If the only thing you put on your pages was plain text, the pages may look plain and unappealing.   For that reason, you can do such things as add lists, tables, and even insert pictures and clippings to dress it up, explain research, or any number of things.  

Let's learn methods you can use to add more information to your notes and dress up your pages at the same time.

To create a bulleted list, first click on the place in the page where you want to add a bulleted list.

Go to the Home tab. In the Basic Text group, click Bullets .   Click the downward arrow beside the bullets to choose what type of bullet you want to use. 

Now type the text that will appear by your first bullet. 

Hit enter to type in the next bullet, as shown below.

When you are finished, hit Enter twice to end the bulleted list.

To create a numbered list, begin like you did a bulleted list by clicking the place on the page where you want the numbered list to appear.

Next, click the Numbered List in the Basic Text group. () Again, you can click the downward arrow to select how you want the numbers to appear.

Type the text on your page for the first numbered item. Hit Enter to type in another numbered item.

Click the downward arrow.

You can simply move your mouse pointer across the boxes to specify what size table you want.   As you can see, right now we have a 4x4 table, which is 4 rows and 4 columns.

You can also click Insert table.

This dialogue box will appear:

Here you can specify the number of columns and rows.   Click OK when you are finished.

Whichever way you choose to create your table, when you are finished, the table will be inserted into your page, as shown below.

To move to the next column, click Tab on your keyboard.

Use the upward and downward arrows on your keyboard to go between rows.

To enter text, simply start typing in a cell. If you click in a cell, you will see the cursor appear.

Locate the picture on your computer, then click open.

The picture will then be inserted on your page.   If you look at the snapshot below, you will see the dotted line around our picture with circles and squares.   The circles and squares are drag handles. Drag out to enlarge the picture, or inward to reduce the size.   You will see a two way arrow appear when you move your cursor over the handles.  If you want to move the picture to a different location on the page, use the yellow button that appears on the side. Click on it, then drag and drop the picture.

To insert screen clippings in OneNote, click on the place in a page where you want to add a screen clipping. 

Next go to the Insert tab, then click Screen Clipping in the Images group.

Your screen will change to the open window directly beneath OneNote. It will look like there's a fog over this window. You will see a black plus sign.

Drag the black plus sign over the portion of the screen you want to clip.   The black plus sign creates a square or rectangle shape.

Let go of the mouse button when you are finished, and your clipping will be automatically inserted into your page.  

Go to the Review tab and click the Research button in the Spelling group. 

You will then see the Research Pane appear on the left side of your screen, as pictured below.

Type in what you want to research in the Search For box.

Below the Search For box, specify what you want to use to do your research by clicking the downward arrow.

We are choosing the search engine Bing.

Your results appear in the column:

Now, if you click on any one of these results, a browser window will open where you can see the information on your screen. 

If you click Research Options at the bottom of the Research Pane, you will see this window:

If you want to be able to use more reference books, you can put a checkmark by the books you want to use. 

If you click on the View tab, you will see the Page Setup Group, as shown below.

Here you can set page color, add ruler lines to your pages, hide the page title, and choose the paper size.

We're going to go over each of these things one by one and show you how to use each tool.

To add page color, click the Page Color button and move your mouse cursor to the color that you want.  It is then applied to your page.

To add rule lines, click the downward arrow beside the Rule Lines button and select the type of lines you want to add to your page.

Click the Hide Page Title button if you don't want page titles to appear on your pages.

Click Paper Size to select the size of the paper. The Paper Size Pane will open up on the right side of your window.

In this pane, you will specify everything that has to do with measurements of your page. This includes paper size and margins.  

To make it easy for you, you can click the downward arrow in the Size field and select one of the several standard paper sizes OneNote 2010 offers.    For example, you can select Letter as your paper size.

When you do that, as you can see in the snapshot above, all the information is inputted into the other fields for you.    However, that doesn't mean you can't enter the information for yourself.

You can specify portrait or landscape, and you can also enter the height and width of the paper yourself – without using the sizes OneNote lists in the dropdown menu.

Also, you can specify margins. 

After you enter all this information, you can also save the page with the new settings as a template if you want.   Just click Save Current Page As A Template.

Enter a name for your template and click Save.

Holding your left mouse button down, you can now drag it to its new location. 

Resizing an object as easy.   Look at the picture below. You will see the dotted line around our picture with circles and squares.   The circles and squares are drag handles. Drag out to enlarge the picture, or inward to reduce the size.   You will see a two way arrow appear when you move your cursor over the handles. 

Undo and Redo Undo and Redo are located in the Quick Access Toolbar.  This is Undo:  . This is Redo: . If you don't see Redo on the toolbar, click the downward arrow and put a checkmark by it so it appears.

Undo undoes your last action.   For example, if you change the color of your page and decide you don't like it, you can click Undo, and it will restore your page to the previous color.

Redo restore an action that you undo. 

When you click on it, the Spelling Pane will appear:

OneNote found a typo on our page.   If you look at the actual typo below, you will notice a red, squiggly line underneath it.   This is OneNote's way of letting us know we made an error – before we even do the Spell Check.

Now, let's go back to the Spelling Pane.

We have two choices with the word listed under Current Spelling.   

OneNote is telling us that it is spelled wrong.   We can ignore OneNote and keep it spelled the way that we have it. Click the Ignore button to do this. This will make the red squiggly line go away on our page too.   Or we can tell OneNote that the word is spelled correctly and add it to the dictionary. Click Add to Dictionary to do that.

Now, on the other hand, if we agree with OneNote that we've spelled it incorrectly, OneNote offers spelling suggestions.  We can pick one of those suggestions simply by clicking on it, then clicking on the Change button.

In the Dictionary Language field, we can also change the language of the dictionary that's used to OneNote doesn't mark words misspelled that aren't.   For example, the English (U.S.) dictionary would mark the word "recognise" as a spelling error, but the English (U.K.) dictionary wouldn't. 

If you click Spelling Options at the bottom of the pane, the OneNote options window will open. You can also reach this area by going to the Backstage View and clicking Options.

Here you can change how OneNote corrects your errors or if you want OneNote to ignore certain words when it performs Spell Check.

You can also use OneNote 2010 as a calculator.  Let's say you are typing notes onto a page about your finances.  You want to figure out what your monthly payment is going to be on a car.   Instead of pulling a calculator out of a drawer or opening the calculator on your computer, just type the equation into OneNote, as shown below:

Push Enter.

The answer appears.

Remember:

Use / for division

• Use * for multiplication
• Use + for addition
• Use – for subtraction

In OneNote 2010, there is a handwriting tool that lets you easily write the equations that you want to insert into a page.

To access this tool, go to Draw, then Ink to Math in the Convert Group.

You will then see the Insert Ink Equation dialogue box.

Write the equation using your mouse. Use the eraser and the Select and Correct to remove things that have been written incorrectly. It may take several tries until OneNote recognizes the correct number you are trying to write.

Click the Insert button to insert it onto your page.

This comes in handy when you want to write an equation with a lot of symbols that you may not see on your keyboard.   It can be quicker to use this tool than to search for them in Character Map (on your computer).   

Go to the Insert tab and click Equation in the Symbols group. 

You can choose an equation from the dropdown menu or choose Insert New Equation.   When you select Insert New Equation, this will appear on your page:

Once you select an equation or tell OneNote that you want to insert a new one, you'll see the Equation Tools ribbon appear, as shown below.  As you can see, you can also ink and equation (like we did in the last section) from this ribbon.

If you're inserting your own equation, OneNote provides symbols, fractions, and everything you'll need to structure and write your equation.

Take some time to play with building and writing equations. It can be fun to do and helpful to be familiar with when you start creating notebooks.  Click in the equation on the page to replace letters with numbers and create an actual equation that can be solved. 

By adding numbers, we changed this:

Into this:

However, it should be noted that all OneNote 2010 does is write equations for you. It does not solve them.

If you want OneNote to also solve your equations, you can download a Mathematics Add-In for OneNote 2010 for free by going to:http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17786.

Follow the instructions.

We highly recommend it if you need to solve equations as well as write them.

When you install the add-in, a new tab will appear called Mathematics.   The ribbon is pictured below. You'll then be able to click the Compute button to solve equations or Graph to graph the equation.

Since we've installed the add-in, let's show you how to solve equations for when you download it. Select the equation, then click Compute.

We're going to solve for C. 

OneNote 2010 then solves the equation for you:

Go to a page in your notebook and select the text that you want to convert to a task in Outlook 2010.

You can see that we've selected our text below.

Now go to the Home tab and click Outlook Tasks in the Outlook group.

Select the date for this task from the dropdown menu.   We're selecting tomorrow. 

Once you click the date, it is automatically added to your Outlook tasks and a flag appears beside the text in your notebook.

You can also send meeting details from Outlook 2010 to OneNote 2010.   Let's show you how to do it.

First, launch Outlook 2010 and click on Calendar from the sidebar.

Now, add an appointment or meeting to your calendar, then click Save & Close.

You can now close Outlook 2010.

Go back to OneNote and go to the page where you want to add meeting details. Click where you want the details to appear on the page.

Now go to the Home tab and click Meeting Details in the Outlook group. You will see a dropdown menu listing your meetings.

Select the meeting details that you want to include on your notebook page.

Those details now appear on your page, as shown below.

To insert audio, go to the Insert tab, then click Record Audio in the Recording Group.

Click anywhere on the page to start recording. 

A recording tab will appear so that you may pause or stop the audio. 

When you are done recording, you will see the Recording tab change to a Playback tab.

You will also see an icon on your page that represents the recording. OneNote also documents on the page when the audio was recorded. 

Now click on the place in your page where you want to add the video.

Follow the same steps that you used with audio.

If you need to adjust the settings for either audio or video, go to Audio & Video Settings in the Options group of the Recording tab. 

Select the file that you want to attach, then click Insert.

The file can now be seen on your page:

To open the file, double click on it.   The file will open just as it would if you opened it directly from its icon on your desktop or other location on your computer.