Action points buried in meeting notes get forgotten. A To Do tag turns them into a checklist you can tick off, and doing it from the keyboard means you never stop listening to write it.
Step by step
- Click on the line you want to turn into a task, or start a new line.
- Press Ctrl+1. A checkbox appears at the start of the line.
- Press Ctrl+1 again to tick the box when it's done.
- Press it once more to clear the tag.
Tips & troubleshooting
- Ctrl+2 tags a line as Important and Ctrl+3 as a Question.
- Alt+Shift+D stamps today's date so you know when the action was agreed.
The tag shortcuts
To Do is the first of several built-in tags, each on its own number.
- Ctrl+1: To Do checkbox.
- Ctrl+2: Important, a star.
- Ctrl+3: Question.
- Ctrl+4: Remember for later.
- Ctrl+5: Definition.
- Ctrl+0: remove all tags from the line.
- The numbers follow the order of the Tags gallery on the Home tab. If you customise the tags in the desktop app, the shortcuts follow your new order.
Build a list quickly
- Press Ctrl+1, type the first item and press Enter. The next line gets a checkbox automatically.
- Press Enter twice to finish the list.
- Press Tab at the start of a line to indent it as a sub-task.
- Alt+Shift+Up Arrow and Down Arrow move a line up or down to reorder.
- Select several existing lines and press Ctrl+1 to tag them all at once.
Find every open action
The reason to use real tags instead of typed brackets is that OneNote can collect them. In the OneNote desktop app choose Home, Find Tags. A pane lists every tagged line across the section or the whole notebook. Tick Show only unchecked items to see what is still outstanding, click any entry to jump to its page, or create a summary page of them all. After a week of meetings, that is your action list.
Tags are not reminders
A To Do tag has no due date and sends no notification. For actions with a deadline, put them in Microsoft To Do or Planner, or flag the related email in Outlook. Use OneNote checklists for what they are good at: capturing actions in the moment, beside the notes that explain them.