Show All

Hide All

Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 is an easy-to-use note-taking program in the Microsoft Office System. OneNote provides a single place to electronically capture, organize, reuse, and share notes on a laptop or desktop computer, or on a Tablet PC (Tablet PC: A computer that runs Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. With a Tablet PC, you can write directly on the screen by using a tablet pen and use the pen to perform mouse functions. Also known as a tablet computer.). You can use OneNote to take detailed notes or simply jot down thoughts, ideas, and reminders wherever you are — at your desk, in meetings or classes, while attending lectures and presentations, or during interviews and phone conferences.

 Note   

Take notes the way you want

OneNote is specifically designed for taking notes. Instead of forcing you to learn a specific note-taking method or a complicated interface, OneNote lets you concentrate on gathering, using, and sharing information in the way that works best for you.

With OneNote, you can start typing or handwriting notes anywhere on the page. The flexible page format lets you move blocks of text, pictures, and drawings wherever you need them. If you tend to scribble your thoughts on sticky notes or paper napkins, you can use OneNote in much the same way. If you're a more detailed note-taker, you can take advantage of outlining and other features in OneNote to organize your thoughts in a structured way.

Get the most out of your notes

No matter how you take notes, OneNote helps you keep all of your notes in one place. Your OneNote notebook can contain pages, sections, and folders in which to organize information, and you can add space for additional notes where and when you need it. You can easily search your entire notebook for specific notes. You can keep your personal notes private and share other notes with colleagues or friends, even if they don't have OneNote installed on their computers. You don't even have to remember to save your work the way you do in other programs — OneNote does that for you automatically while you work.

With OneNote, you can:

• Gather information from a variety of sources, including the Web, documents, and e-mail messages.
• Flag important information by task, keyword, or subject.
• Record audio or video clips while taking notes.
• Apply stationery to pages and create new stationery of your own.
• Jot down information quickly in side notes — small OneNote page windows.
• Import notes from other programs and Microsoft Windows®-compatible mobile devices.
• Capture screen clippings and paste them into your notes.
• Host or participate in shared note-taking sessions, or broadcast your notes to an audience.
• Protect personal information in your notebook with a password.
• Share your notes in e-mail messages or publish them on a Web site.
• Take notes in your own handwriting and draw sketches on a Tablet PC.

Learn more about OneNote

For more information about OneNote or to download a free trial version of the program, refer to the See Also box at the top of this article. For examples of how to use OneNote, open the Helpful Tips section that is created in your notebook when you run OneNote for the first time.