What is Onetastic for OneNote and Why Should I Care?

What is Onetastic for OneNote?

Onetastic for OneNote is a multi-purpose add-in for Microsoft OneNote. It has been around for over five years (November 2011) and is extremely popular among Microsoft OneNote Power Users. It works with the OneNote desktop program (OneNote 2016, OneNote 2013, OneNote 2010). It does not work with the OneNote for Windows 10 App.

 

Onetastic was created by Omer Atay, a Microsoft Developer. Omer has been working for Microsoft for over a decade. 

I met him briefly in person when I was in Redmond attending a Microsoft MVP Summit, and I think I freaked him out a bit as I had a bit of a fan girl moment. (When you meet the creator of a tool that has changed the way you organize your life, you may start babbling like an idiot yourself). 

When it comes to recommendation add-ins, I’m pretty restrained in my suggestions. I feel comfortable recommending Onetastic because I use the tool every day.

Why Should I Care?

Onetastic gives you five free features:

1. Image Crop and Rotate
2. Select Text
3. Favourites
4. Pin to Desktop
5. Custom Styles

Onetastic also gives you access to OneCalendar – a standalone tool that provides a calendar view. (I’ll dive into how it works, the gotchas, and the use cases in another post). 

There is also a Pro Account that you can pay for. By upgrading to the Pro Account, you can install hundreds of macros (available in Macroland) that you can use to add functionality to your OneNote experience. Unlocking the ability to use Macros was worth it for me because  will save you so gosh darn much time you’ll straight up kick yourself when you realize how hard you were working before.

Here’s some of the Macros I installed and use every day:

But I Thought It was Free?

Yep. You probably heard Past Kelly at one of her past presentations say Onetastic was a free add-in. (Darn that Past Kelly, eh?) Well she wasn’t lying. It was free, back in ye old days of lore.

Onetastic is not 100% free anymore. There is now two tiers – a free tier and a paid Pro tier.

When I first found out, I went through a few of the stages of grief that sounded a bit like this: ‘”Nooo! WTF! Why?! Well, it’s not that expensive. Ok, I’m ready to pay. TAKE MY MONEY!'”

I tried to live without Onetastic for a while, after a reinstall of my software. It was several long months of cursing several times a day when I’d be reaching for a Onetastic button that I no longer had access to. Honestly, if the office had installed a Swear Jar, I’d have saved the money in a couple weeks to go buy the Paid Pro account.

In my world, OneNote is not just for personal use. OneNote is an essential business tool that I need in my business tool kit. The ROI is significant. In future posts, I’ll explain some of my Use Cases and the productivity benefits I’ve gained from using Macros with OneNote.

The Pro version of Onetastic (which you need to install macros) is now a one-time fee of $15. [Reminder to Canadian readers, we’re talking US$ so remember to factor in the current exchange rate.]

IMO it is a surprisingly cheap, one-time charge that unlocks so much functionality that he could totally charge a monthly SaaS subscription and people would pay… but he doesn’t. Which is very cool and for that I am thankful.

I recently acquired a website (http://onenote-tips.com/) from a very kind friend who is ready to pass on his legacy to someone else to manage and maintain the site. I am stoked for the opportunity, but now must acknowledge that I understand why people who provide a free service that gets popular and grows in scale would consider options to financially recover the annual cost of running the website (hosting, domain, storage, etc.)  You can’t be mad at that!

^^ The information stated in this blog post is my own personal opinion and not a professional recommendation or official statement made by itgroove.  Please ask your organizations’ IT Department or IT Consultant for permission before installing third party add-ins on your work machine or business device. If you attempt to hold me legally or morally responsible should your computer blows up or the internet breaks 0.01 seconds or 101 years after installing an add-in that I have discussed in my blog, I shall object to your claims and refer you back to this disclaimer.^^

 

Image Source:

Swear Jar – https://pando.com/2015/06/19/pandolands-digital-swear-jar-the-results-are-in/

Canadian Dollar Loonie US Dollar image – http://business.financialpost.com/investing/canadian-dollar-loonie-us-dollar

GIFs – sourced on GIPHY