If you are a writer, physicist, or business owner, taking notes is extremely important. Back in the day, paper and pen were the ultimate tools to take down notes and important details. Now, tech companies have provided many online tools one can use to take notes. Two of the most popular ones are Microsoft OneNote and Google Keep. These two have been compared and “Microsoft OneNote vs Google Keep” is a frequently asked question on the web.
Today, we take a deep dive into the question: Microsoft OneNote vs Google Keep.
Overview
OneNote is a note-taking platform created by the tech giant, Microsoft. Google Keep, also known as Keep Notes, is the Google version of OneNote. While they generally function the same, a great number of features make them very different.
PC
And use this feature in 'OneNote Batch' to recreate the TREE STRUCTURE in OneNote with this.est file. Evernote Stacks will import as OneNote Section Groups. Evernote Notebooks will import as OneNote Sections. Google Keep Transfer Google Keep notes to OneNote, hold on labels, checkboxes, images, background color. Search for notes & lists; Share notes, lists & drawings; Send a Keep note to another app; Share a Keep note with your family group; Use Google Keep in a document or presentation.
Google Keep Interface
Google Keep, as with most packages in Google G Suite, does not come as a desktop application. It exhibits as a web app. For the sake of this comparison, we will use Keep web as the desktop app.
Google Keep has a very plain interface with a white background. It has an option to enable dark mode to protect the eyes.
All the notes are on the main screen. There is an input field and a search bar present at the top. As Google Keep is present only on the web, users can access the notes by visiting https://keep.google.com. You can also download the Chrome extension and app, and write notes on the go. Alongside the text, a user can also draw images with the mouse or pen.
Microsoft OneNote Interface
OneNote is a multi-faceted application that offers notebooks, sections and pages (notes). It comes as both a web application and desktop application. OneNote web has a few less features than the desktop application. Users can access their notes on the web by visiting https://www.onenote.com.
The OneNote application has the unique capability of saving images, text, notes, etc. in component so that they can overlap each other. As with all Office apps, there is a standard navigation bar at the top that separates drawing, text and importing tools.
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Editing and Tools
The most important part of Microsoft OneNote vs Google Keep is the features and tools present in both platforms.
Google Keep desktop offers these tools: simple text, local pictures, images, links, text indentations, text labels, to-do checkboxes, draw and reminders.
The only downside of Google Keep’s reminding feature is that it only allows one reminder per note at a time. However, you can assign labels to certain notes to distinguish between them. These labels can be searched.
Google Keep does not offer extensive text formatting tools; it copes and saves text in the plain format.
OneNote, on the other hand, offers the following formatting tools:
Fonts, font size, bold text, italics, underline, text color, text highlight, file upload, tables, links, draw (pen, pencil, highlighter), tags, quotes, text indentation, quotes, shapes, lists, audio, codes, headings (1 – 6), pictures, meeting details, and citation.
Some additional features in OneNote are assistant, password, and dictate.
The Assistant is an AI tool that can perform basic tasks like bold text, paste text, and create a to-do list.
The password feature on sections offers security. You cannot set passwords on the mobile app because this feature is available only in desktop version. You have to enter passwords in all devices, mobile and desktop, to access all password-protected sections.
The dictate tool is another AI-based tool that converts speech to text. The user must speak before the AI can transcribe into text.
PC Conclusion
For the desktop version, Microsoft OneNote wins by a long shot. Google Keep is still a fairly new product compared to OneNote. It’s simple design makes it unique, but not enough to overcome Microsoft OneNote.
Mobile
Tools
Both the desktop and mobile versions of Google Keep have the same features.
OneNote mobile does not come with some of the features in the desktop version: dictate, password setup, and rich editing tools like tables and heading, etc. The mobile app, however, comes with a StickyNotes feature that lets the user change the color of sticky notes and attach images.
Widgets
On Android devices, both Microsoft OneNote and Google Keep offer widgets.
Google Keep has two widgets: Quick Capture and Note List. With the Quick Capture widget, the user can write instant notes. With the Note List widget, a user can see their notes on the home screen. It comes with numerous options including all notes, pinned notes, user-created text labels, and labels.
OneNote offers five widgets. A user can use these widgets to create notes, start just the text note, start the audio recording, take a photo, and open the recent notes.
Sharing and Collaboration
As regards sharing and collaboration, Google Keep wins this round.
Both the mobile and desktop versions of Google Keep possess the sharing option, whereas OneNote does not.
With Google Keep, you can add people to collaborate, send a copy of the note to collaborations via other apps, convert into a document, and edit in Google Docs.
OneNote desktop is only able to share the notes with the view and edit permissions, while the mobile app only supports sending the note in the plain text and in PDF format.
Which one is for you?
The answer to this question depends largely on the features you need to use.
If you want to use the mobile version, then both OneNote and Keep will do the job. If you want to use the desktop version, then OneNote is the way to go.
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When it comes to jotting down notes, it’s not only important that the affair is done as fast as possible but it’s also an absolute essential that the apps are available across multiple platforms.
Not so long ago, Evernote was the hot favorite of smartphone users, but unfortunately, it fell from grace after changing the product pricing.
So we are left with the ever-popular Google Keep and Microsoft’s OneNote apps. These not only possess tremendous features but are also free in the market. So, it’s only fair that we pit both the apps against each other and see who wins at the end. Let the game begin.
Note: We are comparing the Web app of Keep and OneNote.An Overview
Google Keep is more than just a note-taking app, it can also disguise as a personal assistant when it comes to reminding you about your task or an image reader (built-in OCR). The best thing about Keep is that you can just click on the note bar and it’ll make sure that your thoughts are properly captured. It’s incredibly light and is pretty much available anywhere — iOS, Android, Windows and as a web app.
On the contrary, OneNote does the same task in an organized manner by segregating all the notebooks neatly and color coding them. My only gripe about this app is that the setup process is rather slow and tedious.
Beyond that, you get the option to scribble and scrawl on the notebooks, as you guessed, anywhere. And yeah, it’s also available on all the major platforms.
So, that was a brief overview, let’s have a quick roundup of the common tools of both the apps
The Common Features
1. Remembering Notes
Of course, the first feature has to be about notes, rather, how well it can store notes and how well you can access them. Google Keep lets you write a note basically anywhere meaning it has a notebook handy anytime you open it. This feature proves to be helpful when you’re running out of time.
Later when you have ample time to build and organize, you can move the notes among the different labels.
OneNote’s perspective is a tad different, it assumes that you need to keep everything neatly organized irrespective of the essence of time.
So, if you have to jot down a quick something, you have to go through the process of opening the right notebook and the right page in it.2. Collaboration vs Share
They say that a problem shared is a problem halved and both the apps adhere to this thought beautifully. While Keep has it in the form of a collaborator, OneNote has gone a notch higher and lets you share a notebook’s page or the whole notebook with your buddies.
Google Version Of Onenote
Plus, OneNote has another nifty feature that lets you set the permission level.
I did face an issue with Keep’s collaborator feature many times. It just doesn’t show up the shared notes in my app, and eventually, I had to take help from a different app.3. Moving Notes Across
Moving notes across the different tabs in OneNote and Keep is a child’s play. Just in case you have managed to make an entry in the wrong section in OneNote, right-click and move the respective note to your desired section.
In Keep, you can choose to do the same by clicking Change Labels in the hamburger menu. Both these features are same in all respects, the only difference is that OneNote takes a tad longer time to move the notes between the labels.
4. Read Text from Images
Google Keep Ou Onenote
Can these two apps read text from images? Oh yes, they can and they excel in it. The OCR feature in Keep is disguised in the form of ‘Grab image text’ and it automatically converts the image’s text to editable text seamlessly and instantly.
The same feature is present in OneNote in the form of Alt Text and while it does a decent job of filtering the text from images, again the same issue of speed springs up. OneNote’s feature was slow and the text riddled with typos. For instance, it keeps mistaking W as VV or m as r and n.
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5. Keep Search vs OneNote Search
Both the apps come packed with a great search tool, but when it drills down to the comparison, Keep seems to be the outright winner. It fetches the results instantly (remember, Google Search) and OneNote’s feature seems dull and sluggish when compared to it.
Furthermore, if you look at the handiness, Keep’s search tool is always there on the page while OneNote requires a couple more clicks to get to the point.
There are loads of other common features such as the audio note, video notes, scribble and scrawl and these features are at par with each other.The Un-Common Features
1. Internal Links
OneNote is more of a power user tool, it’s built on the belief that a user would store loads of notes, annotations, and ideas on it. Building on that fact, it has a clever design which lets you create an internal link to other notebooks, individual pages or to a particular section.
All you need to do is to right-click on the subject and click on Copy Link to Page and paste the link in the place of your choice.
Keep seriously lacks this feature but hopefully, this shortcoming will soon be mitigated.
2. The Microsoft Toolbar
While the Keep users have to be satisfied with some basic tools like checkboxes, drawing tools or add images, OneNote harnesses the power of it being an MS tool. It sports a slew of tools like inserting tables, changing the font styles, inserting shapes and attaching a file to a notebook’s page.
Beyond that, you have other features such as adjusting the indentation, bulleting points, adding a picture as a background image, etc
3. Reminders
This is the area where Keep races ahead of OneNote. Keep’s process of adding reminders is simple and barely takes time. All you have to do is click on the hand icon on the lower left corner and set the time. Most of the common options are already present, you just need to fill in the accurate timings. What’s more, you can also add a location to it.
On the contrary, this option is missing from OneNote. While the desktop app does allow one to make an Outlook task, but then, it’s missing from the online version which seems to be the preferred weapon of choice for the non-Windows users.
Windows user? Learn these amazing Windows 10 tips and tricks.4. Links
If you have been thinking of adding an external link to a phrase or word in your Keep’s note, then you have to wait it out. At the time of writing, Keep still hasn’t gotten around to this feature yet.
Here, there’s a nifty link feature which lets you do just that. All you need to do is select the word or sentence and click on the link icon on the toolbar.
5. Recovery Options & Character Limit
There comes a time when we accidentally click on the delete button. Thankfully, Keep keeps an account of the deleted items for seven days. Head over to Trash in the left panel and click on restore.
Unfortunately, the web version of OneNote still hasn’t come up with a recovery option. So, if you delete a note by mistake, chances are that you have lost it forever.
When it comes down to the character limit, Keep has a limit of around 19952 characters, after which it gives you the option to switch to Google Docs.
We tested both the apps with a character set of 185116 and OneNote excelled in keeping the entire contents with absolutely no questions asked.
Worried about privacy? Here’s how to delete what Google is recording about youWhich One Would You Prefer?
So, which would be the weapon of your choice in keeping your thoughts in the written manner? If you ask me, Keep can be used to jot down quick notes and reminders while OneNote requires a more sophisticated approach. What’s your take on it? Let us know through comments.
Also Read: Gboard vs SwiftKey: Which is the Best?
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