Microsoft OneNote for Business – Why You Should Be Using It

Microsoft OneNote is a brilliant productivity aid that focuses on note taking. Think of it as you would any normal spiral notebook, except this digital pad is labelled, sectioned off and clearly categorised. Not only that, but it effortlessly integrates with Word and Excel along with anything you might want to drop, drag or clip in from the Internet.

In other words, Microsoft OneNote can be used for just about anything – to organise ideas, create lists, gather inspiration, collect information, remember clients and of course, to take notes.
It’s also available as a mobile app, works on nearly all recent computers and best of all…it’s free. Yet despite these great features, Microsoft OneNote seems to slip under the radar and go unnoticed by many – often being upstaged by its rival Evernote. So without further ado, let’s take a quick look at some reasons why you may want to consider using OneNote to improve business productivity.

Microsoft OneNote is more than just a note-taking app

Microsoft OneNote allows you to have an endless number of notebooks, tabs within each of those notebooks and then pages within each of the tabs. But, it’s not just for taking notes! It has amazing editing tools that allows you to add pictures and tables, format text, draw illustrations, attach files and link to other OneNote pages. What’s more, you can also add to-do lists that can become Outlook tasks with reminders.

A Great Collaboration tool

Just as the rest of Office 2016 improved its collaborating tools, so has the latest version of Microsoft OneNote. This means that teams can share their notebooks so their colleagues can add to it, edit or make comments on pages. But OneNote ensures you can easily see who’s been working on a page and quickly see any changes they’ve made in real time. You can also share meeting notes from any Outlook appointments.

24/7 Access

OneNote is available on a range of devices via Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service and web app. It’s also accessible with apps for Mac, iPad, Android, Windows and Chromebook. While it’s true that the mobile apps may lack some of the more advanced features of the Windows version, they’re still extremely useful. For instance, you can take and insert audio recordings or photos into your notes or even choose to make handwritten notes with a stylus instead of typing.

Store and retrieve information

The search feature in OneNote quickly begins displaying the relevant results as you type. Expanding on this, you can add certain keywords to video and audio files that helps others to quickly locate and open any necessary media. OneNote can either search the entire history of your digital notes or focus on individual notebooks.

Password protect your notes

Let’s say you’re working with a fellow co-worker and collaborating on a notebook together. However there’s some information you that don’t want to share which you want to keep secure. What’s great is that OneNote allows you to password protect individual sections of the notebook. Also, if you’ve been inactive for a certain amount of time on OneNote, it automatically locks the sections that are password protected to make sure they stay private.

Intergates with other software

The brilliant thing about Office 365 is that all its applications integrate seamlessly. For example, Microsoft OneNote syncs with Outlook so that you can effortlessly send important information from emails straight to OneNote and vice versa. Of course it doesn’t end there. You can also install plugins to add functionalities to OneNote to improve work productivity further.

Classroom Notebook Add-in

Another great feature is the free add-in for OneNote desktop that is designed to help teachers be more efficient and save time with their Class Notebooks. It includes section and page distribution, allows them to quickly review student work along with grading and assignment integration. OneNote Class Notebooks give every student a personal workspace, content library and a collaboration space for activities and lessons.

So as you can see, Microsoft OneNote has some great features and is a fantastic business tool that’s underappreciated by many. To find out how your business could benefit, call Advance Computer Systems today on 01904 653 789 or click here.