How to Hide a Note in OneNote

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OneNote is a powerful note-taking program that can be used in a number of different ways. As a digital file cabinet, it can store important documents such as copies of contracts, banking and investment information, and copies of birth certificates or driver's licenses. As a personal information manager it can store passwords, bank account information, credit card numbers, addresses and phone numbers. As a note-taking tool, it can even be a personal journal, wish book, or best selling novel in the making.

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Once you start realizing the convenience and power OneNote provides for storing and managing personal and professional information, you find yourself putting all kinds of sensitive information into it. Keeping this private and sensitive information safe is critical to being able to trust the system though, so you may soon realize you'd like to hide notes or note sections inside OneNote just in case your computer is lost or stolen.

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OneNote doesn't "hide" notes in the sense that they're invisible; it hides them behind passwords and encryption instead.

Step 1

Open OneNote, and then select the notebook which has information in it you want to hide.

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Step 2

Click the tab of the section you want to add a password to. Sections have multiple pages and sub-pages, so you could have a "Password" tab that contains many notes with passwords for multiple things.

Step 3

Right click the section tab and select "Password Protect this Section..." This option can also be accessed by clicking the "File" menu at the top of your OneNote screen.

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Step 4

Click the "Set Password..." button in the pane that opened up on the right-hand side of your screen.

Step 5

Type your password into the "Enter Password" box, and then type it again into the "Confirm Password" box. Passwords are case-sensitive, so be sure to type it exactly the same both times, and then click the "OK" button.

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Step 6

Tell OneNote how secure you want your passworded sections to be by setting up the preferences. Click the "Tools" menu at the top of the screen and select "Options..."

Step 7

Select "Passwords" on the left side, and make adjustments to the settings on the right. You can have it keep the sections unlocked for a specific amount of time, lock them automatically when you go to a different section or notebook, and allow or disallow add-ins to access the password protected areas when you have them unlocked. Once you have the settings adjusted, click the "OK" button, then restart OneNote.

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