OneNote 2013

In our special on Office 2013 we could not miss OneNote, another of the applications of the office suite that receives a good face change . Once again, this is a design that meets that transition towards the 'Modern UI' style, with cleaner lines and less visual overload. In this post we will review the main features that accompany the new version of Microsoft's note-taking and information gathering software.

The workspace

The first thing we see as soon as we open OneNote 2013 is our notepad user, with the sticky notes section open by default .No setup screens or other hassles. We can start taking notes instantly just by clicking on the note space and writing what we want. In the upper left corner of our workspace we can display the list of notebooks that we have synchronized with OneNote, being able to switch between them or open new ones.

If we choose to create a new notebook we will access the File tab In the left column are the typical Office options: New, Open, Print, etc.; in many of which we find interesting new features such as synchronization with SkyDrive. The accent on sharing is noticeable from the moment we create a new notebook and the application asks us if we want to share it with other people or not.

Going back to the workspace, in the top bar we can add sections to our notepad, leaving the right side to add all the pages that we want.Both can be completely hidden using the button in the upper right corner that turns OneNote into a true blank slate where nothing bothers us while we take our notes.

Ribbon and its options in OneNote 2013

The ribbon maintains a good part of its tabs. Starting with the classic Start of Office where we can give formats and styles to our notes. In the case of OneNote, we can also add elements such as pending tasks, important notes or other labels that will help us better identify the content of our notes.

The tab Insert allows you to add all kinds of information to your notes: tables, spreadsheets, images, links, audio, video , etc. We also have the option of selecting page templates from among those offered by the office suite or those available on the Office website for free.Of great help is the equation editor, which incorporates a handwriting recognition that is very welcome on touch devices. The Draw tab allows you to make freehand strokes on the notes and include lines and basic shapes easily from the options bar itself.

With the possibility of working collaboratively on the notes, the History tab is much appreciated, which allows you to review and recover the editions recent notes. In addition to being able to see and search the content added by the different authors who are collaborating. Finally, the Revisar tab allows us to review the spelling of our documents or consult references and synonyms, also being able to access the translation and language options. If we wish, we can set a password to our created notes and create links between them.A last tab of View contains all the typical options for us to configure the workspace to our liking.

Tools to increase productivity

Among the useful tools that OneNote includes is the snipping tool, which we can pin to our taskbar or call with the Windows+N keys. This small utility offers us three immediate options that include obtaining a screen clipping, sending the web or document that we have open to a note or creating a new sticky note from a separate window without having to open OneNote first.

Another interesting option is to dock OneNote to the side of the desktop so that we can work with two open windows the way we Microsoft has been proposing in Windows 8.From the fourth button in the upper left corner of OneNote, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D, we can immediately pin the note we are writing on to the right side and leave the rest of the space for the other application with which we are working.

Sync & Collaboration

Microsoft has bet heavily on synchronization with Office 2013 and OneNote was not going to be less. The program is from the beginning synchronized with our account in SkyDrive so that all the notes are always available from any place or device. In addition, OneNote has applications for all kinds of platforms, not just Windows 8 or Windows Phone, but also iOS, Android or Symbian, so we wouldn't have any problems accessing our work no matter what computer we use.

Along with this cloud synchronization, Microsoft has significantly improved collaboration between users, so multiple authors can be working at the same time. the same time on the same notes. Each of them is identified, allowing you to know at all times who has carried out the modifications that are added to the shared notepad. If what we want is simply to share our own notes, we can do it in multiple ways, including email or through our Facebook or Twitter accounts, which we can also synchronize with the office suite.

OneNote 2013 is possibly the application of all those present in Office that brings the most potential to the new ways of working offered by Windows 8. The tactile possibilities of the note-editing program and the synchronization between different applications , including the 'Modern UI' application available in the Windows Store, make OneNote the most integrated Office tool in the new Microsoft ecosystem