Microsoft brings inking and new controls for expanding YouTube videos in its OneNote app for the web.

Microsoft has rolled out some key improvements for the OneNote web app. The improvements include a new mode switcher, improved copy and paste functions, zooming capabilities, background picture setting tweaks, back-tracking features, the ability to re-size embedded videos, automatic inking for Chrome and Edge, and better link sharing within Teams.

Some of the updates have rolled out while others are marked as "upcoming".

Microsoft detailed some of these improvements for OneNote, such as better inking capabilities, last year when it announced it was consolidating its native Windows OneNote apps.

Previously, there was a OneNote app in Office and a OneNote app for Windows 10 app from the Microsoft Store. Plus there was the web app, which is being updated now, and Microsoft's native OneNote apps for Android and iOS. The OneNote consolidation story was complicated by the shift from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

As Microsoft details in a blogpost, the OneNote web app's mode switcher now helps users when they're editing and viewing OneNote documents. Users can switch between editing and viewing mode as they can in other Office web apps, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The copy/paste improvements allow users to paste tables and lists from external sources to a OneNote page without losing the source format, according to Microsoft. Users can paste from the context menu in Teams and Chrome using the Ctrl+Shift+V shortcut to paste text only.

The zooming features include a dropdown menu under the View tab for scaling up or down content. Key shortcuts include Ctrl +, Ctrl -, and Ctrl 0. Folks with a Surface Pro or Go 2-in-1 can also pinch-zoom. 

For laying out a document, users can now set a picture as a background from a right click on the image that offers them a "Set Picture As Background" choice.

And, like a browser, OneNote now remembers the most recently opened page.

Inking in OneNote for the web allows users to scrawl notes or sketch on a notebook with a finger or stylus. Users can can now turn on 'Draw with Touch' in the 'Draw' tab. Resizing embedded YouTube or other videos on the web should be easier now by dragging the content from the corner.

The updated linking feature helps users share OneNote content from channels or chats in teams.

"As you begin to type a message with a OneNote link, Teams alerts you in case the message recipient does not have access to the file. You can then click on the file preview to manage file permissions easily without needing to leave the chat message," Microsoft notes.