Did you know: Instant Tables in OneNote

We have covered many useful things in OneNote.

But there is more. Here is a very nifty feature which is commonly missed.

Read on to find out …

Estimated Reading Time 4 min

The Need

OneNote is used for taking quick notes. You don’t have time to do elaborate formatting while taking notes.

Sometimes, while taking notes, you write something and then realize…

“Oh, this should actually have been a table!”

Now what do you do ?

Insert a table and copy paste whatever you have written in the first cell? OR
Try Convert text to table  (which, unfortunately, is not available in OneNote. Only in Word)

Fortunately, there is an elegant solution – available ONLY in OneNote.

The Solution – Press Tab

You have just typed something and want to create a table. No problem.

Just press TAB

Now whatever you wrote is added in the first column and a new column is inserted.

It need not be just one word. It could be many words as well. Whatever is there in that paragraph is put in the first cell of the new table.

Press more Tab buttons to create more columns…

When you think you have enough columns – press ONE MORE Tab. Why?
Because I have noticed that you always require more columns than you originally thought. It is easier to create extra tabs at this stage rather than later.

Now finalize the table

Press ENTER to finalize the table structure.

Now use Tab to navigate

Once the table is finalized, the same Tab key behaves differently.

Press Tab or Enter at the last row,  last column cell to add new row.

Shift Tab will help you navigate backwards.

Try this and share it with everyone.

What Next?

There is another unexpected but brilliant feature associated with OneNote tables. We will cover that in the next article.

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