Microsoft OneNote

A practical learner guide for meeting notes, action tracking, project organisation and collaboration

Author

UQ Library

Published

September 24, 2026

Microsoft OneNote can provide a practical workspace for capturing meeting notes, organising information, tracking action items, supporting projects and sharing material with colleagues.

The guide uses an practice notebook called OneNote Workflows - Templates. As you work through the activities, you will create a structure for meeting notes, build a reusable meeting template, add meeting details, use tags and tasks, organise supporting resources and explore sharing and presentation options.

What are we going to learn?

By the end of this guide, you will be able to:

  • choose an appropriate purpose and scope for a OneNote notebook;
  • organise information using section groups, sections, pages and subpages;
  • create and reuse a meeting-notes template;
  • insert dates and integrated Outlook meeting details;
  • apply, modify, create and reorder tags;
  • distinguish between OneNote tags and Outlook tasks;
  • attach or link relevant resources to meeting notes;
  • share notebook or page content in ways suited to collaboration;
  • apply password protection where appropriate; and
  • use additional OneNote features to improve navigation, presentation and note capture.

Design a Practical Notebook Structure

People often work across multiple projects, subjects, portfolios and teams. A clear notebook structure makes information easier to locate and reduces the risk of placing too much unrelated material in one notebook. A notebook can represent a project, subject, topic or team. Do not hesitate to create a new notebook when the content has a distinct purpose or audience. Trying to fit too much into one monolithic notebook can make navigation difficult and can create issues when the notebook needs to be shared.

The hierarchy presented in OneNote is:

  1. Notebook
  2. Section group
  3. Section
  4. Page
  5. Subpage
  6. Sub-subpage

The bottom three levels, pages, subpages and sub-subpages, house the working content. Section groups can also be nested within one another when additional levels of organisation are needed.

Instructions

  1. Create a new notebook named OneNote Workflows - Practice.
  2. In the notebook, create a section group named Meetings.
  3. Under the section group create a section called Meeting Notes.
  4. Add a new page in the Meeting Notes section.
  5. Create a subpage and sub-subpage by dragging subsequent pages to the right.

Create and Reuse a Meeting Template

A consistent meeting-note structure reduces preparation effort and makes it easier to review decisions, actions and supporting information. A specific template can support a repeatable workflow for meetings, committees or project reviews.

A current OneNote page can be saved as a reusable template. Templates created this way appear under My Templates.

When reusing existing meeting content:

  • copying the entire page retains authorship information;
  • copying only the content removes authorship information; and
  • author tags can be hidden through History > Hide Authors.
Note

Note that Templates are not available on the Mac and Web version of OneNote.

Instructions

  1. Copy the Meeting Notes Template from OneNote Workflows - Templates
  2. Decide whether you need to preserve authorship information.
    1. To retain authorship, copy the entire page.
    2. To remove authorship, copy only the page content.
    3. To keep the authorship but hide visible author tags, go to History > Hide Authors.
  3. Go to Insert > Page Templates > Page Templates….
  4. In the Templates panel, select Save current page as a template.
  5. Give the template a clear, specific name.
  6. Set the new template as the default for all new pages in the current section.
  7. Find the saved template under My Templates when you need to modify or use it again.

Add Dates and Outlook Meeting Details

Dates and meeting details provide context without requiring repeated manual entry. They make meeting pages easier to identify and connect notes with the relevant calendar event. OneNote can insert a date and can add integrated meeting details from Outlook. Pages can also be ordered by the date they were created.

Insert a date

  1. Place the cursor where the date should appear.
  2. Go to Insert > Date.

Insert Outlook meeting details

  1. Open the page that will contain the meeting notes.
  2. Go to Home > Meeting Details.
  3. Select the relevant date.
  4. Select the meeting.

Use creation date to organise pages

  1. Open the area containing the meeting pages.
  2. Use the option to order pages by Date created.

Use Tags to Categorise and Retrieve Notes

Meeting notes often contain different kinds of information, including items that require follow-up, points to revisit and information to group later. Tags make these items easier to identify and find without changing the overall notebook structure.

Apply a tag from the ribbon

  1. Select the text to be tagged, or place the cursor at the relevant item.
  2. Go to Home > Tags.
  3. Select the required tag.

Apply a tag from the context menu

  1. Highlight the relevant text, or right-click at the required location.
  2. Right-click and choose Insert Tag.
  3. Select the required tag.

Apply a tag with a keyboard shortcut

  1. Select the relevant item.
  2. Press , using the number assigned to the required tag.

Create and modify tags

Modifying a tag replaces it. New tags can be created, and tags can be reordered to adjust their shortcut assignments.

  1. Open the tags controls from Home > Tags.
  2. Create a new tag when the existing tags do not meet the need.
  3. Reorder tags to adjust which keyboard shortcuts correspond to them.
  4. When modifying a tag, remember that the current tag will be replaced.

Find tags to review

  1. Navigate to Home > Find Tags. This will open the Tags Summary panel.
  2. You can Group tags by: several categories.
  3. You can limit the tag Search to get more specific results.
  4. Click the Create Summary Page to turn your Tag Summary into its own Page.
Note

The Tag Summary panel is not ‘live’. You will have to click the Refresh Results button to display any newly added tags.

  • Use tags when you want to find or group notes later.
  • Reserve tags for information or lower-accountability items when no reminder or due date is required.
  • Learn the shortcuts for the tags you use most frequently.
  • Reorder tags deliberately so the most useful shortcuts are easy to remember.
  • Create a new tag only when it adds a clear and repeatable category.

Track Accountable Actions with Outlook Tasks

Meeting notes frequently contain actions that need owners, due dates and reminders. OneNote tags help organise information, but they do not provide reminders. Outlook tasks are more suitable for time-sensitive work that requires active tracking.

Use an Outlook task when:

  • you need a reminder;
  • you need a due date;
  • you need task tracking in Outlook; or
  • someone owns the next step.
Warning

Outlook (classic) is required to be installed and logged in to access Outlook Tasks. The task will then sync to New Outlook and can be managed there as well.

Instructions

  1. Identify an item in the meeting notes that needs a reminder, due date or Outlook-based tracking.
  2. Select the item.
  3. Go to Home > Outlook Tasks.
  4. Choose the appropriate timeframe available in the menu.
  5. Use Outlook to manage the reminder, due date and task tracking.
Note

Much like tags, Outlook Tasks can be accessed from the ribbon, context menu or with the keyboard shortcut .

Add and Organise Relevant Meeting Resources

Meeting and project notes are more valuable when the supporting documents, websites, videos and related OneNote pages are easy to reach from the same location. A dedicated resources area reduces searching and preserves context.

OneNote can include or link to:

  • documents;
  • websites;
  • videos; and
  • other OneNote pages.

Create a resources area

  1. Open the relevant meeting-notes page.
  2. Add a heading named Resources.

Add a file attachment

  1. Place the cursor under the Resources heading.
  2. Go to Insert > File Attachment.
  3. Select the relevant file.

Add a file by drag and drop

  1. Locate the file in File Explorer.
  2. Drag the file onto the relevant OneNote page.
  3. Drop it beneath the Resources heading or into the appropriate category.

Organise the area by adding a table

If several resources will be added, create a table to organise or categorise them.

  1. Place the cursor under the Resources heading.
  2. Go to Insert > Table.
  3. Select an appropriate size table to insert.

Share and Collaborate from OneNote

OneNote can support collaboration by sharing a notebook, copying a link for people who already have access, emailing page content and adding OneNote in Teams. These options serve different purposes. Sharing an entire notebook provides broader access, while copying a link is useful when recipients already have permission. Emailing page content provides another way to distribute information from a page. Having OneNote in Team increases accessibility.

Share an entire notebook

  1. Open the notebook you want to share.
  2. Use the notebook’s Share control in the top right-hand corner.
  3. Select the option to Share Entire Notebook.
  4. Provide access to the intended people using the options presented.

Email page content

  1. Open the page whose content you want to distribute.
  2. From the Share menu, use the option to Send Page Content.
  3. Review the content before sending it through email.

Add OneNote in Teams

  1. Open the relevant Team or Chat in Teams.
  2. Add OneNote using the Teams + icon at the top of the page.
  3. Select the notebook you wish the team to collaborate on.

Apply password protection

  1. In OneNote right-click on the section that requires password protection.
  2. Select Password Protect This Section…. This will open the Password Protection Panel.
  3. Select Set Password….
  4. Enter a password. Confirm the password by re-typing it.
Caution

If you lose or forget the password, OneNote cannot recover your data. Remember that passwords are case-sensitive.

Improve Navigation, Presentation and Note Capture

Small improvements to page layout, navigation and input methods can make a notebook easier to scan and more flexible for different working styles. Some additional OneNote capabilities that support this are the ability to:

  • convert text in a picture to text;
  • change the page feel using rule lines, grid lines or page colour;
  • create a table of contents using links to paragraphs; and
  • use the Draw tab to handwrite notes on a tablet.

Convert text in a picture to editable text

  1. Insert or paste the picture into a OneNote page.
  2. Right-click the picture.
  3. Select Copy Text from Picture.
  4. Click where you want the text to appear.
  5. Press to paste the extracted text as editable text.

Change the page feel

  1. Open the page.
  2. Select the View tab.
  3. Select the Rule Lines or Grid Lines you want.
  4. Select Page Color.
  5. Choose the colour you want for the page.
Note

On Mac: View > Paper Color to change the page colour. View > Paper Styles to apply ruled lines or gridlines.

Create a table of contents

  1. Create your page and add the headings or sections you want to link to.
  2. Hover over the paragraph or heading you want to link to.
  3. Right-click the paragraph handle (the small icon that appears beside the paragraph).
  4. Select Copy Link to Paragraph.
  5. At the top of the page (or on a separate navigation page), create a Table of Contents heading.
  6. Type the section name (for example, Introduction, Meeting Notes, Action Items).
  7. Select the text and press (or right-click and choose Link).
  8. Paste the paragraph link you copied and select OK.

Repeat for each heading or section.

Handwrite notes on a tablet

  1. Open the page on the tablet.
  2. Go to the Draw tab.
  3. Select the available drawing or handwriting tool.
  4. Write directly on the page.

An effective executive OneNote workflow begins with clear notebook boundaries and a structure that reflects projects, subjects, topics or teams. Reusable templates can make meeting capture more consistent, while dates and Outlook meeting details establish context. Tags help group and retrieve information, whereas Outlook tasks are better suited to time-sensitive, owned work requiring reminders or due dates.

A dedicated Resources area keeps supporting material with the relevant notes. Sharing choices should reflect both the audience and the scope of the notebook. Additional features such as picture-to-text, paragraph links, page styling and tablet handwriting can make information easier to capture, navigate and use.

Additional Resources