Name: Microsoft OneNote
Rating: 4.71746 (879230 reviews)

User Reviews for Microsoft OneNote

4.72 out of 5

879.2K Ratings

2 years ago, ECoopr

LOVE

I am an iPhone user who first used OneNote at work using Microsoft. I loved the organization of it better than the systems I’d used before. I then migrated my notes from elsewhere. I recently got a tablet and stylus and OneNote has really leveled up in functionality. Now I use OneNote and Apple notes exclusively. Two of my favorite recent uses: 1. I was watching a master therapist working on a training film with friends. There was a transcript for the video. I uploaded that into a note in my experiential family therapy section. Then I got to sit back and enjoy, and take notes directly on the transcript without feeling like I also needed to pause to write out some key sentences I would have wished I could quote if not having the transcript. That thing you get to do with a paper copy: doodle, highlight, jot words and phrases, exclamation points. All there. But no various notebooks to carry around and make sure not to forget when coming to an event like that. 2. I draw tarot cards most mornings as part of a daily/devotional practice. I did this before the iPad and Apple Pencil, but I wrote notes in a paper notebook. NOW with those tools and OneNote, I can hold up the tablet, snap a picture of my spread, and write notes directly around the image of the cards. Because of this, I notice I am learning the card associations more quickly.

1 year ago, PABWI

A+ for Getting My Life Organized!

I have been using One Note for years and years. It is amazing how many ways I use it in my personal and work life! It has dramatically cut down on the paper in my life. I teach a college personal finance class and highly recommend it as a way to store and keep copies of personal records (e.g., driver’s licenses, pics of auto license plates, insurance cards, health history and passports). I also keep contact info on credit cards in case one is lost or stolen. For electronics, it is a handy place to store passwords, user ids and software reminders. When I travel I couldn’t live without OneNote as a means to keep track of my itinerary, lodging/transportation reservations, suggested sites to see, and so much more! Also use it as a gardening tool to keep track of what I have planted with names, pics, sun/shade preferences, care tips, etc. Would you believe this is just a sampling of the many ways I find the software useful. And what really makes the software great is its search feature. Everything is at my fingertips by just typing a a few letters and I get a quick list of related notes. Installed on my mobile phone, everything goes with me for whenever I need it!

3 years ago, Dvu12

Great App!!

I honestly didn’t like it at first, but I have grown to like it. Some features that people will want is an audio recording function to play back lectures. Notability does a great job at that, Some improvements for example is one note is the lag between writing and typing. It just doesn’t feel smooth sometimes. Also, lag and exporting of images is not good. I want to move images freely, spin them around, zoom in and out without any hassle. Last thing, is the paging of it. *IMPORTANT TO HIGHLIGHT*-The paging of one note is weird that I wish it is like notability and good notes 5 like page 1, 2, etc of page breaks. Then, show the pages like 1-10 on the side that I can find, instead of me scrolling down to find that particular page. **IMPORTANT TO HIGHLIGHT*-The “endless page” feature is a pain to deal with then being a perk. The pages never end or break like notability. Especially when I need to export pdf’s or print one note notes. When I go print the pages as review to see physically the format is messed up. I hope one note fixes this issue. Also, split screen should apply to OneNote like notability and goodnotes. There should be rulers, or the straight lines or straight shapes feature. If one note has the same features as one note it surely will be the greatest note-taking app. The syncing is amazing though.

2 months ago, y///i

Good for Office 365 but UX is frustrating on every detail

My company blocked Evernote so I had no choice but to switch to OneNote. OneNote has great integration to other apps in Microsoft ecosystem, but every User Experience detail falls short and frustrates me SO MUCH!! Evernote has its own faults (and getting worse), but the overall user experience was well-considered and pretty smooth. OneNote has incredible features and power, but nothing works as well as you expect. For example, when you tap on a notebook group or folder, I expect to see all notes in that group, but it shows notes to one particular notebook in that group. If I want to see notes in a notebook, I will click on that notebook, not a group. And there are too many differences between desktop version and mobile versions. For example, I love the fact that you can turn your note into a task that appears on To Do and Planner apps on desktop, but I cannot do that on iOS version. On iOS, I have to do that completely manually. iOS version can’t even search for tags, which is absolutely crazy. (MS will say you can, but not really.) Please learn a trick or two from Evernotes’ incredible search features. I also hate the fact that I have to change my work flow and behavior for each OS. And the user interaction for every little detail is incredibly frustrating. If I can get the power of OneNote w/ user experience of Evernote, that would be my golden app.

7 months ago, MidChimera

Terrible Sync Speeds

I’ve used OneNote for years. I love how it’s so easy to do so many different things, it’s perfect for organizing content for classes, record information about different topics in places that are easy to access, and it works well with the other applications (word, excel, PowerPoint and adding pdfs). One of the biggest reasons I use it every day is that I can access it from every device I have. There’s the OneNote app that I have on my phone and tablet, and then the program I have on my laptop. This is essential for me as a student since I like to be able to see my to-do list whenever I’d like, and to edit my list from any device. This has worked great for the entire time I’ve used OneNote until now. Now my laptop is the only device that can sync my OneNote pages at a reasonable speed. This means that any time I want to make changes on my phone or tablet in the app, I have to wait anywhere from to 30 seconds -10 minutes for it to update the list with the most recent changes from my laptop, and then wait another 30 seconds -10 minutes for it to send the changes I just made back to my laptop. It’s awful. I’ve tried syncing on multiple different Wi-Fi’s, both with and without cellular data for my phone, and it is consistently so much worse than it used to be. Very frustrating.

3 years ago, Pyxxl355

A Fantastic Notes App on iPad, but Mouse Support Needs Work

OneNote is a great app for notetaking on iPads, whether via typing or handwriting with a compatible stylus. Both can be used together interchangeably to create a remarkably versatile workflow that syncs seamlessly across devices. It’s an extremely useful tool for college notes that I come back to often. There is one issue with the app that frustrates the experience a bit, however, and that is the clunky mouse support. With other Office apps being able to take full advantage of the fast-highlighting features that iPadOS has brought to the table, being unable to quickly highlight and format text the same way in OneNote makes the experience more jarring. It takes a double-click to initiate highlighting mode on a word, as the pointer does little more than emulate a finger at this point; from there, the highlighting start and end bars have to be moved around, then formatting applied. It’s not a deal-breaking issue, but it can be an impedence to a note-taking workflow which makes it a bit harder to be swift and organized with color or other formatting compared to a PC. Aside from this, the app functions incredibly smoothly, and is a great, free all-rounder notes option for all sorts of different applications.

4 years ago, RobbyLovesJesus

Using it for years

I tried many other apps to track and manage all the minutiae I need for my varied life family work health ministry spiritual life and entrepreneurial issues. I tried others because they had just some advantage in one way. I would wish One Note could do this one more thing. Now One Note is everything I generally need in one place. The only thing more would be a mind mapping app type feature like Lucidchart. If Microsoft added that to One Note WOW it would totally rock. THE best part of One Note is that over many year and many devices and computers my notes have never been seamlessly picked up in the new device. The least stressful app I ever owned. Exact opposite actually, it makes me relax once I capture my thought in One Note. It is like extra raw memory power in my brain. It saved me from loosing a good detail idea for a particular client many times. I stress much less taking notes in One Note knowing I will always see them again no matter what happens to my device. Backups don’t work as well as that... l mean if you have 30 clients and you have quick note to make on the job and then over the phone then a photo to add or screenshot with weblink to a supplier or pdf One Note does it like nothing else can.

1 year ago, vanessagh

Helps me keep up with college

OneNote has helped me keep up with my college homework and notes. It allows me to do different things such as use the drawing tools to take handwritten notes, and also to type whenever it’s most convenient for me. Another big thing I like is that the canvas is infinite, and the app gives me templates such as different sized squared paper and lined paper. I can edit PDFs, add photos, add charts, etc. I can see my notes from all of my devices without a FEE! It’s completely free which is important to me. There are some downsides, however. I am taking math courses which would require me to have a ruler, and although the app on my laptop does have a ruler, my iPad doesn’t. Now, i can always switch to my laptop when I need to use it, but it would be more convenient for me to have it across all of my devices. There are a few things that could be changed to make the OneNote app more aesthetically pleasing, such as a better highlighter when using dark mode, because I can only see what I’ve written highlighted but cannot see the rectangle. Again, this isn't a big issue but a suggestion. Overall, I am very happy with using OneNote. It’s a MUST for college students!

5 years ago, SwordD3vil

Awesome but needs work!!!

So Many times have images not show up or show up extremely distorted across devices. Several of my professors prefer to post pdf files of their PowerPoint lectures instead of the PowerPoint itself. These lecture notes are extremely long sometimes 108 slides so I usually download them and use my laptop to insert the pdf files to onenote and then use my iPad to take notes. The converted PDFs sometimes show up extremely distorted on the iPad making it very difficult to annotate and take effective notes. Please fix this issue and make life easier for us college students. One more thing, when I insert a PDF file with several hundred pages and make notes next to it. When I want to print the notes out on a regular A4 paper. Onenote shrinks the pages so much that the hundred of PDF pages fit on only one single A4 paper making it completely unusable. I really really would appreciate having proper page layout options in the touch version of onenote to set strict borders to have specific page size like A4 so that both the inserted PDF pages and my notes next to them will both show up on the A4 paper and not shrink to extremely tiny size.

4 years ago, BigBoyAddison

Missing critical features specific to the iPad

OneNote first off is wonderful. I’ve been using it for a long time for school and it is very good. With such good integration with Office and other apps there’s nothing else like it. The drawbacks of this app though are pretty severe. You cannot use 2 OneNote applications in split view, only one so you cant have a note open on one side and another on the other. This is such a productivity killer and needs to have that feature implemented; other Microsoft 365 apps have this for the iPad already. The next drawback is that ALL Microsoft 365 apps use iOS 12’s text edit touch tools as opposed to the new features implemented in iOS 13. You cannot hold the cursor down and drag it, instead, iOS 12’s touch controls bring up the ancient magnifying glass which is honestly a nightmare. Connected to this problem is at the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro almost has no support for text editing. It feels like I’m just using a finger as opposed to hovering over text with the “I” like on other documents. This is due to iOS 12’s touch controls that need to be updated. The current iOS used when writing this review is iOS 14. I cannot select individual letters without having to hold down left click and wait for the magnifying glass to come up. It is very annoying and Microsoft please fix.

5 days ago, s4kura yaw

Request for Native Markdown Support and Merged Cell Support in OneNote

OneNote is a powerful note-taking application, but it currently lacks native support for the Markdown format and merged cells in tables. Markdown is a widely used lightweight markup language, and many users would like to be able to use Markdown directly in OneNote without relying on third-party tools. Additionally, support for merging table cells would greatly enhance the functionality of tables in OneNote. I would like to see OneNote add native support for Markdown, allowing users to directly use Markdown syntax in their notes. This would greatly enhance editing efficiency and note readability. Specific features could include, but are not limited to: 1.Real-time rendering of Markdown syntax. 2.Support for importing and exporting Markdown files. 3.Keyboard shortcuts for Markdown syntax. In addition, I request support for merging table cells in OneNote. This would allow for more flexible and complex table structures, which are often necessary for organizing information effectively. These features would greatly benefit developers, writers, and many users who rely on Markdown and advanced table formatting for text editing. I hope the OneNote team will consider these improvements and incorporate them into future updates.

5 years ago, All_Fruit

Please turn off automatic capitalization

Thank you very much for your service. I have recently begun to write more notes for work and school using OneNote. I typically write from a mobile device, on which I definitely have auto-capitalization set to off. Unfortunately, OneNote continues to automatically capitalize my words, even upon review. I deliberately edit notes differently and often do not want capital letters at the beginning of each line or elsewhere. Moreover, I also write in multiple languages, but OneNote seems to have trouble recognizing it and will correct my writing much more frequently than other apps, becoming a great hindrance at times. Please adjust these settings or allow specific control from your application. I do actually have auto-correct and auto-capitalization set to off in my device settings. As a bonus, it would be wonderful to have additional possibilities with regard to editing the text appearance (font styles, sizes, highlights). Thanks! I appreciate your incredible work. Update: I can now expressly adjust settings for spelling and automatically capitalization within the app.

3 years ago, iPad User (con)

IPAD users beware

Unbelievably frustrating. Super glitchy (sometimes the drawings jump around, images dont show up etc) and crashing CONSTANTLY (either just exits the app and forgets the last 30 seconds of work, or suddenly doubles its storage size on my iPad and locks me out for minutes at a time stating "One Note needs at least x amount of storage to operate"). Started happening after a few months of notes. Takes up an egregious amount of space, even with class notebook that stores old notebooks on cloud. Also has ridiculous syncing issues: just about every single one of my notebooks has a syncing "error" attached. If these issues were to resolve I would have given the app 3.5-4 stars because overall it go the job done and was simple to use once I learned how to use it. ALSO: your capabilities are very limited on iPad. There is not much you can do in terms of saving the information on an external hardrive, sharing the files, etc. There are not many setting items that you can mess around with either. Pretty annoying for troubleshooting issues. Normally dont write reviews, but I felt I had to considering the amount of time I threw into this app, and how disappointed I was in the end. (I was very happy with it in the beginning). Would have been worth it to buy another app specifically designed for Apple products.

4 years ago, big_ocean33

Excellent for work and school

I’ve used OneNote for many years now and find it very helpful for organizing my work and educational notes. I use it across PC, Mac, iOS and iPadOS. It is great to have access to notes on all devices and combines written and typed text, hyperlinks, screenshots, attachments. The writing is natural and smooth. The biggest shortcoming for me is the poor printing or PDF export capability. OneNote treats the document as one continuous document. This is very nice for restriction-free notes, but when it comes to printing or exporting to PDF, there should be some flexible page set up option which aren’t there. Because of this, for submitting written homework or saving notes to share with others at work, I find that I need to use other apps to get the job done with reasonable formatting. It also does not play nicely with formatting when pasting from OneNote to other Microsoft products. These haven’t been fixed in sometime. I hope this review/suggestion is read by the development team, because it would then be a very complete tool for me. Another more minor improvement would be the tables, which are self-formatting. Some improved control over those would be helpful.

3 years ago, ndjdjsoskrjrjfjd

Good for notes but always stops working

This is the first semester using this app and I like it a lot for writing. But, just out of no where when I’m writing or erasing, it just stops working and that loading icon just pops up and it keeps going and going no matter how long I wait, so it just wasn’t doing anything. I would have to keep exiting out and refreshing the app, but it keeps happening. This happened before but I had to delete the app and redownload it. I’m not sure if it’s because I have “a lot” of information stored in the app but I did have to delete most of my notes the first time it happened, and I don’t want to keep deleting notes. Another problem is not being able to switch through notebooks or pages. It’s usually stuck on one page and even if I tap on different different tabs, it’s still stuck on one page. I offloaded the app and deleted it so many times, even restarted my iPad but the problem stays the same. I have all of my handwritten notes in the app and I guess the app can’t handle more than 5 pages of writing. There is almost always a sync error which is confusing since I am connected to my internet which is perfectly ok. Even when I try to sync it, it apparently just doesn’t sync so that error is there all the time. I thought an app like this would work better with tablets.

7 years ago, LJ_Blitz

Excellent program and app, but...

I have used OneNote for a very long time on my PC, and I’m thrilled that there’s an app! However, the last update has spoiled my workflow. Every time I want to add a new section or note I have to dismiss the ribbon at the bottom of the iPad. I use a Logitech keyboard case with my iPad because I find typing onscreen cumbersome and slow. There’s a ribbon that shows onscreen at the very bottom of the window. This ribbon contains predictive text suggestions, style options, etc. I have tried closing the predictive text in settings, but it does not remove the ribbon within the OneNote app. Before this update the new page/section button was at the top of the window. It now resides on the bottom - causing two problems. The first is that it is covered up by the ribbon I mentioned above. The second problem is that new iOS feature that you can access other apps by tapping the bottom of the window. THAT thing pops up if I am off a fraction of a hair from the button, also frustrating my workflow. Please find a way to put the buttons at the top of the app again to resolve this problem. Otherwise, GREAT app!

6 years ago, Tickkick14

High functionality

This is a flexible app, as it works on every device I need (Microsoft and Apple) with high updating speed in real time so long as there is internet connection. I also have the ability to organize my notes sufficiently as an attorney, and I love that I can have multiple email accounts associated with different of my notebooks so I can access personal and work notes in my device but only my work or personal notes when logging in to my notes in the appropriate account online. Note search function will soon become invaluable. I do wish there was a broader, long-term sharing ability so any of the law clerks or attorneys in my office could see and edit notes without me having to share a notebook each time, but that might be solved when the office totally transitions to electric and we possibly have a singular work account. And I wish I could have the notes appear in certain folders (client folders) I’ve saved and organized in one drive so ALL the client info could be organized in one place instead of opening up two apps. But other than that, I really enjoy OneNote for typing, drawing, and all the other little functions as I discover them.

6 years ago, 小陈串

Awesome app

As a college student, this app has saved my life! It’s so much better than the note app that came with the iPad and unlike so many other note taking apps, this is free! It allows for so much more personalization and manipulation of your notes. For example, the apple notes app only has like 5 different colors you can choose from, and 2 of the colors are too light to be note taking colors. But with OneNote, you can customize any color! It comes in very handy because I organize the different sections of my notes by different color writings. Also, it allows you to zoom in and out of the page when writing, which is so cool because I can write really small fonts by zooming the page in and then zoom it back to regular size to have very neat and clear small writing. With other note taking apps, if you want to write very small you just have to pray to god you have surgeon steady hands that won’t make the writings ugly. The one thing I would suggest is to add a ‘pencil’ feature like the notes app because sometimes when I draw math models or graphs, I don’t want every line to be a opaque ‘pen’.

3 years ago, borbs727

Add Miro canvas features to OneNote

OneNote’s canvas leaves a lot to be desired. What was once a revolutionary and leading software for notes (10+ years ago) is now stale compared to other tools out there. It’s clunky and difficult to spatially organize information on a page. It’s not very agile. Please bring the new and rich features from Miro into OneNote: Grids, frames, text boxes (that aren’t a pain to move around), snapping, arrow system, grouping, tables, mind maps, cards, etc. OneNoe’s section and page system is currently the only feature that beats Miro when it comes organization. I’ve personally started pay for and use Miro as my main note taking app. I’m transferring everything over to it with the hope that they add a section/page system. I’d gladly keep using OneNote if the pages were as feature rich and capable as Miro’s, but at this point it doesn’t really get the job done for what I need to do which is take notes for 3D art techniques. I use a lot of pictures and things get moved around a lot as new information comes in. I like to go back to notes and make updates when new techniques are found. OneNote just doesn’t allow the information to evolve over time as well as Miro

2 years ago, Tommythetrain

My Main NoteTaking App

My favourite part about OneNote is that it is easily accessible on all platforms. It has an easy to use interface, spell check, styles and other essential features from any Microsoft Office product. I enjoy the ribbons, the to change the backgrounds between black, lined and grids. I love taking notes on my iPad, then adding more to the notes on my Mac. Although Mac continuity features supplement the copy and paste between the two devices, I still love being able to edit my notes on both apps. Sadly, that’s where my love for OneNote ends. The UI is slow to update, there are still many glitches in OneNote. For instance, if I try to write with my Apple Pencil where there is text or an image, the page jumps around. This makes annotating notes and PDFs in OneNote difficult. Another feature that has been missing in OneNote is the addition of a dot-grid background, isometric background, or custom backgrounds. Sadly, OneNote is often slow to update and catchup on features present in other apps. I’d still recommend OneNote as one of the best free options for NoteTaking apps, but I would strongly recommend looking at some of the other NoteTaking apps available for purchase.

2 years ago, MyTwoBitsWorth

Needs improvement

When you do highlighting or drawing to underline some thing if you go back and modify anything that occurred prior to that then do you highlighting or the drawing ends up moving and not staying with the item that you were highlighting. Likewise when you highlight something it would be nice if it would sense that you were trying to highlight an item and that it would put a nice highlighted straight line on the item, thus as you draw your finger across the word or words, it would simply be a starting point and ending point but the rest would be controlled by the program and be a perfectly straight line. Another thing is that it’s difficult to get to the beginning of a line because it is up against the edge of your cell phone screen. Unfortunately the screen moves because it thinks that you are trying to flip the page back to a different page, that is not the case, you are simply trying to start at the beginning of the line. These things need improvement

10 months ago, Tobi1992su

Great! But has one annoying bug with iPad Pro:

OneNote is superb! I love using it on all devices and it’s the perfect thing for the iPad Pro. There is one thing that is really annoying, I wish one could fix this and then I would undoubtedly give 5 stars: When importing meeting details into a page and then writing with the Pencil (by hand), the written content or when you draw something is always pulled up to the top of the page over the meeting details after a while. Did anyone experience this as well? Is there any solution to this problem available or can developers maybe look into this, please? One of my favorite aspects of One Note is the search function. The fact that it is able to find words in screenshots, PDF, emails as well as hand written notes is phenomenal. This way, no matter how organized your notes are, you are always able to find whatever you have in mind. It is my extended brain, I just copy things in a random section and search for buzz words that I have in mind with the related content and always find what I need very quickly. Across 15 different notebooks!

3 days ago, Former capper

Not Perfect, but I love this App

While there are many things more that I wish OneNote can do, I have been able to use it in a variety of ways that have changed my work life for the better. I have used it as a personal organization tool to house my notes for my team, and I have even used it to create a knowledge base for my team. The simplicity of creating an article and easy search capability within the notebook made it an essential tool for us when we didn’t have a quicker and more robust tool at our disposal. While my heart wants to rate it at 5 stars for the positive impact it has made on my workflow, I am giving it 4 because of the quirky limitations it currently has. While backing up on a PC is somewhat easy, I find it to be almost non existent on a Mac. Templates would be a fantastic feature to help get some ideas off the ground instead of having to start from scratch. The look I see on desktop doesn’t always translate well over to the mobile version, but that may be the way I’m creating my note. All things considered, I love this app and hope it never goes away.

7 years ago, claustraphobix

Slow and clunky, with bugs

Slow, clunky, and after a while you really start to get annoyed with this app. I used OneNote for the longest time on my computer, so I was excited when they made an app. I use OneNote for quick and simple note-taking, usually just for jotting down ideas. But for that, this app fails. It always takes several seconds to open, in which it shows you the purple landing page. Often I wonder if it's going to open at all. Switching pages takes time as well, and there's these weird bugs where the page won't load correctly and will just look weird. There's also a personal annoyance for me that you can't switch off Auto-Capitalisation. It's already off in my iOS settings, but OneNote overrides it, and that's annoying. Finally, every time you exit the app, let's say to go to another app that you were using, OneNote will close the keyboard automatically. I often switch back and forth between two apps and that is really annoying to me. I know all of the above sounds like petty things, but after using this app for a long time, I have decided to move away from it to something like the in-built iOS Notes app simply because it's faster and it doesn't have any of the annoyances of the above.

7 months ago, Khamy5

The server deleted all my notes!!!!

My notes didn’t sync in my pc for a while. I don’t know when the problem started as I use OneNote in my phone but I constantly had a message that I was offline but didn’t pay attention to it. I use onenote in my pc only if I need to format some notes. It’s easier online. That’s when I found out that In my pc all my notes disappeared!!!!! I got a message the server deleted my notes. I created another notebook to copy my notes stored in my phone but not all my notes synced. I followed an advise and log out from my Microsoft account in my phone (Don’t do that!!!) I lost all my notes in my phone too. The only way to restore one drive was to take a 1 month free trial for Microsoft 365. You can’t do it with the free version of OneNote. Then I was able to get back about 95% of my notes. So I had to pay to get back my notes!!! It’s so disappointing. I was a huge fan of OneNote I have been using it for almost a decade but now I decided to copy my notes to Apple notes. It will take weeks but I’m worried Microsoft will lose my notes again. Unfortunately I found out this problem happens with all notes app but this time I upgraded my iCloud storage hopefully it won’t happen. OneNote never again!!!! I don’t trust Microsoft anymore

2 years ago, 182630362919-

Changed to 5 star, thank you very much for the prompt fix

(For iPad) New Review: Wow, within 1-2 patches after my first review, not only was the very niche issue fixed immediately but the new animation slaps. I had a sneaking feeling that Office support would be speedy, but wow. Thank you for giving me a fantastic reason to continue buying MSFT shares. Old Review: I appreciate all the work that has gone into making OneNote a native-like iPad work and I use it everyday at work. My only quip is that the “lost connection” notification at the top of a notebook scrolls the rest of the notebook page down, decimating whatever poor letter I was writing with the Apple Pencil at the time and then predictably again when I regain connection. For a few seconds at a time, I lose connection at least 20 times per hour while tethering from an iPad2021 & iPhone 12. I am glad the notification lets me know my notes may not be saving, but it would be fantastic if it did not interrupt writing or stylus input. Thank you.

6 years ago, Nyah Ewan

Amazing. Especially since it’s free. But there’s one thing...

This app is awesome. I actually deleted by other note taking app that I spent money on to switch to OneNote. But there is one thing that I have noticed that I believe can be easily fixed. The app tends to have lots of glitches. Things that were erased are appearing again, entire notes that were deleted and back on the app once I have returned to the app after closing it, and there are even white streaks that tend to appear on the screen as a write. Another thing that happens is that when I am using the undo button, the page automatically jumps to the top of the note and I lose my place. I believe this is a simple big issue and I can’t wait for a seamless experience in the future. Please, please, please someone fix this! Sometimes it gets a little embarrassing when my friends are impressed how I manage to do everyone on the iPad, but when these glitches pop up they seemed to be turned away from the idea entirely. Thanks so much!

4 years ago, nick5614

Terribly slow on ipad

I have used the Onenote the most in my life among all other apps. And finally transferring my notes to Apple notes and Notabilitiy. This is unbearable for how they are caring for their Apps. ios Onenote has been like this for many years and my patiences have ran out. It’s obvious this lack of performance is intentional. There is no way ipad can’t handle few notes displaying and typing and gets this slow. Wake up this is 2020 and the one of the fastest device on the market can’t even handle writing mostly a text notes right. Bye bye shabby business for causing pains to every regular people’s life. you’re not helping but causing pain. This is why more people are running away from the Windows. As for a note, all of my outlook accounts asks to reenter password so much more often and it doesn’t even acticate apple keychain during that process. It’s painful to copy and paste my passwords for 5 different outlook account once every few days. Funny thing is that if I use their app, it just works fine. They can claim it’s Apples fault but even when it is, if they care for their own app, they have to find a way to make it work. So shabby and shoddy. People know who’s the most mean company. It’s probably among MS, Google and Apple. Don’t be the first one.

6 years ago, MacUser165

Very Glitchy, Too Risky

I’ve used OneNote for the past 3 or so years. My primary use is for taking notes and scratch paper for homework. I’ve always had issues with the app freezing, glitching, and crashing but I usually found some workaround to get it working again. I only use this app because of my school’s integration of Office365; other than that it has no further benefits. After this last update and iOS 12, the app has become unusable. The keyboard frequently (twice a minute) pops up while I’m writing. The pen can’t be reselected after the keyboard pops up until I select the eraser or another color pen which lag behind. The app freezes after it feels like I’ve written enough, which is constantly. Notebook, section, and page graphics constantly scroll and bounce when I’m trying to work with them or add more. I’ve tried restarting my device, reinstalling the app, removing and adding notebooks, and contact support multiple times with no success. These issues cost me time and effort, and when fast pace notes and homework are involved, this app becomes too much of a risk. Just pay for GoodNotes, like me, or just use the Apple stock Notes app, either is at least 100% more reliable. Best, your University student, BS Mechanical Engineering.

4 years ago, Lutherjj

There are no clear instruction or Tutorial

There are no clear instructions on how to show student to work on there OneNote pages (that are not Word Documents- no self-respecting math teacher is going to do all of their student assignments in Word.) I need graphs, I need to use the “Line Tool” under the draw feature. I have gone through hours of Tutorial Videos on “how to..” but none of them have show me a student perspective so I can explain to the students how they turn their assignment and correctly link it to their OneNote Page. (My students are all using a new 7th generation iPad.) OneNote may have done some updates in the last week or so, so I found how the teacher can assign and Link a OneNote page to the Assignment Tab in Teams, but the students cannot write on the page, even though Teams indicates that each student can edit their OneNote Page. I want my OneNote Assignments turned in in Teams and I want to use the “Grade” tab/menu in Teams to grade the assignment. The Grade tab give me the perfect way to open each assignment, write comments, or mark up the page, then return it to students with my comments. Why can’t there be some clear instructions on how to do this using iPads, OneNote, & Teams.

3 years ago, Thunderbird Baby Blue

How I Benifit from One Note

I keep personal notes, business notes & Convention notes I use the copy & paste features when I study my Bible. These are helpful when sharing with my Congregation, the points or qualities I have noted about the characters involved in the reading as well as the attributes of our Creator, Jehovah God. I especially enjoy using the colors while note taking as well as the Bold feature, perhaps to indicate a lesson learned. I also use it for the names of new friends I have met. Thank you for always improving One Note & giving choices for the size as well as the type of Script we can use. Again thanks for your brilliant work!!👍 I totally agree with the first paragraph, I wrote above for your last survey.I am enjoying all your nice features every morning. Pus I use it for special lectures, & Conventions. It is a very useful tool for notes. Thank You again for using your skills to make our lives more accurate & simple.

4 years ago, billythewombat

An Unbridled “meh”

The default notepad on iphone is just fine. I downloaded this because the app store on apple watch made it seem like i would be able to take notes on my apple watch and sync them to the phone which in turn would sync them to the cloud etc. Nope! You can only make them on the phone and then sync them to the watch and cloud from there. You can view them on the watch but everybody’s apple watch notepad app does that, so who cares? This is like getting offered a free ride in a Porsche by your rich buddy. however; upon getting in you find out the seats are not the “bucket seats” your friend talked up, but are instead actual buckets turned upside down and nailed to springs. Also the seatbelt has been cut out so he can only drive at 3 miles per hour for safety reasons. In short: underwhelming disappointment from what a software developer that is the biggest of the big names. Like going to the store to buy cheese and finding one you haven't had before but its from a maker you trust but when you get it hone and take it out of the package its just a pile of rotting leaves and melting wax that has been painted to look like cheese. But then again why am I complaining it was free after-all, but then again most compost is

1 year ago, 9988773

Great app but has iPad issues

I use this application for work on my HP and use my iPad (M2 12.9”) as a digital notepad… I am finding that the app works mostly great but has some crashing issues on the iPad only (not on the desktop) where I have to close and reopen the app 3-5 times daily. This is a bummer because it sometimes crashes in the middle of my efforts to write the note and it interferes with what I think would be one notes’ main purpose - to be a stellar digital note taking program for the most used digital note taking platform…. I am also finding that the scribble function is not worth using because it seems to be confused as to where I want to write… this could be easily fixed by having users define where they would like the scribble text to be written ahead of time via some gesture or bottom (or both). Moreover, the app has some awesome features that I love and will keep me coming back and that’s its ability to sync cross platform with my work computer which will always be PC because of the software I am required to use.

4 months ago, Mr. E- Nigma

Underrated

Without a doubt, one of the best tools. When I find the 30-minute primer video that sold me on it, I’ll share it. Things like, voice to text of imbedded .wav files, passively, resulting in text searchable wave files since 2000. That’s your audio recordings of meetings or classes using any basic audio recorder. Organize your stuff by category, subcategory, and then content specific items. Paste documents and maintain either a link or a copy of the file within your document. So you can paste a word doc in it, then you copy put your references, and paste them in your notes. Copy something from a URL, like a statutes page from a state web site, or a quote from Insta or FB or whatever the latest is, and the URL reference is automatically applied to the paste. Might be specific to IE, but whatevs. Dude... you can share out just one tab, and the contents in the tab are available to be edited. Imagine the possibilities.

3 years ago, ItsApples

OneNote App- Not compatible with Mac. Not able to create new Notebook Accounts.

Not compatible with Mac. However, it states it is. Too difficult to create other Notebooks (not sections). I called for assistance with this (I received really kind & good customer service) just to find that this program is not compatible with my new MacBook Air. Although, this program’s website states/stayed it is compatible. I’ve been using OneNote for years. Originally, with a Samsung using Windows 10, in which it worked just fine. However, I was still unable to create an entire new Notebooks/accounts for separate use (i.e., for education, personal, & professional notebooks) to allow me to switch between notebook accounts (without the program automatically syncing the same notebooks/sections across all Main Notebook/accounts). Other than these very important key points, it would be... ONE OF THE BEST APPS, PERIOD! Perfect for writers, students, organization, sharing, creating documents, business, the list goes on.

3 years ago, sgf36

Good, but missing features…

As an iPad Pro user, the iPad app is good, but missing key features that collectively make the App far less efficient and useful. All of these missing features pertain to the draw function. On Desktop, you can convert Ink to Text and Ink to Math. On the iPad OS version, you can only convert Ink to Shapes, which, for the business professional, is entirely useless. It is my understanding that the Ink to Text feature has been the number one (by far) requested feature for the iPad OS version of OneNote for YEARS, yet Microsoft has yet to add this functionality. Why?? The Desktop version is fantastic, as it offers essentially every functionality you could ever need or want in a digital notebook, and that’s why it has historically reigned supreme to its competitors. It’s absurd to have to use the Apple Notes app, which offers Ink to Text functionality, then copy over the converted text into OneNote… Why can’t Microsoft afford the same plethora of features offered on Desktop on mobile??

1 year ago, XrecordiumUsee

Love this product. Except synchronization. Lost files

I want used Evernote. But that product had some shortcomings, especially when it came to synchronization. Microsoft one note does a wonderful job at synchronizing between all of my devices very quickly and very accurately. That feature is important for my work and my personal business. Our use OneNote dozens of times per day. I am an avid user. Most often I use it on my tablet with a pen. Handwriting recognition works well when you write well. So, I don’t use that feature too often, but when I do I make sure to write clearly One of the most attractive features is the ability to find items quickly. One note does that better than almost any program or application I have used. Cutting and pasting into OneNote is almost seamless. It does what I expected to do. I did lose several files during synchronization on April 1, 2023. What’s up with that?

5 years ago, Simdude

Missing good sorting and search. Not free if syncing > 5 GB

I tried switching from Evernote and like OneNote but like its mac version its ability to sort notes is non existent. A app designed to hold hundreds or thousands of notes should be able to sort by name or date for each section. There also needs to be a way to act on search results. For example, search all notes with word xyz and be able to grab them and move collectively to another section. OneNote is also directly tied to OneDrive. You can not have notebooks on iCloud or Dropbox. If you use the mac version, you can not store notebooks on a local or shared drive. So, take all the claims about FREE with a grain of salt. OneDrive only gives 5 GB free to sync your devices so plan on an office 365 subscription. Syncing can also be slow and problematic. I pulled in thousands of notes from Evernote using Microsoft’s importer on my mac. I had to break the notes into a couple dozen notebooks so they were small enough to be usable. Also a warning. The import is a mess. I had a notebook from my MBA classes with a section for each class in Evernote. The sections all got blended together when importing putting notes together that had the same tags into a section with the tag name. Tag support in OneNote is horrible. Overall, despite past issues with Evernote it has been improved and is so superior to Onenote for sorting, searching and tagging that I will stick with Evernote.

7 years ago, Tha Zack

Great but needs work

If Microsoft had a best-kept secret, it would be OneNote. Although backed by the world’s biggest software publisher and included for a decade in most versions of Microsoft’s mighty Office suite, it’s still often upstaged by other note-taking apps, such as the ever-popular Evernote. Yet OneNote has evolved into a powerful information capture, management and sharing application that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. It’s available for just about any recent computer or mobile device – and best of all, it’s free. An example of its potential can be found in the education sector, which uses OneNote tools to create shared notebooks with lessons and homework for classes, and to integrate with learning management systems. It can be also be a very useful business tool, as the following seven tips reveal. More than a note-taking app OneNote uses a simple notebook metaphor, allowing you to have any number of notebooks, tabs within each notebook and pages within each tab. But it’s not just for taking notes. OneNote has rich editing tools that let you format text, add pictures and tables to each page, attach files, draw illustrations and link to other OneNote pages. You can also add to-do lists that can be easily turned into Outlook tasks with reminders. OneNote includes a range of templates for quickly creating more complex pages, such as project tasks and meeting notes, and you can create your own templates.

1 year ago, Happyjacc

Some Issues but Overall Great so far

I’ve been using OneNote for over 4 months now. This is my first digital journey in note taking. So far it is great; with only a small number of gripes. Biggest issue: The fact that the pen will switch to type mode (in which you cannot switch back to pen mode), was extremely annoying. I managed to fix my issue so far, but I know there are still people out there with the issue. In their case this may have forced them to try a completely new alternative. Smaller issue: When finishing a stroke or letter when using the apple pen will sometimes cause the “ink” to shift downwards. Which I think is a “sync” issue but, there is also no manual sync button. So the only way to fix that is to make a new page on your app. (At least with my problem). Conclusion: Those being the only glaring issues; I can say other than that this has been great so far. Since I managed to fix my issues at least. When the app works on ipad, it works great. If issues like these scare you, I suggest trying a different one, especially on the ipad. Since in my case I do school, and I had a bunch of notes already on OneNote, I didn’t make a switch. I instead troubleshooted my issues. If you are just starting out in digital note taking on the IPad; I would suggest trying an alternative for now. If you like OneNote and are willing to deal with/fix the issues, then this is not a bad note taking app by any means.

4 years ago, Carlemagne93

Fine if you have 365 from work or school

It’s a decent note-taking app with some good functions. I have two main gripes: Wildly inconsistent syncing, and a bug that randomly scrolls the page to the very top while not-taking. Every study session, a gray bar pops up that says it couldn’t connect to the server and my notes aren’t syncing. Also, forget about syncing large notes on a single page - I had two pages that had a chapter’s worth of notes on each page that ON would not sync at all. It was only when I meticulously copied and pasted sections of those notes one by one that I could access them on my other devices. As for the scrolling, any accidental touch of the blank space in the ribbon will send you back to the very top of the page, very frustrating to have to scroll all the way back to the bottom when all you wanted to do was change the pen. Fix these issues and add handwriting recognition and you’ll have a 5 star app. If you get office 365 for free from work or school I would use this app, otherwise notability or GoodNotes is probably the move.

2 years ago, Billy bob Hah

Great OneNote

Really value the app OneNote. The note taking app is really awesome and worth the time! * my only or of several critiques the main one is that the 2016 OneNote app had a failing notebook organization system that allowed folders to be stacked horizontally across the top of the window. This was much more agreeable intellectually in regards to organizing topics. Now they have dual stacked vertically notebooks and folders and then pages and it’s all vertical it’s hard mentally to track all that information for some reason it would be nice if they integrated the option for switching between those views and it’s incredibly unexpected that that wouldn’t be allowed for in the app to begin with. I have thought since 2008 that one note has the key to being the prominent note taking app but it just seems to not be developed on the programming side to take advantage of what its potential is and it seems to be intentional or horribly accidental

2 years ago, Amit-sangwan

A nice one stop note app that can do a lot but somethings could be better refined.

A great app that seamlessly syncs between devices, stores a lot of different file types and makes note taking a breeze. However, there are few things I would love to see in this app that would take it to next level. List of expected features is as follows: 1) Pinning note/chapters on top for ease of access, currently its has to be through finding the notebook/section/ sub section / Page. Which is distracting if you are actively working on a certain section and need a quick access. 2) Ability to hyperlink other pages/notes for definition, details etc. and ability to have a quick preview of those notes without leaving the current note. 3) The ability to select page size for notes, this is particularly important if the notes ever needs to be printed of shared as PDF. The current infinitely extending page is great for brainstorming but makes it a pain to print or share the idea through other apps like an email. 4) The lack of inline support for latex modes (How difficult is it to make a latex text box that compiles into a beautiful math equations) makes note taking of math equations a pain. Apple Pencil can only be used after selecting draw mode (its been years since this app is on iOS, is that apple not allowing this feature or developer not implementing?)

4 years ago, Soccerkeep123

Graduate student tool

As a graduate student who works between a few devices, I hesitated to purchase an iPad in place of a laptop for my classes because I didn’t know whether I could keep everything straight and synced. However, OneNote works perfectly — If I change a note on my iPad, within a minute the change is seamlessly reflected on my computer, which makes note-taking and paper writing a breeze. I’ve found note taking with my Apple Pencil to be really enjoyable, and better than competing note-taking apps (or the default one). Being able to search handwritten notes is a feature which I never thought possible, but has made my life infinitely easier. For my student friends — a combination of Adobe Acrobat, Dropbox, Google Docs, and OneNote have streamlined my workflow in a way I never thought possible. Now, I can take my iPad with me to class or when running out of the house and I still have access to all my materials.

4 years ago, Pyr0cbt91

Search function doesn’t work

I use OneNote for school. About a month into using it, the search function just decided to not work properly. If I search for something it’ll do one of three things: 1) give me results from only a few places, 2) give me results from just the first few months of notes or 3) say no results can be found even though I am physically looking at the word on my screen. It’s a great note taking app, but this issue seems to be very common. I tried every method I could find to fix the issue but nothing works. And when I looked online for solutions, it looks like Microsoft doesn’t even know how to fix the issue and they just give answers to other people that give them the “run-around”. It’s not just an iPad issues either. The search function doesn’t work on my HP laptop or my iOS devices. Other apps have great search functionality and Yet Microsoft being the great company they are, can’t even fix this issue? Advice...unless you won’t be using the search function for school then this app is great, if you will be using it, I’d suggest finding a different note taking app.

6 years ago, supyo619

Mostly just suggestions about the app

I have been using this app for I think a year and a half. It started out rocky because I was trying to use the app on my iPad and then try to use the same notes on my Mac and if I added anything to the notebook from my Mac it would not be able to sync. I tried contacting support but all they could say was delete everything and start over. Instead I just stopped using my Mac. So one feedback would be to figure out why you can’t go back and forth between the Mac and the iPad app. Why can I access it but not change anything. Another suggestion would be to put in a feature that locks the size (width specifically) of the screen. When using my Apple Pencil I sometimes accidentally zoom in or out because my hand touches in 2 different spots. And that can be very frustrating when you are trying to keep your notes cohesive and the same throughout. I would also like to suggest the ability to voice record and take notes at the same time.

2 years ago, babere2424

Want to love it

When this app works, it’s an amazing way for me to organize my documents and notes for classes. However, I have had so many technical issues that I can’t endorse this app for iPad users without a disclaimer. I have had to delete and re-download this app so many times because it will always get to a point where it tells me I’m offline and asks me to sign-in again and again, and it basically never registers that I’ve signed in but instead keeps me in a perpetual state of offline use so none of my files will sync. It even gives me error messages on my files so I can’t see the pdf slides I’ve already uploaded. The Mac version of the app doesn’t have this same issue. I’m not sure if there’s something corrupted about specifically the iPad/mobile version of the app, but it’s SO ANNOYING. The only thing that fixes it is to delete and re-download the app, which I’ve now had to do 3-4 times since downloading the app the first time. It’s just extra work to reset everything that I shouldn’t have to do so many times. Wish they could fix this issue.

1 year ago, rvbber b

Some weird font issues.

Overall I’m really happy with my OneNote experience. I like the layout and all the features. I’m transitioning from using Evernote to using OneNote and one thing I’ve noticed is there seems to be less bugs than with the Evernote iOS app. I switch back and forth between mobile and PC versions fairly frequently and I have noticed I have less syncing errors with OneNote than with Evernote, so I’m pretty happy with it OneNote. One bug that is more annoyance than anything else is that the font randomly changes at times. I’ve noticed this in the windows version as well, and I suspect it might be linked to when it cloud saves. Anyway, like I said it is more annoyance than anything. If you backspace into the last thing you typed before it changed font and start typing again it goes back to the previous font. Otherwise you can just select what you typed and manually change the font back so it’s no biggie.

2 years ago, CosmicHoward

Great for iPad, but missing features

I rely on one note a lot, especially across platforms. Most of my remote work is done on my iPad though, and it bums me out that there are certain features missing on the iPad version of the app that are included in the free Windows 10/11 version on the desktop. In particular I hope that we get functionality with the Apple Pencil, especially ink to text. It exists in the windows version of the app, but bizarrely enough not on the iPad, despite there being settings for the Apple Pencil. Also, and this is more of a general thing. Custom tags don’t seem to carry over from the desktop version, which sort of locks me out of using them since I switch back and forth between the two devices quite frequently. I’d like to organize everything by custom tags, but if I can’t search by them or create them on my iPad, then what’s the point? 🥲 Otherwise, great app, not sure what I’d do without it. 😅

4 years ago, phoenixkos

Excellent across ALMOST all platforms

I have been using OneNote for several years now, at first in a work environment, later for personal use. In my work setting, using OneNote harkens back to the old Briefcase from Windows 9x era, the ability to have a ‘binder’ that is organizable by subject, tabs, etc. Different topics ordered and organized in a way that give peers easy access to useful information. In personal use, I’ve found the ability to markup documents and images and rearrange my thoughts in blocks quite useful. It’s great for brainstorming on the fly. Used on an iPad with Apple Pencil is smooth and natural, the tools, could be improved upon, but with recent updates for Dark Mode, progress is being made. My one complaint is OneNote on the MacOS. There is no way to store the OneNote binders locally due to Office365 integrations, the dependency on OneDrive is frustrating and locks you into the MS ecosystem. If not for the slow growth in tooling, and the lack of proper MacOS support, I would definitely award this five stars.

Description

Capture your thoughts, discoveries, and ideas and simplify overwhelming planning moments in your life with your very own digital notepad. With OneNote, you can plan that big event, seize that moment of inspiration to create something new, and track that list of errands that are too important to forget. Write memos, make a digital sketchbook and save notes right on your phone. Sync your notes via OneDrive to access them anytime, anywhere. Whether you're at home, in the office, or on the go, your notes are available to you across all of your devices. Get the complete Microsoft Office experience when you sign in with your Microsoft Account. Take notes, share ideas, organize and collaborate when you download Microsoft OneNote today. Capture Anything: • With OneNote, you can plan that big event, save ideas to create something new and track that list of errands that are too important to forget. • Save pictures of whiteboards, photos or printed documents in your notes with Office Lens. Quickly take a picture, automatically crop and insert the image into your notes. Organize, Search and Secure: • Quickly organize your notes in a way that works best for you with powerful organizational tools. • Find your most recent notes quickly and pin the pages you use most. • Secure your notes with a password and use touch ID to quickly access them. Sync your Sticky Notes: • Quickly save your thoughts and ideas with colorful sticky notes on the go. • Sync your sticky notes to access them from anywhere on any device, anytime. Save, Share, and Collaborate: • Save to the cloud (OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint) and access your notes on anytime and on any device. • Collaborate and work together in a shared notepad. Write & Draw on iPad: • Use a variety of pen colors and settings to create beautiful handwritten notes and drawings. • Draw with confidence with "Convert to Shapes" mode: OneNote will automatically convert hand drawn shapes into crisp, perfectly regular polygons and circles. • Use a stylus or the touchscreen to write notes or use OneNote as a sketchbook. OneNote is free on iPhone and many other devices. Get started today! Download OneNote and sign in with your Microsoft Account or the account assigned to you by your work or school. Monthly Microsoft 365 subscriptions purchased from the app will be charged to your App Store account and will automatically renew within 24 hours prior to the end of the current subscription period unless auto-renewal is disabled beforehand. You can manage your subscriptions in your App Store account settings. This app is provided by either Microsoft or a third-party app publisher and is subject to a separate privacy statement and terms and conditions. Data provided through the use of this store and this app may be accessible to Microsoft or the third-party app publisher, as applicable, and transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or any other country where Microsoft or the app publisher and their affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. Please refer to the Microsoft Software License Terms for Microsoft 365. See “License Agreement” link under Information. By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions.