Microsoft OneNote is great for taking, storing, and syncing notes across your devices. If you're security conscious, also check out how to password protect your notes. After all, Microsoft OneNote is meant to be the silo for all your information.
Microsoft currently offers two versions of OneNote on Windows:Microsoft OneNote for Windows 10 (the Microsoft Store app) and Microsoft OneNote 2016 (the Microsoft Office desktop app).
Microsoft is phasing out OneNote 2016 and moving features from the desktop app to the Microsoft Store app. But it's still a work in progress and the desktop app isn't going away just yet.
You should consider switching to OneNote for Windows 10 Why you should switch from OneNote 2016 to OneNote for Windows 10 Why you should switch from OneNote 2016 to OneNote for Windows 10 OneNote 2016 is being phased out. We'll explain what's happening to OneNote 2016 and show you the great benefits of switching to OneNote for Windows 10. Read More But the desktop app still has features that are not yet included in the Microsoft Store app. One such useful feature is password protecting notebook sections And today we are going to cover how to do it.
You can only apply passwords to sections in notebooks, not entire notebooks. And protected sections can be unlocked in OneNote for Windows 10, but you must use OneNote 2016 to apply a password to an unprotected section.
Microsoft OneNote uses encryption How to password protect and encrypt your Microsoft Office files How to password protect and encrypt your Microsoft Office files Would you mind if someone peeked through your OneNote notebooks or had access to your Word documents? ? If your answer is yes, let us show you how to protect your Office files. Read More If you forget your password for a section, you will lose access to notes in that section. Make sure you choose a strong password you won't forget How to create a strong password you won't forget How to create a strong password you won't forget Do you know how to create and remember a good password? Here are some tips and tricks for keeping passwords strong and separate for all your online accounts. Read More
Password protected sections are not included in laptop searches. And Labels in OneNote Notes Why Every OneNote User Needs to Start Using Labels Right Now Why Every OneNote User Needs to Start Using Labels Right Now Custom labels are a subtle and easy-to-overlook feature , but when used correctly they can propel your organization and productivity to new heights. Read More in a protected section is not included in note tag summaries when tags are searched. So before you do text or tag searches, unlock the sections you want to include in your search.
To password protect a section, open the notebook that contains the section you want to protect.
Then right click on the section tab and select Password protect this section . When you right-click on a section tab, that section automatically becomes the active section if it wasn't.
In the Password protection right panel, click Set up key .
About Password protection dialog box, type the password you want in the Enter password box and again in the Confirm password cash register. Then click OK .
Again, there is no way to recover a password for a protected section, which means you will lose access to all the notes in that section. Be sure to create a strong password that you can remember.
Applying a password to a section does not immediately lock the section. By default, password protected sections are locked. After five minutes . You can change this amount of time and we'll show you how to do that later.
To lock a section that you have protected with a password, open the Password protection panel for that section and click Block all . This locks all currently unlocked password protected sections. You can't block only one section at a time.
Locked sections display a message that the section is password protected. To unlock the section, click on the section page or press Enter .
About the Protected section dialog box, enter your password and click OK .
All notes in the protected section become accessible.
To continue to keep your notes secure, you should change your password periodically.
To change the password on a section, you must first unlock the section as mentioned in the “Unlock a protected section in a notebook” section above.
Then open the Password protection panel for that section and click Change password .
About the Change the password dialog box, type the current password in the Old password box.
Then, type the new password in the Enter new password box and again in the Confirm password cash register. Click OK .
As we mentioned, unlocked password-protected sections will automatically lock after you haven't worked on them for five minutes. You can customize the amount of time or disable the time limit.
Open the Password protection panel from any section tab. Then click Password Options link at the bottom of the panel.
You can also go to File> Options> Advanced to access the Passwords options.
To change the amount of time when protected sections are automatically locked after inactivity, select a time range from Lock password-protected sections after you haven't worked on them for the following period of time drop-down list in the Passwords Section to the right. You can prevent protected sections from being automatically locked after a specified period of time by unchecking the box.
To automatically lock protected sections when I go to another page, section, or notebook, check Lock password-protected sections as soon as I move away from them box.
To take notes in password-protected sections temporarily available to other programs, check Enable add-on programs to access password-protected sections when unlocked box.
Then click OK . You will see the following message after making any of these changes. Close OneNote and restart it to apply your changes.
If you no longer need to protect a section, you can remove the password.
Open the section you want to unprotect and then open Password protection panel for that section.
Unlock the section, if necessary. Then click Remove password .
About the Remove password dialog box, type your current password, and then click OK .
OneNote syncs all of your notebooks, sections, and pages to all of your devices. And you can unlock and lock protected sections and access your private data on any device.
If you get an error that OneNote needs a password to sync, cached Microsoft Office credentials that store the password could be the cause. Deleting cached credentials will probably fix this error.
Close all Microsoft Office programs and follow these steps:
Part of protecting your data is backing it up. By default, OneNote stores your notebooks in your OneDrive account, so they sync with your other devices.
In OneNote 2016, you can choose to store notebooks on your local drive. This is one way to make it easy to back up your OneNote data. We cover methods for syncing, backing up, and restoring OneNote notebooks How to Never Lose a Note in Your OneNote Notebooks How to Never Lose a Note in Your OneNote Notebooks OneNote is so good, it's hard to lose anything, even if you try. Let us show you how OneNote handles notebooks, how backups are managed, and how you can restore even deleted notes. Read More
