Complete Review on Microsoft OneNote, 2024

| Updated on March 26, 2024

Microsoft OneNote is the best note-making application, with numerous free features along with storage space and sharing options. It pleases the user with its various generous formatting options, for example: allowing the user to extract text from images. Microsoft OneNote helps the user be independent and creative during the note-making process by offering multiple options to add and alter and also allowing equation solving. Isn’t this fantastic?

This article contains tales of the best performance of Microsoft OneNote, plus criticism of this free note-making application. Let’s begin. 

Pros
  • Numerous features.
  • Ample amount of storage.
  • Accessibility Checker to flag changes.
  • Text can be extracted from any image.
  • Free version.
  • Advanced features like audio-note-taking and sketching
Cons
  • Web clippers need improvement.
  • It’s a slow application.
  • While opening on a new device, the user needs to load back the worksheets from OneDrive. It’s a tedious process.

The pros above cover Microsoft OneNote’s abilities. It ensures users that OneNote is one of the best options in “best free note-making applications with maximum positives to help and impress the user.

 

Features Specifications 
Max File Upload100MB
Free Storage 5GB
Storage for the listed price 1TB
WindowsYes
Android Yes
IOSYes
Web ClipperYes
Web AppYes
Mac AppYes

The above table illustrates the features and specifications of OneNote, which has ample storage to fulfill the needs of users.

How Does Microsoft OneNote Work?

Being “feature-rich” is one of the virtues of Microsoft OneNote, a stupendous free note-making platform. First of all, it can be downloaded easily on Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac OS. To log in, users need a Microsoft account, which is unpaid. Its installation is as easy as Microsoft 365 is Office Installation.

Plus, there is also a web app that gives the user maximum features to begin their work. OneNote gives helpful page settings where users can go up to four levels of categorization through sub-pages. 

Interestingly, the OneNote page acts as a pasteboard where every piece of content (added to the page) comes under its own box. One can easily make changes to the box text, rotate it, and alter its settings whenever wanted. The OneNote design has a friendly three-layout page, with the upper left consisting of three options: notebook, search, and recent notes. The notebook option consists of a list; a mere click on a notebook opens the one on the right.

Users get 5GB of free space, whereas the Premium version gets a handful of more features like math and stickers. The free education edition gifts students with online 1TB storage support.

Here are some of the facts that are essential to know while working on the notebook.

  • Opening OneNote on a different device won’t bring recently used notebooks to its floor. One needs to load it from One Drive and save it back on the Microsoft OneNote application.
  • While moving on different notebooks frequently, the pages work slowly. On the contrary, EverNote features are much enhanced as it allows users to watch all previous notebooks in the far left panel.
  • The Menu option has an ample amount of formatting and editing options like a record, insert a background image, crop, shrink or enlarge an image, insert a link, and many others.
  • This application’s most fascinating feature is to pull text from any image. This text can be pasted straight to any of the notebooks present in users’ OneDrive.
  • Microsoft Business account provides users with an Outlook Calendar where upcoming meeting information is placed.
  • The digital ink option helps in drawing the images with the help of a Stylus, particularly on a surface tablet.
  • Web clipper allows the user to copy content from any web page to the application itself. Users can either clip just the main content by avoiding the Ads or the whole page. There is also an option to draw a box around a desired content and clip it.
  • The Math Assistant feature helps the user to convert a maths equation into typed text and solved solutions.
  • The Accessibility checker helps the user in fixing normal format issues. It gives suggestions to change fonts, increase the space, and much more in a worksheet.
  • One can search on the application and find any notebooks that have been worked from that specific account.
  • The tags can be added to the worksheet by adding just a “#” option. The document gives suggestions for tags in order to understand the work easily.
  • The “Immersive Reader” feature is very useful as it hides all the tools nearby and opens the text of the worksheet on display, and reads it aloud.
  • The notebooks can be easily shared with other users by sharing links. The access can be edited or viewed only. Interestingly only a single page can also be shared in the form of a PDF.

The above reasons are ample to call Microsoft OneNote a feature-rich platform with free services.

Drawbacks in Working of Microsoft OneNote

Even though OneNote’s free note-making platform is very pleasant with various features and helpful for worldwide users to save important files and information, it does have some loopholes. Some of them have been listed below.

  • The web clipper is very slow while saving contents like bullets, and images, therefore creating trouble in between. Clipping straightforward content like a poem is also difficult because of line gaps.
  • While opening OneNote on a new device, users get to see only recently used worksheets. The older worksheet needs to be uploaded from OneDrive itself.
  • Scrolling from one worksheet to another is a challenging task. It gets problematic to go from one sheet to another because this application gets slow.
  • Interesting features like stickers and Math Assistant are provided only in the Premium version.
  • For focused readers who need Immersive reading, users can place stickers with brief notes.

The above-mentioned negatives about OneNote shed light on its drawbacks. The coming customer reviews will depict the real on-group performance of this digital application.

Are Microsoft OneNote Services Free?

Yes, this feature-rich platform bestows free services to its users. You need not pay for any tool you desire to use. The installation and activation of applications like Microsoft OneNote 365 Personal, Evernote, Quip, and Google Keep are very expensive, but they also give outstanding note-making facilities to their users.

Customer Reviews

Noted below are the customers’ experiences, showcasing their real thoughts on the performance of Microsoft OneNote.

  • “Good app to keep notes across multiple devices. With being able to log in, the notes are saved and can be pulled up on other devices. Currently installed on pc, phone, and tablet. Easy to upload documents, photos, and more. The interface is easy to use. ~Heidi
  • “I recently downloaded this to my Fire 10, and it works excellently. I don’t have any problems with it. It’s easy to use and easy to figure out, especially with my vision and using the talking application on the fire. I’d recommend it to anybody. Thanks for taking the time to read my review. ~Keithe
  • “Very useful and is good to keep connected through multiple devices. The main reason I can’t give it five stars is because I wanted to use it on my new Kindle Fire tablet, but that version of it doesn’t have spell check, which is what I need it most for.” ~ Danniel
  • “This app is useless on Kindle Fire due to the lack of palm rejection, the stylus has to be held at a horribly unnatural angle, or else the screen reads your hand resting on the screen instead of your writing tool. Overall, Kindle is simply an entertainment device for watching or reading, worthless for productivity. ~wmyers
  • “I couldn’t find OneNote, a must-have for me, on the Fire app store… but it did find it with Microsoft 365 apps! So happy to have the same needed content on Fire as on my other devices. I use it almost every day.” ~Stefanie

Above are some of the shared thoughts of Microsoft OneNote users.

Get Assist Verdict: Is Microsoft OneNote a Worthy Application? 

Yes, Microsoft OneNote is a wonderful digital platform for free note-making. There is ample space for users to save their worksheets, plus there are numerous features. It can be used online and offline and tends to impress with its Digital Ink, Math assistant tools, Accessibility checker, and diagram options.

This application can be considered a lifelong companion for students as it helps them save important tasks, data, schedules, and much more.

FAQ

What is the use Of Microsoft OneNote?

It is used for creating notes digitally along with research data, plans, notes, and information. This application offers an ample amount of storage and features, thus managing all user needs.

IS Microsoft OneNote free for students?

Office 365 Education is eligible for students and educators and includes OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and now Microsoft Teams.

When should one use OneNote?

OneNote helps organize different contents in a single notebook. One can save audio, extract text from images, alter text, and draw images.

Can Microsoft OneNote be used offline?

Yes, after syncing a notebook from OneDrive, one can easily go offline and sync changes. The changes get synced whenever the document gets online.

What is the storage limit in Microsoft OneNote?

For a user with a personal OneDrive account, one gets a free storage limit of 5GB.

Sources

Jill Duffy, Microsoft OneNote Review, PCMag, October 20, 2020


Khushboo Chhibber

Senior Web Writer and Video Creator


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