sync entire notebooks to OneNote on your desktop or laptop, or sync directly to the cloud. OneNote Mobile 2010 also offers a much richer editing experience than its predecessor.
Improved sharing and collaboration
OneNote 2010 supports simultaneous multi-user editing of notebooks. This is useful for single users who want to work with the same notebook on both a desktop and a laptop computer simultaneously without locking the file, but it’s even more valuable for groups and teams who are sharing a notebook for brainstorming, planning ideas, capturing information in meetings, and so on.
Shared notebooks are also useful for families who can use it for planning home renovations, gardening, recipes, wedding and event planning, and so on.
- Highlighting of unread notes New content in a shared notebook that someone else in your group or on your team has added or changed since you last looked at it is automatically highlighted so you can quickly see what’s new. Notebook tiles, section tabs, and page tabs containing new content are shown in bold so you can quickly navigate to it.
- Authoring information Content added or changed in a shared notebook by anyone other than you is now indicated by a small, color-coded bar with the author’s initials. You can now easily see who added new information — and where.
- Versioning support You can now quickly show previous versions of any page, including who wrote it and when. Changes relative to previous versions of a page are automatically highlighted.
- Faster synchronization of pages When multiple people are working on the same page, synchronization of that page is accelerated so that changes appear to all authors in near real-time.
Better ways to organize and find notes
Making it easy to capture, organize, and finding information has always been at the heart of what OneNote does. OneNote 2010 offers several enhancements in this core feature area.
- Section and page tab improvements OneNote 2010 makes navigation of notebooks with a larger number of sections and pages simpler than before, and it is now easier to create new sections. Additional enhancements include better visualization of the page tab hierarchy, the ability to collapse groups of subpages, and the ability to insert new pages from anywhere in your page tabs.
- Fast Search for easy navigation There has never been a faster way to get to the most often used pages in your notebook. Search results appear as you type. In addition to page content, Fast Search can search based on notebook names, section labels, and page titles. Page authors can also quickly search for recently added content (last day, week, month, and so on) or get a quick overview of what’s changed on any particular day.
- Wiki linking You can now easily create a link to any existing page in a notebook (or even to a new page) by simply typing the Wiki link syntax — for example, [[The Page Title That I Want]] — or by using the new page search experience from within the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. This enables you to easily create Wiki like notebooks with lots of cross links across pages.
- Quick filing You can import information into OneNote in a variety of ways, including Send to OneNote from Microsoft Outlook and from Windows Internet Explorer, and you can print any document or file directly to your notebook using the OneNote print driver. The new Quick Filing popup in OneNote 2010 lets you quickly choose where in your notebook you want to import something. To make repeated importing easier, this feature remembers the last places from where you imported content. You can also search in your Quick Filing locations to find a specific section or page if you want to move it to a different location.
Easier research and linked note-taking
OneNote is ideally suited as an indispensable companion when researching and collecting information from other files or on the World Wide Web (for example, a market analysis study, a class paper, home renovation options, a car purchase, hotel and flight information, and so on). This often involves looking at a variety of Web pages and related documents and annotating them. We’ve enhanced a number of features in this category to improve this experience.
- Docked OneNote You can now move the OneNote program window to the side of your Windows desktop, where it docks alongside other windows (for example, your Web browser, other Microsoft Office programs, and so on). OneNote minimizes the user interface and shows you only your current page alongside the other windows.
- Linked Note Taking While in docked mode, OneNote 2010 can automatically link the notes you take to what you’re looking at — such as a Web page address in Internet Explorer, the cursor location in Microsoft Word, a specific presentation slide in Microsoft PowerPoint, and so on. When you later return to OneNote and hover over a linked note, you’ll see a thumbnail preview of the original document, which you can click to be taken back to what you were looking at when you wrote the note.
- Automatic text wrapping OneNote now wraps text outlines to automatically fit the window size when there is only one outline on the page (for example, when the OneNote program window is docked to a relatively narrow window on the side of your desktop).
- IRM protected printouts In corporate enterprise and training scenarios, you can now more safely distribute intellectual property and proprietary materials such as product manuals or lecture notes. Recipients of protected notes can view such content in OneNote 2010 and annotate them with their own, personal notes. Unauthorized recipients will not see any of the protected material.
- Print driver for 64-bit operating systems OneNote 2010 is the first version of OneNote to offer a native Send to OneNote print driver that fully supports 64-bit versions of the latest operating systems, such as Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Editing improvements
Much like OneNote’s organizational features, its editing capabilities are a core feature area. OneNote 2010 offers several enhancements here as well.
- Gallery of basic Styles OneNote 2010 adds a quick gallery of basic note-taking styles, such as Heading 1, 2, 3. While not intended to match the complexity of a word processor’s style gallery, these basic styles provide a quick and easy way to apply a consistent structure and appearance to recurring types of notes (for example, class or meeting notes).
- Improved bulleted lists A simple but much requested change, the indentation of first-level bulleted items in a list now exactly matches the indentation of the previous text.
- Mathematical equations OneNote 2010 supports the ability to add equations. This is useful for students or anyone else who needs to input math as part of their notes. This feature is further enhanced on Tablet PCs running Windows 7, where OneNote can recognize and convert handwritten mathematical equations in addition to typed ones.
- Mini Translator A new Mini Translator in OneNote 2010 lets you use your mouse to point to a foreign word or phrase and see a translation into your native language in a small window. This is useful for language students, or anyone working in a bi- or multi-lingual environment and needs help understanding a word or phrase (for example, from text in a shared notebook or from clipped content from the Web). The Mini Translator includes a Play button so you can hear the audio pronunciation of the word or phrase, as well as a Copy button so you can paste the translation elsewhere in your notebook. No language packs, language interface packs, or proofing tools need to be installed on your computer for this feature to work.
Touch support
The already well-established popularity of OneNote among Tablet PC users makes its newly added support for touch-enabled operating systems such as Windows 7 a natural progression.
- Finger panning and auto-switching On compatible computers running Windows 7, you can use your finger to scroll and pan around any page in OneNote 2010. Depending on your input device, OneNote will automatically switch between pen, pan, and selection.
- Pinch zooming This is a standard gesture on multi-touch devices, such as a PC running a touch or multi-touch compatible operating system such as Windows 7. By using a pinch gesture with your fingers, you can zoom in and out of a notebook page in OneNote to change the page magnification to your liking.
- Improved navigation controls Several navigational enhancements have been added for customers using OneNote 2010 on touch-compatible PCs and operating systems.
User interface improvements
Like the other Microsoft Office 2010 programs, OneNote 2010 includes the Fluent™ interface, which consists of a fully customizable visual system of tools and commands.
- Ribbon access The Ribbon provides easy access to the tools and commands in OneNote. It replaces the toolbars seen in older versions of Microsoft Office programs. The Ribbon in OneNote was designed to optimize for key note-taking scenarios to make them easier to use. The Ribbon provides quicker access to the full well of commands in OneNote 2010 and allows for easier future additions and customizations. To help maximize your note-taking space on the page, the Ribbon can be hidden while writing and revealed only temporarily when needed.
- Ribbon customization You can use customizations to personalize the Ribbon in OneNote 2010 with the tools and commands that you care most about. You can also create custom tabs and custom groups that can provide shortcuts to your most frequently used commands.
- Microsoft Office Backstage view A new addition in Microsoft Office 2010 programs, the Microsoft Office Backstage is the latest innovation in the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface and a companion feature to the Ribbon. The Backstage view is where you manage your files and set your program and notebook options.
- Simplified language settings Multilingual users can easily access a single dialog box in OneNote 2010, where preferences can be set for editing, display, ScreenTip, and Help languages. If you don’t have the software or keyboard layout installed that you need, you are notified, and links are provided for you to make it easier to resolve such issues.




Nick Herold
18. Nov, 2009
As a OneNote 2007 user, I’m constantly syncing between three computers on a variety of projects (one at the office, two at home). I’m very excited to hear about all of the new sharing and collaboration features — especially the highlighting of unread notes! Thanks!
Shawn Mannen
19. Nov, 2009
I’ve been syncing OneNote 2007 with my Windows phone and it has made a very paperless lifestyle for me. However, I can’t get OneNote 2010 to sync. What am I missing? What do I need to set up/install? I’ve tried resetting my phone and installed Office Mobile 2010 beta, but alas no success.
Daniel Escapa [MSFT]
19. Nov, 2009
Shawn – If you are running on a x64 bit OS this is a known issue with the OneNote 2010 beta. OneNote Mobile sync only works on 32bit machines right now. I imagine this is your problem.
Nick – Glad to hear, just download and try out the new version!
Tim
21. Nov, 2009
64 bit os is ok, as long as you are running office 2010 32 bit, everything works so far.
Shawn Mannen
22. Nov, 2009
Thank you. I am running Office 2010 64 bit on Windows 7 64 bit with Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 64 bit. That must explain my issue. (Perhaps it explains my issue with Outlook 2010 not syncing to my phone either.)
Bob
22. Nov, 2009
I have some notebooks that won’t open (and ofcourse they are my main notebooks), they show up as “not connected”. I can’t find any plcae that tells me how to connect them, is there a way?
Bob
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
23. Nov, 2009
Bob, are you working with shared notebooks that won’t open from their existing shortcuts? If so, try re-opening these notebooks manually. Use the File > Open > Open Notebook command to navigate to and then re-open any of your shared notebooks that you’re trying to access. Does that solve the problem?
Anna
26. Nov, 2009
I am using 32bit version of OneNote 2010 beta on Windows and I now cannot sync to my WM6.5 phone. Why!?
Shawn Mannen
20. Dec, 2009
I switched to the 32 bit version of Office 2010 and still haven’t been able to sync. Has anyone gotten it to work? If so, are you using 32/64 Windows, 32/64 Mobile Device Center and 32/64 Office 2010?
I’m using 64 Windows, 64 Mobile Device Center and 32 Office 2010.
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
09. Jan, 2010
Hey Shawn, thanks for following up. We’re getting mixed reports about synching issues in either mode and are looking into it. As soon as there’s new info to share, we’ll post it here. I may follow up with you in e-mail as well, if that’s okay. Meanwhile, thanks for your patience.
Donnell
26. Nov, 2009
I’m having trouble linking my Outlook 2010 meeting notes to Onenote 2010. In the Tech Preview, I was able to create a Onenote meeting note from my Outlook appoint which remained in sync.
Whenever I try to create a Onenote note from an Outlook meeting with the 2010 beta, a new note is created. I liked being able to access my Onenote meeting notes through my Outlook calendar. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?
Thanks.
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
02. Dec, 2009
Donnell, are you using the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the Office 2010 Beta? Also, what version and edition of Windows are you using?
Michael Elmgreen
17. Feb, 2010
I’m having the same problem Michael. I don’t see the option to right click on an outloook appointment and see the “meeting notes” button which triggered a new notebook page with the meeting details. I’m on Windows 7, 32-bit Office. Can you help?
pgmarshall
30. Nov, 2009
Is there any way to clean up pages? To remove empty space from deleted notes and to tile the remaining notes?
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
09. Jan, 2010
You can clean up pages easily and quickly by dragging note containers to a different location. To show a note container, simply hover the mouse pointer over a paragraph of text and you should see a box appear around the text or object.
nXqd
03. Dec, 2009
OMG ! I just think about a new feature for OneNote .
Auto paste clipboard , when you turns this feature on, just copy, i’ll auto paste to your note .
It’s really great , OneNote is better and no more clipboard manager needed :)
Chris
09. Jan, 2010
Does the new version allow you to right click documents embedded in a page and use send to, it bugs me having to save the attachments out and send them outside one note?
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
09. Jan, 2010
Right-click options for inserted documents as icons include Open, Save As, Insert as Printout, Open Original, and Copy Link to Original. I really like your idea to add a “Send to…” command here. I’ll pass this on to the product team. Thanks for the suggestion!
mahesh
09. Jan, 2010
I am using 32-bit OneNote 2010 beta on Windows XP Pro. I am unable to create a “web based” notebook. I believe this feature creates the notebook on your SkyDrive. But, for me, it says “this is currently not supported!” Anyone else have the same problem?
Michael C. Oldenburg [MSFT]
09. Jan, 2010
This feature is not yet available. For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on this site.
Brian McIlvaine
20. Jan, 2010
How do you get the mobile version of the program to load onto your device? I don’t see an option in any of the menu options. Syncing with WM 5.0 or WM 6.0 smartphone (PC to phone, not just one way phone to PC) is what was missing in OneNote 2007. Hope this will work in 2010!
Thanks!
Bob Bain
21. Jan, 2010
I’m having trouble linking my Outlook 2010 meeting notes to Onenote 2010. The OneNote link icon does not appear on the ribbon anywhere, nor do I find the ability to link meeting or task to onenote.
I”m using vista and the 32 bit professional onenote 2010. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?
Reil
22. Jan, 2010
When printing to OneNote, is there a way to make it print one, continuous image as opposed to separate pages with margins?
Matt
23. Jan, 2010
Is OneNote going to provide a way to email notes, clips and pics like Evernote? What about support on other mobiles such as Palm Pre and Iphone?
Ron H
28. Jan, 2010
I still have OneNote 2007 and Outlook 2007 installed on 32bit XP Pro SP3. I can’t seem to create outlook tasks in OneNote 2010 and I keep getting error messages that Outlook is either installed incorrectly or is not the default email client, although it is. I also have Outlook 2010 installed, but am not using it on my work computer. Will OneNote 2010 work with Outlook 2007?
Ron H
28. Jan, 2010
Is there a way just to install OneNote 2010 beta and not the other Office 2010 beta applications? I am using a work computer and just want to try out OneNote 2010.
Bob
29. Jan, 2010
I have heard that OneNote 2010 may be able to automatically capture RSS feeds and add them to a notebook page. Is that true? That sould be an excellent feature.
Tony Novak
18. Feb, 2010
Was the “Insert extra space” feature removed? Isn’t that an essential feature for organized note-taking? I am having trouble finding a work around for this issue in OneNote 2010.
Tony Novak
18. Feb, 2010
My mistake: this commad is just burried in the menu. I customized my commands and am now happy!
Martin
24. Feb, 2010
Is the page versioning available yet? In my OneNote 2010, the version buttons are grayed out.
Will page versioning only available for shared notebooks?
Martin
24. Feb, 2010
I had not upgraded my notebook from 2007 to 2010 format. Versioning seems to be available now.
Chloe
03. Mar, 2010
As a student, I like to print out my notes, but OneNote offers no option for page breaks, causing images to be cut if they happen to lay on the margins. My only known way to counter this is to set the template to a Letter size, but this adds extra notebook pages.
It would be great if notebooks would be more printer friendly! Thanks!
Scott
08. Mar, 2010
I thought we would be able to crop images in onenote2010??? It would also be nice if one note could have paper sizes larger than 22 inches.