Automating OneNote Actions Using IFTTT

In the recent announcement where Microsoft announced that OneNote is free for all platforms, new partnerships, features, and apps were also unveiled around Microsoft's Cloud-based note storage service. In Setting Up OneNote Email Services, I talked about a neat, new feature that allows you to email content directly to your OneNote notebooks.

Another new feature which requires some highlighting is the way IFTTT now integrates with OneNote. For those that don't know, IFTTT (If This Then That) is a powerful scripting language for the web. Much like the old batch file scripts people created back in the day, IFTTT can be used to automate your most repetitive online tasks. IFTTT also provides categorized tasks in channels. As part of the OneNote integration, IFTTT has now unveiled a channel dedicated to OneNote automation.

The OneNote IFTTT channel is here: https://ifttt.com/onenote

To start using IFTTT for OneNote, you must first activate IFTTT. You start this by clicking the Activate button on the OneNote Channel page.

During activation, IFTTT will request permission to access your OneNote account, which relates to giving IFTTT the ability to sign you in automatically, access your OneNote notebooks for updating, and create new OneNote pages.

Once you've configured IFTTT by giving it the proper access it needs, you can then start sifting through the OneNote Recipes that are already provided, or even create your own, tailored to your own automation needs.

There are currently over 80 ready-made recipes available. Some examples of valuable canned recipes include sending your favorite tweets to OneNote, automatically send iPhone or iPad screenshots to OneNote, deliver the daily weather report to OneNote in the morning, and post final sports scores to OneNote. There's even one that delivers any new post by Paul Thurrott to OneNote. The list of currently available items goes on and on.