Outline 3 21 1 – View Onenote Notebooks Templates
OneNote comes with several templates that you can definitely utilize. You can either create or customize an existing one. You can either create or customize an existing one. To resolve your concern, please click on this link for the steps on how to create or customize page templates in OneNote 2013. A Bible study notebook is a great way to help keep your quiet time organized and effective. Click to learn how to create your own Bible study notebook. Staring at my jumbled pages of Bible study notes and prayer requests, I knew there had to be a better way to organize my spiritual life. The biggest collection of free OneNote Templates & Notebooks, designed to simplify life & work smarter – Showing you new ways to use OneNote & speed up productivity. All our templates are notebooks – each a collection of unique sections and pages. Perfect for work at home.
- The Template
- Details of the Template
- Organisation
- Advantages of using OneNote
- Text editor
- Disadvantages of using OneNote
Today DutchPete, one of the most avid commenters on this blog, will help us fill the gap in software reviews for Windows by talking about OneNote as a Zettelkasten note archive. OneNote is part of the Microsoft Office family and thus available for a lot of different platforms, too, so this is not strictly speaking a PC-centered review. Now let’s see which conventions and techniques make DutchPete productive.
Early this year I decided to change my default note-taking app from Evernote toOneNote 2013. Much to my surprise OneNote surpassed my expectations, so a nextstep I wanted to take was to give OneNote a try as a Zettelkasten app too.
I will discuss the subjects shown below. There will be some Aside comments whichare not specific to OneNote but relate to an aspect of the Zettelkasten. I havealso expressed my own views and preferences in this review.
The Template
My starting point was to design a standard layout for the notes that I would bestoring in it, bearing in mind that those notes only relate to literature Iread, be that a book or online philosophical material. So a note about atelephone conversation or about internet security or any other such like willnot go into my Zettelkasten. A standard layout, a template, shows the essentialinfo that needs to be collected, and it allows easier reading afterwards.
Types of Notes
Having used my Zettelkasten for more than a year, and having followed/beeninvolved in various discussions about the Zettelkasten, I have come to theconclusion that Zettel & Folgezettel (i.e. a sequence of a Parent note and Childnotes) works well for me. I have therefore incorporated that in my template.
Christian gave a good & simple presentation in one of his recent post about therelationship:
Note 1 is Parent to 1a, note 1a is Parent to 1a1. That means note 1a is bothChild and Parent.
Types of Links
I distinguish three types of links in my notebook:
Blue links: These are the hyperlinks to external references, sources andthe like, such as Wikipedia. These links are outward links, i.e. a link fromthe note we are working on or looking at to another note. The name of thelink consists of contextual text (flowing with the “story of the note).
Green Links: These are internal links, which connect a note with anotherone, or a note with a note in a non-Zettelkasten notebook. These are alsooutward links. The name of the link consists of contextual text (flowingwith the 'story of the note) as well as the number of the note it refers to.
Backlinks: These are links that point from a note (A) to note (B), withthe latter being the one that we are working on or looking at. The linksfrom A are not visible as such in B. But A does show a link to note B. Sowhen we call up B (by searching for its number), A will also appear in thelist since it has B’s number in its link.
Details of the Template
After some experimenting & fine-tuning this is what I found works best for me. Ihave tried to make each section and its components as self-explanatory aspossible so I don’t have to search/think each time what certain things mean orhow I did it in the previous notes.
On top of the note are:
The note number:
#indicates the unique note number. For more detailssee section 2. Organisation.Title: The Title is anything I want, but it should describe in one wordor a pithy phrase what the note is about.1
Then follows a table with the details of the main note body. That template issubdivided into 2 sections: Data and Metadata.
Note I have marked certain words with an asterisk. These are search terms. Theyare my 'invented” unique words that can be used in addition to the normalfull-text word search.
Template Section “Data”
First, let me discuss the rows of the “Data” section.
Quote: When I read something I can take a literal quote from the textwithout amending it. If I want to add an interpretation or annotation I putthat in the space below, called “Issue”. If I fill the space with a quote Ileave the word “yesquote”, so that if I want to find all my notes with aquote (most notes do not have a quote) I search for “yesquote”. If I do notfill that space I delete the word yesquote from that space. This applies to“yesimage” and “yesremark” too.2
Issue: Here I put my thoughts about a quote or, if I don’t have a quote,any other notes about the piece I just finished reading
Note sequence/(Folge)zettel/Follow-on’s: See remarks from above. Bear inmind a note can be a parent, a child, or both. Internal links are in green.
Template Section “Metadata”
Next, the rows from the “Metadata” section: “Keywords”, “Outward Links”,“Author(s)”, “Source” and “Remarks/Footnotes”.
Keywords
I found that keywords which start with # (e.g. #personality) are not treatedas 1 word by OneNote. So when I would search for #personality it would returnindividual # occurrences too.
Leaving a keyword as is (e.g. personality without any other marker) would alsoreturn other, irrelevant instances. So I chose to put a “k” in front of mykeywords (e.g. kpersonality). All my keywords are thus unique enough that asearch really only returns the Zettelkasten notes marked with the keyword I amlooking for.
I keep an Excel list (a green link in the template for the sake of convenience)of keywords (without the “k” in front) and for each keyword I have as manysynonyms as possible. Excel allows you to find duplicates, on the basis of whichI can decide if certain keywords can be eliminated, or, if I consider creating anew keyword, whether there is a real need for it or if an existing one suffices.In the latter case I will always choose the existing keyword.
Aside: Sascha’s approach is “I write as manykeywords as I can come up with” in order to increase the chance of serendipity.I don’t subscribe to this strategy because in an uncontrolled & growing pile ofkeywords a search for notes with a particular keyword returns too few notesbecause many fewer notes carry the particular keyword searched for.3
On the other hand, if you have a relatively limited collection of keywords, more notes will be assigned to each keyword, thus increasing the chance of a search returning a collection of unexpected notes with a higher chance for a serendipitous discovery.
So, contrary to Sascha’s premise that a plethora of keywords increasesserendipity, it actually reduces the chance for a serendipitous discovery, forthe reasons outlined above. I do agree with Sascha, however, that serendipity isthe main idea behind the Zettelkasten.
Outward links
If I cannot link the note I just created to another one, the qualifier “nolinks”stays & “nolinks” is a search term to find similar notes. On the other hand, ifI do link my note to (an)other(s) I delete the “nolinks” qualifier.4
This also applies to the rows “Author(s)”, “Source” and “Remarks/Footnotes”.Their contents are simply based on references.
Organisation
Numbering
As indicated above, my primary method for organising my notes consists of asimple numbering system.
I do not have a sophisticated system for this; I started at no. 1 and willcontinue numbering till “infinity”.
Aside: I do not believe Christian’s ID system of yyyymmddhhmm provides moreadded value because humans tend to remember the date or time of year we didsomething very well, as Noguchi suggested. A long time after creating a note onedoes not remember what date it was created, never mind the hour. However, I doagree with Christian’s premise that each note number needs to be unique,otherwise when one searches amongst the Zettel for a number that is not unique,there will be a lot of noise, pollution if you like, which makes it difficult tofish out the Zettel one is looking for, and it wastes a lot of timeunnecessarily. In my system, therefore, I put an n in front of each number inthe title; links in the text are also accompanied by a similar number, though Ishow those as superscripts so as not distract from the flow of the text. So, forexample, when I search for Zettel n268, OneNote finds the actual note, as wellas those pointing to n268 - see screenshot below.
My number sequence goes from n1 to n2, n3, …
However, if one wishes to use Christian’s numbering format, that of course isperfectly possible and fine in OneNote.
Time
I take the time dimension into account in different ways.
The time dimension that I feel offers some added value in terms ofidentification is grouping together notes created in the same year in a OneNotesection of the Zettelkasten notebook. The title of each section is the yearplus, between brackets, the numbers created during that year. The screenshotbelow shows that I created notes 1–204 in the year 2014.
The screenshot above also shows a small part of the note I created to write thisreview. Each note has “create date” immediately below the title (in this case 04November 2015), which is added automatically for each new note; that “createdate” can be modified manually. So if one remembers in some more detail aboutwhen/what period a note was created, it is possible to search on that basis. Butmaking that date part of the note’s number identifier only acts as adistraction, in my opinion.
Hierarchy
From the preceding dimensions of organisation above it can be deducted that Ionly use 2 slight degrees of hierarchy:
time-bound, which in reality is done more from a point of view of “in case Iwould need that for the odd occasion.”
Parent-Child notes (Zettel/Folgezettel), which are an essential part of myZettelkasten. This is my personal preference, OneNote does not impose it
Advantages of using OneNote
Text editor
Formatting
Text typed in OneNote can be formatted very easily and in many ways is similarto what is possible in Word. Word of course has many more possibilities.
Intra-note outlining
One very useful feature in OneNote is the possibility to create an outline ofsections/chapters within a note.
I find this to be an essential tool that can be used when creating a rather longZettel or creating a paper/essay/… about a subject based on a number of Zettel.It allows one to set up a structure, of which the parts that one is notcurrently working on can be collapsed, as the screenshot below shows. Thescreenshot shows that the Introduction and chapter 1 are collapsed to focus onchapter 2. Those 2 collapsed chapters can be expanded easily by double-clickingon the + on the left.
Tables
When adding attachments, photos, sketches, … to a note I find that the best wayto organise that when one needs on a single page is to use a table. OneNoteoffers any combination of numbers of rows and columns. It is even possible touse tables within tables. I use tables extensively.5
Multiple Entrance Points
Using the keywords one can dive in anywhere in the Zettelkasten database. Thisis also possible if one has a certain note sequence in mind: find it & followthe path of Parent & Child notes. Note sequences make excellent stories on theirown or can be part of a bigger story. In any case, the bigger one’s Zettelkastenbecomes, the more useful note sequences are as they keep you more focused,rather than following links from one note to another without having a clear ideaof where one is going.
Interaction with other OneNote notebooks
Since OneNote has become my go-to app for all my information, I appreciate thepossibility to be able to make links to some of my other notebooks. For example,I have a note listing words that are new for me and that I want to make part ofmy regular vocabulary. So when creating a new note and I copy text fromsomething I have read which contains a word in that list, I create a link to thelist.
Interaction with other Office apps
Being part of the Microsoft Office suite OneNote interacts and integratesseamlessly with the other Office apps. In my use case integration with Word andExcel are particularly important.
Atomicity
The normal way to ensure atomicity is to keep notes short, which makes it easierto link to specific small bits of info and expands the network connecting thenotes.
OneNote is actually designed for long notes, which in the case of theZettelkasten runs counter to the principle of atomicity. However, OneNote has avery interesting feature: the ability to link to a paragraph within a note. Thismeans that, irrespective of the length of the notes, atomicity is ensured if onemakes full use of the aforementioned feature. In fact, the length of the noteeven becomes irrelevant, so when one is inputting info into OneNote one does nothave to consider whether one is in the Zettelkasten and therefore keep atomicityin mind, or one is in another environment and does not have to worry aboutatomicity.
This is a big advantage, made possible by linking to specific paragraphs innotes.
Disadvantages of using OneNote
Altering Keywords
Real tags (those that are part of the metadata of a note, not inline as inOneNote) are independent of notes. So calling up the amended tag will yield thesame list of notes as before the amendment.
OneNote does have tags (as semi-metadata that they are visible but are put inthe note’s margin) but they are awkward. Changing the text associated with thetag doesn’t change the tags that you’ve already “used”. With real tags, if youchange the name of a tag, it instantly updates everywhere. So, if I tag somenotes in OneNote, e.g with the tag “project_philosopher” and the name of theproject changes, I have to change the text in the tag itself (e.g.“project_germany”) and then go find the notes with the old project tag andmanually update them with the new project tag.
No card view and/or inter-note outlining
When one wants to compile a piece of writing on the basis of Zettel it may beuseful to be able to put on a virtual desktop & manipulate their position so asto eventually create a good story. Unfortunately OneNote does not have thisfeature. As a workaround it is possible to select the collection of notes one isinterested in, and copy/paste them into 1 Word document, which makes it possibleto contemplate them together as 1.
No plaintext mode
Some people prefer plaintext over rich text format. OneNote does not offerplaintext. Prior to my switch to OneNote I tried a number of plaintext apps,mostly wikis, because I thought that plaintext offers the best, “unbiased” formof note-taking. In addition, I thought it was best for portability i.e. beingable to move those notes to another app easily if and when circumstancesdictated that.
Well, I never got used to plaintext and consequently do not enjoy taking notesthat way. And as for portability, OneNote allows export of notes as Worddocuments, PDF files or MHT files. These 3 possibilities are enough for myneeds.
OneNote does have one wiki feature: the ability to create a linked new note bytyping the title of the new note between double square brackets within anexisting note. So any word or phrase between double square brackets becomes alink to a note with that specific title.
Conclusions
The ease of use, the intuitiveness, the versatility and richness of featuresmean that OneNote is a good tool to use as a Zettelkasten for those who do notinsist on a plaintext or wiki app. Other drawbacks/disadvantages are minorand/or can be overcome, and in any case are far outweighed by the advantages.
The unique number and title are not part of the text box containing the details, but are part of the overall template. A text box is something particular to OneNote, I have not seen it in any other app. ↩
Christian’s Comment: Using words to indicate some kind of content produces a similar effect to tagging on a meta level. Using the hashtag-convention, you could type this as
##quote, for example. But as you see: any convention can work as long as it works for you. ↩Sascha’s Comment: This is absolutely not the case. I don’t have the same number of Zettel that need to be spread out to a bigger number of keywords. I just have more keywords that are more indirectly connected to the content. I don’t choose from a bigger pile of keywords. I have additional keywords. ↩
Christian’s Comment: I think recognizing a Zettel to have no outgoing connections, for example using a “nolinks” tag is very clever: so you can come back to revisit dead ends after a while and see if now you have something to link it to. ↩
Sascha’s Comment: Keep in mind, the more you use features of a particular app the more you are boxed in. One reason for the plain text approach is the independency from software your get with it. ↩
Use OneNote for the web (formerly OneNote Web App) to take notes online in a OneNote notebook that you can add to from anywhere and easily share with others. All customers can view and lightly edit Office files using Office for the web.
Advanced collaboration: New content shows as unread, presence
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can identify and authenticate other authors more easily with the integrated profiles in OneNote. Search for notebook changes and revisions by authors' names and view all recent edits when you return to a shared notebook.
Apply tags
With OneNote for the web, you can apply a variety of tags to notes for easy organization and follow-up. For example, flagging notes as questions, to-do items, or contact information. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Office add-ins
OneNote for the web only supports content add-ins for Office. Content add-ins integrate web-based features as content that can be shows in line with a document. Learn more about types of add-ins for Office.
Audio notes recording
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can record audio and video notes that are directly linked to any text notes you take while the recording is made. OneNote for the web does not play audio and video content, but the media is preserved in the notebook, and you can download audio and video files to your computer to play them.
Bullets and numbering
With OneNote for the web, you can apply a choice of three bullet styles or five numbering styles. Use the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons to change the list level for existing bulleted and numbered lists in a notebook, as well as those created in OneNote for the web. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Clipboard
With OneNote for the web, you can cut, copy, and paste content in a notebook. You can copy and paste text between OneNote for the web and OneNote desktop app. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Clipping experiences
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can clip whatever you're seeing on your screen, send a web page or an entire document to a notebook section, or to jot down Quick Notes that are automatically saved and filed as part of your notebook.
Co-authoring
With OneNote for the web, you can simultaneously edit notebooks with people in other locations who are using either OneNote for the web or OneNote desktop app. Learn more about working together on a OneNote notebook.
Create and manage pages and sections
With OneNote for the web, you can easily add to new or existing notebooks by creating new pages in sections, or new sections in notebooks. Pages and sections can be customized, formatted, and moved or copied between notebooks. Learn more about using a OneNote for the web notebook.
Download copy of embedded Office files
With OneNote for the web, you can insert Office files as attachments or printouts to store them as part of the notebook. OneNote 2013 desktop app adds the ability to embed Excel spreadsheets and Visio drawings in your notes. Learn more about embedding Microsoft Office files in OneNote.
Dropbox
Creating Onenote Notebook Template
Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.
Edit embedded files
With OneNote for the web, you can download embedded filed to your computer to open them. With the OneNote desktop app, you can attach just about any computer file to any part of your notes, which stores a copy of the file in your notebook. You can even insert Outlook meeting details and Outlook tasks into OneNote or email a OneNote page to Outlook. You can also create or import Excel spreadsheets and Visio diagrams right within OneNote and edit their information in place in your notes. Inserted files show up as icons on your notes page. Double-click any icon to open its file.
Equations
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can jot down math equations during a meeting, conference or class, and OneNote can instantly calculate the results for you.
Hyperlinks
With OneNote for the web, you can insert a hyperlink to a web address or apply a link to selected text. You can also right-click a page tab to copy a direct link to that page. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Image optical character recognition (OCR)
Not available in OneNote for the web. Optical character recognition (OCR) translates images of text, such as scanned documents, into actual text characters is only available in the OneNote desktop app.
Ink viewing
In OneDrive, OneNote for the web displays ink, but equations are displayed as placeholders. In SharePoint, ink is viewable, equations are displayed as placeholders, and shapes are hidden. These can't be inserted or edited in OneNote for the web. In OneDrive you can select and delete shapes, ink, and equation placeholders. In SharePoint, you can select and delete placeholders for these objects.
Inking: ink-to-text and math, customizable pens, drawing tools
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can smoothly draw, erase, and edit with your finger, stylus, or mouse. If you'd rather write than type, OneNote can convert your handwriting. If you open a notebook from a SharePoint document library, any equations and ink in the notebook will display as placeholders.
Linked notes
The ability to link note-taking to files is not available in OneNote for the web, and links to files are hidden. However, they are preserved in the notes so that you can open them with the OneNote desktop app.
Navigation
With OneNote for the web, you can use the Back and Forward browser-style buttons on the Quick Access toolbar to quickly jump between pages.
Notebook management: Cross section/notebook page filing, section re-order, create/delete section groups
With OneNote for the web, you can drag and drop to reorder pages and sections.
Advanced management features, such as creating, deleting and re-ordering section groups are only available in the OneNote desktop app.
Offline viewing and authoring
Not available in OneNote for the web. Office for the web requires an internet connection and a web browser. You need the OneNote desktop app installed on your computer to view and edit a document while disconnected from Office Web Apps Server or the internet.
Outlook integration (tasks)
OneNote for the web does not support commands that work with Microsoft Outlook, such as Email page, Outlook tasks, or meeting details.
Paragraph formatting
With OneNote for the web, you can change paragraph alignment, increase or decrease the indent from left margin, or change text direction from left to right. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Pictures
With OneNote for the web, you can insert a picture from a file or from Bing Images. You can also resize pictures and add alternative text. For more advanced picture features, such as screen clipping, scanned images, or online pictures, you'll need to use the OneNote desktop app. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
You can print notes in OneNote for the web.
Proofing tools
OneNote for the web automatically checks spelling as users type and applies a wavy red underline to misspelled text. Common AutoCorrect actions are included, such as correcting routing misspellings or converting characters to symbols. Additionally, you can set the proofing language or turn off the spelling checker for selected text. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Rights Management: Apply and consume IRM and password protection
OneNote for the web displays notebooks that are protected with Information Rights Management (IRM). However, these notebooks cannot be edited in the browser, and you cannot create IRM-protected notebooks in OneNote for the web. OneNote for the web can't open documents that are encrypted with a password. Advanced document protection features, such as creating IRM-protected notebooks and applying password-protection, are only available in the OneNote desktop app.
Search (on page, within sections)
With OneNote for the web, you can use Instant Search to recall anything you've ever created or saved in OneNote. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Search by: tag, title, author/date, audio notes
Not available in OneNote for the web. Advanced search features, such as searching by tag, title, by author/date, and audio file, are only available in the OneNote desktop app.
Share
If you've saved your OneNote notebook in a SharePoint document library, then your OneNote notebook is online. That means you can share it by sending a link instead of an email attachment. By selecting the link, people can read your notes in their web browser. Learn more about sharing OneNote notes online.
Show or hide authors
With OneNote for the web, you can turn off the author tags that appear when someone edits a notebook. This will remove the initials that appear next to new notes on a page. Author tags are turned on by default.
Styles
With OneNote for the web, you can easily apply text styles for quick formatting. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in the OneNote desktop app.
Tables
With OneNote for the web, you can insert a table, edit table text, and easily edit basic table structure, such as adding or deleting rows and columns. For more advanced table features, such as converting a table to an Excel spreadsheet or cell shading, header rows, and data sorting within table cells, you'll need to use the OneNote desktop app. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Template support
Not available in OneNote for the web. With the OneNote desktop app, you can use a template as a page design that can be applied to new pages in your notebook to give them an appealing background, a more uniform appearance, or a consistent layout.
Undo and redo
Using your keyboard, you can undo (Ctrl+ Z) or redo (Alt + F7) recent actions for each page that is edited in the active notebook in OneNote for the web. OneNote for the web gives you a separate undo history for each page edited in the active notebook. You can undo an infinite number of actions per page during the current editing session—until either a picture is inserted or an edit is received from another author. Moving and deleting pages cannot be undone. Learn more about OneNote for the web keyboard shortcuts.
Video playback
Video notes are preserved in notes, but cannot be recorded in OneNote for the web. You can download video files to your computer to play them. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
View previous page versions
With OneNote for the web, you can view and restore previous page versions of a page, including who wrote it and when. Changes relative to previous versions of a page are automatically highlighted. Learn more about the differences between using a notebook in the browser and in OneNote desktop app.
Feature availability
Outline 3 21 1 – View Onenote Notebooks Templates Download
To view feature availability across plans, standalone options, and on-premises solutions, see Office for the web service description.