Dated notes are notes you can trust later. A quick date stamp shows exactly when something was said or decided, and it takes one shortcut.
Step by step
- Click where you want the date.
- Press Alt+Shift+D to insert today's date.
- Press Alt+Shift+T to insert the current time.
Tips & troubleshooting
- The date format follows your Windows regional settings.
- Pair it with Ctrl+1 to date and tag action points in meeting notes.
Three stamps
- Alt+Shift+D: today's date.
- Alt+Shift+T: the current time.
- Alt+Shift+F: date and time together.
- The same three are on the Insert tab as Date, Time and Date & Time.
The date under the page title
Every OneNote page already carries a date and time beneath its title, showing when the page was created. You can change it: click the date, then the small calendar icon that appears, and pick another day. That is useful when you write up notes the morning after a meeting and want the page to show the meeting date. The stamps from the shortcuts are for the body of the page, where they mark individual entries.
Where date stamps help
- A running log, such as a project diary or call notes with a client: stamp each new entry at the top.
- Meeting notes: stamp actions with the date agreed, and tag them with Ctrl+1.
- Research notes: record when a figure or web page was checked.
- One-to-one notes kept on a single page: a date at the start of each session makes the page searchable by month.
How it differs from other apps
In OneNote the stamp is plain text and never changes. Word uses the same keys, Alt+Shift+D, but inserts a date field that can update to the current date when the document is opened or printed. Excel uses Ctrl+; for a fixed date. Knowing the difference matters when a date is evidence of when something happened.
In OneNote for Mac, Cmd+D inserts the date.