Dear Computer Lady,
Will you write about Microsoft Office 2013’s OneNote?
It is so confusing to me.
Thanks, Mary
Dear Mary,
OneNote is actually a program that I use all the time, and because I can take my notes with me on my iPhone and/or iPad, I find more and more uses for it.
Let’s start with what OneNote is.
OneNote is a digital note taking application. Think if it as a notebook. I might be dating myself, but I remember those trapper-keeper notebooks that had pages to write in, and pockets to keep things in, OneNote is kind of the digital version of a trapper-keeper.
When you open OneNote, you will see a mostly empty notebook waiting for you to fill it with tabs across the top, and pages down the right side. In my “Work” notebook, for example, I have a tab on the top for this newsletter, and a list of pages down the right hand side, one page for each week of the year.
You can create as many notebooks as you want, just click on “File”, then, “New” select a location to save your notebook (if you save it in “OneDrive” you will be able to access the information in your notebook on your mobile devices as well as other computers) and type a name for your notebook.
You can break your notebook down into sections using the tabs across the top. Each section can then hold individual pages which are listed down the right side.
I hope this helps you get started with OneNote. I would love to answer more specific questions about how to use the program, and maybe someone can share how they use OneNote.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Hi Elizabeth,
Your brief explanation just told me more practical, useful information about One Note than anything Microsoft has said since they introduced it, and I spent 15 years of my life teaching adults how to use Microsoft Office!, Franted, those were the early versions that came on 45 3.5″ diskettes for office pro version 4.3 and Windows 3, 3.1 and 95, but I have used every version of Office and every version of Windows except Mellinnial, and you just made the most sense out of an application they push hard, but explair poorly. Thanks!