This content demonstrates how to transform OneNote from a static digital notebook into a dynamic, interactive "launchpad" by leveraging various linking capabilities to connect notes, sections, files, and external resources.
In this video, I'm going to show you how
to use links in One Note. But instead of
just showing you the basics, we're going
to actually build a launchpad like this
one together using links. By the end,
you'll have a page in One Note where
every element is clickable, whether
that's to a section of your notebook, a
specific note, a paragraph, a website,
or even a file on your computer. One of
the biggest advantages of using a
digital notebook like OneNote is that
your notes don't have to stay static.
they can become dynamic and interactive.
If you've got related notes, references
or context, you can connect them with
links and that way instead of digging
through sections or flipping through
pages, you jump straight to what you
need with a single click. So in Oneote,
you can create links to sources that are
either inside of the application and
also to external to the application as
well. So starting with within OneNote,
you can link to different paragraphs.
So, for example, if I were to click on
this link, it takes me directly to the
closing process group paragraph. I'm
going to go back. You can link to a
different note page. So, if I click onto
this link, it takes me to the lead
allocation note page. I will go back. It
can link to different sections. So, if I
want to link to a people section, click
on that. It takes me to that section.
Different section group. So when you
have clusters of sections grouped
together. So if I were to click on the projects
projects
section group and if I were to expand it
you can see that it landed in the
project section group. Go back and then
of course it can link to a specific
notebook. So I have two notebooks here.
One for home uh with the par structure
and one for work. So if I were to click
on this link it takes me to the home
notebook. So you have lots of
flexibility in terms of linking to
different areas within the notebook. Uh
you can of course also link to different
files within your computer. So I have a
link that I've created to a specific
file. If I were to click on it, just hit
and it opens the PDF document that I've
linked to. Going to close this. I can
also link to a specific cloud storage.
So I have a link to Google Drive here.
If I were to drag this in, you can see
that it opens a file just fine. And then
you can of course also link to a
specific URL, a web page. So just as an example,
this is to the weather page. So you can see
see
that we have lots of options, lots of
linking options. Of course, I'll show
you how to create these links as we
build this launchpad together. Now, my
notebook is organized using the Perah
framework. PAR stands for projects,
areas, resources, and archive. It's a
model created by Thiago Forte. I've been
using it for several years, and it's
been really effective for structuring my
notes. You don't need to organize your
notes this way, but if you are
interested in learning more, I have a
whole video about it here. So, I'm going
to be creating a launchpad based on my
home parah setup. So, if you look at the
navigation pane, you'll see that I have
four section groups created. So, one for
projects, areas, resources, and
archives. So, I'm going to bring in some
thumbnail images to represent each of
these section groups. So, if you can see
on this page, again, this is a finished
product. This is what we're going to be
creating together. These thumbnail
images will serve as the backbone of our
parah launchpad. And all I did was
search for these images on Google
images. And the text I just added on
using uh Google's AI image generation
tool called Nano Banana. You don't need
to get to this extent. I just wanted to
share with you what I did here. I just
found an image on Google images and used
Nano Banana to insert these text to the
image. Okay. So, let's actually build
this together. And I'm going to do it
right below this page so that we have a
reference. So, I saved
all the thumbnail images
into this folder. I'm going to just
select them all. Ctrl C.
And I'm going to bring them into this
page. Yeah, they're large. So, I'm going
to resize them all.
The one thing that's sort of unfortunate
for One Note is that there is no easy
way to
resize the image
to a specific size
like we can do in PowerPoint. and then
also to neatly align them together,
right? So, we can kind of eyeball it and
see if we can kind of get them um
aligned together, but it's not very easy
to do. So, what I like to do is actually
create a table as a container. That way,
everything looks neat and organized. So,
what I'll do here is insert table and
I'll just do four columns
and two rows to start with. Okay. And it
just I happen to have it clicked where
the project thumbnail image was. Um, so
it actually inserted the project image
into this first cell which we got lucky
on. But let's say it didn't do that. All
we have to do is just Ctrl X to cut and
then Ctrl +V to paste. And we're going
to do the same with the other images here.
here.
And I'm doing it in order because we
want to maintain the order of projects,
areas, resources, and archive. And now
they're kind of neat in one row, but
they're all different sizes. So, I'm
going to just click onto the thumbnail
and I'm going to eyeball it a little
bit. Again, I wish we can put in the
exact dimension of the image, but this
is close enough. And then I'm going to
select the whole thing.
And I'm going to
align the image to center. Okay. And I
can see that this is larger than the
other one. So, I'm going to just bring
that back a little bit.
Okay. And if we look to the top, you see
that I on the second row, we have these
little emojis. And what those are is if
I were to expand the each of the section
group, you can see that I have sections
within the section group. So, within
projects, I have car purchase, YouTube,
vacations. These are all the projects
that I'm managing, actively managing
now. So, I want to represent them. And
in this time, I'm not using large
thumbnail images. I'm just using emojis
because they're lightweight and they're
easy to insert. I don't want to go
spending 10 minutes searching for the
appropriate images. You can if you want
to, but I just chose the emoji um uh
route. Okay. So, again, if I were to go
to the area section group, I have all
these different sections within the area
section group. So, I have home, health,
car, uh car maintenance, home
maintenance, health, kids, finance,
shopping. Again, if you want to learn
more about the power method, uh you
should uh watch the video up here. But
for now, we are just creating a
launchpad together, right? So, I'm going
to go down to the second row and same
thing. I don't want to just start
putting emojis and text because they're
not going to be perfectly aligned. So
what I'll do again is go to table or
sorry go to insert table and in this
case I just have three emojis. So I'm
just going to create a single row with
three columns.
In the second section I want to insert
six sections. So in this case I'm going
three columns and two rows.
And then for the third section, I'm
going to do 2 by 2. So insert 2 by two.
Okay. And so here for car purchase, I'll
just shorten it to say buy car. And I
want to insert an little emoji of a car.
So what I'll do is in Windows, you hit
Windows semicolon. That'll bring our
emoji window. And I'll type in car. You
can choose whatever you like.
I'll do card here. Close. You can see
that it's very small, but don't worry
about it. I'm going to hit enter. And
then also just write the text by car to
make it a little more descriptive. Okay.
And for the second cell, it's YouTube.
Unfortunately, there is no image of
YouTube in the Windows emoji. So, I will
type video
and I'll choose this option.
close and then I'll just put the
description YouTube and for the third
I just chose this cruise ship
make sure you're clicked into the right
cell. It's the last column. So when you
hit enter, it's going to think that you
want to create a new row within the
table. So the way to get around that is
you do shift enter
and then put vacation.
Now I want to make the emojis a little
bit larger. So I will highlight and
essentially these are fonts, right? So
if you go to home and then for the font
size, let's make it like 28.
Okay? And we can do the the rest 28.
You can also use the paint tool if you
like, but this is easy enough for me.
And then I will select everything and do
center alignment. So that looks pretty
neat. These borders around the tables
make it a little bit too busy and
crowded for me. So I'm going to select
all three, hit table, hide border.
And to indicate that this is all part of
the one section group which is all
nested under the project section group,
I'll highlight both cells and we can
give it a color so that we know that
they belong together. Right? So we've
now finished the project section group.
We'll do the same with the areas,
resources, and archives section group.
It's the same process. So, I'm just
going to finish this on my own and then
show you what it looks like. Okay. So, I
finished adding in all of the different
emojis and the text description below.
When you're done, you might have to play
around with the container size and the
table column size a little bit to make
sure that everything is fitting in
place. So, uh, for example, this one
looks a little bit larger than the other
thumbnails. So, we could resize,
especially with the borders around it.
Now, it becomes clear um the sizing of
the thumbnails, right? So, I'm going to
give it a little bit of breathing space
in between the different section groups.
And again, it doesn't have to be
perfect. I depending on how anote you
are with this uh but this looks good
enough uh for me. So now we are done
with creating this launchpad. Now we
want to activate these thumbnails to
actually link to the different sections
within the notebook and that's what
we're going to focus on next. Now
OneNote provides two methods for
creating links. The first method is to
simply right mouse click on an element
whether it's an image or text and then
choose link. You can also use the
control K as the shortcut and it takes
us to this window. Then you just have to
navigate through the tree structure to
choose the place that you want to link
to. So let's say in this case we want to
link to the project section group. So I
will highlight projects and hit okay.
And for areas, right mouse click, then choose
choose areas.
areas.
And for resources, in this case, I'm
going to choose the keyboard shortcuttrl
K. And then choose resources. And for
archive, Ctrl K, and choose archive.
Now, if I were to click on let's say areas,
areas,
nothing happens. It just selects that
thumbnail image. The reason for that is
for images only, you have to hold on to
the control key while you click. If it's
a text link, for example, if I were to
hover over these text link, you can see
the cursor changed to a little hand
pointer, right? And I can just click on
it. But for images, because it allows
you to select and modify the image
first, and that's the primary function,
you do have to hold on to the control
key to make the link active. So, I'm
going to click into this projects
thumbnail, and it takes us to this note
page. Now, you'll notice that it is
within the project section group. But
why did it choose the car purchase
section? Why did it choose the this
specific note page? The reason for that
is when it comes to section groups and
sections, they are just containers. They
don't have notepage assigned to them
directly, right? Okay, so they might
have no pages within the sections and
section groups, but they are just
containers. So what it does is when you
create a link to section groups or
sections, it's going to point you to the
last page that you edited. Okay? So it
can feel sometimes a little random. It's
like why why am I on this page? Why not
on this YouTube uh section group and
this page? Why is it taking me to this
page instead? again because that's the
last page that you edited within this
section group and section. So if you do
want to make it specific, you might want
to drill down to a specific page even
though you want to navigate to that
section group. I hope that makes sense.
If not, please leave a note in the
comments below. So I'm going to go back
a few steps so that we are back to this launchpad.
