I’m not sure how something can get better than free, but a marketing genius at Microsoft has done it.
OneNote for Windows has been available free to all comers since 2014 but with some features blocked and only accessible in the paid versions.
Now more of the features have been made available. Previously these features were only available in the paid version.
- Password protected sections—Add a password to protect sensitive information.
- Page history—Easily see or go back to prior versions of a page.
- Audio and video recording—Take notes while recording, and easily jump to the relevant section later.
- Audio search—Search for a word in a voice or video recording.
- Embedded files—Insert Office documents or other files directly in your notebook.
This removes all free/paid limitations on OneNote.
Microsoft hasn’t said if this change requires a new download and install or existing free OneNote installs will release the new features after an automatic activation check back to Microsoft’s servers. We suggest you try OneNote and if the above features aren’t available, download a fresh version and reinstall.
OneNote 2013 stores its data in your OneDrive account. That’s limited to 15GB for unpaid accounts while Office 365 ‘subscribers’ get effectively unlimited online storage.
OneNote 2013 runs on Windows 7 & 8. It’s available for free from http://onenote.com/download
