OneNote Side-by-Side

I got an email from a blog reader and I wanted to share my answer with everyone since I don’t think there were any blog post about this.  The question was this:

It would be really useful to be able to view two tabs (i.e., notebook sections) side by side on the screen. Sometimes one needs to compare two types of information and this would make it much easier and far more efficient.

I realized that I do this all of the time and I thought I would share my tip with you all, here is how I do it:

1. Open OneNote
2. Open another window of OneNote, most of you might not know this but you can open multiple OneNote windows, just hit Ctrl-M or look in the Window menu:
   
3. Navigate the two pages to the locations that you want.
4. Now that you have two OneNote windows open look on the Windows taskbar and look for the two OneNote windows.  While viewing on window of OneNote (in this case page 1) hot Control (CTRL) and right-click on the second OneNote window:
   
5. Choose “Show Windows Side By Side”
6. Now you are done!  For extra writing area hit F11 on each OneNote window to enter full page view and you will get something like this:
   
7. Just hit F11 to open the full UI again.

This works pretty well and I use this quite often when I am consolidating notes and information.  It is great when you have a widescreen monitor (which I am fortunate to have).

Try it out and let me know if you have any comments/suggestions/let me know if you use it often!

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 07, 2008
  I was looking for this solution only last week! I am trying this on OneNote 2007 and XP and I dont seem to be able to find the option.  Is this a Vista option? Thanks

• Anonymous
  April 07, 2008
  I use this all the time too. Under XP the option is Tile Vertically ( and not side-by-side) Ani

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  This only works if you do not group several windows for the same program into a single item on the taskbar, I think.

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2008
  There is an inking issue that I have noticed (I haven't tried this since installing the service pack).  When I have two instances of OneNote open that are on the same Notebook, section, AND page, my inking will be ruined if I ink anywhere in the middle of the page (in between inking).  This is my only problem with this solution.  I always used multiple instances when using OneNote, but I had to make certain that I wasn't editing the same page.

• Anonymous
  April 20, 2008
  If you right click on the task bar you get these same options. They will tile all windows you have open on the desktop. a little simpler.

• Anonymous
  April 24, 2008
  Wow! I had time and again cussed OneNote for not having a way to do this.  I kept trying to open new page.  DOH! Wish this tip was given higher visibility to new/ongoing users. Priceless!

• Anonymous
  May 27, 2008
  This works in XP too.  Just select the windows you want to tile or cascade while holding the ctrl key to select several windows, then right click to access the different tiling options.

• Anonymous
  August 20, 2008
  You are the MAN!  Thank you!!!

• Anonymous
  December 13, 2008
  just what i was looking for! thank you very much!

• Anonymous
  March 17, 2010
  Excellent!  This is simple, straightforward, and exactly what I was looking for.  I will be using the CTRL + Right Click all the time now, too. The screenshots are also super helpful.  Thanks!

• Anonymous
  September 14, 2011
  THANK YOU!! I was really curious about how to do this.

• Anonymous
  November 15, 2012
  Never realized this was here, thanks!

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2013
  didn't get it to work in win xp your images don't show up e.g. elhombre.members.winisp.net/.../clip_image0019.png

• Anonymous
  July 22, 2013
  Of Course! I don't know if you will still get this comment, but thank you for the obvious, but obviously not so obvious answer. If it was really that obvious, we all would have thought of it...Thank you!

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2013
  Thanks this really helped me.

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2014
  My opinion: suggested is not a solution. Two windows=too much hassle. Also need two and more notes side by side often and will not purchase onenote because it cannot do that (quickly) and cannot do some other things too.

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2015
  legen........ wait for it........dary!!!!