It also searches 'electronic ink' annotations as text, and phonetically searches audio recordings on a text key. It can search for images (e.g., screen captures, embedded document scans, photographs) for embedded text-content. OneNote also integrates search features and indexing into a free-form graphics and audio repository. They can also add embeddable content like YouTube videos. Users may add embedded multimedia recordings and hyperlinks.

Users can move pages within the binder and annotate them with a stylus or word-processing or drawing tools. There is no enforced uniform page layout or structure.The difference shows in certain OneNote features and characteristics: OneNote notebooks collect, organize, and share possibly unpublished materials – as compared to word processors and wikis, which usually target publishing in some way. Microsoft designed this user interface to resemble a tabbed ring binder, into which the user can directly make notes and gather material from other applications. OneNote saves information in pages organized into sections within notebooks. OneNote saves data automatically as the user makes edits to their file. Unlike a word processor, OneNote features a virtually unbounded document window, in which users can click anywhere on the canvas to create a new text box at that location. In OneNote, users can create notes that can include text, pictures, tables, and drawings.