Microsoft OneNote is a great tool for organizing all types of notes and information, regardless of your occupation.  I had already been using it for organizing personal information, then decided to create workbooks for my Notary Signing Agent information.

 

The beauty of OneNote is that it is simple to use, yet powerful. 

This is how a workbook appears on the screen. 

To the left you have tabs for all of the workbooks you've created. At the top are the sections in the workbook.  To the right are the pages for each section.  It's like having a 'table of contents' at a glance. 

There is no limit to how many workbooks, sections, and pages you can have.

 

I'll take you on a tour of my 'Notary Signing Agent' workbook, starting with the first page.  I created a table for expiration dates.  Not only that, but I added hyperlinks to some of them. 

For example, if I click on 'Notary Commission' it will take me to the website of the Colorado Secretary of State.  At the top of the page is a link to an Excel spreadsheet that I use for my business.  Already you can see just how flexible OneNote is.  Just below the table is an area where I can add more text.  But that is what I use the other pages for.  For now, I have a page for the following categories:

• Notary Law
• NSA Career Goals
• Loan Documents & Types
• eSign (eClosing)
• Continuing Education
• Marketing
• Office Supplies & Vendors
• Buy Add
• Demand for Payment Letter
• Resume
• Coverage Areas
• Links

In the 'Notary Law' section you can set it up to find any information you need regarding your state's notary laws.  If you are a member of the Notary Law Institute, you can download the newsletters on notary law and have a link to them in OneNote.

What are your goals?  You can create a list of things you want to accomplish in your career.

Know the loan documents inside and out by adding information about them in a separate page.  You can create hyperlinks to websites that provide more information about them.

Under the 'Notes' section is a template for the 'Cornell Note-Taking Method'.  This can be used for taking notes if you attend a lecture, or an online course.  Or use it for self-study. Lots of possibilities.

At the top are the various sections in my workbook.  If I click on 'Tools & Forms' I have links to my invoice, a personalized W9 form, Fax cover sheet, and Mapquest. 

The 'Companies' section is for different types of companies. This is also where I keep my no-no list.

You can imagine all of the possibilities for this section.  Keep notes on all of the companies you work with, those you're interested in, etc.  If you see a post on one of the notary sites, you can copy the information and post it in your OneNote workbook.

 

 

 

The last section is the 'Glossary'. I have it indexed in two ways.  On the first page are the letters A - Z.  There is also an index in the right column.  I created it by adding a separate page for each letter of the alphabet. The letter 'Z' is hidden, but I can access it easily from the first page.

The 'Search' feature can also be used to find any information in the Glossary, or anywhere else in the workbook. 

And not just the 'Notary Signing Agent' workbook.  It will also search through the 'Reverse Mortgage' workbook, or any other workbooks that I create.  You can imagine what a powerful search tool this can be once you start adding more and more information.  You can have it all at your fingertips.

 

Let's do a search so you can get an idea.  I'll do a search on the word 'reverse'.

 

Not only does it show me all instances of the word 'reverse' in my Notary Signing Agent workbook:

 

 

 

 

It will also take me to the Reverse Mortgage workbook that I created. Note that now the 'Reverse Mortgage' tab is highlighted in the left column, indicating that I am now in a different workbook:

Create as many workbooks and pages as you want.  Making changes is very simple. There are lots of tools, such as hyperlinks to link your information to websites or files on your hard drive. You can imbed audio and video.  If you use QuickBooks for accounting, you can imbed a link to it in your workbook.

OneNote can be the one file that you go to for all of your notary signing agent information.

You can share your workbook with others.  This is beneficial for notary signing agent networks, or if you are collaborating on a project with someone else.

You can link your tasks in Outlook to OneNote.

There is an application that you can add on to OneNote that allows you to print any of the pages (or the entire workbook) in PDF. 

As you can see, you can also send your pages as email.  This will come in handy when marketing, or for sharing information with others in the profession.

 

 

 

In a separate topic I'll show what I've done to create a Reverse Mortgage Manual for notary signing agents.

The possibilities for organizing information are endless.  Whatever you can imagine, you can do with OneNote.

For more information about OneNote, go to: Microsoft Office Online - OneNote