How to Share Notebooks in Microsoft OneNote 2013

How to Share Notebooks in Microsoft OneNote 2013: Video

This video shows you how to share notebooks in Microsoft OneNote 2013.

Creating a Shared Notebook in OneNote 2013: Overview

One of the great features of OneNote is the ability to share content with other users. Many people can be accessing the same notebook, updating information and adding content – with everything saved automatically. Sharing a notebook involves saving the notebook to a location that others can access.

To create a new notebook to share, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon to enter Backstage View. Click “New” on the menu at the left. In the “New Notebook” section, you can click “SkyDrive” (“Web” in 2010) to save the notebook to the SkyDrive of your Windows Live account (if you have one). If you don’t have a Windows Live account, you can click the link to sign up for one. If you save the notebook to your SkyDrive, you can then access it from any computer with an internet connection, just like all your other SkyDrive documents.

Instead of saving the notebook to the web, you could elect to save it to a network location by clicking “Computer” in the “New Notebook” section and then clicking the “Create in a different folder” link at the bottom of the area to the right. Navigate to the location and enter a name in the “Name” textbox. When you are ready, click “Create.” OneNote then displays a message stating that it created the shared notebook and it is accessible to anyone who can access that network location. The dialog box will also ask if you wish to email a notification of the creation of the notebook. If you select “Email a Link,” your default email client will launch to send an email with a link to the notebook. If you don’t wish to send the email, click “No, Thanks” instead.

Once the shared notebook is created, it will appear in the Notebook drop-down, with a small icon to next to its name, indicating that the notebook is shared and will be synchronized. Now, as users access the notebook, changes they make will automatically be saved.

You can also share an existing notebook. With the notebook open, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon to enter Backstage View and then click “Share” in the menu at the left. You can click the link to “Email Others About the Notebook,” which will launch your email client where you can send an email with the notebook details for sharing. You can click the “Share with an Online Meeting” if you subscribe to any online meetings that support OneNote sharing. Finally, you can also elect to share the notebook with others by copying it to a SkyDrive account or to Microsoft SharePoint (if you use that software) by clicking the “Copy this notebook to SkyDrive or SharePoint” link. That will open a webpage from Microsoft with instructions on how to copy the notebook to either of those two locations.