My Office 2016 (2016)
15. Getting More Out of OneNote
In this chapter, you learn how to get more out of OneNote notebooks, including creating new notebooks, inserting links and files, and adding ink to a page. Topics include the following:
Creating new notebooks
Inserting the date and time
Adding links to a page
Inserting spreadsheets and other files
Annotating a page with written text and other ink
You learned the basics of working with OneNote in Chapter 14, “Building a OneNote Notebook,” but there’s much more the program can do. In this chapter, you extend your OneNote education by learning a few more useful tasks, such as creating new notebooks, adding data such as the current date and time and links to other objects, and inserting files on a page. If you’re running OneNote on a touch-based PC, you can also populate and annotate a page by writing directly on the screen, and you learn how to use this “ink” later in this chapter.
Working with Notebooks
The hierarchical structure of a OneNote notebook means that you can break down your data in a number of ways. That is, you can assign major topics their own sections and then subdivide each topic into multiple pages within a section. That works well for most people, and it’s common to use only a single notebook. However, you might find that your notebook has so many sections that it is difficult to navigate and to find the data you need. In that case, you might consider creating a second notebook. For example, many people maintain one notebook for personal data and another for business data. Similarly, if you share your computer with other people but haven’t set up separate user accounts, you’ll no doubt prefer that everyone use her own notebook.
Create a New Notebook
You can create a new notebook either locally on your PC or remotely on your OneDrive. For the latter, you need to be logged in to your Microsoft account.
1. Select the File tab.
2. Select New.
3. Select your OneDrive.
4. Type a name for the notebook.
5. Select Create Notebook. OneNote creates the new notebook and then asks whether you want to share it.
6. Select Not Now.
Sharing
To learn how to share data through OneDrive, see “Sharing a Document Online” in Chapter 18, “Collaborating with Others.”
Switch Between Notebooks
When you have two or more notebooks open, OneNote gives you a quick and easy method for switching from one to another.
1. Select the name of the current notebook. OneNote displays the Notebook pane.
2. Select the notebook you want to use. OneNote switches to that workbook.
Closing a Workbook
If you no longer want a particular notebook to appear in the Notebook pane, you need to close it. Display the Notebook pane, right-click the notebook you want to close, and then select Close This Notebook.
>>>Go Further: Pinning the Notebook Pane
If you find that you often switch from one notebook to another, you can make the switching process even easier by opening the Notebook pane and then clicking Pin Notebook Pane to Side (the pin icon that appears in the upper-right corner of the pane). This tells OneNote to always display the Notebook pane on the left side of the window, so you can switch to any open notebook just by clicking it.
If you later decide that the Notebook pane is taking up too much room, you can hide it again by clicking Unpin Notebook Pane from Side (the vertical pin icon that appears in the upper-right corner of the Notebook pane).
Set Notebook Properties
A notebook’s properties control the name of the notebook and the color the notebook appears in the Notebook pane. You can access the notebook’s properties to change one or both of these settings.
1. Select the File tab.
2. Select Info.
3. Select Settings for the notebook you want to modify.
4. Select Properties. The Notebook Properties dialog box opens.
5. Use the Display Name text box to change the notebook’s name.
6. Select the Color drop-down list and then select a notebook color.
7. Select OK. OneNote applies the new property values.
Accessing the Notebook Properties
Another way to access a notebook’s properties is to display the Notebook pane, right-click the notebook, and then select Properties.
Adding Data to a Page
The straightforward click-and-type nature of a OneNote page makes it easy to add simple notes, lists, and other text snippets. And, of course, you’re free to take advantage of the techniques you learned in Chapter 3, “Working with Office 2016 Graphics,” to populate a page with pictures, SmartArt, WordArt, and shapes. The inherent free-form approach offered by OneNote also means that you can add plenty of other data types to a page. The most common of these are the date and time, links, Excel worksheets, and files, each of which is described in the next few sections.
Insert the Date and Time
Some of the content you add to a OneNote page will be date- and/or time-sensitive. For such content, you should date- and/or time-stamp the placeholder by inserting the current date, time, or both.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the date.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select Date. OneNote inserts today’s date.
Keyboard Shortcut
You can also insert today’s date by pressing Alt+Shift+D.
6. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the time.
7. Select Time. OneNote inserts the current time.
Keyboard Shortcut
You can also insert the current time by pressing Alt+Shift+T.
Add a Link to a Website
OneNote comes with a Links command that enables you to insert links to websites. This is handy if you use your pages to store links to websites you visit often or want to visit in the future.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the link. You can also select existing text that you want to turn into a link.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select Link. OneNote displays the Link dialog box.
Keyboard Shortcut
You can also display the Link dialog box by pressing Ctrl+K.
6. If you didn’t select text in advance, type the link text.
7. Type the link address, or paste it from your browser’s address box.
8. Select OK. OneNote inserts the link.
Editing a Link
To make changes to a link, right-click the link and then click Edit Link.
Add a Link to a OneNote Location
Besides linking to a website, OneNote also enables you to create a link to another OneNote location: a notebook, a section within a notebook, a page within a section, or even a note within a page. This makes navigating OneNote easy because you can select a link to jump instantly to that location.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Select the text that you want to turn into a link. You can also position the insertion point where you want to insert the link.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select Link. OneNote displays the Link dialog box.
Keyboard Shortcut
You can also display the Link dialog box by pressing Ctrl+K.
6. If you didn’t select text in advance, type the link text.
7. Select the notebook you want to use.
8. If you want to link to a section, select the section.
9. If you want to link to a page, select the page.
10. Select OK. OneNote inserts the link.
>>>Go Further: Easier Location Links
If you find yourself inserting many location links in your notebooks, OneNote offers several methods that make it even easier to create such links:
• To link to a notebook, right-click the notebook title and then click Copy Link to Notebook.
• To link to a section, right-click the section tab and then click Copy Link to Section.
• To link to a page, right-click the page tab and then click Copy Link to Page.
• To link to a note, right-click the note container and then click Copy Link to Paragraph.
Then position the insertion point where you want the link to appear, select the Home tab, and then select Paste.
Insert a Spreadsheet File
If you have an existing Excel workbook that you want to view within OneNote, you can insert the file on a page.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Position the insertion point where you want the spreadsheet file to appear.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select Spreadsheet.
6. Select Existing Excel Spreadsheet. OneNote displays the Choose Document to Insert dialog box.
7. Select a location.
8. Select the spreadsheet file you want to insert.
9. Select Insert. OneNote displays the Insert File dialog box.
10. Select Insert Spreadsheet. OneNote inserts the workbook data into the page.
11. To work with the spreadsheet, select Edit to open the file in Excel.
Insert a New Spreadsheet
If you don’t have an existing spreadsheet you want to insert, you can instead insert a new spreadsheet.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Position the insertion point where you want the spreadsheet file to appear.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select Spreadsheet.
6. Select New Excel Spreadsheet. OneNote inserts the new spreadsheet.
7. To work with the spreadsheet, select Edit to open the file in Excel.
Attach a File
If you want quick access to any type of file, you can attach that file to a OneNote page.
1. Select the section you want to use.
2. Select the page you want to use.
3. Select where you want the file icon to appear.
4. Select the Insert tab.
5. Select File Attachment. OneNote displays the Choose a File or a Set of Files to Insert dialog box.
6. Select a location.
7. Select the file you want to attach.
8. Select Insert. OneNote displays the Insert File dialog box.
9. Select Attach File. OneNote inserts an icon for the file into the page.
10. To work with the file, double-click it. OneNote displays a warning dialog box.
11. Select OK. The file opens in its default application.
Adding Ink
Office 2016 includes ink integration, which means that an object type called digital ink or, simply, ink is part of the Office system, like the AutoShape and Text Box object types, for instance. In fact, ink objects are part of the Office drawing layer that holds AutoShapes, text boxes, WordArt, pictures, and so on, and you can format ink like other drawing layer objects by changing, for example, the text color and line weight.
Ink enables you to mark up OneNote pages using your finger or a digital pen or stylus. This enables you to annotate a page directly, which means either writing notes using your own handwriting or adding highlighting, diagrams, proofreader marks, or other symbols. You can even convert ink text into regular text.
Handwrite Text
For quick notes, you can use your finger or a digital pen to handwrite notes directly on a page.
1. Tap the section you want to use.
2. Tap the page you want to use.
3. Tap the Draw tab.
4. Tap the More button in the Tools group. OneNote displays the Tools gallery.
5. Tap the pen you want to use.
6. Use your finger or digital pen to handwrite directly on the screen.
Highlight Text
To emphasize text on a page, you can use your finger or digital pen to apply a highlight to the text.
1. Tap the section you want to use.
2. Tap the page you want to use.
3. Tap the Draw tab.
4. Tap the More button in the Tools group. OneNote displays the Tools gallery.
5. Tap the highlighter you want to use.
6. Use your finger or digital pen to tap and drag across the text you want highlighted.
Convert Ink to Text
Handwriting text is quick and easy, but it suffers from some major drawbacks: It can’t be searched, spell-checked, or used in any program that doesn’t support ink. To work around these problems, you need to convert your handwriting to digital text.
1. Tap the section you want to use.
2. Tap the page you want to use.
3. Tap the Draw tab.
4. Tap Lasso Select.
5. Position your finger or the digital stylus above and to the left of the ink you want to convert.
6. Draw a clockwise circle around the ink.
7. When the text is completely within the lasso, release the screen. OneNote selects the ink.
8. Tap Ink to Text. OneNote converts the selected handwriting to digital text.
Faster Ink Conversions
In many cases, an even easier way to convert ink to text is to tap and hold the ink to display the Mini Toolbar, tap the drop-down arrow, tap Convert Ink, and then tap Ink to Text.
Erase Ink
If you have ink you no longer need, or if you’ve made some stray marks on the page, you can erase the ink.
1. Tap the section you want to use.
2. Tap the page you want to use.
3. Tap the Draw tab.
4. Tap Eraser.
5. Tap Stroke Eraser.
6. Tap the ink stroke you want to erase. OneNote removes the stroke. Repeat as necessary.
