**UPDATE: 26/05/2019 – OneNote 2016 is no longer included in the Office 365 subscription package. Microsoft removed it in favour of their new UWP (Universal Windows Platform) version. It is free and it comes with Windows 10; I’m not sure about previous Windows versions. Not only that but Microsoft will stop supporting it some time in 2019/2020**

If you still wish to use it, click here. Should this link no longer work, that means it is no longer available from Microsoft. Please let me know so I can remove this link. Thank you.

Originally created 19 January 2017
I’ve decided to keep this version of the mini-tutorial active for those who might not have updated and might still have this version of OneNote.

In this tutorial, we will cover Office OneNote. It is not to be confused with Microsoft Windows OneNote which is a more basic version compared to the Office version and there are differences between the two. I have already posted an introductory tutorial for Windows OneNote here.
Also, there is an App version of OneNote. Whether you use Apple devices or Android devices, I believe they are free to download. I am not 100% certain of that so do check that out before downloading.

So, let’s get started.

Click on your Start button in the bottom left corner on your screen.
In Windows 8, after your screen changes, click on the down arrow in the bottom left corner until a list of all the programs on your computer is showing.
In Windows 10, you will have a menu.
Scroll until you come to the letter O, find OneNote 2016 (please note that the year after the word OneNote may differ for you). You do not want to click the other OneNote icon as it is the Windows version and we are not using that one for this tutorial. Look carefully as the icons are different. The one you are after should match (with the possible exception of the year) the image above with the red arrow pointing it out.

Because I have been using OneNote for a while now, it automatically opens up to whatever I’m currently working on. For your first time, it will either open up blank (which I don’t think it will but I can’t remember) or it will open up the default that briefly explains OneNote.
As you can see on the top left, there is a circle with a left-pointing arrow; this is where you can access all your notebooks.
Under that is the easily recognised menu ribbon. This is the first obvious difference between Windows OneNote and Office OneNote.
Below that, you will see three (3) tabs. This is another obvious difference between the two OneNotes. These tabs are like subject dividers in a ring binder.
Below the tabs is your workspace where, within the capabilities of the program, you are only limited by your imagination.
To the right of the workspace is the list of pages within the active tab. You can even add subpages to those pages but we’ll get into that later.
Before we go onto the workspace, here is one great feature of OneNote regardless of whether it is the Windows version or the Office version: it automatically saves without you having to do so. If your computer shuts down for whatever reason except you didn’t do it, when you open OneNote, all your work is there. Just a shame the other programs like Word, etc. don’t do it as well.

If you click the left pointing arrow in the top left corner, this is what you will see. As stated above, it lists all the notebooks you have created. You just click one of them and it will open for you.
The View Sync Status is for when you work on notebooks across other devices or share them with other people so you get to see what changes they have made.

Another way to access your notebooks, or to start a new one, is to click that first tab on the left directly above the workspace.

In the earlier images, they are showing the Home menu and its options. The above image is showing the Insert menu and its options. Outside of adding text, this menu will more than likely be your next stop.
Last year, on my facebook author page, I did a mini tutorial on the File Attachment and Link buttons; it is based on Office OneNote. Here is the link to that tutorial

This is the Draw menu. On my pc, I haven’t played with this because, so far, I haven’t had a need to. But, in the app on my tablet with a pen stylus… what fun lol.

This is the History menu. Again, I haven’t had a reason to play with its options.

This is the Review menu. While I haven’t played with this in OneNote, it doesn’t seem to be that much different from Office Word.

This is the View menu. Same as before, I haven’t played with some of these. Those that I haven’t played with seem to be the same as those in Office Word.

Anyway, click on the Home menu. To add content, click in the blank section below the existing content in the workspace and type something. Your content will appear in what appears to be a table but I’m guessing it’s a dialog box. Have you typed something? Anything? Then, let’s move on :).

Click on the Insert menu then on Table. With your mouse over the boxes, go three (3) across and all the way to the bottom. Click that third box on the bottom row. This will insert a three (3) columned and eight (8) rowed table.

The moment the table is inserted into your workspace, you can see you have a new menu called Layout. Here is where you can insert or delete rows and columns, set text alignments, show/hide borders and colour the background of each cell in the table. As well as those last two but I haven’t had a reason to use them.
Play, have fun, see what you can and can’t do. Remember to hit the undo button straight away if you make a mistake.

After you’ve finished having a bit of fun, click on the Home menu then on the second page: OneNote: one place for all of your notes. Now, right click that page title that is to the right of the workspace as shown in the image above. Move your mouse down to Make Subpage and click it.

You can see the second page is now a subpage of the first page. You can click undo if you want the instructional notebook to stay the way they had created it.
Subpages are great for… Example: Page one is called Monday and its subpages might be: Tasks, Menu (as in meals), Moods, Freetime (free time is anything we get to do for ourselves that isn’t a task. Reading is a freetime but laundry is a task).
Page two will more than likely be Tuesday. The namings will depend on what you are creating your notebook for. At the end of this tutorial, I will add an image of one of my notebooks to show you just one example of what can possibly be done.

In the image above, you will see a red arrow next to a tab with a + in it. This is Create a New Section tab and you can create as many as you need when you need them. Click it.

As you can see, a new tab is added and in a different colour to the rest. The title section is also highlighted so you can name it. Do so and hit enter.

Now, right click that tab you just created. A little menu pops up with options. At the top is Rename, and at the bottom is Section Color. Section Color will allow you to change the tab’s colour if you don’t like OneNote’s automatic choice.
You now have the basics of Office OneNote. Experiment and have fun.

The above image is an example of one of my notebooks. As you can see, it’s for my Unnaturals of Brisbane series. On the right is a list of pages within the active tab. Each of the main pages has a little down arrow to the right of them. By clicking those arrows, you can show or hide the subpages. Since creating this screenshot, the look of that page has altered. Just because you’ve created something one way, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

Thank you for reading 🙂