Microsoft OneNote


Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking program for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users' notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.
Previously, OneNote was primarily available as part of the Microsoft Office suite prior to its 2019 edition. Microsoft now distributes versions of OneNote as a free, standalone app via the app stores of Windows 10, macOS, iOS and Android. Microsoft also provides a web-based version of OneNote as part of OneDrive and Office for the web; this version enables users to edit notes in a web browser.

Overview

In OneNote, users can create notes that can include text, pictures, tables, and drawings. Unlike a word processor, OneNote features a virtually unbounded document window, in which users can click anywhere on the canvas to create a new text box at that location. OneNote saves data automatically as the user makes edits to their file.
OneNote saves information in pages organized into sections within notebooks. Microsoft designed this user interface to resemble a tabbed ring binder, into which the user can directly make notes and gather material from other applications. OneNote notebooks collect, organize, and share possibly unpublished materials – as compared to word processors and wikis, which usually target publishing in some way. The difference shows in certain OneNote features and characteristics:
Users can move pages within the binder and annotate them with a stylus or word-processing or drawing tools. Users may add embedded multimedia recordings and hyperlinks.
While OneNote runs on personal computers, the program also supports touch-enabled tablet computers and other mobile devices without the need for a keyboard.
OneNote integrates search features and indexing into a free-form graphics and audio repository. It can search for images for embedded text-content. It also searches "electronic ink" annotations as text, and phonetically searches audio recordings on a text key. It can replay audio concurrently with notes taken during the recording.
Its multi-user capability allows offline paragraph-level editing with later synchronization and merging. This allows collaboration among multiple individuals in a notebook when they are offline. More than one person can work on the same page at the same time using OneNote as a shared whiteboard environment.
On March 17, 2014, Microsoft released the OneNote cloud service API that enables third-party application developers to integrate the service into their apps. The API runs on Microsoft's globally available cloud and sends data from applications into the user's OneDrive. OneNote can perform optical character recognition on images of text and can render webpages as snapshot images.
Microsoft also announced a number of new features in OneNote that use the service API:
A OneNote notebook is stored as a folder with a separate data file for each section. OneNote files have a .one filename extension.
Microsoft upgraded the file format twice after it had introduced OneNote 2003—first in OneNote 2007, then in OneNote 2010. OneNote 2003 files can be opened by both OneNote 2007 and OneNote 2010 in read-only mode, and subsequently upgraded to the later versions of the file format. OneNote 2010 can read and write OneNote 2007 file formats. It can also convert back and forth between the 2010 and the 2007 formats.
Microsoft has documented the OneNote file format. It is an open format that can store varied multimedia content in a single .one file.
OneNote file format is also supported by the Outline note-taking application for iPad and Mac. Outline can open, edit and save notebooks in the OneNote file format.

Platform support

OneNote supports simultaneous editing of shared OneNote documents by multiple users when the document is stored in a shared folder in OneDrive. Dropbox was supported for some time as a sync protocol, but after Windows Live Mesh was discontinued, OneNote supported it for cloud-based storage and synchronization of OneNote files. OneNote clients, including OneNote web app of Office Online, can view and edit them.
OneNote is also available for mobile phones. This version supports notebooks stored on OneDrive or SharePoint. Notes created by OneNote for Windows Phone 7 cannot be opened with OneNote 2007. OneNote Mobile is also built into Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. OneNote Mobile for older Windows Mobile smartphones and pocket PCs is included with OneNote 2007. OneNote is available on Symbian as part of Microsoft Apps. Microsoft has released a stand-alone OneNote app for iOS and Android, which are each free for up to 5GB of storage. Beyond 5GB, a paid upgrade is available. On July 1, 2013, Microsoft released version 2 of its app for iPad, containing significantly updated features, to correspond more closely to those available on the Windows platform. On August 19, 2014, Microsoft updated OneNote for Android Tablets to include handwriting support and touch-friendly navigation.
A Windows Store version of OneNote was available for Windows 8 and RT, using OneDrive as a storage place. It is optimized for use on tablets by implementing a pie menu interface and invoking operating system's tablet-specific functionality.
On March 17, 2014, Microsoft released OneNote for Mac. It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.9 and above and can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store. Microsoft also made OneNote 2013 for Windows desktop available for free. OneNote for Windows and Mac are both based on a freemium model. Premium features such as SharePoint support, version history and Outlook integration were previously available only to Office 365 and Office 2013 customers, but on February 13, 2015, Microsoft removed all feature restrictions, except creation of local notebooks -- the free edition only stores notebooks on OneDrive -- from the programs, essentially making the program completely free to use.
Microsoft OneNote has become an integral part of Windows 10 and its mobile phone counterpart, with features that bring the app more in line with its iPhone/iPad and Android counterparts. However, the Android app allows only three minutes of audio recording as of July 2017.

Reviews

Christopher Dawson reviewed OneNote 2010, titling his favorable review "OneNote is Office 2010's killer app in education". He speculated that the app would be particularly useful as a tool for student notetaking.

Version history

All release dates pertain general availability. Release to manufacturing is usually two or three months in advance.
Product release or eventRelease date
First Public Announcement
OneNote 2003
OneNote 2007
OneNote 2010
OneNote 2013
OneNote 2016