Hi, it’s Elizabeth. OneNote is a free note-taking app that has so many wonderful and useful features. However, it can also be a little overwhelming. So today, we are going to look at some of the most helpful tips and tricks for OneNote. If you do not already have OneNote, you can download and use OneNote entirely for free. Go to onenote.com/download and you can either download the app or use the web-based version for free. Dark mode changes the appearance of your OneNote pages from light to dark. Go to the view tab and select switch background. This can improve readability in low light environments, increase the legibility of the user interface as well as your notes, and provides better contrast. If you want to have the entire screen darkened, you select the double right arrow on the right-hand side. This will bring you to full screen mode or you can use your shortcut key F11. Having the entire screen darkened can be less disruptive when taking notes in dark environments. Another option if you prefer working with a darker background is to go to file and then click on account. Here, select the dropdown menu from Office theme. You can change the entire application’s background color. By default, when creating a new section or page, OneNote opens it up as a blank white sheet. However, you can change the paper style, click view from the upper ribbon and change the paper color or add grid lines or rule lines. Changing these settings will only apply to the current page you are working on with one exception. If you always want to have rule lines as your default, you can select always create pages with rule lines, and then when you add a page, you will have grid lines as your new default. There’s additional ways you can customize the style of your OneNote. If you want to change your tab color, you can right click on the section tab, select section color and then choose from a wide selection of colors. OneNote has multiple options for personalization. Under the view tab in the latest version of OneNote, you have the option to either have your tabs displayed horizontally or vertically. If you want to have your tabs displayed vertically, which some might be more familiar with in older versions of OneNote, you’ll see everything on the left-hand side in the navigation window, allowing you to click on a section and then see your pages listed underneath. However, if you want to have a horizontal tab view, you have additional options. You can either have your navigation window open on the left-hand side or you can select the pin to just see your pages on the left-hand side, allowing you to have the tabs displayed horizontally and then your pages displayed vertically. Again, this is simply a personal preference. If you want the navigation tab open again, select the down arrow and then select the pin. If you’re not seeing the option to toggle between horizontal and vertical, you most likely have not updated to the newest version of OneNote. You can go to OneNote.com and again, download the newest app for free. One of the most useful features of note taking in OneNote is adding tags to your notes. Tags are similar to Post-its or a highlighter. It provides you with the opportunity to tag something in your notes that you can revisit or find more easily later. For example, you may want to tag a note as important. You can tag any questions you need to follow up on when taking notes or perhaps a reminder that you need to send something to your team. OneNote has pre-populated some of the most useful tags, but you can also create a customized tag by selecting Customize Tags. Here, you can modify an existing tag or create a new one. For example, I might want to create one that says, "Follow up immediately." I can then customize the symbol and even the font or highlight color, and now I can add my new tag. Once you have these tags in your notes, you can easily return to your notebook at any time and under the Home tab, select Find Tags. This will then allow you to see all of your tags on the right-hand side. For example, if I want to return to my question tag, I can then click on it and it will take me to the exact location my tag is within my notebook. A great way to take notes, whether you’re a student in class or using your OneNote at work, is to utilize the Transcribe feature. You can access the Transcribe menu under the Insert tab and then under Recording, select Transcribe. This will allow OneNote to listen to the audio and then write it up within the notes. You can either upload an existing audio file or start recording in your class or meeting. We will need to make sure that the purchase order is completed by March 5th. I can get the purchase order completed by the end of this month, but first I’ll need to reach out to the client to get some more information. Great, let me know if you need any support. Once your audio has finished transcribing, you can adjust the speaker names within your transcription. OneNote is smart enough to separate each speaker from the audio file. To edit the name instead of just having speaker one, speaker two, and then on, you can go ahead, add the name, and then select the check mark. This will then change the speaker name throughout the entire audio file. Once you have gone ahead and entered the names that you want and selected all of the check boxes, you then can add the audio file to your notebook. You can have just the audio file recording, which is default, or you can add the text with either speakers, timestamps, or both. As you can see now, we have an audio transcription between the two speakers within my meeting. OneNote already makes it easy to be productive, but you can save even more time using these helpful keyboard shortcuts. These are my top five favorites. Note that most of these work on Microsoft Word as well. One, Control plus A. This selects all items on your page and allows you to easily copy and paste. Two, utilizing the F11 keyboard function, this takes you into full screen mode, which can be helpful when working on a smaller device like a tablet or phone, or if you’re utilizing your notes for a presentation and want to share on a bigger screen. Press F11 again to exit full screen mode. Number three, Control plus K. This allows you to add a link to a section or page within your notebook or an external website address. If you want to add an external website, you can enter it here. Or if you want to link your text to a section or page within your notebook, you can simply go ahead and select that and press OK. Number four, Control plus T. This creates a new section within your notebook, making it easy to quickly add more and more to your notebook. Number five, Alt plus Shift, and then either the up or down arrow. This allows you to take your text and move it up or down on a bullet point or a numbered list. This can be an easy way to shuffle information around without having to copy and paste. Immersive Reader is a full screen reading experience to increase the readability of your OneNote content. To use the Immersive Reader, go to your View tab and then select Immersive Reader. You’ll see that it’s immediately brought into full screen mode. To hear the content on your page read out loud, select Play. Immersive Reader is a full screen reading experience to increase readability of your OneNote content. You can adjust the speed and the voice type. Content. Immersive Reader has several options to make it easier for you to read text from OneNote. If you want to start reading from a certain point on your page, simply select the word where you want to begin and press Play. Immersive Reader is a full screen reading experience to increase readability of your OneNote content. Immersive Reader has several additional options to make it easier for you to read text from OneNote. For example, under the Text Preferences option, you can change the text size. You can increase spacing, change the font, or change the background color. Under Reading Preferences, you have Line Focus, which allows you to narrow the focus of your reading experience by highlighting sets of one, three, or five lines. This can be especially helpful when you’re trying to memorize content. You also have the ability to translate the text on your page from one to another. For example, if I want to translate all the content on my page to French, I can simply click Translate, and then all of my content will be in French. If you have a picture that has text on it, perhaps a flyer that was sent to you or an image you find online, and you want a copy of that text without having to type it out yourself, OneNote has a tool for that. Go to the Insert tab and select the picture that you want to get your copy from. Once you’ve found the image, press Insert. Then right-click on the image and click on Copy Text from Picture. You can then click anywhere on the page and paste that content. You now have just the text removed from that image, and you can format and manipulate the text any way you wish. Password protection in OneNote is designed to help keep your notes private. You can choose to share your password with others or utilize it as an extra layer of security. To apply a password to a section of your notebook, right-click on the section tab and then select Password Protect This Section. You’ll then click on Set Password. Note that these are paste-sensitive, so double-check your caps lock. You’ll then confirm your password and select OK. You can change your password or remove it at any time. You can also lock all sections of your notebook at once. Please note, if you forget your password, you will not be able to unlock your notes. Unfortunately, even Microsoft technical support can’t unlock password-protected notes. If you want to share and collaborate with someone on your notebook, it’s easy. On the upper right-hand side, click on the purple Share button, then click Share Entire Notebook. You can either have an email sent directly from OneNote inviting someone to share your notebook, and you can enter multiple email addresses, or you can create a link, copy it, and then send it yourself in email or text message. For both of these options, you have the opportunity to either allow users that you invite to share your notebook to either just view your notebook, which means they can’t edit it, or you can provide them with the opportunity to edit your notebook. If you do share your OneNote with editing permissions, other users can add their notes or documents to the shared notebook. If you have any sections of your notebook password protected, an invited user can only see that section if you share the password with them. I hope you found these tips and tricks helpful. If so, please subscribe to our channel and check out our other videos on OneNote.