I’m a huge fan of Microsoft OneNote. I’ve used it for years, since it first came out. OneNote is digital notebook software that is available for your computer and mobile devices. I tell my students, in fact I just told a new group of them yesterday as we spent most of the afternoon learning how to use Office Web Apps, to think of OneNote like their favorite binder but better. Why? Because there’s no way they can forget this binder at home, leave it in their car, or have a pet chew it up! (You’d be surprised how often the last three excuses are offered up!)
Microsoft recently updated the iPhone and iPad apps for OneNote and I’m really liking how it looks. Here’s a quick look at my one of my notebooks:
Above, you’ll see the listings for Etsy Shop, Blog, and Goals. These are all subsections of the same notebook (i.e. if you had a physical notebook, it would be the sections that you tab out with divider pages). And here’s a look at pages within the subsections…
Once you have your account set up, your content will easily sync between all of your devices – i.e. desktop, laptop, tablet such as a Microsoft Surface or iPad, and phone such as a Windows Phone, iPhone, or Android. And the best part?
This app and the Office Web apps are all free!
Getting Started with Web Apps: OneNote, Part 1
#1. In order to use Microsoft OneNote, you need a Microsoft account. Do you have one? You might if you currently have a Xbox Live, Hotmail, or SkyDrive account. if not, you need to sign up!
#2. Go to http://office.live.com and try signing in if you think you have an account. Otherwise, choose “Don’t have a Microsoft account? Sign up now” and you will see this form.
#3. This part is really important. If you have an exisiting account (any email provider), that you want to use with your SkyDrive, and you DON’T want to create a new email account, you can type this email address in the “Microsoft Account Name” box. You should create a new password – i.e. if you have any email like molly@gmail.com, type it in the Microsoft Account Name box but don’t use your email password here, make up a new one (to keep your accounts secure). If you do this, you will have access to all of the SkyDrive apps, but you will not be able to use the built in Outlook email (and it’s really kind of cool, more about this in future posts, so you might want to consider this). I just had all of my students sign up for accounts yesterday using this method. The big benefit to using an exisiting account is so you don’t have yet another email address to keep track of.
On the other hand, If you want a new email account, click the blue link below the Microsoft Account Name box that says “Or get a new email address”
#4. Once you submit your sign up form, you will be asked to verify your account. This means you will need to check the email you used to set up this new account and click the link in the email the Microsoft Account team sends you to verify your account.
#5. That’s it! You now have a Microsoft account. In the next post, we will look at how to set up your first OneNote notebook!
Getting Started with Microsoft Web Apps Series: OneNote
This post is the first in a multi-post series about getting started with OneNote. In the coming posts, I’ll teach you how to:
- create your Office Live account (you learned this in today’s post)
- set up your OneNote notebook on Web Apps,
- how to color code your subsections like mine are above
- access your notebook(s) on your mobile device(s) and
- share notebooks with others
In the meantime, check out this article by Microsoft to learn more about OneNote: What’s new in Microsoft OneNote 2013