5 New OneNote Features That’ll Make Your Creative Life Easier

Awhile back, I did a post at Writers in the Storm called 10 OneNote Features That Will Rock Your Writing World. I love this program so much, particularly for writers, I’ll be teaching a whole class on it next week. (More on that at the end of the post.)

I honestly didn’t think OneNote could get much better but…this week, it did.

Microsoft just unveiled several new changes to OneNote, but here are the FIVE that will make writers dance with joy.

1. It’s now free.

Yep, a cool new app…available across all platforms and tablets…gratis. (Let the squeeing begin!) Writers are poor, so this is exceptional news.

You might also remember that I got my Hubby to take over the grocery shopping with OneNote. Now that’s power!!

2. OneNote for the Mac.

All I hear from my Mac pals is “Evernote, Evernote, Evernote” and I’ve looked at it to see what the fuss is about. Evernote is good. OneNote is even better. However, it wasn’t available for the Mac until yesterday. (Download from iTunes)

As Microsoft says:
With this, OneNote is now available on all the platforms you care about: PC, Mac, Windows tablets, Windows Phone, iPad, iPhone, Android and the Web. And they’re always in sync.

That’s pretty studly. More details on the Mac version here.

Also a quick video clip:

3. OneNote Clipper

It’s very similar to Evernote’s own clipper, with support for all the web browsers (including Safari and Firefox). You can even email web links or just notes to me@onenote.com.

To get started, visit www.onenote.com/clipper and follow the instructions to add the purple “Clip to OneNote” button to your Favorites bar. To clip, just browse to any webpage and click the Clip to OneNote button.

More details on the easiest way to save anything on the Web into OneNote.

4. Integration with printers and apps like Feedly and Office Lens.

It’s exceptional to be able to print right to OneNote, but I was already set up with that on the Windows side. What I’m most excited about is the integration with so many new apps.

Here’s two that might interest y’all:

When Google Reader went away last year, many of my fellow bloggers freaked because that’s how they kept track of the blogs they followed. Most of them went over to Feedly, which now integrates with OneNote.

Microsoft also launched Office Lens for Windows Phone yesterday, an app that will take a picture of a whiteboard, document, or business card and enhance it for viewing, while automatically recognizing the text for OneNote entries.

Why am I excited about Office Lens?

I hate paper. I lose paper. A program like this, available on my phone, is practically orgasmic for me because: “YES! No more paper.” I can’t wait until they spread the Office Lens opportunity out to other platforms.

5. One word: Livescribe

Some writers simply MUST write longhand. It’s part of their creative process and that’s what they do. The End.

Your time has arrived, Longhand Writers.

Currently, I write with my stylus on my Surface, then use the “Ink to Text” feature to convert my writing to searchable text, which is pretty cool. There is also a “Math to Text” feature in the new version that rocks. But the tablet is small, and it stops my flow to scroll down.

What if I could just use special notebooks and a Livescribe 3 pen to write and make diagrams, then send all that straight to OneNote on ANY device? Oooooooh!

Here’s detailed instruction about how to use OneNote with Livescribe.

A great visual of the new OneNote:

Okay a few more things…

There’s a Twitter chat today for those of you who have more questions, or who just want to get the info straight from Microsoft. Use the #OneNote hashtag to follow along at 9:30 am Pacific/12:30 pm Eastern. The discussion will be moderated by @joe_block.

If you’d like to have a class on OneNote, led by yours truly, a two-week online course begins next Monday. The materials are geared toward creatives but it’s open to anyone.

The deets of this OneNote class:

• Course title: OneNote: The Simple (Kinda Sexy) Organization Tool for Writers
• Course time: webinar next Monday March 24th at 7 pm EST – it’s available OnDemand afterwards, so don’t worry if you can’t make it.
• The initial webinar is followed by two weeks of online time where we cover the  material and create notebooks. We finish with another quick webinar recap.
• There are various levels for the class, depending on if you just want the knowledge or if you need active one-on-one help setting up your notebooks. Be sure to click the course title link above to see what’s included for the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.
• Use the discount code MORECOWBELL for $10 off!

Lastly, we’re going to have THREE special things for this kickoff class:

1. A member of the Microsoft OneNote team will audit the class to answer any questions on the technologies and features that are still new.
2. A drawing will held to give away a subscription of Office 365 to one lucky attendee.
3. Any interested authors will be entered into a drawing to be a guest author for the Office blog – in return for the description of how OneNote helped you “get it done,” Microsoft will promote the winner’s novel at the bottom of the post.

Really, y’all…how can you beat that? (You can’t! This inaugural class is the only one that will have all this, since it comes so quickly on the heels of Microsoft’s rollout.) Click here to sign up!

Did you know Microsoft was doing all these cool upgrades? Are you an Evernote user? (If so, tell me your fave feature down in the comments so I can let you know how OneNote for the Mac stacks up!) What are your questions? Enquiring minds always want to know these things here at More Cowbell!

~ Jenny