One of the tools in the MS Office suite we use at work that I find myself using more and more is OneNote. It is my “everything bucket.”

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s OneNote can not be easily targeted by the powerful automation affordances that Apple provides (Apple Script, Keyboard Maestro, iOS shortcuts). Meaning, while OneNote runs on my Mac, iPhone and iPad, adding notes requires opening the application, finding the note I want to edit and adding the relevant information.

That little bit of friction—switching contexts/application from whatever I’m currently doing so I can open OneNote, find the right pages, etc.—stinks. It means breaking my concentration. Losing my flow.

In Microsoft OneNote on your iPad or iPhone, tap More Notebooks at the bottom of your notebooks list. Tap any additional notebook (s) that you want to open, and then navigate to its sections or pages. Note: You can use the preceding step to open any notebooks on your iPad or iPhone that were created with OneNote for Windows.

A typical use case for me is that I’ll be working on a project and realize that I want to bring something up at my next developers meeting with my team or raise an issue during my manager meeting. I have different notebook sections for each of my recurring meetings as well as a “To Discuss” page in each one of those notebook sections. Being able to just quickly send these ideas/notes into the relevant page would be great.

Meaning, while OneNote runs on my Mac, iPhone and iPad, adding notes requires opening the application, finding the note I want to edit and adding the relevant information. That little bit of friction—switching contexts/application from whatever I’m currently doing so I can open OneNote, find the right pages, etc.—stinks. Keyboard Shortcuts. Let’s begin the guide with some handy, time-saving keyboard shortcuts. Capture your thoughts, discoveries, and ideas and simplify overwhelming planning moments in your life with your very own digital notepad. With OneNote, you can plan that big event, seize that moment of inspiration to create something new, and track that list of errands that are too important to forget.

To its credit, OneNote does support emailing content into the application which is marginally useful but you have zero control over where that content goes within your OneNote notebook. So that’s not super helpful here.

Enter Microsoft’s Power Automate. Using Power Automate you can append/prepend content to a given page within Microsoft OneNote via email using a subject line filter:

Power Automate seems very janky. It is a 1.0 release but it seems more beta. That said, this Flow —as it’s referred to in the Power Automate jargon —gets the job done. It can sometimes take a few minutes for the contents of the email to appear on the page. Note, also, that this only seems to work when using OneNote for business. Apparently there is also a non-business version. Leave it to Microsoft to create silly distinctions like that in their product line.

So but anyway, being able to email agenda topics to my relevant pages is very helpful. Still, it feels very un-Apple like. Enter iOS shortcuts and Siri.

With this handy little shortcut on my iPhone, watch and iPad and I can just say “hey Siri, discuss with devs” and she’ll ask me what I want to discuss and then sh will send that text via email to the right OneNote page.

I’ve got a few of these different Flows setup. “Discuss with devs” and a few “Discuss with” so and so’s where so and so is one of a handful of names of people with whom I meet regularly.

I’ve been using these for about a week now (since upgrading to iOS 14 on my iPhone) and it’s been amazingly reliable.

Sticky Notes has been a part of the Windows operating system for years. It’s a useful utility, lets you pin quick thoughts and notes on the desktop. In 2018, Microsoft delivered the much-needed makeover to Sticky Notes with sync capabilities, file attachment, and a complete redesign. At the same time, the company made sure the users get to access Sticky Notes on rival OS, including Android, iOS, and Mac.

The added syncing function is useless if you can’t access or create Sticky Notes on Android, iOS, or web. To counter the problem, Microsoft has making Sticky Notes available on iOS and Android via other apps and on Mac using the Outlook platform. The company is also leveraging the Microsoft Launcher app on Android for deep integration of Stick Notes.

In this post, we are going to talk about how to access Sticky Notes on Mac, iOS, and Android. It’s not as straight forward as downloading the app from the App Store or the Play Store. Let’s get started.

Use Sticky Notes on Mac

From Outlook App

Apple does provide a capable alternative called Stickies on the macOS. But it’s basic, doesn’t have syncing and it’s only available on the Mac. There is no way to access them on other platforms. Enter Sticky Notes.

There are two ways to use Sticky Notes on the Mac. Microsoft is using the Outlook app for Sticky Notes integration. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open the Mac App Store and download the Outlook Email app.

Step 2: Open Outlook Mail and sign in using the Microsoft account credentials.

Step 3: After the successful login, move to the bottom menu bar.

Step 4: Here, you will see the mail, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes.

Step 5: Tap on the notes icon and it will open the sticky notes menu in the app.

Click on the notes to view or edit them. To create a new note, go to File > New Note or use the ‘Command + N’ keyboard shortcut to compose a note. Add a title and content to it and hit Command + S shortcut to save the note. You can view and arrange the notes via dates.

Download Outlook for Mac

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9 Best Sticky Notes Productivity Tips for Windows 10 Users

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Use Outlook Web

In recent years, Microsoft has radically improved the Outlook web functionalities. From a single place, you can access the major Microsoft services such as Mail, Calendar, To-Do, Contacts, Skype, and more.

As it’s dependable on the web, the trick lets you access Sticky Notes on Chrome OS and Linux too. Follow the steps below to access Sticky Notes on the Outlook web.

Step 1: Open any web browser and navigate to Outlook.com.

Step 2: Login using Microsoft account credentials and it will take you to the default mail page.

Step 3: From the Outlook Mail, go to Folders > Notes.

Step 4: Here, you will see the Sticky Notes list.

Step 5: Tap on the notes to add content, change color, or even delete it.

Step 6: To create a new note, navigate to the upper left corner and select ‘New Note’ option.

Using Sticky Notes from the Outlook web is a much better experience than the standard Outlook app from the Mac Store.

Use Sticky Notes on iPhone

Here is where it gets confusing. Unlike on desktop, you can’t access Sticky Notes from the Outlook app on the iPhone. Instead, the company has integrated Sticky Notes with the OneNote app for the mobile.

Step 1: Download the OneNote app from the App Store.

Step 2: Sign in using Microsoft account and synchronize the notebooks.

Step 3: Here, you will see the separate Notes section at the bottom.

Step 4: Select it and here you will see all the Sticky Notes in it.

Users can create new notes, change color, format the notes using the default editing options, and more.

Download OneNote for iOS

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11 Best OneNote Tips and Tricks for Power Users

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Get Sticky Notes on Android

There are two ways to use Sticky Notes on the Android operating system. You can either use the OneNote app or opt for the Microsoft Launcher to access Sticky Notes on Android. Speaking of Microsoft Launcher, follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open the Play Store and download the Microsoft Launcher app.

Step 2: Set the launcher as the default on Android from the device settings.

Step 3: Swipe left on the Microsoft Launcher and sign in using the Microsoft account credentials.

Step 4: Go to the Glance tab, and here you will see the Notes widget in the menu.

The notes widget will synchronize the notes from the Sticky Notes app. You can create and edit the existing notes from the same widget.

Alternatively, you can use the OneNote Android app to get Sticky Notes on the Android OS. The steps for it are identical to its iOS counterpart.

Download Microsoft Launcher for AndroidDownload OneNote for Android

Also on Guiding Tech

#sticky notes

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Use Sticky Notes Everywhere

As you can see from the steps above, a user can access Sticky Notes on all the platforms, including Mac, Android, iOS, and web. It’s useful for those living in a cross-platform ecosystem. I mostly use it to jot down quick thoughts on my iPhone and Windows laptop. What about you? Sound off in the comments section below.

Next up:Sticky Notes now working for you on Windows 10? Use the tricks below to fix the issue.

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