OneNote is more than just a note-taking program. It's the ideal collaboration tool for managing simple projects. 6 Project Management Tips You Can Use to Organize Your Life. 6 Project Management Tips You Can Use to Organize Your Life. Project management is the profession of getting things done. Our tips will help you apply a project manager's perspective, skills, and tools to organizing your own life. Read More And unlike Evernot, How to migrate from Evernote to OneNote and why should I migrate from Evernote to OneNote and why should I think Microsoft OneNote is better than Evernote? Or maybe it just suits your project management style. Either way, here's how you can easily migrate all your notes from Evernote to OneNote. Learn more e, OneNote is completely free OneNote is now truly free with more features than before OneNote is now truly free with more features than before Evernote no longer rules the plethora of note-taking apps. Microsoft recently announced that OneNote would be freer than ever. Let us show you what this means in terms of features and functionality. Read more.
We'll show you how you can use OneNote for project management, either alone or with your team, showing you basic and advanced OneNote features along the way.
With OneNote, you can Create as many notebooks as you want . Within each notebook, you can maintain multiple sections (tabs are listed at the top). And within each section, you can create subpages (listed on the right hand side). This structure is ideal for collecting and organizing information .
I recommend creating separate notebooks for all your projects. You can use sections to track the major deliverables or phases of each project. How to organize any project with a work breakdown structure. How to organize a project with a work breakdown structure. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Every complex project consists of multiple components. The Work Breakdown Structure can help you identify all the steps and put them in sequence. Read more . Pages allow you to further subdivide each section.
Let's say that one of your projects is to organize an event and you need to find a venue, a supplier and a band. Each of these are deliverables, that is, sections.
When you do research for each of these items, you can store your results on a corresponding section page. Other pages in the same section may be dedicated to lists of your next steps, contact information, reservation details, etc.
OneNote is Cross-Platform 5 Reasons You Should Take Notes with OneNote Anywhere 5 Reasons You Should Take Notes with OneNote Anywhere Few things are as important as the ability to take good notes, especially for students. OneNote is perfect for course notes. We think you'll find it's great for organizing other information, too. Read more . It is available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, and on the web. Chrome users can use OneNote Clipper to clip material from any website.
Want to capture and share anything on your Windows desktop screen? Use the convenient Windows + Shift + S Shortcut key for Screen Clipping feature in OneNote.
Information can be easily shared and accessed from almost any device.
When you work as a team, you can share notebooks and let the whole team contribute. Continuing with the event example above, several members of your team could help research the venue, vendor and band, while others could use the finalized information to contact potential candidates for quotes, discuss details and make reservations..
When you create a new notebook, OneNote will ask if you want to invite people .
To share an existing notebook, go to File>Share . Here you can Share with people individually or Get a link to share , Whether to view or edit the notebook, which you can send to your team..
Everything is easier to digest when it is presented in a structured way. You can use lists to collect ideas or outline project goals. Tables can help you keep track of stakeholders, resources, or schedules.
To create a table, go to Insert> Table and select the size. You can add additional rows and columns later:right-click the table and go to Table> Insert... You'll find more table formatting features here, like sorting, shading, or hiding borders.
OneNote supports three types of lists:bulleted, numbered, and checklists. The specific formatting of bullets and numbers can be customized. Checklists can be combined with numbered or bulleted lists.
To create a list, write a few items and highlight them. The floating format menu should appear. If you don't right-click the list, select Bullets , Numbering , or Tag how to do (also known as a checklist).
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Note: While you can create to-do lists with OneNote 5 Tips for Using OneNote as Your To-Do List 5 Tips for Using OneNote as Your To-Do List Are you creating a to-do list on your to-do list? Set it up in OneNote to make things as easy as possible. Learn more, it's a poor tool for keeping track of time-sensitive tasks unless you link OneNote with Outlook Turn Outlook into a project management tool with OneNote integration Turn Outlook into a project management tool with OneNote integration OneNote can do more than you think. We'll show you how to turn your Outlook task list into a powerful project management tool with the OneNote for Outlook add-in. Read more.
As Ryan's article shows, OneNote offers seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook. For example, you can create “to do” articles from meeting minutes in OneNote. Linking OneNote to Outlook lets you organize all of these daily to-do items in one place.
Tasks can be collected in Outlook from all project pages in your OneNote notebooks. When you complete a task in Outlook, the corresponding task is marked as complete on the respective OneNote page.
Email is an effective communication tool for projects, but it's a poor way to keep track of important information or files. Also, not everyone should be controlled while a conversation leading to a decision is taking place. How then do you keep everyone informed?
To share information, you can use Outlook Send to OneNote Click the button on the ribbon, or you can manually drag the emails into a shared notebook. This way anyone can catch up on the conversation or find details when needed.
In addition to Outlook emails, you can share content from other sources. To customize how OneNote handles incoming content, go to File> Options> Send to OneNote . You can choose custom settings for Outlook Items, Web Content, Print to OneNote, and Screen Clippings. The default setting is Always ask where to send. .
You can even forward emails or email content directly to OneNote using [email protected] from an authorized email account. Head over to the OneNote email settings page to add and select email addresses and choose the default destination for incoming content.
Whether you want to keep track of team contacts, record your lessons learned across multiple projects, or provide an overview of specific processes, OneNote works amazingly well as a shared, collaboratively edited wiki. One feature you'll need to make this work is linking to notebooks, sections, pages, and paragraphs.
Right-click a notebook, section, page, or area on a page and select Copy link to... Now paste the link anywhere in your notebook. Alternatively, you can highlight and right-click on an element, select Link… , choose the notebook, section, or page you want to link to, and click OK to add it.
A quick way to link to a page is to type [[page name]]. If the page does not exist, it will be created instantly.
It is impossible to work with a team and not have meetings. To get the most out of your meetings, prepare an agenda and take meeting minutes. This will help you make the most of the meeting time and keep track of everything that was said and decided.
The benefits of keeping meeting notes in OneNote are many:
For iterative projects with recurring processes, it can be a great help to have tried and trusted templates to work with. When you make checklists or work schedules available as a template, your team will save time. You're less likely to miss an item and increase consistency across your team.
OneNote comes with a selection of pre-built templates, including several different ones for meeting notes.
Find them at Insert> Page Templates…> Business . When you're planning a meeting, use one of these templates to create the agenda and base your notes on the meeting.
To create a custom template, prepare your preferred layout in OneNote, then go to Insert> Page Templates... and click Save the current page as a template in the background.
OneNote will prompt you to add a Template Name and if you wish, you can set it as Default template for new pages in the current section. .
The next time you need your template, look for it in the list under Insert> Page Templates…> My Templates .
OneNote will not be able to replace professional project management software like Microsoft Project. However, it can be a powerful tool for simple projects and small teams. The Fool Testing System for Planning and Managing Multiple Projects The Fool Testing System for Planning and Managing Multiple Projects Horizon Planning is an easy system for managing multiple active and inactive projects. It's incredibly unbreakable when it comes to those guaranteed daily distractions. We show you how to set it up digitally. Read more . And it's free.
Are you using Microsoft OneNote to manage projects? What other uses have you discovered and what features have been most useful?
Please share your experiences in the comments so others can benefit!
