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This article we will show you How to Use OneNote Templates for maximizing productivity. It can be a nightmare to keep track of everything in your life, from to-do lists and finances to the articles you read and the random ideas you have. All of these things are often kept in different places, saved in different apps, or aren’t even written down at all. Microsoft’s free note-taking app, OneNote, is a great way to keep track of all the little things in your life.
Even though OneNote isn’t perfect, these hacks, tips, and tricks will help you get the most out of what it does have to offer. Microsoft OneNote is a great and flexible tool for taking notes. Page templates are one of its best parts, at least if you use the Windows version. With OneNote templates, all of the pages in your notebooks can have the same look, and it’s easy to copy notes like meeting notes and project overviews. We mentioned below are the ways how to Use OneNote Templates for maximizing productivity.
What is OneNote?
Microsoft OneNote is an app made to help you do research, take notes, and store information. Like apps like Evernote and Dropbox Paper, it lets you store text and images in free-form documents that you can keep private or share with others. OneNote is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, which also includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, among other programs. OneNote is a digital program for taking notes that doesn’t run out of paper. It gives you a place to keep all your notes, research, and plans in one place. Your notes are also easy to organize, share, print, and find when you need them.
How to Use OneNote Templates for maximizing productivity
Accessing OneNote Templates

- Open Microsoft OneNote on your device to get started.
- There are a lot of built-in templates that can be used for different situations and needs.
- Click on “Insert” in the top menu and then choose “Page Templates” from the ribbon.
- This will bring up the Templates pane, where you can look at the different options.
Exploring Template Categories
- OneNote has templates for a wide range of things, like meeting notes, project management, to-do lists, research papers, trip planning, and more.
- Spend some time looking through the different categories to find templates that fit your needs.
Applying a Template
- Find a template that suits your needs.
- Click on it to apply it to your current page.
- OneNote will insert the template into your notebook.
- Ready for you to start adding content.
Customizing Templates
- While the built-in templates are convenient, they might not perfectly match your preferences or specific project requirements.
- OneNote allows you to customize templates to suit your individual needs.
- You can modify text, add new sections, delete unnecessary elements, and rearrange the layout as desired.
Creating Personal Templates
- If you frequently use a specific layout or structure for your notes, consider creating a personalized template.
- Design your preferred layout on a new page, complete with any necessary sections, formatting, or images.
- Click on the “Save Current Page as Template” option from the Templates pane.
- Give your template a name, and it will be saved for future use.
Using Templates for Routine Tasks
- Templates can be particularly beneficial for repetitive tasks, such as taking meeting notes or organizing daily schedules.
- Instead of starting from scratch each time, utilize the appropriate template to maintain consistency and save time.
Collaborating with Teammates
- In a collaborative environment, using templates ensures uniformity and consistency across all team members.
- Standardized templates help everyone follow a structured approach to note-taking, planning, and brainstorming, promoting seamless collaboration.
Pros and Cons of using OneNote templates
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Rich with features | Can be slow and clunky |
Can extract text from images | So-so sharing options |
Generous free version | Web clipper needs improvement |
Plenty of storage | |
Equation solving |
Benefits of using OneNote templates
- Time-Saving: OneNote templates provide pre-designed layouts for various purposes, allowing users to quickly start their work without creating everything from scratch.
- Consistency: By using templates, users can maintain a consistent format across different notes and pages, ensuring a uniform look and feel for all their content.
- Organization: Templates help users organize their information effectively. They can use templates for different categories such as meeting notes, project planning, to-do lists, etc.
- Efficiency: OneNote templates streamline workflows by providing ready-made sections and headings, enabling users to focus on their content rather than spending time on formatting.
- Customization: While templates offer a predefined structure, they are often customizable, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs and preferences.
Google Keep vs Microsoft OneNote
Google Keep:
- Simplicity: Google Keep is known for its simple and intuitive interface. It offers a straightforward note-taking experience without overwhelming users with too many features.
- Sync and Integration: Since it’s a part of the Google ecosystem, Keep seamlessly syncs with other Google services like Google Drive and Google Docs. It’s also accessible across devices through a web interface or mobile apps.
- Organization: Keep relies heavily on color-coded labels and tags to help users organize their notes. It lacks more advanced organizational features found in OneNote.
- Note Formats: Keep focuses on quick and short notes, suitable for creating simple to-do lists, reminders, and short pieces of information. It’s not as suitable for extensive note-taking or long-form content.
Microsoft OneNote:
- Rich Features: OneNote offers a wide range of features, making it suitable for extensive note-taking and organizing complex information. It supports various note formats, including text, images, audio, video, and attachments.
- Organization: OneNote excels in providing a hierarchical organization system with notebooks, sections, and pages. This allows users to structure their notes in a more detailed and hierarchical manner.
- Sync and Integration: OneNote integrates with Microsoft Office suite and is available on various platforms, including Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android. Notes are synced through OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service.
- Collaboration: OneNote provides robust collaboration features, enabling multiple users to collaborate simultaneously on shared notebooks. It’s well-suited for team collaboration and project management.
Questions and Answers
OneNote is a digital notebook that can help people at work and at home be more productive and organized. It’s cloud-based, so you can use it on multiple devices, and it lets you take notes using different types of media.
You can write notes anywhere on a page in OneNote. There are tabs for each page next to the page window that are labeled, so you can easily show the pages you want to see. With page tabs, it’s also easy to add new pages to any part of a notebook. By adding subpages, you can group pages that go together.
Don’t waste time making your notes look nice. OneNote comes with a lot of great templates that are made for specific tasks, like managing projects or making meeting agendas. If you click on Page Templates under the Insert menu, a panel will open on the right with templates grouped by type.
Here’s another great thing about OneNote’s task management. You can add tasks that are part of Microsoft Outlook to your lists of things to do. Choose Outlook Tasks from the Tags menu to mark any item as a task that needs to be done. The task will show up on your Outlook calendar on its own!