Pages

jeffcardon — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:34:32 GMT

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

jeffcardon — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:09:09 GMT

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

Sections belong inside of notebooks. So when you switch to another notebook, you'll see the section tabs associated with that notebook change to display all the sections contained within it. Some people like to name their section tabs by topic, such as what the example picture shows above. In this example, each tab contains notes about a given subject in school.

Some people like to name their section after a customer's name or a client. Then they store notes relating to that customer in the section. They can add new notes about the customer during meetings, or perhaps refer to notes they've previously taken about them.

Some might name their section after the name of a particular task they have at work. Or they might name it after a weekly meeting. Others like to name them after a topic or a particular subject. There are no right or wrong section names, just use names that appeal to you and help you to more easily organize your stuff. Since a section represents a single file at the Windows level, there are certain characters that cannot be used in the section name. These include all of the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |

Sections can also be stored inside of Section Groups. Section groups give you an extra layer of organization. Like sections, they are contained in notebooks and appear along the top of the page, next to the section tabs.

To create a section group, click File -> New (or right-click the empty area immediately to the right of the section tabs) -> Section Group. You can also use the New button dropdown on the Standard toolbar.

Tips:

If you find yourself wishing you would have named your notebooks or sections with a different name, don't worry, it's easy to rename them. Just right-click on the notebook or section tab -> and select Rename.
The section tab and notebook colors are determined randomly by an internal algorithm. If you don't like the color OneNote has chosen for your section, you can change it by simply right-clicking the section tab -> choosing Section Color -> and then selecting one of the available color options.
- Similarly with notebooks, you right-click the notebook -> select Properties and select one of the available colors under the Color dropdown.

Unlike notebooks, you can't simply close a section, unless your section is currently opened from outside the current notebook. If you want to get rid of a section, you can either move it into another notebook, or you can delete it.
- To move a section into a different notebook, click and drag the section over the NavBar and hover the mouse over the notebook. After about a second, a flyout will appear revealing all the sections in that notebook. Simply drop the section wherever you like amongst the existing sections in that notebook.
  - You can also right-click the section tab ->select Move -> select the notebook in which you would like to move the section into -> and then click Move Into.
- To delete a section, right-click the section tab -> then choose Delete. The section is automatically sent to the Windows Recycle Bin.

Did you know that you can easily password protect a section in OneNote? It's easy to do. Just click File (or right-click the section tab) -> Password Protect this Section -> after the Password Protection task pane appears, click Set Password -> enter the desired password and you're done. After a password protected section becomes inactive for 10 minutes or more, it'll be locked automatically. If you prefer to lock the section manually, on your own schedule, just click Lock on the Password Protection task pane.
- You can also adjust the number of minutes of inactivity before OneNote will automatically lock the section. This is done by clicking Tools -> Options -> Passwords -> then select the desired time.
- You can also force OneNote to automatically lock the section each time you navigate away from the section in the same Tools -> Options dialog.

OneNote Tips & Tricks : Tabs

Pages

Sections