Microsoft has announced a refresh to the look and workflow features of Windows’ OneNote to create a more modern appearance and improve its note-taking experience.  

In August last year, Microsoft gave a preview of changes on OneNote, and it has now released a list of updates.  

According to Microsoft, the changes to OneNote’s functionality are specifically designed to focus content, record naturally with voice, camera, ink and AI, organise pages, and share notes.  

The purpose of Microsoft’s changes to the aesthetic of OneNote is to “help the app feel both familiar and modern”.  

Visual Updates  

Following the ribbon changes last year, the navigation panes and full-screen mode have been given a refresh. Section tabs, notebook dropdown and page list, have also been updated visually.  

The Mica effect displays the Windows 11 theme and desktop wallpaper in the app window, amongst other updates, to boost personalisation.  

Other visual touches include animation, rounding the page corners, and changing the look of unread pages to be the same as other Office applications.  

An optional simplified ribbon will enable users to create more screen space for their content while maintaining quick access to essential features. Microsoft believes this strikes a happy balance between hiding the ribbon and having the full ribbon on display.  

Functionality Updates  

The update under lock capability installs updates while the device is locked, which means users will be able to spend more time focusing on their work.  

The draw tab has been updated to include new writing and drawing tools which are also found in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Ink to shape converts drawings by hand into straight lines and precise shapes. There is also a ruler to draw straight lines at any angle, and ink to text converts handwriting into computer text in the corresponding font size.  

Writing or drawing into OneNote, called ‘digital inking’, can now feel like a pen on paper by using the Surface Slim Pen 2 on a Surface Laptop Studio or Surface Pro 8.  

Over the next few months, Microsoft will improve ink quality and release features such as pencil, ink replay, and pen focus view.  

Transcription and ink is another feature soon set for release, which plays back your notes, annotations and other writing in time with the recordings.  

AI-backed voice commands to add, edit, delete, format, and organise text, as well as pause dictation, are being added to OneNote’s dictation function. It will also have an auto-punctuate feature. This functionality is already being used on Word and Outlook.  

Text in pictures is now searchable, and photos can be more easily added to OneNote via the new ‘insert from camera’ option.  

Page sorting is also available. Pages can be sorted alphabetically and by date created or modified. OneNote still allows you to drag and drop pages manually, and the last manual sort order is remembered for each section.  

Sharing and collaborating on OneNote have been made easier. To collaborate on a notebook in real-time, users can select ‘Share Entire Notebook’ or ‘Copy Link to Notebook’. Alternatively, users can send a single page by choosing the ‘Email Copy of Page’ option.  

Feature Availability  

From May 2022, the following features have been rolled out for all audiences: ink to shape, ink to text with font size awareness, page sorting, and update under lock. The rest of the updates mentioned are coming soon.  

For Insiders, two features can be accessed earlier: insert picture from camera and updated shared experience.  

There are currently two versions of OneNote apps on Windows, the app installed with Office and OneNote for Windows 10. These apps are being merged into a single OneNote app for Windows.  

Microsoft will announce improvements to OneNote for macOS, iOS, Web, and Android separately. 



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