Why I Chose OneNote

Dive into this detailed video where I share my reasons for choosing Microsoft OneNote as my primary note-taking application. With nearly two decades of reliability, a user-friendly design, and robust cross-platform compatibility, OneNote stands the test of time, even in a market bursting with new contenders. Its seamless integration with the Microsoft 365 suite and the fact it's free for everyone add to its appeal. Remember, note-taking is a personal process, and while I'm discussing my preference here, I'm eager to hear your thoughts and experiences as well. To be clear, I still do use other apps like Evernote and Obsidian as secondary note-taking apps. Anyways, hope you get value out of this video.

⚠️The marketshare data for note-taking apps were provided by Google Bard, and it cited that the info was from a study by DataReportal, which was conducted in January 2023. The study surveyed over 400,000 people in over 200 countries and territories.
I haven't vetted or validated this info directly with the source so please only use this info as a general ballpark.

⏰Timestamp
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Time-Tested
01:53 - Simple Design
02:45 - Cross Platform
03:20 - MS 365 Integration
03:46 - Free
04:17 - Wrap Up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are interested in seeing what gear I use to make my YouTube videos, you can see the list in my Amazon storefront along with video reviews of some of the products:

If you purchase any items from my Amazon storefront, I will earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting the channel.

[robfuzz]

Moving from Notion to OneNote. Was spending WAY too much time fiddling with Notion, watching videos on customization, applying templates from influencers. When it came down to just taking notes I found Notion was terrible at it. I couldn't just write out a long note. Every paragraph was sectioned into blocks which is pointless. I also realized that I needed to be able to add some handwriting/highlighting and I can't do that in Notion. It's been a breath of fresh air coming back to OneNote even though that app has its own issues. It doesn't take over my life though like Notion was. Thanks for the video!

[tonymeadows]

As a one-time SCADA software team-leader, I was often guilty of “adding new features”, much to the delight of the marketing folk but often to the frustration of our military airport customers. One time at a presentation to the RAF, I was put in my place when boasting about the many features available to ‘help get aircraft down’, a worldly Group-Captain observed dryly “Our aircraft will ALWAYS come down; we want simple, reliable software our people can use under the stress of battle to achieve this safely…”. Lesson learnt😅. Feature-rich is not always of benefit to the end-user, who often has to spend too long learning and relearning to use the product instead of simply using the product. I think many software vendors today would benefit from this lesson…

[SilverScreenChatter-tlhz]

I learned about this from my local library. I didn't finish the online class, but I am now in love with it.

[davidcornillie]

Thanks for this. I've tried a few different apps, but the reality is that OneNote is the only choice I have at work, so it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint to focus on using that tool well.

[ahmadsoliman]

Hi, Andi. Good and straight-to-the-point video, as usual, Thanks for your time making these videos to help the community. I have been a OneNote user since the first edition of 2003. I have only one point I need to comment on it. After 2016 Microsoft announced that they would discontinue OneNote 2016 Desktop edition and stick with OneNote. Windows 10. At that time, I was disappointed since I did not want to save all my notes to the cloud. The new OneNote at that time needed a lot of features to be added to match the desktop version. My notes have links to files on my computer. OneNote closed format, and I did not know what to do at that time. Since then, I have been worried that Microsoft may lose interest in supporting and developing OneNote anymore because of many aspects I can see.
Although OneNote is a Microsoft product and it since 2003 but it is really too slow to update the software at the same speed as they are updating and adding features for other software like Word and Excel. Also, despite the advances in PKM methods and techniques, Microsoft did not update the software to adopt these methods in an easy way model. Manual work is needed to cope with those methods.

The mobile apps are not designed to work well with Android and IOS. To use handwriting, you need to get a Windows tablet to utilize OneNote to its full potential.

It does not have integration with other platforms like other applications do. Even the integration with Microsoft's other applications has not advanced for years, like integration with VISIO and Excel. They don't even have direct integration with Microsft Todo.

There are only two very strong features on OneNote. Till now, I did not find a quite good match. The powerful search engine and the OCR engine are incredibly fast for pictures and handwriting.

I am using OneNote for everything at home and work, but I am considering switching to other apps which are highly competing to win the market by providing an ecosystem. Trying to match modern and old PKM and note-taking methods

[coocaa]

I was also thinking the same thing! As a student and heavily relying in digital note taking for the past 3 years, ONENOTE is my first love!
I did kind of cheat with all those cool, aesthetic, and productivity note taking apps but in the end, I am still coming back to this.

I love Notion for its aesthetic, functions, web-ios-app, and the student pro plan but my dealbreaker is taking to much time beautifying my page, no offline and the SEARCH- which doesnt work properly and many restriction compared to onenote (Im telling you, search helped me so MUCH)

I tried Obsidian and liked it too for its local, thousands of plugins, etc. but as a non coder, it was so frustrating to use, although I can grasp some howtos but learning hedge is too high for me to start focusing on doing the things im supposed to do. Also I am broke so I cant buy the sync plus im bit skeptical to other syncing alternatives

In the end, im coming back to ONENOTE. Its really not so smexy in terms of looks but who cares, if it can do everything that other notetaking apps are offering in high amounts and sometimes missing features, that onenote has and can do better, also for free!

Thats all. Thank you sir for this video!

[johnvodopija]

I am a relatively new OneNote user using it for work over the last 2 years and was inspired to use it based on your recommendations and excellent content. These days I am “all in” and actively recommend it to my peers. Combined with Tiago Forte’s PARA structure (using tab groups) I love it. Thank you Andy. Cheers 👍😎🇦🇺

[CrystalClearLife]

I think I have been using it since 2003! 😂🥰OneNote is my trusted source and life management tool. I use it for everything! I use it because of the 3 S's: Search, Sync and Share! Thanks Andy!

[fitstorejoojeh]

I loved Notion but then realized I spent more time optimizing and tinkering versus doing.

[BrunoJodoin-neey]

I made a repository of different excel files that we use at work so when colleagues are on the road visiting customers they have in one place files they can find easily and and share with our customers using their phone or iPad. OneNote is very versatile. Used many of your videos to get ideas on how to set it up. thank you

[jpg-o-km]

I choosed OneNote brely for the same reasons. But the software doesn't evolve from ages and miss some good evos. Fo me, it lacks markdown, tags and a real backlink support. Despite that, it's pretty useful and easy. I always return to OneNote

[chloe_steward]

I agree with all your reasons, Andy! Thanks for another insightful video❤

[jzpwhyyouwantmysurname]

OK, question here. I use integration with Otuloolk, Todo and Teams and how we use Microsoft at my company, but ...

How do you search effectively? Tags are absolutely rubbish relict from the 19th century with OneNote. If I want to structure notes by the place where I'd use them (office, home, by the comp etc.) but also have other category like (day job, side hustle, personal etc.) or even have som priority score for them, there's no way to simply use logical AND to combine tag search results. Did you manage to find any workaround for it? How to link and structure it all?

[Wtayscue]

Good video. My biggest problem is that I work for a large company that locks down access for outside devices, so it's not as integrated as I would like. But it's still the best.

[JulesMadeThis]

Thanks Andy. All very sensible reasons for me to stay on OneNote 😊

[AnandaSim]

I'm a heavy OneNote user. A lot of useful features are in the OneTastic add-in though, which can't be installed on corporate machines without getting the IT department to agree and even then it is not subsequently available to everyone. Currently for "more than taking notes", I use paid Notion and free TheBrain.

[carlosreys]

Thanks for the information. I will start to use!

[rsv-code]

Good video, it's worth mentioning though that there's no OneNote support for Linux desktop.

[ogdanem]

I think these days, there is confusion about the meaning of Notes. People need to define the meaning of Notes for them. Some people have used note apps more as databases and less as note apps. All those KPT apps became more complicated and difficult to use than just note apps. A note app cannot be for everything. So I think people should use different apps for different needs. I use Onenote for daily business work, Evernote for storage, and Apple Note for on-the-go capture. Onenote is the only multi-language app that can be used for languages that are left to right and right to left and it translates from many languages.

[Ocean.]

Hi Andy,
Always enjoy your enrichment in this OneNote app.
Quick question;
How can I sort onenote in Android devices like in Windows.
Million thanks.