Microsoft To Do Onenote

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking app that makes it easy to access notes, images, and more across your devices. Lesser-known OneNote features include the ability to scan documents and solve. Microsoft Has Big Plans for OneNote, including To-Do Integration, Section Sharing. OneNote has some significant features planned for the next year and a half, including better tools for meeting. Microsoft To Do. To Do gives you focus, from work to play.

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking app that makes it easy to access notes, images, and more across your devices.
Lesser-known OneNote features include the ability to scan documents and solve complex math problems.
Here are 9 ways to get the most out of OneNote and improve your workflow.
Visit Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

When it comes to digital note-taking apps, Microsoft OneNote checks all the boxes. It's reliable and fairly intuitive, and works seamlessly across devices, no matter if you're a Windows user, a Mac user, or both.

In a nutshell, OneNote works like a physical notebook with cloud-based perks. Beyond being able to organize and capture digital notes, you can add images, video, and audio, and then access them easily on the go.

Whether you're a dedicated OneNote user or just discovering its value for note-taking, research, and information organization, here are some ways to get more utility out of the program.

Scan documents directly from your phone

If you need to get a copy of a document into OneNote, there's no easier way to do it than with Office Lens, a mobile app for iOS and Android. After you install and configure Office Lens, you can use it to take high-quality scans of multi-page documents with your phone and then upload them to any number of destinations, including OneDrive, email, and OneNote. Just choose the Notebook you want to copy it to, and you can use OneNote as a permanent storage for important documents.

Convert handwritten pages to text

If your computer, tablet, or mobile device works with a stylus, you might already use it to make sketches or jot handwritten notes in OneNote. But you can also convert those handwritten notes to digital text.

1. Click the 'Draw' tab in the ribbon and click 'Lasso Select.'

2. Drag the lasso around the text you want to covert.

3. In the ribbon, click 'Ink to Text.'

OneNote will convert your handwriting to text as best it can. There will be errors, no doubt, but the text will be editable and you can incorporate it into other documents.

Do simple math

You can use OneNote to do simple math problems just by writing out the equation you want to solve. For example, you can write '100 + 400 =' and OneNote will fill in the answer. You can perform any common math problem - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, for example - in the same way. OneNote will even respect the order of operations, such as '(1 + 2) * 6 =.'

Solve complex equations

OneNote isn't limited to simple grade-school arithmetic - there's a pretty powerful math engine under its hood. You can use a stylus to write an equation, then ask OneNote to convert it to text so you can use it in another document. But that's not all: in many cases, OneNote can graph or solve the equation as well.

1. Using a stylus, draw an equation.

2. Drag the lasso around the text you want to covert.

3. In the ribbon, click 'Math.'

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4. To convert the drawn equation to text, click 'Ink to Math.' Or click 'Select an action' and choose one of the available options, such as solving or graphing the equation.

Record meetings

You can use OneNote on a laptop to record meetings and take audio notes. Not only that, you may also 'bookmark' important moments during the recording so you know exactly where to go to hear a specific moment from the meeting.

1. Click the 'Insert' tab in the ribbon and then click 'Audio.' OneNote will start recording immediately.

2. If you hear something you want to be able to easily find later, type a note in the OneNote page. It can be a short, one-word keyword or you can type a detailed description.

3. When the meeting is over, click 'Stop' in the ribbon.

Your notes should now have small 'Play' icons to their left. When you click the 'Play' button, OneNote will play the recording from the moment when you started typing that note.

Easily clip webpages to OneNote

OneNote Web Clipper is a browser extension for Google Chrome that may make you wonder how you ever got by without it. After installing the extension, open a webpage you want to copy to OneNote and click the extension icon in your browser's toolbar. By default, the extension will load a preview of the entire page, but you can click options like 'Region' to snip just parts of the page. You can then choose which OneNote notebook to copy it to.

Make a team wiki

A wiki-style encyclopedia doesn't have to be complicated and you don't need to use specialized tools. OneNote, in fact, is a great way to create a shared space with documents, processes, meeting notes, or any other kind of content you want to share and collaborate on.

To build a wiki-like page in OneNote, you simply need to create links to other OneNote pages. To do that, right-click the name of the page you want to link to and choose 'Copy Link to Page.'

Then, to create the link on another page, select the text, right-click and choose 'Link.' Paste the link into the 'Address' field and click 'Insert.'

Share this wiki Notebook by clicking 'Share' in the upper right corner and sending an invitation to everyone on your team. Make sure you set it to 'Can edit' so everyone can make changes to your Notebook.

Replay a sketch

If you create a sketch or drawing, or even jot down notes with a stylus, you can take use of a clever feature in OneNote to play it back like a short video, watching exactly how it originally unfolded. It's a great teaching aid, for example - you can use it to play back how a sketch was made one step at a time, or how to solve a math problem.

1. To replay a drawing, click the 'View' tab in the ribbon.

2. Click 'Replay.'

3. If promoted, drag a selection box around the part of the page you want to play back, or just click 'Replay everything on the page.'

Turn off special formatting when pasting into OneNote

OneNote does something that's often helpful: when you paste text from a webpage, it copies the special formatting from the page, and adds a link to the page for easy reference. That's great if you're researching, but can be annoying if you just want the text. The good news is you can turn off this feature.

1. Click the three dots at the top right of the OneNote window and choose 'Settings.'

2. In the Settings pane, click 'Options.'

3. Scroll down to the bottom and, in the 'Paste Options' section, set the dropdown menu to 'Keep Text Only' and slide the 'Include link to source' button to the left to turn it off.

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I love lists. Before I started using OneNote as a digital bullet journal, I had lists everywhere. Backs of envelopes, sticky notes, old receipts, random scraps of paper. You name it, I probably used it for a list at some point. If you, too, are constantly writing lists and then forgetting where you put them, you may want to consider a OneNote to-do list.

OneNote is searchable and available for all your devices–laptop, web, and mobile, and your changes will sync across all your devices. You’ll never have to remember which scrap of paper you wrote the shopping list on again.

Want to learn to be an expert in effective to-do lists? Here’s how you can use OneNote to boost your organization and productivity.

1. Use Tags to Quickly Identify Different Types of Tasks in Your OneNote To-Do List

OneNote offers tags to visually identify items in your notebooks. For example, a to-do list item is marked with a checkbox that you can check off when you’ve completed it.

But a checkbox isn’t the only way you can tag an item.

Here are some other ways you can tag items in your to-do lists:

Use a star tag to mark an item as important
Use a question mark if you need more information before you can complete an item
Mark a task with an arrow to indicate you’ve moved it forward to the next day.
Tag a reminder to call someone with a phone icon.

You can mix and match tags, so your to-do list items can have both a checkbox and a star, for example.

OneNote comes with several built-in tags, but you can also create your own tags if the built-in options aren’t enough.

To create your own tag in OneNote for Windows 10:

Click the arrow next to the list of tags.
Click “+ Create New Tag.”
Type a name for your tag. (This is the name that will show up in the list of tags, so choose something that makes sense to you. For example, I created a “Migrated” tag with an arrow icon for items I move to the next day’s to-do list.)
Choose an icon.
Click “Create.”

You will now be able to tag items in your list with your new tag.

2. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Do you ever sit down to make a list and find you’ve forgotten something halfway through? Your thoughts were just moving too fast, and now, no matter how hard you think, you can’t remember that last thing you mean to write down.

I’m a mom. So forgetting things is kind of par for the course now.

That’s why a digital to-do list is perfect for me–I don’t know about you, but thanks to junior high typing class I can type a lot faster than I can write with a pen.

Using a OneNote to-do list means you’ll forget what you were going to write a whole lot less frequently. And with keyboard shortcuts you can get your thoughts out even faster and easier.

To start typing a to-do list in OneNote, just hit Ctrl+1. Everything you type after that will be a checklist item. To check off items as you go, press Ctrl+1 again, and to stop making checkboxes, press Ctrl+1 a third time.

Other shortcuts for built-in tags:

Ctrl+2: star an item
Ctrl+3: tag an item with a question mark
Ctrl+4: highlight to remember for later
Ctrl+5: highlight to mark as a definition

OneNote will automatically assign Ctrl+6 and higher to your own tags as you create them.

3. Create Pages From List Items

If you have an item on your to-do list that is going to require you to compile more information–for example, maybe you’re writing a blog post and want a separate page to gather your notes, resources, and thoughts–you can automatically create a new page and link to it, right from your to-do list.

To create and link to a new page in OneNote:

Type “[[“
Write the title you want for the new page.
Type “]]”

OneNote will automatically create a new page with the text of your to-do item and then link to it from your to-do list. Pretty clever!

You can see automatic page-link creation in the short video below.

4. Embed Files in Your OneNote To-Do List

A really cool feature of OneNote is that you can link to files directly from OneNote. Maybe an item on your to-do list is to balance your budget and you keep your budget in an Excel document. Embed the Excel file into your OneNote to-do list to quickly access the file.

You can alternatively use this feature to create a to-do list associated with the document itself. Have a file you’re working on and need to remember what still needs to be done?

Embed it into a OneNote page and then next to it write a to-do list of things you still need to do. I love how OneNote is as free-form as a physical notebook page.

To embed a file in OneNote:

Go to Insert > File.
Select the file you want to insert.
In the dialog that pops up, choose how you want to insert the file.(Notes on the options below…)
Wait for OneNote to insert the file.

Watch the short screenshare video below to see embedding files in action.

Options for embedding files

“Upload to OneDrive and insert link”: choose this option if you want OneNote to show a live preview of the file–useful especially if it’s a file you’re collaborating on with someone else. A new copy of the file will be uploaded to your OneDrive account, which you can edit in Office online.
“Insert as attachment”: choose this option if you want to be able to edit the file on your computer. A new copy of the file will be saved on your computer to OneNote’s EmbeddedFileFolder. There will be no live preview of the document, but you’ll be able to double-click on the file icon to edit it without being connected to the internet.
“Insert as printout”: choose this option if you don’t care about editing the file from OneNote. You’ll see a “paper” printout of the file within OneNote and be able to annotate the file without editing the file itself. Changes to the file will not sync. I’ve used this option for many of my recipes. (Note that OneNote can search file printouts–pretty cool feature!)

Note that the live document preview with files you upload to OneDrive works only with Office files. (If you don’t have Office 365, I highly recommend it, as Microsoft’s Office programs really are the best for document creation. And it comes with 1TB of free cloud storage. That’s a lot of storage space.)

You can still insert non-Office files into your OneNote to-do list, such as a PDF, and you can still create a to-do list connected with the document.

However, you will have to choose the printout option (which won’t sync any changes) if you want to see the file’s contents within OneNote.

5. Use Search to Find Items Later

A huge shortcoming of written to-do lists is the ability to search them. Search is one of the biggest reasons I love digital note taking and list making. I use search all the time to find recipes in my bullet journal.

Trying to find that to-do list item you wrote about laundry? Just hit Ctrl+F and type “laundry.” OneNote will find it for you.

In OneNote you can refine your search results to

All Notebooks
Current Notebook
Current Section
or Current Page

6. Format Your OneNote To-Do List for Ultimate Productivity

I make a point of being intentional about how I use my time, so I always have ideas for things I want or need to be doing. When I really get going thinking of all the things to do, it’s easy for me to create a massive brain dump of a mile-long to-do list.

While it may feel good to get all those thoughts down on paper instead of having them floating around in my head (where I’m afraid I’ll lose them), what doesn’t feel good is looking at the massive to-do list when I’m done.

“Look at that huge list! Where do I even start?”

One of the best ways to get things checked off your to-do list without feeling overwhelmed is to segment your to-do list.

You can segment your to-do list in a couple different ways.

Onenote And To Do Integration

By topic
By priority/date

For example, these are some of the topical OneNote to-do lists I have:

Upcoming blog posts
Tasks for specific blog posts
Monthly to-do lists
Daily to-do lists

Within your topical to-do lists, you can also segment your list by priority. There are a few ways you can do this, either separately or in combination:

Sort by priority
Tag important items with the OneNote “Important” tag
Create a priority grid

Creating a priority grid

One technique of sorting your to-do list by priority has been around for a long time. (This post credits the idea to President Dwight Eisenhower.)

Here’s how to do it.

First, do your to-do list brain dump. Write down everything you can possibly think of that you need or want to do.

Then insert a 2×2 table into OneNote:

Go to Insert > Table.
Select a 2×2 grid.

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Sort out the tasks into the following categories in your table:

Do right away
Do later
Delegate
Drop

1. Do right away

These are your highest priority items. Maybe they’re the tasks you’ve been putting off for too long that absolutely must be completed today–like the well-child doctor’s visit that’s 2 months overdue. (That would never be me. Ha…)

2. Do later

These are the tasks that you should do if you have time but aren’t pressing. They can wait if they need to.

3. Delegate

Sometimes as moms I think we tend to pile too much on ourselves. We feel like if we don’t do it, it won’t get done, or it won’t get done right. But sometimes what we really need for our own sanity is to delegate tasks to someone else.

Maybe your husband can put away the laundry. Or you can assign your son to living room cleanup. Let go of the need for “perfection”–often done imperfectly is better than not done at all.

4. Drop

Have an item that you’ve been migrating from day to day on your to-do list? It might be time to assess whether it’s something you actually need to do or not. If you’ve been putting it off, it might not actually be a priority for you.

Let it go.

Conclusion

Using OneNote as a to-do list is a smart way to increase your productivity; and using tags, shortcuts, pages, file embedding, search, and a priority-based to-do-list format can help make you even more productive.

Do you use a OneNote to-do list? How do you make your to-do lists more effective? Let me know in the comments!

If you found these tips useful, I always appreciate a save to Pinterest.