Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote (formerly called Microsoft Office OneNote) is a computer program for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users' notes (handwritten or typed), drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network. OneNote is available for Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Symbian. A web-based version of OneNote is provided as part of SkyDrive or Office Web Apps and enables users to edit notes via a web browser.

Overview
In OneNote, users can enter typed text via keyboard, create tables, and insert pictures. However, unlike a word processor, users can write anywhere on a virtually unbounded document window by just clicking there. Also, users do not need to explicitly save—OneNote saves data automatically as the user works.

OneNote saves information in pages organized into sections within notebooks. The interface provides an electronic version of a tabbed ring-binder, into which the user can directly make notes and gather material from other applications. OneNote notebooks collect, organize, and share possibly unpolished materials—as compared to word processors and wikis, which usually target publishing in some way. The difference shows in certain OneNote features and characteristics:


 * pages can be arbitrarily large
 * bitmap images can be inserted without loss of quality
 * the application does not enforce uniform page layout or structure

Users can move pages within the binder and annotate them with a stylus or word-processing or drawing tools. Users may add embedded multimedia recordings and web links.

While OneNote commonly runs on laptops or desktop PCs, additional features support pen-enabled tablet computers, in environments where pen, audio, or video notes are more appropriate than an intensive use of keyboard.

OneNote integrates search features and indexing into a free-form graphics and audio repository. It can search images (e.g., screen captures, embedded document-scans, photographs) for embedded text-content. It also searches "electronic ink" annotations as text, and phonetically searches audio recordings on a text key. It can replay audio concurrently with notes taken during the recording.

Its multi-user capability allows offline paragraph-level editing with later synchronization and merging. This facilitates collaboration among workgroups members who are not always online. More than one person can work on the same page at the same time—using OneNote as a shared whiteboard environment.

File format
A OneNote Notebook is stored in a single file with the .one extension. Microsoft upgraded the file format twice after it introduced OneNote 2003—first in OneNote 2007, then in OneNote 2010. OneNote 2003 files can be opened by both OneNote 2007 and OneNote 2010 in read-only mode, and subsequently upgraded to the later versions of the file format. OneNote 2010 can read and write OneNote 2007 file formats. It can also convert back and forth between the 2010 and the 2007 formats.

Microsoft has documented the OneNote file format. It is an open file format file that allows for the storage of attachments such as pictures, video, etc. inside a single binary file.

Platform support
OneNote supported Windows Live Mesh for cloud-based storage and synchronization of OneNote files that lets any OneNote client view and edit them, including Office Online, prior to Microsoft discontinuing the Live Mesh service. OneNote 2007 also supports simultaneous editing with no locking of shared OneNote documents by multiple users when the document is stored in a shared folder, Microsoft SkyDrive or Dropbox.

OneNote is also available for mobile phones. A mobile OneNote version is included in the Office Hub on Windows Phone. This version supports notebooks stored locally on the phone, or synchronized with a remote copy on SkyDrive or SharePoint. Notes created by OneNote for Windows Phone 7 cannot be opened with OneNote 2007. OneNote Mobile is also built into Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. OneNote Mobile for older Windows Mobile smartphones and pocket PCs is included with OneNote 2007. OneNote is available on Symbian as part of Microsoft Apps. Microsoft has released a stand-alone OneNote app for Apple iOS and Android, which are each free for up to 500 notes. Beyond 500 notes, a paid upgrade is available. On July 1, 2013, Microsoft release version 2 of its app for iPad, containing significantly updated features, to correspond more closely to those available on the Windows platform.

A free version of OneNote (formally known as OneNote MX) is available as a Windows Store app for Windows 8 and RT. It is optimized for use on tablets using a unique radial menu interface to access contextual options and providing integration with functionality provided by the operating system.

Reviews
Christopher Dawson reviewed OneNote 2010, titling his favorable review "OneNote is Office 2010's killer app in education". He speculated that the app would be particularly useful as a tool for student notetaking.

Version history
All release dates pertain general availability. Release to manufacturing is usually two or three months in advance.