Microsoft OneNote 4+

Having used earlier versions of OneNote and found them wanting, this new version really does impress! From both a personal and professional standpoint, it is a highly functional and utility-laden piece of software, which is rapidly overtaking such other services like Word or Pages as my go-to word processor. The ability to save and sync across a plethora of devices/platforms instantly, share with other software easily, and import a vast variety of data make OneNote the best Microsoft app by far!

Professionally, I use OneNote Class Notebooks with students and other educators, to replace traditional Word documents and class exercise books. Being able to access students’ work anywhere, collaborate with both staff and students, and store such a variety of media makes OneNote perfect for education. From the automatic date/time stamping of pages, to not having to worry about saving due to instant syncing with the cloud, OneNote really has changed the way we do things at work.

Personally, I use OneNote to keep track of home incident reports, plan trips and holidays with family and friends and QuickNotes for extended yet non-essential information. I love being able to transition between laptop, phone, tablet, and desktop whenever I want/need to and knowing that my data will be available in OneNote. Microsoft, you’ve done well here!

I can never go completely paperless, as I still like the sensation of writing with any one of my dozen Mitsubishi Uni-ball eye's from Japan, but this app has managed to become central in my office and teaching life. It just manages to do so many things simply and well. It feels like a brilliant audio, text and photo diary and the most reliable digital notebook I have ever used. Many of these things are more bother than they are worth and after a few weeks, or months if they are lucky, they fade away and eventiually get erased from your harddrive for taking up space. Microsoft OneNote has been used by me for about two years and thus far nothing has made me consider changing to an alternative. The fact that it is, remarkably, free is just amazing. I have bought the Microsoft Office Suite for my Mac anyway as I have grownup with the package since I first started using computers in work, but I would happily pay for using this great piece of software too.

As a student, I need to take notes. OneNote is a great platform for me to do this and I esepcailly like it on my iPad Pro with Apple Pencil as I can take hand written notes as well as easily annotate on images. With regard to images, importing images (and other file types in general) is really simple and OneNote does a great way of presenting it on the note page itself. One drawback with this application I have come across however is the difficulty in printing. Many of my teachers prefer to have notes typed and physical form (printed) so it can be presented in a folder. I have found that priniting is a significant challenge as it often prints many MANY pages that have notes that are have missing etc. It would be really useful if there was the option of fit in the notes/scale them so it would fit on a couple of pages without chopping off any notes. Or even if A4 page lines could be on the Notes page itself so when making notes, I keep within the A4 boundary. Despite difficulties with printing, I really like the application.