In this article, we look at what OneNote is and what it can do, plus we look at some of the competing programs available.

OneNote

Microsoft’s OneNote is a cross-functional notebook app/note-taking program that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, along with programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. OneNote can be used for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. Users can create multiple ‘notebooks’ about different topics. The notebooks can be of any size with any number of sections and pages. Within each notebook users can gather together notes and mixed media such as drawings, screen clippings, audio commentaries/recorded audio notes, and embed Excel sheets. Users can also insert online videos, links, and add different types of files. The notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network.

Also, important notes can be highlighted with ‘To-Do’ tags, and the OneNote app allows users to annotate their notes, using a stylus or a finger.

Synced

Saving OneNote notebooks in the cloud (e.g., on Microsoft’s OneDrive), means that a user can open OneNote on any device connected to their Microsoft Office account and their notebooks will always be in synced across devices – phone, tablet, PC, or laptop.

What Can You Use OneNote For?

OneNote is great for collecting together research information, for note-taking, and information storage for personal or business use.

Benefits of OneNote

Just some of the key benefits of OneNote include:

– Flexibility and variety. Notebooks can be made to any size and multiple different types of media can included.

– Clarity. A better collection of information and files from multiple sources can give a clearer, more detailed holistic views of a topic which is also easier for others to understand.

– Better collaborative work. The ability to share Notepads can improve the quality of collaborative work.

– Cost efficient and familiar. Since OneNote is already part of the Microsoft Office/365 suite, there are no extra costs to using it, all team members already have the program and will be familiar with Microsoft programs, so no extra training costs.

Similar Programs/Competitors

Some more popular examples of the many similar, competing programs to OneNote include:

Evernote

The Evernote is a free app or browser extension and is OneNote’s main competitor. Like OneNote, Evernote allows users to create notes, and collect together all kinds of media (e.g., text, drawings, videos, scans, PDFs, documents photographs, and audio recordings). Evernote also allows users to create and assign tasks inside their notes with due dates, flags, and reminders.

One of its big advantages, apart from the fact that it is free, is that it offers the ability to save web content (web-clipping) i.e., web pages can be put into notebooks including text, screenshots, parts of articles and images (as thumbnails).

One possible drawback compared to OneNote is that Evernote limits free users to syncing across just two devices (across Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS).

Bear

Bear is a flexible notes app for Apple devices and the app extension allows users to Grab images, text, files, and clip web pages. Bear also supports sketching, drawing, and Apple Pencil (and other styli), allows users to create notes with Siri and iOS Shortcuts, and allows Apple Watch users to dictate and append to recent notes. The pro version gives the user access to attractive themes. Bear (Pro) also now allows users to encrypt individual notes and lock Bear with Face/Touch ID.

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a free, (ad-free) digital note-taking tool / note-taking app that works across devices and operating systems and offers an online suite of tools such as a word processor, an image and audio creator, and organiser. This app allows users to create, copy, move and share colourful ‘Note Cards’ and to organise ideas and information. Zoho Notebook also offers web-clipping so users can clip text, images, and entire articles from the web and save them to Notebook. This app also syncs to the cloud and across devices so it’s always backed-up and up to date.

Simplenote

Another popular, free digital note-taking app (and browser extension) is Simplenote for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux. Users can write, preview, and publish notes in Markdown format as well as, for example, sharing a to-do list, posting some instructions, or publishing their notes online. Notes are automatically backed up and synced in real time with each change, and users can add tags to find notes quickly with instant searching.

Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is a free online document workspace, where users can organise and display text, media, and files all in one place. Paper lets users collaborate with others and access their Paper docs from anywhere. The app includes task management tools that allow users to assign to-dos, add due dates and mention people from within the doc itself.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

In these days of remote and hybrid working, with much of the workforce now used to digital, online, cloud-based collaborative working, better digital note-taking apps such as OneNote have come into their own. The flexibility of OneNote and the fact that it’s already part of and compatible with the Microsoft suite of programs and tools is a big plus. Being able to create shareable Notebooks that contain a wide range of media enable business users to save time, create a more holistic and detailed picture of a topic that can lead to better quality work, and the organising tools e.g., To-Do Tags make it very practical. Having notes that can be backed-up in the cloud and synced across devices also adds value and fits in well with new working practices. There are, of course, many other note-taking apps that offer similar features and benefits, many of them free, and businesses can choose to use whichever best serves their needs. Microsoft’s OneNote, however, is one of the leading apps in terms of features and it may be the case that many businesses have not tried it or used it to its fullest extent yet.

In this tech insight, we look at what DuckDuckGo is, what features it offers, and why businesses may consider using it.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-centred search engine / privacy browsing app, which is available as a download for mobile devices and a Chrome extension. The company, founded in 2008, also plans to launch a desktop browser for macOS laptops and desktops soon.

Most Downloaded Browsing App On Android

In a recent blog post, DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, said of the search engine’s popularity, “We’re now the most downloaded browsing app on Android in our major markets (and #2 on iOS behind Chrome), we’re averaging more than 100 million searches a day, and our most recent survey showed 27 million Americans (9 per cent) use DuckDuckGo.”

Privacy

DuckDuckGo retains a user’s privacy by not saving the user’s browser history, forcing sites to use encrypted connections, blocking cookies and trackers (including ‘hidden trackers’ before they load), and by stopping a user’s searches being sold to third parties for profiling and advertising.

DuckDuckGo uses Smarter Encryption which utilises a list of millions of HTTPS-encrypted websites, which has been generated by continuous crawling the of the web instead of crowdsourcing, thereby keeping it current. Also, DuckDuckGo’s Smarter Encryption enables users to be extra-secure in their browsing by being able to detect unencrypted, non-secure HTTP connections to websites and then automatically upgrading them to encrypted connections.

Features

Some of the extra features recently announced by DuckDuckGo include:

– A beta release of Email Protection, a free email forwarding service that removes trackers in a user’s email and protects the privacy of a personal email address without asking the user to change email providers.

– A new App Tracking Protection (beta) feature in the Android app that blocks third-party trackers like Google and Facebook lurking in other apps.

– A revamped search results page.

– New animation options to the “Fire Button”, the button used to clear all tabs and browsing data with one tap.

– The addition of a “Fireproofing” prompt which gives users the choice to keep certain sites logged-in between Fire Button burns.

Partnership With EFF Helps HTTPS Everywhere Extension

Also, a recent partnership formed with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in April 2021 has lent DuckDuckGo’s Smarter Encryption rule sets to the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension, thereby giving it extra security. This extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera encrypts user communications with many major websites.

Other Private Browsers

Other private browsers and search engines include:

– Epic Privacy Browser.  This is a secure web browser that blocks ads, trackers, fingerprinting, crypto mining, ultrasound, signalling, and offers free VPN (servers in 8 countries).

– Tor.  This browser uses a distributed network (randomly selected nodes) to anonymise the user’s IP address. Tor also encrypts traffic.  This makes it incredibly difficult for a user’s web traffic to be traced and very difficult for users to be tracked unless they reveal their IP address by enabling some browser plugins, downloading torrents, or opening documents downloaded using Tor.

– Brave. This is a free, open-source web browser, based on Chromium that blocks ads and trackers and allows users to use a Tor in a tab to hide history, and mask location from the sites a user visits by routing a user’s browsing through several servers before it reaches its destination.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Not every user wants a high level of privacy for most daily use, but for business users, the security of knowing that you’re not being tracked and that there is a high level of privacy protection by default may be an attractive and useful part of company security measures. Also, using a trusted app/extension/desktop browser may be a highly convenient way to get greater peace of mind and ensure that all reasonable measures are being taken to cover the many angles of security and privacy.  For many businesses, it’s likely to be a case of a combination of privacy solutions, e.g., VPNs and secure browsers being used as and when required in a way that is compatible with daily working practices, authorised, approved, and recommended by the company and other relevant stakeholders.

If you’d like to run favourite but no longer compatible versions of older programs, apps, and games (legacy software) on Windows 10/11, try using ‘Compatibility Mode’.  Here’s how.

To enable legacy software that worked on old versions of Windows on your current Windows 10/11:

– In the search box on the taskbar, type the name of the program or app you want.

– Select and hold (or right-click) it, and then select ‘Open file location’.

– Select and hold (or right-click) the program file, select ‘Properties’, and then select the ‘Compatibility’ tab.

– Tick the box for “run this program in compatibility mode for” and select the old version of Windows from the dropdown list.  You can run the ‘Compatibility Troubleshooter’ first if you wish.

Cloudflare’s Radar, which monitors Web traffic, has revealed that TikTok has now overtaken Google to become the world’s most popular online destination.

TikTok

Cloudflare has reported that back in 2020, the google.com domain was the undefeated leader in its ranking and was top from September to December, whereas TikTok.com was only ranked #7 or #8. TikTok first grabbed the top spot as the no.1 global destination in February 2021 (for a day), by August was leading the rankings on most days, and then from October onwards. TikTok now has more than one billion active users.

Why?

Some tech commentators have noted that the most likely reason for social video platform TikTok’s huge surge in popularity, which saw it become the first non-Facebook mobile app to Reach 3 billion downloads globally by July, was the search for entertainment during the pandemic lockdowns (Sensor Tower figures).

TikTok hosts a variety of short videos, covering different genres (e.g. comedy, dance, politics, and food) and some of the attributes and factors that have helped it to become so popular include:

– It is convenient and many people say it’s easier to edit and upload content in TikTok than in other competitor apps/platforms e.g., Instagram or Snapchat.

– It’s a visible space with a familiar format of funny, positive video clips for Gen Z, who spend a lot of time on their phones. TikTok’s short clips appeal to the younger generation’s shorter attention spans.

– It gives ‘ordinary’ people the tools to creatively express themselves and take part in current discourse.

– It provides a place for brands to experiment with their messages in entertaining ways, and a way for TikTok itself to discover popular new ways to expand its brand even more (e.g. the popularity of food and recipe video clips), leading to the proposed launch of ‘TikTok Kitchen’ in March next year.

– It has a content-rewarding algorithm that’s helped to drive meme culture, and TikTok’s algorithms can learn user preferences and customise the video feeds to their users, thereby helping it to keep users interested and engaged.

– It makes good use of music, which is particularly appealing to young age groups, and enables TikTok videos to be shared on Instagram, thereby boosting usage/download rates.

Troubles

Although TikTok is riding high in the popularity ratings it has suffered setbacks and criticism along the way, including:

– A temporary ban in India.

– Worries about links to the Chinese state and allegations that it may have discriminatory content censorship standards that are decided by the Chinese government.

– A US counter-intelligence investigation and an investigation by (Israeli) Check Point over possible backdoors and security vulnerabilities that the platform may have.

– Worries from child advocacy groups that the app may pose a risk to children.

– Criticism from Reddit CEO/co-founder Steve Huffman that TikTok, once installed, is like a kind of ‘spyware’ that’s always listening.

– A £4.3m fine after Musical.ly was found to have knowingly hosted content published by under-age users.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

TikTok, the most popular app in the world, has clearly been boosted by the search for entertainment, comfort, and connection by a generation separated by the restrictions of the pandemic. It also, however, taps into (and appeals to) GenZ’s needs and gives them something that they value in terms of the ability to express themselves and have fun in a convenient way. For brands, it has provided insights, a testing ground, and a way to reach young audiences with news and creative message styles and for TikTok itself, while providing a great way to continuously learn about its audience to enable it to grow and stay appealing, as well as finding its own new opportunities. For TikTok’s competitors e.g., Snapchat, TikTok’s huge growth surge is proving to be a major threat.

Google has announced that users of its Google Voice service can now set custom rules for how incoming calls are handled.

What Is Google Voice?

The ‘Google Voice’ service allocates users a phone number for calls, texts, and voicemails. This number can be used for domestic and international calls from a web browser, or mobile device. Users in the US can choose their own number.

Advantages

Some of the main advantages of the service are that users aren’t tied to a physical device to make and receive phone calls, text messages (U.S. only), or access voicemail, so can place and receive calls from anywhere. Also, setting up and managing the service is relatively easy and users can, for example, forward calls to any device and have spam calls silently blocked.

Custom Rules

Google has announced that Google Voice users can now easily create rules for how their incoming calls through the service should be handled. The new options allow users to route incoming calls in ways that Google says would be most efficient to their business workflows and productivity, including granular settings for specific contacts.

The new custom rules mean that users can now:

– Forward calls from specific contacts to their linked phone numbers or directly to voicemail.

– Opt to screen calls from specific contacts.

– Set custom voicemail greetings for specific contacts.

– Apply rules for all a user’s contacts or specific groups within contacts.

How?

To create the custom rules, users can visit voice.google.com (browser-based site, not mobile app), click on “Settings” (the cog symbol, top-right), click on “Calls” and choose “Create a rule.” Here users can enter or search for the contact(s) they want to create a custom rule for.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Handling phone calls in the right way is vital to businesses in terms of saving time, improving efficiency, taking advantage of opportunities, and presenting the right image to customers. The ability to set custom rules for exactly how calls are handled (even down to specific contacts or groups of contacts) can really give businesses much more control, convenience, and can save time and hassle. The fact that rules can be added/changed quickly and easily via a browser offers businesses an easy way to be flexible and to respond quickly to changing situations regarding certain contacts, new marketing campaigns and more. The ability to set these new custom rules could be a real value-adding addition to the Google Voice service.

A knowledge of keyboard shortcuts in Windows can save time and help users to make the most of the many helpful features of their operating system. With this in mind, and with 2021 coming to a close, here are 21 helpful keyboard shortcuts to take into the coming year.

1. Use Win + V to copy multiple snippets to the clipboard and paste them as necessary. Firstly, set up clipboard history by hitting Win+ V and clicking ‘turn on,’ or go click the Start button, type ‘Clipboard,’ and click Clipboard settings. Once this is set up, when you need to copy some text, it will be saved in the clipboard so it’s just a case of hitting Win + V to bring up the list and then paste where needed.

2. Use Win + Ctrl + D to set up a virtual desktop. This creates a completely fresh desktop space for when you want to close down all those windows and switch to leisure mode. You can switch between the different virtual desktops using Win + Ctrl + Left/ Win + Ctrl + Right, and see thumbnails of each virtual desktop by using Win + Tab.

3. Hit Alt + Space to launch a shortcut menu for an active window from which you can re-open closed tabs, add open pages to favourites, and more.

4. Easily find your mouse cursor on the screen in Microsoft’s PowerToys for Windows by double-pressing Ctrl. This triggers the ‘Find My Mouse’ feature which dims the screen light to spotlight the cursor. PowerToys features are available in the 0.49 update from Microsoft’s PowerToys GitHub.

5. Use the Windows key + Period/(Full-Stop ‘.’) or semicolon (;) to open the emoji panel 

6. Use Windows key + PrtScn to take a full screenshot, or the Windows key + Shift + S to choose to select a section of the screen. This can be annotated and shared (see our tech tip) using ‘Snip & Sketch’.

7. Hit the Windows key + I key to save time in opening the Settings panel.

8. Using Alt + Tab and the tab or right, left, up and down arrows to provide a fast and easy way to see and switch between your open apps. Ctrl + Alt + Tab allows you to see all open apps.

9. Use the Windows key + Alt + R to manually start and stop recording your screen activity. You can also switch on the microphone to record comments.

10. Clicking on Windows key + T takes the focus to the foot of your screen and allows you to cycle through the apps displayed in the taskbar. Using the Windows key + (number) will open the apps in corresponding position in taskbar e.g., adding 1 will open app closest to left in taskbar.

11. Use the Windows key + S to access a selection of your recent main apps and recent documents.

12. Use Windows key + X to open a quick link menu that gives fast access to a list of common functions.

13. Use Windows key + Tab to get a full task view of your current windows plus a whole scrollable timeline of things you’ve been working on recently. This can be a very helpful feature for finding recent work documents.

14. To quickly clear and restore your screen, use Win + M to minimise all windows and Win + Shift + M to restore all minimised windows.

15. To take a closer look at something on your screen, use Win + Plus (“+”) to zoom in using Magnifier, and Win + Minus (“- “) to zoom back put again.

16. To check on processes and performance issues, open the Task Manager by using Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

17. Get a fast view of your latest emails, alerts, and notifications by using Windows + A to open the Action Centre.

18. Skip to the beginning of each paragraph e.g., in a Word document by using Ctrl + the down arrow key.

19. To quickly snap an app e.g., your browser over to the left or right-hand side of the screen use the Windows key + Left arrow key and the Windows key + Right arrow key.

20. To open File Explorer use Windows key + E.

21. You may know that Ctrl + Z can undo an action such as deleting a file, but you can also use Ctrl + Y to redo the action.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Anything that saves time and makes work easier on your PC/device can save money and improve efficiency for businesses. Remembering just a few of the many shortcuts built-in to Windows can make a big difference over time and businesses may want to find fun ways to share tips about shortcuts and/or include them in company training and resource files to get some benefits from employees using them as they discover how certain shortcuts can be applied to make their daily tasks easier.