**UPDATE: 26/05/2019 – This version is no longer available. As far as I can tell, it has been replaced with the latest version known as UWP (Universal Windows Platform). The UWP version is definitely in Windows 10. Do note that this is not for newer versions. I’ll have a tutorial for that at a later date. **

Originally created 18 January 2017
I 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 Microsoft Windows 8 (I’m currently using) and 10, Windows includes a number of programs from the Office collection but in a basic format, free for your use. I won’t list them but this tutorial will cover Windows OneNote. It is not to be confused with Microsoft Office OneNote which is a more comprehensive version compared to the Windows version and there are differences between the two. At a later date, I will organise a tutorial for Office OneNote.
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 start menu.
Scroll until you come to the letter O, find OneNote (not OneNote 2016 or whatever year appears after the word OneNote). The icons are different. The one you are after should match the image above with the red arrow pointing it out.

Because I’ve 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 One note.
As you can see on the top left, the three horizontal lines with the words: Recent Notes is where you can access all your notebooks.
Under that is a + Page. By clicking that, you add new pages to your active Notebook.
Below that you will see four (4) sections that have the page title and a preview of its contents. My page two is blanked out as I have information in there temporarily until I can move it.
On the right is your workspace for whatever you want to use it for (subjects will be covered in a different tutorial).
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 three horizontal bars, 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.

To add content, click in the blank space below and type something. Your content will appear in what appears to be a table but I’m guessing it’s a dialog box. The moment you start typing, a circle with a file inside pops up on the right. We’ll go into that in the next step. Have you typed something? Anything?

After you have typed something, go click on that little icon on the right. Once done, you should now see something like the image above.
This is your menu/options system. I have no idea what they call it but I’m going to call it the menu wheel. The dark sections of the outer circle with arrows will lead to other options while the light sections have no sub options. Click on the Undo.

Do not click on any of the options as we are just looking at them at this point in time; you can have fun with them later :). As you can see, these are your choices for the Undo.
Now, click next to the last word you typed, hit Enter twice and we’ll look at other options.

Click your menu wheel, we are going to add a table (on the right centre of the menu wheel). Click it.

As you can see, you now have a one-row, two-column table. Basic, yes. Look to the right at your menu wheel. See how the icon in the centre has changed? Click it.
Now you can see options for your table. Check them out.

This is just a basic overview of what you can do. Play around to learn what you can and can’t do. If you make a mistake, click the Undo. The worse you can do is delete all in the notebook. If you don’t want to modify the default notebook, start a new one.
Again, I do suggest getting the Office version (Ignore this as Office no longer includes OneNote in their packages). If you don’t want to then go for the App version because it works the same way as the Office version. There is also an online version but I’ve never used it. However, I have to admit, in doing this tutorial, I do not like the Windows version lol

Enjoy and thank you for reading 🙂