A refreshed layout

OneNote was refreshed recently so it feels more modern and familiar with the rest of the Office apps.

You can choose to display the notebook and section navigation pane whenever you need them, and then hide them again when you're done — leaving you to focus on your work, your thoughts, and your ideas.

Tip: We recommend that you use OneNote from Microsoft 365 on Windows because OneNote for Windows 10 reaches end-of-support in October 2025. When you're ready, you can change the defaults to point to OneNote instead of OneNote for Windows 10, so that shared notebooks will always open in your preferred version.Download

Navigation pane in OneNote on Windows

The Navigation button  toggles the navigation pane on or off. By clicking on the button, you can choose to show or hide the notebooks and sections.navigate onenote screenshot twenty.png

Get quick access to your notebooks, sections, and pages

To view the sections of your current notebook, select Navigation  near the upper left of the app window to open the navigation pane. By default, the page list is opened next to the navigation pane.navigate onenote screenshot twenty nine.png

You can also customize these panes by going to View > Tabs Layout > Horizontal Tabs to have the sections displayed as headers at the top of the page.

Once you switch to Horizontal Tabs, you can choose to pin the page list to the left or to the right of your screen by going to File > OneNote Options > Display and change the Move page list to the left option.

To view a different section, click the title in the navigation pane.navigate onenote screenshot twenty two.jpeg

To choose a different page, click the title in the page list.navigate onenote screenshot twenty four.jpeg

If you've previously used OneNote on your computer or device, it will open the last notebook and page that you last worked in.

Tip: You can right-click any page or section title and then choose from more options on the menu that appears.

To switch to a different notebook that you've previously opened, select the Navigation button to open the navigation pane. Then choose any notebook from the navigation pane. If the notebook is not in the list, select File > Open to open any additional notebooks.navigate onenote screenshot twenty one version two.jpg

Make navigation panes as wide or as narrow as you want

You can easily resize the navigation panes to make them wider or narrower. This is useful if your section and page titles frequently appear truncated, or if you want to maximize your note-taking space while the navigation pane is shown.navigate onenote screenshot twenty three.jpeg

  • Move the mouse pointer over the vertical edge to the right of the navigation pane that you want to resize.

  • When a double-headed arrow pointer appears, click and drag the edge of the pane to the left or right to make it as wide as you want, and then release the mouse button.

Find your notes instantly, no matter where you've put them

OneNote's best-kept secret is its ability to instantly search the entire contents of any notebook — or even all of your notebooks. Start by clicking into the search box near the right side of the screen and start typing.navigate onenote screenshot seventeen.png

  • In the search box, type a keyword or a phrase to search for.

Tips: 

  • You can use quotation marks around a phrase that you type into the search box. Doing so finds all occurrences of that exact phrase instead of the individual words.

  • By default, OneNote will search for the text you entered in All Notebooks that you currently have open. However, you can set the search scope to only search in This Section, This Section Group, This Notebook or Find on this Page. You can save the selection as the default search scope as well.navigate onenote screenshot ten.png

If your search text was found, it will appear in the search results list. Click any result that you want to view and OneNote will jump to that page. When you're finished reviewing search results, click the X to close the navigation and return to your current page or click on the page to close the search results.

Using multiple accounts

OneNote on Windows users can stay signed in with multiple personal, work, or school accounts and navigate between their notebooks with ease.

To view or change the accounts you use with OneNote on Windows, click on the account switcher at the top right corner of the app window. Verify that the account you want appears in the list of accounts that opens, or select Add an account if you want to add a new account.navigate onenote screenshot twelve.png

To remove an account that you no longer want to use with OneNote, click on the for that account in the list, and then select Sign Out. Note this doesn't automatically close the notebooks from that account. We recommend removing them from your Notebooks list. To do this, right-click the name of a notebook you want to close from the navigation pane, and then select Close Notebook.

Customize OneNote with your app preferences

You can easily customize your OneNote experience by choosing from the available setting options. Select File at the top left corner, then Options.navigate onenote screenshot twenty eight.png

Next steps

Create notes

Format notes

Insert images

Share your notebook​​​​​​​

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