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What is Microsoft OneNote?

Microsoft OneNote is a fully functional digital note taking application which can be used to organize, share and collaborate on ideas. The solution comes with a free companion application for Windows devices and offers deep search functionality for all notes stored in its system. Users can store and organize audio recordings that are in a searchable format as well as integrate them with other Microsoft 365 products such as Excel or Word. To save time and effort, they can also highlight their handwritten notes by using various shapes and colors on the screen of their mobile device.

Who Uses Microsoft OneNote?

Creative project management solution for creating notes, sharing ideas, adding annotations, and more.

Microsoft OneNote Software - OneNote notebook
Microsoft OneNote Software - OneNote annotations
Microsoft OneNote Software - OneNote sketching
Microsoft OneNote Software - OneNote workbook tabs

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Reviews of Microsoft OneNote

Average score

Overall
4.6
Ease of Use
4.5
Customer Service
4.3
Features
4.5
Value for Money
4.5

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Mohammad
Mohammad
Technical Office Engineer in Kuwait
Verified LinkedIn User
Civil Engineering, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

OneNote drives productivity among our project team with its incredible note-taking experience.

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: I'm quite satisfied with the overall functionality & the work management achieved thanks to OneNote's robust data-handling & collaboration capabilities. Furthermore, the software pioneers in its flexible note-sharing options where notes can either be shared as files of different formats or as accessible links. That said, I'm gaining a whole lot of features from an out-of-the-box free-of-charge software is more than enough reason to compel any user to at least give it a try.

Pros:

OneNote is like a virtual whiteboard that collectively stores our ideas, tasks & file attachments of our current & accomplished construction projects in a singular platform accessible anywhere across any device. The user interface is generally butter-smooth & works amazingly well in split-screen mode on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra phone using the S-Pen to jot notes & drag photos & files from the file manager or gallery to the OneNote application. It's a productivity-centric utility that's practically indispensable for my daily tasks.

Cons:

As of the 22H2 Windows 10 update on my laptop, I've started noticing notes take a bit longer to synchronize my work in order to resume collaboration with the project team. I hope this gets resolved in a future software update on Windows. The mobile & web versions work great though.

Mihaela
Head Teacher in Romania
Education Management, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Great tool for teachers !

5.0 2 months ago New

Comments: Very usefull for day to day teaching, seach option of past materials.

Pros:

The live save of the work done and storage online of information, easy transfer if moving on another device.

Cons:

Lack of a protractor and compasses to use for Math.

biswajit
manager in India
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

digtal note book for students and small businesses

3.0 last month New

Comments: Overall experience is good, some improvement can be done like for slow internet notes can be easily accessible. increase storage to at least 15 gb. do something about offline access

Pros:

can be accessed by any device from any where, easy to save audio visual presentation, AI math assistant is very helpful. easy to organize, print and share. User interface is very good for layman.

Cons:

storage of 5 gb in free version is not helpful, slow to load specially when internet speed is slow, syncing issue while using various devices

Robert
Data Analyst in Romania
Industrial Automation, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Reliable note taking and task management app

5.0 2 months ago

Pros:

As a note taking app I find OneNote more useful and with more features than other apps. I used to use Evernote, but there were to many restrictions and not too many options for notes categorization. With OneNote one has not only the Notebook entity, but also the sections within each Notebook and the pages within each section. This tree structure on 3 levels allows for a quite flexible approach when it comes to notes categorization. Another critical feature is the Search function: allowing to search across all notebooks and pages. As for task management, I find OneNote easier to use to store my to do's with additional info (text and images). This is very useful when working on individual projects and not having to switch to other apps. OneNote can work as a mood board, note taking, task management, reminders, even password management (you can password protect a particular section)

Cons:

The sync process could benefit from some improvements: as in the notebooks to be created by default in OneDrive or SharePoint. There are scenarios where the notebooks are created locally, then in order to sync one needs to put it manually on OneDrive or SharePoint.

Tiffany
Supervisor in US
Insurance, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

OneNote OneBook

5.0 2 months ago New

Comments: I absolutely love it! It's like having a binder online with multiple subjects and different pages for different topics.

Pros:

I love that you can make separate notebooks with different subjects for different things. I also love that you can share notebooks or pages that you have created.

Cons:

I don't like that sometimes it is hard to fix things once they are deleted.