Meeting preparation often goes beyond simply sending the invitation. One way to jump-start your prep work is to create a place for your meeting notes.
If you use Outlook to schedule your meetings, you can create a page in OneNote for your notes before the meeting starts. With just a couple of clicks, you can extract all the details of the event that you have set up in Outlook. This gives you a convenient place to jot down notes and action items during the meeting, as well as a quick and easy way to send follow-up emails to attendees after the meeting.
Meeting details in OneNote
The Meeting Details feature is available in OneNote for Windows 10, the desktop version on Windows and Mac, and OneNote for the web.
It works the same way in all versions except the desktop app in Windows. There you have a slightly different method of starting your meeting notes, so that’s where we’ll start.
Add meeting details in OneNote Desktop on Windows
Launch OneNote in Windows and select a notebook and page for your notes. Then follow these steps to add your meeting details.
- Go to the tab Beginning and click Meeting details.
- If you have a meeting for today, you can select it.
- To choose one on a different day, select Choose a meeting from another day. Then use the arrows or calendar to select the day, choose the meeting, and click Insert details.
You should then see all the meeting details on your OneNote page, including the date, time, message, and participants. We will go into detail about these items below.
Add meeting details in other versions of OneNote
In other versions of OneNote, you have a slightly different way of adding meeting notes. We’ll use OneNote on Mac as an example, but it works the same in OneNote for the web and Windows 10. So, launch OneNote and select a notebook and page for your notes.
- Go to the tab Insert and click Meeting details. You may be asked to sign in with a Microsoft, work, or school account. Follow the prompts to do so.
- By default, you’ll see today’s Meetings at the top. If you see the meeting you want, select it.
- To choose one on a different day, use the drop-down calendar from Today’s Meetings to select a different day. Then choose the meeting.
Like OneNote on Windows, you’ll see the meeting details appear with the date, time, invitation message, and participants.
OneNote Meeting Details features
Once you use one of the steps above to add your meeting details, you can expand the sections to see more.
Click on the link Expand or double click on the plus sign on the left to see all the details of the Invitation Message and the Participants. Reverse the action by clicking Contract or by double-clicking the notch next to the section.
Click inside the meeting details container and hover over the section Notes to capture your notes during the meeting.
After the meeting is over, you can easily share your meeting notes with your participants in every version of OneNote, except (currently) the desktop app in Windows.
Click on Email meeting notes and a compose window will open with the email addresses of all participants and a link to the meeting notes in the body of the email.
Prepare for your next meeting with OneNote
OneNote’s Meeting Details feature makes it easy to prepare your notes. Enter the date, time, message and participants for you, eliminating this manual work. So for your next meeting, check out this great OneNote / Outlook feature.
