Create and format notes in OneNote

OneNote notebooks give you the tools you need to record, organize, and build on your thoughts. After you create a notebook, you can start adding notes. The most direct way to start adding notes is to click anywhere on the active page and start typing. After you add your notes, you can move them to another location, copy all or part of a note, and change the formatting as needed.

You can use formatting within OneNote to create headers that identify notes on a particular topic, emphasize text by using bold or italic formatting, and highlight text to group thoughts visually even when they’re on different parts of a page.

This chapter guides you through procedures related to creating, cutting, and copying notes; applying text formatting to notes; creating lists and outlines; changing paragraph formatting; and deleting formatting and items.

Create, cut, and copy notes

There are two main ways to enter notes into OneNote: by using a keyboard, or by writing or drawing with your finger or other input device on a touch-sensitive screen. This chapter focuses on input and formatting that use the keyboard and mouse.

TIP

Touchscreen entry is referred to as ink entry mode, or sometimes just ink. For information about adding ink input to a OneNote notebook, see Chapter 4, “Add ink and shapes to a notebook.”

You can start adding typed notes to a OneNote page by clicking the spot on the page where you want the notes to begin and entering text by using the keyboard. After you have entered a note, you can move or copy the note as a whole, select and copy or cut text from the note, or delete the note entirely.

TIP

OneNote stores cut or copied items in the Clipboard, from which you can paste the item into your notebook.

After you cut or copy an item, or text from within an item, you can control how OneNote pastes those contents into your notebook. You can keep the original formatting, merge the formatting from the original item and the destination item, paste text only, or paste an image of the item you copied to the Clipboard.

Control how you paste copied items into a notebook

To create a note

1. Click within the page where you want to create your note.

2. Do either of the following:

   • Use the keyboard to enter the text you want.
   • Use a stylus to enter the text you want.

TIP

Clicking in a different place on the same page starts a new note.

To reposition a note

1. Point to the gray horizontal bar at the top of the note. The pointer is in position when it turns into a four-headed arrow.
2. Drag the note to a new location.

To copy a note

1. Click the gray horizontal bar at the top of the note.

2. Do any of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.
   • Press Ctrl+C.
   • Right-click the note, and then click Copy.

Click to view larger image

Select and copy note text to reuse content in OneNote

To cut a note

1. Click the title bar of the note.

2. Do any of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click the Cut button.
   • Press Ctrl+X.
   • Right-click the note, and click Cut.

To delete a note without saving it to the Clipboard

1. Click the title bar of the note.

2. Do any of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Basic Text group, click the Delete button.
   • Press the Delete key.
   • Right-click the note, and then click Delete.

To copy text from a note to the Clipboard

1. Select the text you want to copy.

2. Do any of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click Copy.
   • Press Ctrl+C.
   • Right-click the selected text, and then click Copy.

To cut text from a note and save it to the Clipboard

1. Select the text you want to cut.

2. Do any of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click the Cut button.
   • Press Ctrl+X.
   • Right-click the selected text, and then click Cut.

To paste text into a note

1. Cut or copy text to the Clipboard.
2. Click within your note so the cursor appears at the location where you want the pasted text to appear.

3. Do either of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click the Paste button.
   • Press Ctrl+V.

To paste text as a new note

1. Cut or copy text to the Clipboard.
2. Click a blank spot on the page to create a new note.

3. Do either of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the Paste button.
   • Press Ctrl+V.

To paste text by using Paste Options

1. Cut or copy text to the Clipboard.

2. Do either of the following:

   • Position the cursor within an existing note.
   • Click a blank spot on a page to create a new note.

3. Do either of the following:

   • On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Clipboard group, click the Paste arrow, and then click the icon representing the paste option you want to apply.
   • Right-click the paste destination and then, under Paste Options, click the icon representing the option you want to apply.