I've been using OneNote
for a few years now. The main reason was to
become more organized. You see, I'm constantly
thinking of tasks I need to do. I have ideas for new videos, I need to write down the name of a new app someone just told me about. I ended up collecting
these in different places, and none of them were being synced. A lot of these disappeared
into a black hole. In this video, I'm going to share with you some OneNote tips and tricks
and how I like to use it. (upbeat music) Before we get started a
brief thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video. Skillshare is a learning platform with lots of great classes. And I have a special link for you that gives you two months
free premium access. You're going to find it in
the description of this video. But I'm going to chat more
about them towards the end, so stay tuned for that. Now let's continue with our tips. David Allen, the author
of "Getting Things Done." By the way, it's a great book,
and I highly recommend it if you're interested in
increasing your productivity. He says, your mind is for
having ideas, not holding them. So we need to find a way to record and store design ideas externally, so we can concentrate on actually
getting these things done. That's where OneNote comes in for me. OneNote is a digital notebook,
but it's much more than that. I'm sure you're going to agree with me, by the time you get to
the end of this video. Let's get to my OneNote productivity tips. Number one, use hierarchies
to get organized. A great feature in OneNote is that, you can create your own
hierarchy structure. There are three main levels, the highest level Is the notebook, just like the physical notebook, they can hold many pages. Next level down are sections. Think of this like chapters in a book. And finally there are pages. These holds your actual notes. Let's say we create a notebook
to hold all your recipes. We can either right click
and select New Notebook, or we click on the Add notebook down here. The sections in this notebook could be the different types of dishes. So we can create a section for appetizers, one for main dishes, one
for vegetarian dishes, one for desserts, and so on. You get the idea. Within the sections, we
add the separate pages for the actual recipe. So here we have a recipe for a wild rice and mushroom burger. We have the ingredients, the directions, and we can add pictures and even link to where we got the recipe from. Apart from these recipes, I usually have notebooks
for ideas for videos with different sections
depending on the progress, like brainstorming,
research, or scripting. And I have a notebook for private things like shopping lists, vacation and so on. If you need more hierarchy levels, you can cluster multiple
sections into a section group. After you created a group, you can drag sections into the group. Another level you can
create are sub-pages. To be able to use them, you need to have at least two pages in a specific section. So let's say here, I have a
page with my meeting notes from Excel Conferences,
I can create sub-pages with the notes for the
individual sections. So I have a piece called Session Notes Excel Conference Bulgaria, and
sub-pages for each session. To create sub-pages,
just click on the page you want to turn into a sub-page
and select Make subpage. It's going to indent the title. You can even have another
level for sub-page that says sub-page of a sub-page. I don't use these as much,
but if you have a lot of notes and need a detailed structure,
they can be really helpful. So to summarize, these are the different hierarchy
levels, you can have. Notebook, section group, section, page, sub-page one, sub-page two. Just start out with a structure
that makes sense to you, you can always change
it or add to it later. Number two, use tags
to find what you need. Tags are a great way to categorize
and group notes together that aren't in the same
notebook or section. So let's say I'm in my notebook
for general video ideas, in this case for Power Query where I have a notes
for Learning M Basics. Let say this is something I
want to consider doing soon. By using the drop down
tag this note up here, I can select different default
tags to add to the notes or to parts of the notes. So I can tag this with Remember for later, so don't forget about it. In another notebook for my research, I have a page to check out
this app for a barcode reader. I can tag this note with the
same, Remember for later. So now I marked two notes that are in totally different
notebooks with the same tag, meaning although they are
in a different hierarchy, they're still grouped together and it's easy to find
your tag notes later on. So let's say you want to check all notes that are tagged with Remember for later, all you have to do is to click the Search icon here on the left, then either just click in the search bar and select from the tags
it will suggest down here. Or just start typing
what you're looking for, and select the tag that you want, and you're going to get a list of all the notes containing this tag. You can either use the default tags, but I recommend you also
create your own tag system through your own custom tags. You just need to click the
Create New Tag down here, and you can then name it
and select an icon for it. Currently, there isn't a
way to rearrange the tags, like you could in previous
versions of OneNote. New ones will always be added below, so don't go overboard and just keep the number
of custom tags limited. So in short, use tags to categorize notes. There are many applications for tags, just use them depending on your needs. So for example, let's say you
want to stay on top of tasks you assigned to your team members, or use these to highlight important parts in your learning notes. They make it really easy to find, what you need when you need it. Number three, capture ideas
anywhere with Sticky Notes. When I'm out and about,
I used to scribble down things I don't want to
forget in a piece of paper, then they either got lost, or I spent a lot of time
searching through my back, not anymore. I discovered Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes are integrated in the OneNote app on mobile. So if I just want to write
something down really quickly, I'll just open the OneNote app and click on the buttons,
Sticky Notes down here, and start writing. I can also find all my
previously collected Sticky Notes right here. Now when I get back to the office, and I want to see those notes, I directly go to the Sticky Notes app. It's a built in app in Windows 10. To get to it, click on the
Start button and type in sticky, and you're going to see it pop up here. So on your computer or laptop, you're going to find it as a separate app, whereas on your mobile, it's
a part of the OneNote app. These are automatically synced, so you have your notes
with you at all times, no matter where you took them. Number four, extract text from images. Another great feature is
Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, which means OneNote
can re-text inside an image. This has two great benefits. Number one, it lets you
copy text from pictures so you don't have to manually type it out. So for instance, I copied
the screenshots in my notes. When I right click on
it, I get the option, Copy Text from Picture. I can open a new page and copy the text from the image hear. The second benefit, which
I personally use a lot, is that I can search for
text inside an image. I usually collect a lot of information from videos where I take notes, I also take web clippings and pictures. Later when I look for something specific, I use the search feature. With the OCR functionality, it
will also search for the text in the picture, and show me all relevant information, images included. Number five, focus with Immersive Reader. A great feature I love to use when I really want to focus
on a text, or for proofreading is the Immersive Reader. It's now built into several applications like Word, Outlook, and also OneNote. If you're on a page, you can click on Immersive Reader from the View tab. It will show you the page
without visual crowding, which makes it easier and faster to read. You can change the settings
for text size and color themes to whatever fits your needs. Here you can also change the font, and interesting one is Comic
Sans, which is a font that may not be visually appealing for
a professional environment, but it works great for kids. The way the As and Gs are shaped, is how kids learn to write in school. You could also use this to
practice reading with your kids. You can also use the play button down here and have the text read out loud for you. Learn how to analyze if a rental property is worth buying by calculating
the cash on cash return. With the voice settings, you can change the voice speed, and select a female or male voice. We'll set up an Excel template. So these are my tips and it's based on how I personally use OneNote. But there are many more features that can be very helpful
depending on your needs. For example, you can hand draw shapes and then apply ink to shape, and OneNote will convert them
automatically into shapes with straight lines and clean corners. One notes can also convert your
handwriting into typed text. I was skeptic because I
have a horrible handwriting, but it does manage to convert even mine. First select what you want
converted with the Lasso Select, and then just click on the
Ink to Text right here. I don't use this feature often
because I'm faster typing, but it can be useful if you
prefer to hand-write your notes. You can even use OneNote
for math problems. You can hand-write an equation, select it with the Lasso
Select and then click on Math. With Ink to Math up here, you can convert it into typed text. But that's not all, you
can ask actually click, Select an option and solve the equation. And if you're interested,
you can even show the steps on how to solve it. Pretty cool, right? Don't tell your teachers. There are different versions of OneNote like one or 2013 or OneNote 2016. But the official version of the app now is just called OneNote. It's available in
Windows, and also for Mac. Plus, you get it for free, and it syncs across all your devices. So you see, there are many
ways you can use OneNote to be more organized and productive. If you have a favorite feature,
share it with us below. And if you have something new that you want to share
with us with OneNote, that I didn't cover in this
video, also share that below. If you're like me, and
you like to accomplish more in less time, I
recommend checking out, the productivity classes on Skillshare. Skillshare offers thousands of
inspiring classes and topics including productivity, freelancing, technical skills like office
skills, and a lot more. One of the latest classes
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to accomplish more with less. This course made me think
twice about my daily task list. I realized it's not about how much I managed to do in a given time, but about deciding what matters. And that's not easy,
because at first glance, everything matters. I really appreciate the tools that were shared in this
class, to help me do that. If you're interested to join this class or any of the other thousands
of classes on Skillshare, clicking the link in the
description box below to get two free months premium membership, which will give you unlimited access. After to two months,
an annual subscription is less than $10 a month, which makes learning new
skills super affordable. Thank you for watching,
and I hope from this video, you got some ideas on
how you can use OneNote to improve your day to day processes. If you enjoyed it, give it a thumbs up. And consider subscribing, if you enjoy what you see on this channel and you want to learn new skills. And I'm going to see
you in the next video. (upbeat music)
