OneNote Online is awesome and all, and perfectly functional for many of the tasks you or your students do in OneNote/Class Notebook.
However, having the full power of the desktop version of OneNote 2016* is also awesome.
Whether it’s the more skeuomorphic layout or the more powerful table options, the full application offers a different experience that many prefer.
Microsoft has made the process pretty easy, but not entirely obvious.
Read on to find out how to get a notebook (OneNote or Class Notebook) open in OneNote 2016 and have access to all its glorious features.
*There are two versions of the full-powered desktop OneNote. One is called OneNote for Windows 10 and the other is OneNote 2016. The directions below apply to OneNote 2016.
Step 1
Open the Class Notebook from the link or through Office 365 (by clicking on OneNote and then choosing the Class Notebook tab.)
Step 2
Once you have the notebook open online, look on the gray menu bar for the Open In OneNote button. Depending on the browser you are using, this may render in slightly different spots on the gray bar, and also sometimes displays as Edit In OneNote.
Step 3
A message will pop up prompting you to either confirm you want to open it in OneNote 2016, or asking you which version of OneNote to use (remember that asterisk above, that’s right, your computer might have two versions of OneNote. One displays simply as OneNote. Don’t choose that one. Choose the one that says OneNote 2016…trust us.)
So, in either case, choose OneNote 2016.
Step 4
Now, the download will begin, and you will be warned.
Warned that the location may be unsafe.
Yeah, it’s kind of weird, but Windows 10 wants to ensure you are not downloading something you didn’t mean to. So you are going to be prompted and asked to make sure you really want to do this.
You really want to do this, so go ahead and click yes.
It will be okay.
I promise.
Step 5
Almost there.
OneNote 2016 will now open and it may look like not a lot is happening for a minute or two. This is because the file is downloading and syncing.
This is a good time to grab a cup of coffee.
Depending on the size of the notebook, it might take anywhere from a minute to thirty minutes to finish downloading and syncing. This delay should be a one-time thing though, as the syncing going forward should be much smaller bits of data (see what I did there?)
