Living with OneNote on a Chromebook

I spend most of my non-client working time on a Chromebook. It's turned out to be my go-to tool for creating content, managing information, and doing research. Since I also live out of OneNote, it's important to be able to work around some of the limitations of a Chromebook when using a tool that is focused on the Microsoft suite.

Working Offline

Chromebooks thrive with an internet connection. It makes sense since it's a browser based operating system. Unfortunately you don't always have a connection available, so what's there to do if you're offline but still need to take notes or look something up? This is where I put the Android version of OneNote to use.

By running the Android app on my Chromebook, I can keep a synchronized copy of my notebooks handy and accessible. It doesn't offer all the capabilities of the other versions, but when it comes to information access some is better than none.

The bonus of this arrangement is since I'm running on a Chromebook Pro, I can use the stylus to take handwritten notes and drawings to sync later on. It's a great combination without pushing too far into unnecessary functionality.

Working Online

Once I get back online I can use the OneNote Online version as well as the Android application. The combination gives me a great deal of flexibility while also offering speed and interactivity. The Android application will sync it's contents once the connection is established so any notes taken offline are safe and secure.

Once online I can also use the Chrome extensions Clip to OneNote and Send to OneNote to capture information to my notebooks for easy online, offline, and mobile access.

It's not perfect

This setup is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and could be duplicated by a number of other tools. For my purposes though this has turned into a productivity success for me that requires no effort to keep using day in and day out.