I realized that I have been keeping a secret from all of you. Or maybe you all knew about my favorite note taking program before I did and were keeping it a secret from me. Nonetheless, today I want to make sure that the whole world knows about Microsoft OneNote.

Microsoft OneNote came into my life one day out of the blue. I was working on a particularly difficult freelance writing project, one that involved multiple pages of web content, a lot of research on unfamiliar concepts, and me pulling my hair out in frustration with the 20 or so Word Documents I was using to try and tame the chaos. I knew something had to give, so I frantically opened Google and searched for note taking programs. Oddly, one of the first recommendations that came up was OneNote, a program that I had actually noticed lurking on my new laptop. I opened it up and the rest was history.

Now, I’m sure there are much better explanations of what OneNote does out that, but this is what I find so nifty about it. OneNote is like the computerized version of a three ring binder. The top level “entity” (because “document” doesn’t being to cover it), is called a Notebook. I generally name a notebook after a client or project I’m working on. From there, you can name Tabs (i.e. I usually use specific articles, web pages, etc. depending on what I’m working on), and then under the tabs you can name specific pages. Perhaps this does not seem like a revelation to you, but when you are accustomed to throwing information on a topic in a single word document, or worse, gleaning it from multiple web pages, OneNote is a life saver.

But the organizational aspect of OneNote is just one of the ways it helps a freelance writer. OneNote is also intuitively smart. Just like with a binder, you can draw in the margins of the pages, circle important information, and generally personalize the note page. The notes also appear in text boxes, which is handy because you can manipulate them any way you like and view a lot of disparate information on one page.  Another handy feature about OneNote is that if you copy and paste anything off the internet, it automatically pastes a citation. This is a great failsafe in case you forget to cite a source. OneNote also allows for simple embedding of pictures and videos, if you tend to use those types of things in your research.

To put it in a nutshell, OneNote does not do anything that can’t be done in other programs, but it does them all in one place, doesn’t require the hassle of opening multiple files, and uses an organizational structure intuitive to anyone who ever rocked a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper ™ in third grade.

If you like what you hear about OneNote and want to check it out, I found a free 60 day trial. You’ll be glad you did. 

Freelance writers, how do you take notes? Has anyone else experienced a revelation similiar to my One Note Enlightenment with another software?

(I should probably say something about how this is all my own opinion and Microsoft isn’t paying me to say this, even though I find it funny that Microsoft would bother to step down from on high and pay me and my little blog to shill OneNote. They aren’t. Promise.)