Tell Me You What to Do Field in OneNote Online

As I continue to explore versions of OneNote other than OneNote 2016 (2013), I’ve come across another feature that makes using the browser version of OneNote much easier to learn without considerable effort.

The “Tell Me You What to Do” field in OneNote Online allows the user to see a list of suggested functions to try. Typing the first letter of a function in the field filters the list of options down to the closest five options. What’s neat is clicking on the button in the dropdown menu applies the function so you don’t have to figure out what tab the function’s button lives on.

Since clicking the button applies the function, make sure you have your cursor inserted in the text or item you want to apply the action to!

One interesting thing I noticed is that the field’s appearance was strikingly different depending on if I was logged into my work’s paid Office 365 account versus my personal free Outlook.com account.

 

Outlook.com – The “Tell Me You What to Do” field:

See how the field is light gray and the light bulb is a dark gray outline located on the left of the field.

 

Outlook.com – The dropdown menu that appears after the user clicks their cursor into the field:

 

Outlook.com – The dropdown menu that appears after the user starts typing in the field:

 

Office 365 – The “Tell Me You What to Do” field:

See how the field is white and the light bulb is coloured yellow located on the right of the field.

 

Office 365 – The dropdown menu that appears after the user clicks their cursor into the field:

 

Office 365 – The dropdown menu that appears after the user starts typing in the field:

 

After clicking on the button (in either version) in the dropdown menu:

 

What I personally love is that I can identify if functionality that exists in OneNote 2016 (or 2013) or the OneNote App is in the OneNote Online version with one click and one keystroke.

Have fun asking OneNote to tell you what to do!