How to Use OneNote to Store Information in Digital Notebooks on Your iPad

Manage pages and sections

From time to time you might find it necessary to modify the storage structure of a notebook or move content around within the notebook. Fortunately, it’s much easier to move information around in an electronic notebook than it is in a physical notebook.

You can rearrange notebook elements in the following ways:

• Move pages within a section, to another section in the same notebook, or to a section in any open notebook.
• Move sections within a notebook or to any other notebook that you have open. When you move a section to a different notebook, it is inserted as the last section in the notebook, and the section tab appears to the right of the other section tabs in the notebook header.

You can also assign background colors to notebook pages to provide a visual indicator of the purpose or status of a page—for example, a green background to indicate that the page content is final or an orange background to indicate that a page contains confidential information.

TIP

Changing the page background color in OneNote for iPad doesn’t affect the color of the page tab in the page navigator.

You control the movement of pages by activating the edit functions in the page navigator.

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Tap Edit at the top of the page navigator to activate the edit functions

After you finish organizing your notebook content, you might find that you have extra or empty notebook elements. You can delete any notebook element other than a section group and the notebook itself from within OneNote for iPad.

TIP

You can delete notebooks and section groups when working with a notebook in the Windows version of OneNote.

To change the color of the active page or subpage

1. On the View tab, tap the Page Color button.

2. On the Page Color menu, tap the color swatch you want to apply to the page.

   Or

   On the Page Color menu, tap the No color button to remove the page background color.

To move a page within a section

1. At the top of the page navigator, tap Edit.
2. In the page navigator, tap and hold the handle of the page you want to move, and then drag it vertically to the new location.

To move one or more pages to a different section or notebook

1. At the top of the page navigator, tap Edit.

2. In the page navigator, select the pages you want to move.

   TIP

   

   To select a page, tap the empty circle that precedes the page name. A check mark appears when the page is selected.

3. On the action bar at the top of the page navigator, tap the Move button to display a window showing the sections and section groups available in the current notebook.

   

   You might need to swipe the list to display all the sections and section groups in the notebook

4. To move the selected pages to a different section of the current notebook, tap the section you want to move them to.

   Or

   To move the pages to a different notebook, tap Notebooks to display a window showing the currently open notebooks; tap the notebook, the section group if appropriate, and then the section you want to move the pages to.

TIP

When you move a page to a different section, it is inserted as the last page in the section, at the bottom of the page navigator for that section. When you move a section to a different notebook, it is inserted as the last section in the notebook, to the right of the existing section tabs in the notebook header.

To move a section within a notebook

1. In the notebook header, tap and hold the tab of the section you want to move, until the tab changes to a lighter color.
2. Drag the section tab laterally to the location you want it in relation to the other section tabs.

To move a section to a different notebook

1. Display the section you want to move.
2. Tap the section tab once.

3. On the shortcut bar, tap Move to display a window showing the currently open notebooks and any section groups they contain.

   

   The section you’re moving is identified above the notebook list

4. In the Notebooks window, tap the notebook you want to move the section to.

To delete a page

1. Display the section that contains the page you want to delete.
2. In the page navigator, swipe left or right on the tab of the page you want to delete, and then tap Delete.

IMPORTANT

OneNote stores your deleted pages in the Recycle Bin of the OneDrive site or SharePoint site the notebook is stored on. You can restore deleted pages from that Recycle Bin until they are permanently deleted (usually after 60 days).

To delete a section

1. Display the section you want to delete.

2. In the notebook header, tap the active section tab.

   

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   When you tap the tab once, the shortcut bar displays options relevant to the section

   IMPORTANT

   

   Tap a section tab once to display the shortcut bar, or twice to activate the section tab for editing.

3. On the shortcut bar, tap Delete.