OneNote allows you to take, organize, and share notes on multiple devices. With so many features and options available, it’s hard to know where you should start.

This guide on one note training will help you organize your notebooks, sections, pages, and notes for maximum efficiency. This guide offers tips on how to structure your notebooks and pages for maximum efficiency.

These best practices on onenote training: how to organise your notes like a pro will have you navigating OneNote in no time.

Create a thoughtful notebook structure

Imagine notebooks as master containers that store all of your notes. In a hierarchical format, notebooks store section groups, pages, and sections.

Organising your notebooks is the first step to a smooth OneNote experience. Here are a few strategies to help you:

• Separate notebooks for broad topics and projects
• Use one notebook to keep a journal or daily planner
• Create notebooks for each class/course
• Use a single notebook for personal use and separate notebooks for work.
• Make notebooks for recipes and other reference materials.

Keep your notebooks focused. Consider dividing large projects into multiple notebooks, organized by topic or semester.

Take Advantage of Section Groups

Section groups are “folders” inside notebooks. Use them to group related sections together and further organise your content.

Section groups can be leveraged in a number of ways, including:

• Divide semester-long course into modules or weeks
• Work projects can be divided into phases
• Notes from Group Training Events by Day
• Sort reference materials like work policies according to department or topic

You can re-label or rearrange the sections as you need.

Create clear section labels

The sections hold the pages that contain your notes. OneNote’s organization is dominated by sections.

Create descriptive labels to make sections easier to navigate.

• Names of the course/chapter
• Topics and dates of meetings
• Project Stages
• Indexes for notebooks
• Categories or themes

Use section names that are specific to your future self, rather than generic labels such as “Notes”.

Create page titles for instant scanning

The page titles make it easy to scan and find notes. Well-titled pages, sorted by date, also document your activities.

Page title best practices:

• Chronology begins with a date or place.
• Summary the content as “Interview notes: John Smith”.
• Add important keywords and details
• Label pages in a sequential manner, such as “Work Meeting Notes for April 3, p.1”.

OneNote pages should be titled thoughtfully, just as you would with files.

Outline long pages with quick headings

Use headings for long pages that span many topics or days.

Headings are a great way to make it easier to navigate and review long pages.

• Include H1 and H2 headings to highlight major events or topics
• Use bullet points to summarize or abstract your work.
• Add H3 headings to subtopics
• Headings can be made to stand out by using color, size or style

The headings are like a table-of-contents that guides you through the detailed pages.

Sections and Content Color Coded

OneNote’s color coding system is a great way to organize your notes visually. Try these color strategies.

• Tabs with color coded sections for easy identification
• Colors to categorize Tint Page Backgrounds
• Text colors can be used to emphasize or tag concepts
• Allocate a color to each client/project
• Pages linking to steps in a process are displayed in the same colour

Color palettes offer endless possibilities to spice up your notes.

Use tags for quick searches

OneNote has a search feature that allows you to quickly locate content marked with keywords.

Search engine optimization:

• Create multi-word tags such as “#MeetingNotes”.
• Tag pages with terms such as assignments and projects
• Add popular search terms such as people’s names
• Include abbreviations and acronyms in your notes

You can now instantly access notes marked #ToDo or#KeyIdeas.

Add page links for quick cross-referencing

OneNote makes it easier to connect information by linking related pages.

You can link to pages in the following ways:

• Connect meeting pages with project outcomes pages
• Connect class notes with relevant assignment pages
• Refer to a reference document when referring to steps in a procedure
• Link meeting pages back to monthly calendar pages
• Pages related to a subject can be linked together

Page links provide context with a single click.

Synchronize Devices Frequently

OneNote’s major advantage is the ability to sync your notes in real-time across all of your devices.

Maximize the feature by:

• OneNote syncs notebooks prior to closing
• When entering a lot of notes, clicking the sync button often is a good idea
• If you are working offline in a poor service area or on a plane, it is important to sync immediately.
• Checking the sync status icon to make sure everything is updated

Conclusion 

These tips will help you organize your notes so that they are easily searchable and cross-linked. This OneNote expert’s advice will help you keep your notebooks neat. Say goodbye to clutter and hello notetaking bliss.