Microsoft OneNote 2010

Take and format notes in OneNote 2010

Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by OneNote in Help Articles

Note-taking in Microsoft OneNote 2010 is as easy as writing in a paper notebook, but unlike paper, OneNote lets you move text anywhere on the page or to other pages, create space and add pages when and where you need to, and tag important notes for follow-up.

Notes can include any combination of typed text (or handwriting if you have a Tablet PC), pictures and graphics — including images and text you collect from the Web pages — as well as audio and video clips, and more.

In this article:

• Type or write notes on a page
• Move text on a page
• Add space to a page
• Create a new page
• Change the order of pages
• Save notes
• Insert the time and date
• Create a bulleted or numbered list
• Create, edit, or remove a hyperlink
• Create a table
• Insert a picture
• Insert a screen clipping
• Add note tags to important notes
   

 Type or write notes on a page

• To type notes, click wherever on the page you want the notes to appear, and then type. OneNote automatically creates a note container for each block of text that you type or write. Note containers can be resized, moved, copied, and deleted.
   
• If you’re using a pen-input device on a Tablet PC, click the Draw tab, then click one of the pens in the Tools group, and then handwrite your notes anywhere on the page. To switch back to typing at any time while in handwriting mode, click Select & Type on the Draw tab (Tools group).
   

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 drag it 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

1. Click the Insert tab, and then click Insert Space.
    
2. Move the mouse pointer over the page where you want to add space.
    
3. Click and hold the left mouse button and then drag the pointer in the direction indicated by the arrow to add as much space as you want. When you release the mouse button, the extra space is added.
    

Tip   To quickly create more space on a full page of notes, click where you want to add space, and then click the Scroll Down by Half Page button  under the vertical scrollbar (near the bottom right corner of the page). This button is available only when the vertical scrollbar appears.
 

Create a new, blank page

1. Click the New Page button above the page tabs to quickly create a new page.
    
2. In the box at the top of the page, type a page title for the page. The title you type here appears in the page tab on the right side of the OneNote window.
    

Create a new page from a template

1. Click the small downward-facing arrow next to the New Page button and then click Page Templates on the shortcut menu.
    
   
    
2. In the Templates task pane, expand the template category you want, and then click a template name to apply the design to the new page.
    
3. In the box at the top of the page, type a page title for the page. The title you type here appears in the page tab on the right side of the OneNote window.
    

Tip   To browse several template designs in step 2, keep clicking template names in the expanded categories to see how the page will look with the selected template applied. If you don’t like the built-in designs, you can download more OneNote 2010 templates by clicking the link Templates on Office.com that appears in the Templates task pane.
 

Change the order of pages

To move a page within the same section, click and then drag its page tab up and down to where you want it to appear in the list.

Tip   To change a page to a subpage, or to change a subpage back to a main page, click its page tab and then drag slightly to the left or right.
 

Save notes

OneNote 2010 does not have a Save button. Your notes are automatically and continuously saved while you type notes, whenever you switch to another page or section, and whenever you close sections and notebooks. There is no need to save your notes manually, even when you finish them.

Tip   You can still use the Save As command to save a copy of your notes to a different location. Click the File tab, click Save As, and then select what to save (the current page, the current section, or the entire notebook). Next, choose the format in which to save your selection, and then click Save As.
 

Insert the time and date

Depending on how you use OneNote, you can use your computer’s current date and time in your notes to mark or track chronological events. For example, you can keep a log of phone calls received at specific times during the day, or mark entries in your blog or journal with the current date.

1. Place the cursor where you want to add a date and time stamp.
    
2. Do one of the following:
    
   •  On the ribbon, click the Insert tab, and then in the Time Stamp group, click Date, or Time, or Date and Time.
    
   •  To quickly insert the current date and time, press ALT+SHIFT+F.
    
   •  To quickly insert only the date, press ALT+SHIFT+D.
    
   •  To quickly insert only the time, press ALT+SHIFT+T.
    

Tip   OneNote automatically adds a date and time stamp under the page title whenever a new page is created. To change the date or time stamp under the page title, click the date or time there, and then click the small calendar or clock icon that appears and make a new selection from the popup menu. OneNote will use the new date and time stamp you’ve applied whenever you are searching the page for notes.

Note   OneNote uses the date and time format that’s specified in the Control Panel in your version of Microsoft Windows. To change the way dates and times are displayed in OneNote, open the Windows 7 or Windows Vista Control Panel and then click Clock, Language, and Region. Next, click Region and Language. In the Region and Language dialog box that appears, under Date and time formats, choose the date and time formatting you want. The changes you apply to date and time formats will be used for new note pages, but not for note pages that you have already created.
 

Create a bulleted list

1. On the Home tab, click Bullets.
    
2. Type the text you want for the first item in the list, and then press ENTER. A new bullet for the next list item is created automatically.
    
3. To end the bulleted list and continue typing a regular paragraph, press ENTER twice, or press BACKSPACE to delete the last bullet in the list.
    

Tip   To automatically begin a bulleted list, type * (asterisk), and then press SPACEBAR or TAB.
 

Create a numbered list

1. On the Home tab, click Numbering.
    
2. Type the text you want for the first item in the list, and then press ENTER. A new number for the next list item is created automatically.
    
3. To end the numbered list and continue typing a regular paragraph, press ENTER twice, or press BACKSPACE to delete the last number in the list.
    

Tip   To automatically begin a numbered list, type 1. and then press SPACEBAR or TAB.
 

Create a hyperlink

OneNote automatically creates a hyperlink whenever you type or paste an Internet address or Web URL into your notes.

Do one of the following:

• In your notes, type or paste the Internet address that the hyperlink should point to. For example, to create a hyperlink pointing to the Microsoft home page, type http://www.microsoft.com and then type a space of press ENTER. The address will be formatted as a clickable hyperlink.
   
• Click the Insert tab and then in the Links group, click Link. In the Link dialog box that opens, type the Internet address into the Address box, and then click OK.
   

Tip   Besides Web hyperlinks, you can create links to other locations in your notebook so you can navigate your notes more quickly. To copy a destination to link to, right-click any text paragraph, page tab, section tab, or notebook icon and then click Copy Link to…. Next, place the cursor where you want to insert the link and then press CTRL+V to paste the link. When you click the link you’ve created, it will jump to the page, section, or notebook whose destination link you copied. This is a great way to create wiki-style notebooks in OneNote that you can share with other people.
 

Edit or remove a hyperlink

Do one of the following:

• To change a hyperlink, right-click it, and then click Edit Link on the shortcut menu. In the Link dialog box that appears, make the changes you want, and then click OK.
   
• To remove a hyperlink, right-click it, and then click Remove Link on the shortcut menu.
   

Create a table

Click where you want to insert a table, then do either of the following:

• Click the Insert tab, and then in the Tables group, click Table. Move the mouse down and to the right of the grid to select the number of rows and columns you want. When the size you want is displayed (for example, a 3×5 table), click the mouse button to insert the table.
   
• Click the Insert tab, and then in the Tables group, click Table. Under the grid that appears, click Insert Table to open the Insert Table dialog box, where you can enter the exact size for the table you want.
   

Tip   Normally, pressing the TAB key will create an indent on a blank line of text. However, if you press the TAB key while typing text, it will begin a new table that you can expand as needed. Once you’ve started a new table, pressing TAB creates additional columns, and pressing the ENTER key creates new rows. To stop expanding the current table, click outside of it or press ENTER twice in a row.

Note   When you place the cursor inside any table cell on a page, a hidden Layout tab will appear on the ribbon, underneath a yellow Table Tools heading. Click the Layout tab for table-specific formatting and selection tools and to control the display of table borders.
 

Insert a picture

To insert a picture from a file on your computer, do the following:

1. Click the Insert tab, and then in the Images group, click Picture.
    
2. In the Insert Picture dialog box that opens, navigate to the location where the picture file is located, then click the file to select it, and then click Insert.
    

To insert a picture from a Web site, do the following:

1. Click the Insert tab, and then in the Images group, click Picture.
    
2. In the Insert Picture dialog box that opens, in the File name box, type or paste the complete Internet address (URL) of the image file, and then click Insert.
    

Tip   You can annotate pictures that you have inserted into your notes by sending them to the background. Single-click to select a picture on the page and then right-click the selected picture. On the shortcut menu that appears, click Set Picture as Background. Now the picture will no longer be selected when you click over it. Text you type over it will appear on top of the picture. This is especially useful if you want to annotate file printouts (for example, pictures of PowerPoint slides you have imported) with notes specific to the information in the images.

Note   You can extract text from an image and paste it as typed text that you can then edit on the page. Right-click any picture that has legible text in it and then click Copy Text from Picture on the shortcut menu. Next, click anywhere on the page you want the copied text to appear, and then press CTRL+V to paste it. Results of text recognition in pictures depends entirely on the quality of the source image. The better the quality of the text shown in the image, the better the copy and paste results.
 

Insert a screen clipping

You can use OneNote to take a picture of all or just a selected part of your computer screen and then insert it into your notes. These pictures, called screen clippings, let you quickly capture information from other programs or your Web browser. For example, you might take a screen clipping of your business trip itinerary displayed on your travel agency’s Web site, and then paste it into your notes so you can view it when you don’t have access to the Web.

When you initiate a screen clipping, the OneNote program window is sent to the back and the screen dims, prompting you to make a screen selection. Drag the + mouse pointer to make a rectangular selection on your screen, which can range from a 25-pixel square to the entire height and width of your screen. Anything within the rectangular area is included in the image and is automatically added both to your notes and to the Clipboard when you release the mouse button. You can easily paste additional copies of the screen clipping onto other pages in your OneNote notebooks or into other programs.

Do the following:

1. First, bring up the window that contains the information you want to capture in a screen clipping (for example, a page in your Web browser).
    
2. Switch to OneNote and position the cursor where the screen clipping should appear.
    
3. Click the Insert tab, and then in the Images group, click Screen Clipping.
    
4. The OneNote window is now minimized, and a washed-out view of your last window comes back into view.
    
5. Click and hold the mouse button, and then drag the + pointer in any direction to make a selection. For example, you can start from the upper left corner of the area that you want to capture, and then drag the pointer to the lower right.
    
6. Release the mouse button to create the screen clipping, which is automatically inserted into your notes where you had placed the cursor.
    

Tip   Whenever a screen clipping is created and placed into your notes, it is also automatically copied to the Windows Clipboard. If you want to paste the clipping elsewhere, switch to the program or document where it should appear, and then press CTRL+V to paste it.

Note   Screen clippings are static images. When you take a screen clipping of something (for example, a Web page), and the information changes at its source (for example, the Web site there the page was displayed), the screen clipping is not updated. If you want to edit the text contained in a screen clipping, first extract the text from the image and then paste it as typed text. To do this, right-click any screen clipping that has legible text in it and then click Copy Text from Picture on the shortcut menu. Next, click anywhere on the page you want the copied text to appear, and then press CTRL+V to paste it. Results of text recognition in screen clippings depends entirely on the quality of the source image. The better the quality of the text shown in the screen clipping, the better the copy and paste results.
 

Add a note tag to important notes

OneNote provides several predefined note tags, such as Important and To Do, that you can associate with your notes. Tags make it easier to categorize your notes for searching and finding specific information later on. You can also create your own custom note tags with OneNote.

1. Place the cursor in a line of text that you want to tag.
    
2. On the Home tab, in the Tags group, click the downward-facing arrow in the lower right corner of the box outlining three note tags (To Do, Important, and Question) to display the list of available note tags.
    
3. From the list of tags, click the tag you want to apply.
    

After you add tags to your notes, you can search your notes for tagged items and you can group tagged items together according to tag name.

Note   The To Do note tag can is a box that can be checked and cleared by clicking. This tag is especially useful for tracking To Do lists or action items in meeting or class notes.
 

Search for tagged notes

Once you’ve applied once or more tag to notes in any of your OneNote notebooks, you can search for these tags.

1. On the Home tab, in the Tags group, click Find Tags.
    
2. In the Tags Summary task pane that opens, you’re shown an instant summary of your tagged notes. You can now easily revisit any tagged notes by simply clicking them in this summary list.
    

Tip   You can change the search scope for note tags by changing the Search selections near the bottom of the Tags Summary task pane. For example, if you want to search for tagged notes in multiple notebooks all at once, change the Search selection to All notebooks and then click Refresh results. In addition, you can create a summary page of all note tags by clicking the Create Summary Page button near the bottom of the Tags Summary task pane.
 

Tags: OneNote Basics