OneNote is one of the most versatile programs in Microsoft 365.
Many people love to use it as a planner, organizer, or creative tool.
Fortunately, there are ways to speed it up.
Try these six tips to make OneNote faster.
Disable Graphics Acceleration
The simplest way to solve the OneNote lag is to disable hardware graphics acceleration.
This feature allows OneNote to use your box’s hardware and its own software to power its features.
Unfortunately, this extra load canslow down your computeron computers with poor or mid-range graphics hardware.
Unfortunately, this option is not available on Mac.
To disable hardware graphics acceleration in Windows, start by opening OneNote.
Then go toFile>Options>Advancedand look under theDisplayheading.Disable hardware graphics accelerationshould be there.
Finally, tick the box to speed up the program.
you’ve got the option to speed things up even more by turning off animations in Windows.
PressWin + Uto open theEase of Accessmenu.
From there, selectDisplayand turn offShow animations in Windows.
Reduce Background Activity
OneNote also performs a lot of background activity to keep itshuge array of featuresready.
Even when you aren’t clicking on anything, OneNote is still working to optimize and process information.
you’ve got the option to also disableautomatic handwriting recognitionunder thePenheader if you don’t use handwriting.
The last speed-boost option in theAdvancedmenu isautomatic text recognition.
This option is a Windows-exclusive feature that translates pictures of words into actual text.
OneNote does this in the background rather than waiting for you to activate this feature.
Turn it off underFile>Options>Advanced>Text recognition in pictures.
If you’re not worried about storage space, you might also reduce or block the optimization.
you could also reduce how often OneNote tries to sync.
This would make the slow-down happen less frequently.
On Windows, this option is underFile>Options>Sync.
Mac users cannot disable auto-syncing.
you might cause OneNote to update all notebooks less frequently (the default is one week) here.
you’re free to also opt-out of downloading files and images embedded in your notebook.
This makes syncing go faster.
it’s possible for you to make OneNote faster by adjusting the file size before you insert it.
Fortunately, you’re able to do this in Microsoft Paint without losing too much image quality.
Remember, the less OneNote has to load, the faster your pages will render.
Repair Corrupted Cache Files
If OneNote is still laggy, it might have some corrupted files in its cache.
A cache is a collection of temporary files that a program can use to operate more efficiently.
It’s kind of like filling in a template instead of writing from scratch every time.
If one of those temporary files contains an error, however, it can cause problems for the program.
The good news is, this is easy to solve.
you could dump the cache by finding the OneNote folder.
On Windows 10, it’s located atC:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote\16.0.
Don’t forget to changeUserNameto your own username!
If you’re on a Mac, openFinder.Go to~/Library/Containers/Microsoft OneNote/Dataand delete cache files that end with.bin.
you’re able to find this option in the options menu.
Go toSettings>Appsand locate OneNote in the list.
Click it once to expand the menu, then selectAdvanced Options.
This will open a new menu.
Scroll down until you find the option toRepairand select it.
If those don’t solve your speed problems, repairing the program or clearing corrupted files is very simple.
When it runs at a normal speed, OneNote is a highly versatile program.
you’re able to use it for all kinds of projects, so experiment with it!
it’s possible for you to use it as a multimedia organizer, journal, or even a planner.
