Microsoft OneNote and Section Groups - Changing the game
If you're a mobile user of OneNote, whether that's iOS or Android, you have been missing out on what I consider one of the most interesting features of the tool: section groups.
Now you're probably saying, "wait a second, section groups? What about handwriting, or embedded spreadsheets, or something like that?" Nope, section groups are where it's at IF you have access to OneNote Desktop on a PC and I'll explain why.
First you need to understand the underlying architecture of what a section group is. We're all familiar with sections in OneNote, the tab dividers that help us keep our information organized. You would be forgiven to think that section groups work the same inside a notebook: dividing information into logical groups for easier access. But what if I told you section groups are something significantly more powerful? Not to ruin the surprise but if we change the name to "sub-notebooks" it all becomes clearer.
Section groups are in actuality OneNote notebooks, created and connected to their parent notebook, but still carrying all the features of a separate notebook. Why is this important? Let's look at some reasons:
This prevents all the content for a large notebook from being stored in a single file while still being accessible as such.
It improves the performance of sync (this is an anecdotal observation…I'm working to see if it is quantifiable).
It reduces the number of separate notebooks you need to have open at any given time.
The "sub-notebooks" can be opened directly from OneDrive without having to open the parent notebook.
In theory, you should be able to share a section group with others without having to share the parent notebook. (Another thing I haven't tested yet but it stands to reason. If you give it a try, share your results in the comments.)
I have always been an advocate for having many smaller notebooks rather than one large one for data integrity, sync, and performance benefits. This approach of having sub-notebooks (Section Groups) brings the same feature set to bear.
Let me be clear though. This isn't a perfect solution to the problem. Section groups are not well represented on other devices such as mobile and the web, but they are accessible none the less. If you're looking to try a new approach to organizing your notebook contents and you're using OneNote Desktop, I recommend looking into section groups to open new opportunities for you.
Updates
Some interesting updates to this. First, this will only work if the OneNote notebook has NOT been created in the OneDrive OneNote notebook. Microsoft has made changes to how OneNote notebooks are displayed in OneDrive, leaving you unable to see the section group files. If you export the notebook and then open it on a local drive you will be able to see the multiple notebook files which confirms section groups are separate notebook files from their parent file.
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