If you are looking for a powerful alternative to Google Keep or Evernote, OneNote is definitely one of the best options to go with. Honestly, I was not a big fan of OneNote till the folks there launched a major update around May of last year in which they introduced a new design for OneNote and released a bunch of interesting new features. Since then I have been using this tool consistently and I found it really helpful.
OneNote is Microsoft’s note-taking application which works across Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices. It has an online version as well. OneNote allows you to capture your thoughts and jot down your notes in different formats. You can type, scribble, handwrite, or draw your notes as if using a pen and paper. With a single click you can convert your handwritten notes into typed text. Other interesting features provided by OneNote (some of these are available only for Office 365 subscribers) include:
- Smart Lookup: lets you highlight any word in your notebook and search the web for definitions, wiki articles or related searches without leaving OneNote.
- Conduct online searches for images using Bing and insert them into your notes without leaving OneNote.
- Create and insert tables to organize your notes.
- Text to Math: ‘Use your keyboard to type an equation as text in OneNote, and use Math to solve it or draw a graph.’
- Create hyperlinked paragraphs so that you can easily access them when you have a long table of contents. You can also share hyperlinked paragraphs with others through email.
- OneNote provides you with various pens, highlighters, and pencils for inking.
- Its Immersive Reader feature helps users improve their reading skills by ‘adjusting text spacing, presenting a narrow column for reading, and highlighting each word as the document is read aloud.’
- OneNote’s new simplified navigational layout allows screen readers to easily navigate through the notes to help those with disabilities.
- It provides a cohesive user experience across screens of all devices. You can start your note on a computer and finish it off in your mobile device.
- It also provides some practical features to collaborate, organize, and share notes with others.
- It allows you to seamlessly migrate your Evernote notes to OneNote.
Watch the video below to see the redesigned OnNote:
