OneNote: Keep Notebooks Synchronized Across Multiple Devices

Addicted to Microsoft OneNote? I sure am. As someone who uses a number of different computers both at home, at work, and on the road, I rely quite heavily on my OneNote notebook to keep things organized.

From a student perspective, I have often found it frustrating in the past that I had to lug all of my notes around with me. Any electronic files needed to be saved to a memory stick or crudely e-mailed to myself in an attempt to ensure that I had access to them wherever I went. Thankfully, technology has reached a point where this is no longer an issue.

Say hello to Windows Live SkyDrive, your best friend when it comes to securely synchronizing your OneNote notebooks across a number of devices. With my current setup, and at no extra cost, I can access my notes from any computer that has Internet access. It doesn’t even have to have OneNote 2010 installed!

How did I do it? First, make sure you have a Windows Live ID. If you don’t have one, go to http://www.live.com and register for an account.

Next, open up your notebook in OneNote 2010. Click on the ‘File’ tab on the ribbon, and choose ‘Share’. Click on the notebook you want to save, and then click ‘Web’. Next, click ‘Sign In’ and enter your credentials to log into your Windows Live account. Select the folder in your SkyDrive to which you would like to save the notebook, then click ‘Share Notebook’.

Once everything has been uploaded, you’re free to access your notebook from other computers. Open a Web browser and go to http://www.skydrive.com. Once you’ve logged in to your account using your Windows Live ID, navigate to the folder in which you store the OneNote notebook.

Hover your mouse over the notebook in SkyDrive, and you will be presented with a few different options. Click on ‘Edit in browser’ to open up the notebook right in your Web browser. This will allow you to view and edit the notebook within the Web browser, even if the computer you’re on doesn’t have OneNote 2010 installed. Alternatively, you can click on ‘Open in OneNote’ to use the OneNote application on your computer to view it and to make changes.

I just love being able to do this. I can be on my netbook at the library making changes to my notes, and then easily open up the same notebook at a friend’s house who doesn’t even have OneNote 2010. It also gives me some peace of mind knowing that my files are backed up on the Web*. Give it a try today and see how neatly OneNote integrates with SkyDrive.

*I would like to point out that backing up your files is a very important thing to do! I back my files up online and I also have an external hard drive which automatically backs everything up from my computers. The effort that you put into protecting your data will be quite worth it should any mishaps occur. If you aren’t currently taking any measures to back up your data, I highly recommend that you put some thought into it.

1 comment:

  1. This is the "killer app" for Windows Phone. It is absolutely wonderful to be able to make notes and lists on my various computers and access them from my phone later.

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