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Microsoft OneNote

 & Jill Duffy Contributor

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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OneNote is a feature-rich note-taking app, and it gives away a lot for free. The question is whether its best features are the ones you need.

Microsoft's Note-Taking App

Microsoft OneNote is a free note-taking app. You can use it to take all kinds of notes, including text notes, audio memos, images, web clips, and more.

Local Notebook Storage

With OneNote, you must choose which notebooks to keep locally on your computer, otherwise, they won't be included in search results. You can use OneDrive to store notes, too.

Search

Microsoft OneNote can search your notes for keywords, but the notes must be stored locally on your device for the search to work. It doesn't search everything in OneDrive.

Immersive Reading

One great feature in OneNote is called Immersive Reading. It allows you to listen to any page being read aloud.

Audio Memos

You can record and playback audio memos using OneNote.

Copy Text From Images

Another excellent feature in OneNote is the ability to right-click on an image that contains text and extract it into text that you can paste into your notes.

OneDrive

Notebooks and notes created in OneNote are saved in OneDrive by default, and to manage or delete notebooks from the Web app, you have to go to OneDrive to find them. You can manage them from the OneNote Web app.

Moving a Page

When moving a page (i.e., note) from one section to another, the Web app warns you that attributes such as version history and conflict information will be lost.

About Our Expert

Jill Duffy

Jill Duffy

Contributor

My Experience

I'm an expert in software and work-related issues, and I have been contributing to PCMag since 2011. I launched the column Get Organized in 2012 and ran it through 2024, offering advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel overwhelmed. That column turned into the book Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life. I was also the first product reviewer at PCMag to test fitness gadgets, including everything from early Fitbits to smart bras.

Currently, I'm passionate about the meaning of work and work culture, and I enjoy writing about how managers and employees can communicate better, with or without software. My most recent book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work. I also love a good workplace drama. 

In addition to writing about work, I cover online education, focusing on learning for personal enrichment and skills development. I have a soft spot for really good language-learning software. Although I grew up speaking only English, some twists and turns in life led me to learn Spanish, Romanian, and a bit of American Sign Language. I've studied at the university level, as well as at the Foreign Service Institute, where US diplomats and ambassadors learn languages.

My writing has also appeared in WIRED, the BBC, Gloria, Refinery29, and Popular Science, among other publications.

Follow me on Mastodon.

The Technology I Use

Squeezing every last bit of usage out of the devices I already own is the only way I can tolerate my personal consumption. In other words, I do not own the latest cutting-edge technology. I buy things that will last and try to take care of them.

My life is organized by Todoist, and my notes live in Joplin. Where would I be without Dashlane as my password manager? Probably locked out of all my many online accounts—I have more than 1,000 of them.

When I share my contact information, it's an excruciatingly long list of phone numbers, messaging apps, and email addresses, because it's essential to stay flexible while also remaining somewhat mysterious.

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