If you have a real paper notebook full of notes, how easy is it to find notes you're searching for in it? My guess it that it's not that easy. But one way to make it a slight bit easier is to riffle through the pages by fanning them with your thumb. Although this rarely does more than blow some air into your face as you try to catch a glimpse of the notes on the pages as they go by.

OneNote comes with powerful search capabilities that can find notes in an instant. But there's just no replacement for riffling through the pages of a notebook. That's why we've included riffling functionality into the page tabs. If you have a mouse button on your mouse, or a scroll region on your laptop, you can take full advantage of the riffling feature. Just place the mouse over the page tabs and hold down the <Ctrl> key while scrolling the mouse wheel. This displays each page as you scroll and allows you to view the contents of each page individually as you breeze through them.

While this does not replace search, it does give you an opportunity to flip through your pages quickly. Or perhaps you want to take your time as you flip through them. Just scroll the mouse wheel a little slower.

Tips:

• Placing the mouse over the section tabs and scrolling the mouse wheel will also riffle the pages.

Have you ever been taking some notes and wished you had some more space to add a few more notes? OneNote makes that easy. Just click Insert -> Extra Writing Space -> drag the mouse (or stylus) to add more space.

This feature was mostly designed for the pen user, but it comes in handy for the mouse user too. When you drag space between paragraphs, you get a similar effect to pressing <Enter> a bunch of times to add more space. However, if you add more space inside an existing outline, the outline is separated into two outlines.

So, if you start with an outline containing 2 elements, like this:

Then insert extra space, like this:

The result will be two separate outlines, each containing a single element:

Tips:

• Extra space can also be removed between two outlines. However, doing so does not merge the outlines, it just moves them closer together.
• When inserting extra space, the mouse icon changes depending on the location on the page where you're inserting space. Here is what each icon indicates:

	Insert or remove space (between outlines, pictures or other page objects):
	Insert space (inside an existing outline only):
	Add extra space by sweeping items to the right (from the left margin):
	Add extra space by sweeping items to the left (from the right margin):
	Add extra space to the bottom of the page (appears when hovering mouse pointer over the bottom margin):

• You can also use the More Space button at the bottom of the vertical scrollbar to add more space to the bottom of your page. This is useful for when you are taking notes near the bottom of the page and want to have some extra space beneath for some more notes. When you click on this button, it adds about a 1/2 page of space beneath. However, it is only available if there is a vertical scrollbar present.

• You can add extra space and preserve the outline by pressing <Enter> a few times after an outline element.
• Click and drag the outline drag handle to add additional space between outlines

Many of us have become so accustomed to copying and pasting data that it has become second nature to us. It's something we take for granted, or don't really think twice about. We just do it. After all it's so simple, right? Well sometimes, it's not so simple, particularly when you think you've copied one thing only to find out that you've really copied something else. Or you've already got some data on the clipboard and you don't want to lose it by copying something else there.

Why can't I get my stuff into Word without copying and pasting it? Word is where my stuff will ultimately end up any way. OneNote is not an application where you'd want to spend any length of time generating a refined document. After all, it just doesn't have the necessary tools and quite frankly is not capable of producing such a thing. It's design is to allow you to easily capture your stuff and keep it safe until you need it.

Well, the Send to Word feature in OneNote is here to save the day. You don't have to copy anything to the clipboard in order to get it into Word. Just click File -> Send To -> Microsoft Office Word and your whole page of notes magically appears in a new page in Word.

Tips:

• Word 2003 or greater must be installed in order to use this feature.
• If you don't want the entire page to go to Word, simply select only the content on the page you want
  • Your selection does not have to be contiguous. You can select any random set of notes by holding down the <Ctrl> key while making your selection, like this:

• In Word, this is what it will look like after it's sent:

• You can send multiple pages of content to Word in similar fashion. Hold the <Ctrl> key to select a random set of pages, or hold the <Shift> key down to select a range of pages.

One of the greatest things about OneNote is its outlining capabilities. It's perhaps the most underrated feature as well as the one we most often take for granted. People often use outlining without even knowing they're using it.

What is outlining you ask? Well, Webster defines it as "a condensed treatment of a particular subject <an outline of world history>" or "a summary of a written work: synopsis: a preliminary account of a project."

In OneNote each note you take is an element of an outline. It might be a paragraph of text, or just a single list item. Each outline appears in a container, surrounded by a thin line and a grab-handle along the top edge.

If you need to move the outline, just grab it by its grab handle. If you need to be precise in your movements you can hold down the <Alt> key while dragging it. Or just right-click the outline and choose Move. Then press <Ctrl + arrow keys> to move the outline with very fine movements.

To resize the outline just click the resize handle of the top border and begin dragging. Or you can click anywhere along the right border of the outline.

If you're making a list of items you plan to take with you on an upcoming camping trip. You might begin with something looking like this:

You can also hide levels of your outlines like this. Just double-click the grab-box to hide all element levels beneath the current one. Double-click the grab-box again to show the levels.

Each outline element has a small grab box on its outside edge. It's appearance conveys different meanings. For example, it might look like this, which means you can grab it and drag it around to rearrange the order or level, or even drag it outside of the outline. It only appears when you mouse over the element. Or it might look like this, which means it's currently a selected element. It might also look like this, which means it's in a collapsed state.

When you click on the top border of an outline, it selects the entire outline. However, clicking on the grab box of an element will select the current element and all of its children. If you press <Ctrl + A> it will select an entire element, minus its children. Pressing <Ctrl + A> again will select all children, if they exist, finally, press <Ctrl + A> again to select all content on the page.

You can also drag-to-select, similar to selection in other Windows applications.

You can also draw a selection rectangle around the item(s) you want to select. Just begin by clicking outside of the outline and then dragging the mouse inside the outline to touch only the item(s) you want selected. Finally, you could use the Lasso Selection tool to draw a freeform area around the item(s) you want selected. It's found on the Writing Tools toolbar. This is generally most useful when using a stylus on a Tablet PC.

You can also right-click the grab box of a given element and choose Select All at Same Level. This will select all children at the given level.

Each outline is self-contained. This means that all formatting changes are contained only within itself. For example, you might decide to change the text style to a different font. Then when you click elsewhere on OneNote's page surface to begin a new outline, the font you selected previously won't be in effect.

This also holds true for bullets and numbering styles.

When multiple outlines exist on a page, they can sometimes get in the way of each other. Generally this does not cause too much of a problem because the outline containers disappear when your mouse is not over them. However, sometimes it might be necessary to overlay bring an outline to the foreground.

You can do this by right-clicking on the outline's grab-handle. Then you can select Order from the menu and choose Bring to Front, Send to Back, Bring Foreword or Send Backward.

Tips:

• You can set the alignment of an element by pressing <Ctrl + E> for Center, <Ctrl + R> for Right and <Ctrl + L> or for Left.
• To discontinue showing the outline containers on the page, click Tools -> Options -> Display -> remove the checkmark from Show note containers on pages.
• To automatically begin a bulleted list type an asterisk, *, followed by a space or a tab.
  • You can also type any number, followed by one of these character: ")", ">", "-" (dash) or "." (period) and a space or tab.
  • Or you also can type any letter, followed by a character to begin a list.
  • To begin your list with roman numerals, type "i" or "I" followed by the character you wish to follow.
• When you press <Enter>, OneNote automatically continues the bulleted or numbered list
  • To discontinue the list on the next element, press <Shift + Enter>.
  • If you wish to disable auto bullets & numbering permanently, click Tools -> Options -> Editing and remove the checkmark from Apply numbering/bullets to lists automatically.
• Press <Tab> to decrease the list level.
  • Press <Shift + Tab> to increase the list level.
• To quickly switch from a bulleted list to a numbered list, press <Ctrl + />.
  • Or press <Ctrl + . (period)> to switch from a bulleted to a numbered list.
  • These shortcut keys can also be used to turn bullets and numbering on or off.
• Double-click the element's grab box to collapse it.
  • Double-click again to expand it.
• You can change the style of your bullets & numbering.

To quickly change the current bullet style, click the Bullets button on the Formatting toolbar.
You can also change the number style by clicking the Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar.

• You can customize your bullet/numbering properties by clicking on the More menu item beneath either of the above menus. Or you can double-click on the bullet/number.

You can select from various bullets in the Bullets task pane. You can adjust the spacing between the text and the bullet. The default is 0.1", but can be set to a maximum of 10". Here's a sample of a numbered outline at the default of .1".   This one's been changed to .5".

You can select from various numbering formats in the Numbering task pane. You can customize the numbering sequences and format. Just click the Customize numbering link at the bottom of the task pane. You can also adjust the alignment, spacing and starting number. Here's a sample number at the default of .1"

• This one's been changed to .5".

OneNote is a great place to take your notes, gather research ideas, or just keep track of personal items. Whatever the case may be, let OneNote be your repository. Another thing that OneNote is great for is shared note taking. What? You mean other people can share my notes? Well...only if you want them to.

You see, some people take notes as a team. For example, maybe you're on a sales team of 6 individuals, spread across the globe. While your team is fragmented, you all have the same common goal. 'Let's sell our product to this customer'.

Perhaps you just met with the manager of a warehouse in Los Angeles, for example, while your colleague, in London, is negotiating with the president of the company. Wouldn't it be nice to have a place where you and your other team members can enter notes and everything merges together seamlessly, without having to think about it? That way you can all be on the same page, in a manner of speaking.

While this is incredibly useful, it presents some new problems. For example, how can you determine if someone made some changes to a particular note recently? How can you find out who made that change? What if someone happens to add his notes on the same page and in the same exact place that you added yours? Which one wins?

Here are a few tips on how you can control these things:

Tips:

• Right-click a note to see who made the most-recent change to it and when it was made.
  • You'll see a menu appear. Just look at the last 2 items at the bottom of the menu. It contains the date and time the note was last modified and the name of the individual who made that change.
  • 

• If 2 people have made a change in the same location and at the same time, a conflict occurs. OneNote does not preserve one users notes, while deleting another's. But rather, a hidden page, affectionately deemed a conflict page, will be created containing all unmerged changes. When this happens, a notification will appear at the top of the page. Simply click on it to reveal the page containing the unmerged changes.

Or alternatively, you can click the icon that appears on the page tab itself.

When you click the notification or the icon, the page expands to reveal the hidden page.

On your page you'll see the final note that made it onto the actual page of notes, like this:

When you click on the conflict page, you'll see the note that didn't make it onto the page highlighted in red, like this:

What happens from here is completely up to you.

• If you determine that none of the unmerged changes are necessary, you can delete the conflict page and move on. Just select the page and press the <Delete> key, or right-click the page and select Delete from the menu.
  • Once this happens, the conflict notification icons are removed from the top of the page and from the page tab.

• If you decide that you want to salvage the conflicting note, just copy the contents from the conflict page to the actual page of notes.
• Or, if you're not sure, just leave it. You can click the icon again to collapse the conflict page so it stays out of site. All conflicting changes will remain intact until you decide to take action.

I don't know about you, but when I was in college, there were times I wish I could have sent someone else to take notes for me during class. I was too busy working or too tired to get out of bed or just having a nice conversation with someone who's company I enjoyed, (if you know what I mean).

Well, unfortunately OneNote can't solve that problem for you, but the one thing it can do is record your class notes for you. As you take your notes it links the portion of audio it's recording with the note you're taking. It's pretty easy to get started, and most laptops today come with a built-in microphone.

For example, say you're in a class and the professor is just going too fast for you to keep up. Just start recording in OneNote. Then you can follow along and take notes at your own pace, which you can review later. Or don't take any notes at all, after all, you can review the recording later and take your notes then if you like. OneNote will link the recording to the notes you take during playback too.

OneNote is not just for students. There are many other professions that can take advantage of OneNote's recording feature: interviews, conference calls, briefings, meetings, lectures, court proceedings, trainings, just to name a few. Click here to see additional details on how this feature is being used.

A recording icon is placed next to each note you take while you're recording, (although you won't see it until you stop the recording). You just click on the icon to begin playing back the recording at the time you actually took the note.

In addition, you can use the Audio and Video Recording toolbar to control all recording and playback functions. It automatically appears when you begin recording.



As the playback advances, the notes you took while OneNote was recording become selected so you can follow along. The Audio Gauge  is used to display the amount of time in the recording. If you have multiple recordings on the same page, the time will show as cumulative. You can use the Rewind and Fast Forward buttons to advance backward and forward respectively by 10 seconds. You can also drag the thumbnail to navigate forward and backward in the recording.

Don't forget that OneNote records video too. If you have a webcam, or some other type of video camera that hooks up to your computer, just start recording video while you take your notes.

Note: OneNote does not transcribe your recording for you. But there are ways you can get your recording transcribed outside of OneNote. To find out how you can do this, see Chris Pratley's post on this topic by clicking here.

Tips:

• Any notes you take while the recording is paused will not be linked to the recording.
• When the Play button on the Audio and Video Recording toolbar is pressed, it will begin playing back the recording from the note where the selection is. If the selection is currently not in any of the linked notes, it will begin playing back from the beginning of the recording.
• If you don't want selection to follow the recording, just unpress the See Playback button on the Audio and Video Recording toolbar.
• To hide the video window, just press the Hide Video Window button on the Audio and Video Recording.
• When you begin recording, the actual recording file   is embedded into the page you began recording on  followed by a timestamp "Audio recording started: 9:00 AM Thursday, May 29, 2008" to indicate the date and time the recording began. Since the recording file is embedded, there is no way to access it outside of OneNote. However, if you right-click the embedded file, you'll see a Save As menu item, which will allow you to save a copy to a new location where you can access it.
• You can also drop existing recordings that were not recorded by OneNote onto any page. Just drag the recording file into the OneNote page. Then as you play back the recording in OneNote you can take notes and they'll automatically become linked to the recording.
  • OneNote currently supports the following formats for existing external media files, (meaning files recorded outside of OneNote and dropped onto a page): WMA, WAV, MP3. For video WMV and AVI are supported.
• By default, OneNote rewinds each linked note by 5 seconds, to ensure the context of the note is captured. This means that when you click the recording icon to begin playback, it will begin playing back 5 seconds prior to the exact time the note was taken. You can adjust this time by clicking Tools -> Options -> Audio and Video -> then you can enter the desired number of seconds in the following box:



• Did you know that your audio can be searched in OneNote too? To enable it, click Tools -> Options -> Audio and Video -> place a checkmark in the following checkbox:

Recording Enhancement Tips:

Not all microphones are created equal. So, depending on the type of microphone and sound card you have on your computer, things like background noise and other types of interference can affect the quality of the recording. The playback may not be as clear or as audible as you like. Here are some general tips on how to adjust your sound recording in Windows, (Please note that these tips are for a generic sound card and microphone and may be different depending on the manufacturer and model in use on your computer).

• Use the Windows tuning wizard to help you make adjustments to your microphone's recording capabilities, (available only on Windows XP):
  • In OneNote, click Tools -> Options -> Audio and Video -> Tuning Wizard.  Then follow the prompts.
  • You can make similar adjustments in Windows Vista by going to Start -> Control Panel -> Ease of Access -> Speech Recognition Options -> Set up microphone.
• Experiment with your audio/video settings in OneNote to see if it responds better. You'll see the settings in the Options dialog (Tools -> Options) under Audio and Video.
  • If you have multiple devices, try them all to determine which one records the best.
  • If you have multiple codecs installed, try them all to see which one performs better.
  • Experiment with different recording formats.
    • Warning: the format you select will determine the byte size of the recording file and as a result your OneNote section file size will increase. As a general rule, the higher the quality you select will map to a higher file size. For example, a 1 minute recording at 16 kbps, 16 kHz, mono will increase the size by approximately 130 KB. While a 1 minute recording at 128 kbps, 48 kHz, stereo will increase it by about 960 KB.
• Adjust the Windows recording levels for your microphone and line in:
  • In Windows XP: Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Voice -> click Volume under the Voice Recording section. Use the Volume slider to increase volume levels. Make sure the Mute checkbox is unchecked, (this is generally used to prevent feedback, so it may not be ideal in all situations).
  • In Windows Vista: Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Sound -> select your microphone -> Properties -> Levels -> experiment by making adjustments to Microphone and Microphone Boost.

Templates are relatively easy to use and create in OneNote. There are a wide variety of pre-defined template styles to choose from. There are 33 blank templates that define everything from specific page sizes to the page color.

A6 paper size	Blue Mist

There are 5 academic templates designed to help you get rolling quickly in your school classes. They're pre-designed for classes such as Simple Lectures, Math/Science Classes or History Class.

Simple Lecture	Math/Science Class	History Class

Then you have 67 decorative templates that contain everything from simple background pictures, such as Hearts or Boxes to complex and beautiful background images such as Bamboo, or Blue Clouds and much, much more.

Hearts	Bamboo	Blue Clouds

You also have 3 To Do List style templates which can help you begin a simple or prioritized to do list.

Simple To Do List	Prioritized To Do List

And finally, 7 business templates to help you get started taking notes quickly in meetings, such as Project Overview or Formal Meeting Notes

Project Overview	Formal Meeting Notes

This makes a total of 115 pre-defined templates to choose from.

To look at a sample of the available templates, simply click Format  -> Templates. Then expand the category you're interested in and begin clicking through the templates you'd like to view. When you click on a template, OneNote will actually create a new page, then apply the template to it, unless you're already starting with a new page.

Tips:

• There is no preview of templates. To see what a template looks like, follow the instructions in the paragraph above.
• To set a template as the default for a given section, just navigate to the section, then right-click the template and select Set as Default for This Section.
• To customize your own template, just set the page up exactly as you want your template to look, then click Save current page as a template at the bottom of the Templates task pane. You will then be prompted to enter a template name and specify whether you want the template to be used as a default template for the current section.
  • Your new customized template will appear in a new category called My Templates.
• To delete a customized template, right-click the template -> Delete.
  • Only customized templates can be deleted.

Notes:

• Templates cannot be able to applied an existing page, unless it's never had any content on it before.
• Templates can only be applied to a single page at a time, i.e. they cannot be applied to an entire section or notebook.
• A while ago I created a powertoy called OneNote Template Manager to circumvent the 2 points listed above. With it, you can apply a template to pages that you have already added notes to. In addition, you can create your own custom templates and apply them to any scope you specify, i.e. apply a template to a range of selected pages, or to an entire section or notebook, etc. However, the templates created with this powertoy are not able to be managed inside of OneNote, but rather inside the powertoy itself. Click here to give it a try.

Good news!  Mike Tholfsen, (the OneNote test manager), has decided to start a new blog.  Mike is passionate about a lot of things, but his two biggest passions are OneNote and education.  It's no surprise then that the theme of his blog is...OneNote and education.  You can find his blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/onenote_and_education.

He's had a lot of contact with educators over past couple of years and he'll be sharing his knowledge with you through his blog.  If you're interested in using OneNote as an education tool be sure to tune into his blog to get the latest up-to-date information.

Before OneNote came along, I would typically attend a meeting, bring a pen, and take lots of notes right on the handout. Aahh, good times, right? Actually, a lot of that still goes on today. Look around you the next time you attend a meeting and see if you can spot one of these pre-historic note takers. I bet if you follow him/her around they would have a hard time finding their notes when they really need them.

Enter, the digital world. Now you have no excuses...because you have OneNote. You get the same level of functionality, (well, almost), as you would if you had brought that trusty old writing utensil with you. Yes, that means you can even take notes on a digital copy of the document. Just insert the document as a printout right onto the OneNote page surface before the meeting. Once there, you just begin taking notes like you would if you actually had the document in front of you in the meeting. After all, in reality…you do.

But, the beauty is that your notes are searchable. i.e. it's easy to find them when you really need them. But did you know that the text inside the handout is searchable too. You see, when you insert a document as a printout, what you're really doing is inserting a picture of each page of the handout onto the OneNote page surface. But how can a picture be searchable? OneNote uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify characters and words in a picture, then inserts them into the searchable index. So if you don't remember what words you used when you took those notes, but happen to remember the subject of the meeting/class, just type in the search term and it finds it in the printout.

Tips:

• To insert a file as a printout, click Insert -> Files as Printouts -> select the document you wish to print -> and click Insert. A set of printed pages will then appear in OneNote along with a copy of the file.
• You can also print a document from any printing Windows application, such as MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, etc. To do so, just go through your normal routine of printing a document, but select the Send to OneNote 2007 printer driver from amongst the current list of printer drivers, like so, (note: this feature is unavailable with Windows Vista 64-bit systems):

• Generally when printing a document to OneNote, it is automatically placed in the Unfiled Notes area, which means you will have to manually move it to another section if you don't want it to remain there. However, you can customize where it goes by clicking Tools -> Options -> Send to OneNote -> then choose between any of the following options:
  • New page in section: …Unfiled Notes.one (this is the default)
  • New page in the current section (a new page is created at the end of the section where the printout will appear)
  • On the current page (The printout appears beneath all your existing notes on the current page)
  • One minor difference in using this method is that a copy of the file does not get embedded in your notes.
• Once the file has been inserted, you can take your notes right on top of the file's pages.
• Since each page is treated as a picture, you can drag it around, resize it, etc.
• You can anchor the printout page to OneNote's page surface by right-clicking on the picture -> Set Picture as Background.
• Once the printout is in OneNote, the text in the printed pages can be searched.  This happens automatically, but it does take some time.  If you need the text to become searchable immediately, you can right-click on the picture -> Make Text in Image Searchable -> then select the appropriate language.
  • If you prefer to not have OneNote search for text in pictures you can disable the feature by clicking Tools -> Options -> Other -> Disable text recognition in pictures.
  • In addition, the text found in the image can be copied and pasted elsewhere in OneNote.  Simply right-click the picture -> Copy Text from Picture.
• One final note. The pages of the printout will be printed at the page size specified in the application they were printed from, (generally standard sized paper - 8.5" x 11"). While you can affect the size of the printed pages in OneNote by adjusting their paper size in the application, sometimes it just simply won't fit on your OneNote page surface.

For example, below on the left is a PowerPoint slide.  The one on the right is a sample of how it prints to OneNote. You can see from the red outline that the page extends beyond the OneNote window borders. This can sometimes cause problems when attempting to take notes on the printout.

A while ago I created a powertoy called the OneNote Printout Manager to resolve this problem. Once pages have been printed to OneNote you can easily adjust their size, position, etc.

So, you can make this...

...look like this...

...with a simple click of a button.


If you insert or print files to OneNote, give this powertoy a try.  Click here to download it.  Just as an FYI, the download also contains a copy of the PowerPoint referenced in this blog.  That way you can experiment by printing it to OneNote and running the powertoy.

In addition to being a great place to store all of your notes and other content, OneNote also serves as a calculator. For example, say you're taking some notes and you suddenly have to do some quick arithmetic. You can either try to uncover those dusty memories of how to do fundamental mathematics in the far-reaching, (and in my case, dark), corners of your brain…or, just let OneNote's Napkin Math feature figure out the result for you.

Here's how it works. Just type the equation anywhere on OneNote's page surface, followed by an equals sign "=" and as soon as you press the <Spacebar> or <Enter>, OneNote performs the calculation.  For example, let's say you want to calculate the average monthly sales of bolts that sell 70 thousand per year: just type "70,000 / 12 =". Once you press the <Spacebar> OneNote does the following: "70,000 / 12 = 5,833.3333".

Or perhaps your in a meeting discussing the purchase of 18 new company vehicles for your sales force at $29,000 a car.  Just enter "18 * $29,000 =". OneNote resolves to "18 * $29,000 = $522,000.00". Notice the automatic inclusion of the decimal point (.) in the result. That's because of the dollar sign ($).

If you want to figure out the monthly payment of a loan you're about to take out just use pmt(i; n; b), where i = interest rate, n = number of payments and b = the amount borrowed. So if you type the following equation: "pmt(.019; 36; $50,000) =" you'll get: "pmt(.019; 36; $50,000) = $1,930.28".

Maybe you just want to impress your fellow classmates by showing them how quickly you can work out the answers to those complicated calculations.  Tip: Just don't let them see your fingers typing away on the keyboard.

Whatever the reason, you're sure to benefit from OneNote's built-in calculator.

Here are some more examples of expressions that can be calculated in OneNote:

• You type: "sin(30) =". OneNote resolves to: "sin(30) = 0.5"
• You type: "(6 + 7) / (4 * sqrt(3)) =". OneNote resolves to: "(6 + 7) / (4 * sqrt(3)) =1.876388374866284"
• You type: "5 ^ 4 =". OneNote resolves to: "5 ^ 4 = 625"

See below for a list of supported operators and math/trig functions.

Tips:

• Use the percent sign (%) to make calculating percentages easier
  • Type: "35 * 20 % =", you get: "35 * 20 % = 7"

• Lower case x, upper case X and asterisk (*) are all valid multiplication operators
  • "2 x 3 X 5 *9 =" resolves to: "2 x 3 X 5 *9 = 270"

• You can use pi and phi as constants
  • "1 * pi=" resolves to: "1 * pi = 3.141592653589793"
  • "1 * phi=" resolves to: "1 * phi = 1.618033988749895"

• Factorial numbers are computed like so:
  • "5 ! =" resolves to: "5 ! = 120"

• Use 'mod' to calculate remainders
  • "38 mod 12 =" resolves to: "38 mod 12 = 2"

• To disable napkin math in OneNote, click Tools -> Options -> remove the checkmark from Calculate mathematical expressions automatically.
• Be sure the symbols you use in your equation are valid symbols. For example, try typing "#38 mod 12 =". You would probably expect a result of 2. However, because the hash mark "#" invalidates the number 38, OneNote is really solving the equation "12 =", for which the result is 12.
• Finally, here's a note from John Guin's blog on napkin math:

And here is the final part that surprised me the most. The Greek letters for pi and phi are supported as constants in both lower case and capital forms. Try it out:

π= should give 3.141592653589793

Π=should give 3.141592653589793

φ=should give 1.618033988749895

Φ=should give 1.618033988749895

(Use character map to insert the symbols if you want).

List of supported operators:

List of math and trigonometry functions:

A friend of mine recently got a new Tablet PC and decided to show off some of it's cool features. He also knows that I work for the OneNote team and so he decided he was going to impress me with his knowledge of OneNote. He told me he loves the idea that he can use OneNote like a to do list. So he pulled out his stylus and began drawing a small box of ink on his page, then he proceeded to write a note next to the box. He said "look, once I finish this item, I just check off this box" as he drew a checkmark inside the box he had just made.

I found myself intrigued that he had not yet discovered the note tag feature, given that it is one of the most prominent features in OneNote. So I said, "yeah that's cool...but wouldn't it be great if there was a way you could search your notebook and find all the little checkboxes that have not been checked off yet?" His eyes got big and the wheels started spinning as he began thinking of all the different possibilities he could use that for.

Note Tags:

Note Tags are interactive checkboxes that can be applied to your notes in OneNote. They can be applied to text, ink, pictures, drawings and much, much more. What's more, you can search your notebook for any and all checkboxes and filter your search based on the checked status, type of tag, date applied, etc.

You can apply a note tag by pressing <Ctrl + 1>. This places a checkbox on your page. Then you just begin typing or writing your note. If you want to add another checkbox, move to a new location on the page and press <Ctrl + 1> again, then take your next note. Once you've accomplished your task, you just click on the checkbox and it marks it as complete.

Tips:

1. Use the <Ctrl> key in conjunction with the numbers 1…9 to access additional predefined tags.
2. There are also many other available tags in OneNote:

   

3. If you don't find a tag that suites your needs, create your own
   • Click View -> Customize My Tags -> New Tag, then give it a name and choose from any of the available formatting options.

Now, let's say you have multiple projects going on at the same time. So you may have multiple notebooks or sections you use to take notes and track your work. You might be using note tags across many of those notebooks and sections. So, now you want to roll up all the unchecked tags into one easy to see view so you can determine what you have left to accomplish. To view a list of all your tags click View -> All Tagged Notes. Tips: 1. To display only the unchecked items, place a checkmark in the 'Show only unchecked items' checkbox'.
2. To broaden or limit your search scope click the Search dropdown menu then select the desired scope.
3. To sort the list, click the Group tags by dropdown menu. 4. If you need more context to understand what that note was about, just click on the note in the summary pane and you will be navigated to the page where you originally took the note.

5. You can also create a new summary page of all the tagged notes found in the summary. Click the Create Summary Page button. With the new page you can print out a copy of your to do list and take it on the run with you.

Note: It's important to understand that when you create a summary page, all the tags that are currently in the Tags Summary pane are duplicated onto the new page.  This means you will have exact copies of these tags and once you refresh the results of the pane, you could potentially be seeing double, (depending on the search scope you have selected).

So, what's actually happening here?  Well, tags have several properties associated with them, one of which is 'archived'.  When a summary page is generated, all the original tags become archived, while the new duplicates are active.  Now, generally, this doesn't really mean anything, other than the behavior described above.  However, OneNote has some tag settings that allow you to utilize this little known feature.

You can cause the original, (or archived), tags to appear dimmed once the summary page is created, giving the appearance of a disabled tag, (even though the tag is still enabled).  To do this, click Tools -> Options -> Tags -> mark Show original tagged notes as dimmed.  By the very nature of the note tags being dimmed, they will be excluded from the search results in the summary pane.  But suppose you don't want them to be excluded.  Easy.  Just place a checkmark in the Show dimmed tagged notes in the Tags Summary pane of the Tools -> Options -> Tags settings.

Sometimes you won't have time to think about where to put a particular note. For example, suppose you're in a meeting where you're discussing the week's activities with your colleagues. Suddenly, you have a thought about your stock portfolio, something completely unrelated to the meeting. Rather than disrupt the flow of the meeting to run OneNote, find the section containing your portfolio information and type a note to yourself, you can create a quick reminder note in your Unfiled Notes where you can follow up with it later. It's easy and there's only one step to remember, <Windows key + N>.

Unfiled Notes is a special area in OneNote where you can just throw a bunch of your stuff and then deal with it later. To create a new unfiled note, press the <Windows key + N>.

You'll see a new smaller OneNote window appear in the form of a sticky note, where you can jot down your thought and then close the window so you don't have to think about it any more.

Then, After the meeting, when you have more time to organize your notes, you can click on the Unfiled Notes button in OneNote, found at the bottom-left of the NavBar.

Here, you'll see the note you took, but in the more familiar looking OneNote window, with the section tabs and page tabs. You can move the page with the note on it to whatever section/notebook you prefer.

This can be done in one of 3 ways:

1. drag the page to the desired section.
2. Cut/copy/paste the page to any section you desire.
3. Right-click on the page -> select Move Page To -> then select the desire section.

Tips:

• You can customize the location of your unfiled notes. Just click Tools -> Options -> Save -> select Unfiled Notes -> Modify -> select the folder you would like to use -> OK.
• You can also create a new unfiled note using any of these options:
  1. Click the Side Note icon in the Windows System Tray

     

  2. In OneNote, click Window -> New Side Note Window
  3. In OneNote, press <Ctrl + Shift + M>

• Side note default options can be changed by simply right-clicking on the Side Note icon in the Windows System Tray -> selecting Options -> and then clicking on OneNote Icon Defaults.

  • Open New Side Note: Sets Side Note as the default mode when left-clicking on the icon.
  • Open OneNote: Sets OneNote as the default mode when left-clicking on the icon.
  • Start Recording Audio: Begins recording audio when Side Note is started.
  • Screen Clipping: Starts Side Note in Screen Clipping mode.

• If you don't see the Side Note icon in the Windows System Tray, open OneNote and click Tools -> Options -> Other -> add a checkmark to Place OneNote icon in the notification area of the taskbar.
• You can customize Side Note to do any of the following startup options by default (these will only be the default when the Side Note icon in the Windows System Tray is clicked):
  1. Open OneNote (instead of Side Note).
  2. Begin recording audio when Side Note is opened.
  3. Automatically set Side Note in Screen Clipping when it's opened.

Page tabs are the labels that appear along the right edge of the page. They belong inside of sections. As you switch from section to section, you'll see all the page tabs pertaining to that section change to display the ones associated with the current section. This is where your notes and other content lives.

You can add a new page by clicking the New Page button that appears above the page tabs. If you prefer to use the keyboard, you can press <Ctrl + N> to create a new page. Subpages, (also known as grouped pages), are the page tabs that appear slightly indented, such as "Passwords" in this picture. This provides a way to further organize your pages.

The slight indentation indicates that they belong to a group of pages with the main page as its 'parent page'.

You can put any notes or content onto a subpage just like you can on a main page. To create a new subpage beneath the current one, simply click the small arrow next to the New Page button -> and select New Subpage.  You can also right-click any page and select New Subpage to create a new one immediately beneath it.  Or for you keyboard lovers out there, you can press <Ctrl + Shift + N>.  

One of the most compelling things about a page in OneNote is the versatility in which it can store your stuff. You can put just about every kind of content you can imagine on the page surface. It can handle, text, ink, drawings, pictures, audio, video, tables, documents and files of every kind. What's more, you don't have to do anything special for OneNote to handle any of these things. It just knows how to deal with them.

Content added to a page appears inside a container, known as an outline. The outline contains a handle along the top to show that you can grab it and move it around.

Each note inside the outline is known as an element.  Each element has a small grab handle that appears to the side to show that it can be repositioned inside the outline. You can also use the grab handle to drag content outside the outline if you desire.

The outline border and the element grab handle only appear if your mouse is hovering over them. To some people this is a nuisance, because these things are constantly flashing as your mouse moves across the page. If you want to reduce the amount the visual 'noise' on the page, you can hide the outline borders. To do this, click Tools -> Options -> Display -> remove the checkmark from 'Show note containers on pages'.

Tips:

• For left-handed users, the page tabs and scroll bar can be displayed along the left side instead of the right, click Tools -> Options -> Display -> place a checkmark in 'Page tabs appear on the left' and 'Vertical scroll bar appears on the left'.  This makes it easier to navigate your pages when using a pen.
• When a new page is created, the page tab's name appears as "Untitled Page". However, after you add a title to your page, the page tab adopts it as its new name. Even if you don't explicitly give it a title, the page tab name will adopt the first few words of any text or ink that it sees on the page.
• You can change a series of existing main pages into grouped pages by first selecting the range of pages, (this is done by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on each additional page) -> then right-click the selection -> choose Group Pages. This causes the first page in the selected range to become the main page and all subsequent pages in the selected range to become subpages.
• You can also change all subpages within a group to be main pages by right-clicking the page group -> and selecting Ungroup Pages.
• You can adjust the properties of a page by right-clicking the page tab -> and pressing Page Setup. This is where you can specify the paper size, margins, rule lines, and more. You can even set your page surface to be a certain color.
• Pages come with a page title at the top. This is a special container that floats above the page surface and is reserved for text and ink only. All other content will be stored on the page surface. Immediately beneath the page title you will see the creation date and time. You can easily change the date and time by clicking on them. Once you do so a small control will appear to the side, click on it to select the desired date or time.
• You can also turn off the page title. To do so, right-click the page tab -> select Page Setup -> remove the checkmark from the 'Show page title' checkbox. Note, however, that doing so will permanently remove the page title and any content that appears in it. If you decide later to turn the title back on, just follow the same steps.
• If you are using a Tablet PC, you may have noticed that every time you create a new page it displays rule lines. To most people this serves as a guide to writing in a straight line. In addition, it gives you the experience of writing on a real paper notebook. Some people would prefer not to have rule lines on every new page. To disable this feature click Tools -> Options -> Display -> remove the checkmark from 'Create all new pages with rule lines'.

Sections appear along the top of the page and look similar in shape to the tabs you find on the yellow manila folders:

Sections bel