OneNote Is Getting Support for Custom Tags

Microsoft OneNote is getting a much-requested feature soon: custom tags. The service will soon allow users on Windows 10 and Mac to create custom tags that sync across all their devices and allow them to better organize their notes.

The new feature will be available through the tags button on the ribbon, where you can create a new tag. You can use a custom icon for your tag, and give it whatever name you like. Once that’s done, you can use the tag to better organize your notes on your OneNote notebooks much like the default tags.

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Custom tags are supported by the search feature too, so you will be able to search for notes using your custom tag as well. The custom tags sync across all your devices, so you don’t have to manually create them on different devices.

The feature will be available to OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote for Mac users in January 2019, and it will likely make to other platforms, including mobile and the web, later on.

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Conversation 13 comments

  • george_perry

    18 December, 2018 - 11:25 am

    <p>Nice!</p>

  • thatdwayne

    18 December, 2018 - 12:36 pm

    <p>Now, I wish they would add a feature that would let me "Sync which notebooks are open across all devices"!</p>

  • sbsbsb

    18 December, 2018 - 1:11 pm

    <p>You should mention that OneNote 2016 already has this feature.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      18 December, 2018 - 4:08 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#383975">In reply to sbsbsb:</a></em></blockquote><p>you should mention that onenote win32 started to be developed many years ago, while onenote uwp 3 years ago… also you should mention that onenote uwp has features that onenote win32 doesn't</p>

      • dontbe evil

        19 December, 2018 - 7:43 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#384054">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>Instead of downvote people could argument … oh wait they can't because I wrote the truth</p>

        • Philip Worthington

          12 June, 2019 - 6:08 am

          <blockquote><a href="#384213"><em>In reply to dontbe_evil:</em></a><em> Oh, ok, I'll reply. Tags in UWP OneNote aren't as easy to use, or as fully-featured as the ones in OneNote 2016 – even if they do sync fully. So, no you did not write the truth.</em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><em>UWP is fine as a concept, but the apps that I have used are always underpowered compared to their Win32 counterparts. Few people care if something is UWP or not, but people DO care about features.</em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><em>Of course, if YOU personally don't use the missing features you might assume that no-one else needs those features either. That would be arrogance, but as your name is 'don't be evil' I'll assume you're not an arrogant little troll, you are simply mistaken.</em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • dontbe evil

    18 December, 2018 - 4:07 pm

    <p>but but uwp sucks /s</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    18 December, 2018 - 5:06 pm

    <p>Not full win32 onenote? (I still prefer it and this sounds like a nice feature) </p>

  • George Coll

    Premium Member
    18 December, 2018 - 9:28 pm

    <p>Finally! </p>

  • jeffq

    Premium Member
    19 December, 2018 - 12:32 am

    <p>As a gtd person this has been the only thing that has prevented me from using the app versus the win32 version</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    19 December, 2018 - 2:31 am

    <p>It just needs the ability to open OneNote documents…</p><p>Due to company policy, all OneNote documents have to be stored within the company's firewall, so they are all on a share on the fileserver, which means that the Windows 10 OneNote can't access them.</p>

  • sbsbsb

    19 December, 2018 - 10:16 am

    <p>One flaw of the custom tag system in <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">OneNote 2016 </span>is that, if you use more than one machine , you have to manually add/remove the custom tags on both. </p><p>To be clear: </p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">if you create a custom tag on computer 1, then sync your notebook files to computer 2</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the custom tags will appear in the notebook</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">but you won't be able to apply that custom tag to any new pages unless you manually create the custom tag on computer 2.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">i.e. tags are stored in the local install, and not part of the notebook.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So there is mental overhead in keeping a custom tagging system in sync.</span></p><p><br></p><p>So….</p><p><br></p><p>I wonder if custom tags in UWP will work differently, i.e. actually sync between computers or between desktop and browser instances.</p><p>That would be neat.</p><p><br></p><p>(But still won't make me switch.) 😉 </p>

    • dontbe evil

      20 December, 2018 - 4:26 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#384251">In reply to sbsbsb:</a></em></blockquote><p>we'll not miss you</p>

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