Outlining and Microsoft OneNote

Outlining is one of the original, and dare I say strongest, features of OneNote. While we think of the application as a digital notetaking tool, its ability to create outlines within a page exceeds the capability of many other tools on the market, including some designed primarily for outlining.

First, let’s being with the ease at which you can start an outline. Using keyboard standards that have developed over time, the Tab key takes you right into an outline structure as soon as you are ready. Bullets and numbering can be added on the fly (* or 1. accordingly) with formatting changes available from the Ribbon Bar

For example, numbering formats:

Or how about the Bullet Library:

Here’s a pro tip for outlining using numbers: if you're like me and can have lists that continue after being interrupted by a paragraph, say when outlining a series of steps, you can continue a numbered list by beginning your new line with the next number you want in the sequence. OneNote will pick up counting from there.

Outlining can be a drag

Now is when we get into the real power of outlining on OneNote. If you mouse over the left edge of a paragraph, you'll find a drag handle.

The drag handle can be used to move that paragraph, and all it's subitems, around on the page by clicking and dragging. It’s a simple but powerful process for organizing thoughts and reworking content without resorting to cut and paste.

If you have large sections of content, perhaps a topic header and several subtopics, using the drag handle on the topic header moves all the indented subtopics at the same time. If that is visually too busy for you, double click on the drag handle to collapse that topic down to just the topic header.

Using outlining for writing

Through the flexibility of the outline structures, the ease of reorganization, and the application of formatting through keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-Alt-1 applies the Header 1 style, Ctrl-Alt-2 applies the Header 2 style and so on), OneNote is an excellent tool for writers.

I use OneNote as the primary tool for writing drafts of my website articles for these very reasons. The ability to create an organized structure, rearrange ideas to improve flow, and adding styles and image placeholders for reference streamlines my entire process.

Some of the added benefits are the ease of working articles through a production process (something I'll explain in my next article) as well as making their content easily searchable and referenceable from anywhere.

Put OneNote outlining to use

If you're using OneNote and not at least exploring the options that outlining can provide for you, you're missing out on one of the most powerful aspects of the application.

Ready to put OneNote to use for you?

As always, if you're looking to put OneNote to use and would like help getting the most out of the tool, click the Get Started button up top to schedule a session to discuss your needs and lay out a plan for you to get the most out of OneNote.