Using OneNote for Different Note Taking Tasks

For a long time, I have been keeping notes on ideas for projects, work I have done, and other thoughts using Microsoft OneNote. It has so many things in different notebooks that I forget about them sometimes until I go back and want to add or use the ideas.

Take my news project. It was something I have wanted to build for a few years. But I just never got to it or was motivated to make it. But at some point, I made a notebook with a few notes about the idea, wrote out some of the database tables, and kind of got some things organized.

I have tried a few other notes apps and programs, but OneNote seems to work out for what I want. I do not even remember why I got into using it for things. It is also not like I am starting using it and took massive amounts of notes until many years have gone by. It may have been when I got a tablet with a stylus that I could write things down that I really gave it a try, but never used it all that much.

When I was in college, I took some notes in Google Docs for some Computer Science classes as I had my laptop out. In some math classes, I was able to use OneNote with a tablet and stylus as I needed to put math symbols down fast. Another class I used OneNote for was a science class, and I found it faster to type than to write. I could also add images of what the person was teaching easy enough to the notes.

For work, I used it to keep track of the different things I did on projects. I would usually embed a spreadsheet with computer hardware notes. I also added photos of the project along with other details. When I switched jobs to doing IT work, we used MACs for everything and an iPad. OneNote on an iPad is great. But I did not use it for work on the iPad.

Anyway, to kind of wrap things up, I have found OneNote to be a handy tool for notes and keeping track of information for me. There are other options out there like Evernote, Keep, Google Docs, or even just text files. But the ability to drop text any place I want on a page then write on it using a tablet, all synced over OneDrive. That is probably what makes me keep using it.

I hope this helps some people get an idea of what to use OneNote for. It could also just help you understand how notes on projects can come and help you out later when you are not expecting it. Let me know what you use in the comments.

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