How To Password Protect OneNote Notebook?

OneNote is a note-taking application that is used for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It is used by many to gather notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries. However, the notebooks are viewable by everybody it is shared with.

When And Why You May Want To Protect Your Data?

Keeping your information safe is one of the most important things one must care about. Passwords have been the easiest way of data protection and are often used with other data protection methods to secure data. If you too want to protect your data or prevent certain users from viewing some part of your notebook, here I will discuss how you can password protect OneNote notebook.

You may find this useful when collaborating on a notebook and you may want to restrict one user or team from accessing certain parts of your document. You may want to share some information with your friends but don’t want it to be accessed by your family.

Although you cannot lock down entire notebooks in OneNote, you can lock down sections of it. In essence, if you lock down every section of the notebook, the entire notebook becomes password protected.

Password Protect OneNote Notebook

You can lock down individual sections of your notebook to protect the data present in it. Here I will discuss the steps to locking OneNote notebook.

Note: Password-protected sections aren’t included in notebook searches. To include a protected section in a search, you’ll have to unlock the section first.

1. Open Microsoft OneNote and log in with your account.
2. On the left, you will see the sections in your notebook.
   Here locate the section that you want to protect.
3. Right-click on the desired section, and click on Password Protection >

4. In the next menu that opens, click on Add.
5. Enter your password in the Create password dialog box.

6. Click on OK when you have entered the password in the Confirm Password section as well.

The password will be added to the section of your notebook. You can confirm this by observing the lock icon next to the section.

Modify The Password For A Section

1. Open Microsoft OneNote and log in with your account.
2. On the left, you will see the sections in your notebook.
   Here locate the section that you want to protect.
3. Right-click on the desired section, and select Password Protection > 
4. In the next menu that opens, click on Change Password.

5. Next, you will have to enter the old password, followed by the new password that you want to set for the section.
6. Click on OK once you are done.

This way you can change the password for a section to a more suitable one according to your choice.

Delete Passwords From A Section

1. Open Microsoft OneNote and log in with your account.
2. On the left, you will see the sections in your notebook.
   Here locate the section that you want to protect.
3. Right-click on the intended section, and click on Password Protection > 
4. In the next menu that opens, click on Remove Password.

5. Enter your current password to gain the privilege to delete the password.
6. Click on OK once you are done.

This will remove the password from the password-protected section in your notebook.

Note: you cannot set up the time after which certain sections are locked. This feature was available in Office 2010, but it was removed with Microsoft Office for Windows 10. 

Caution: Since OneNote uses an encryption service to secure the password-protected sections, there are no recovery options present in case you lose your password; the password cannot be retrieved by Microsoft Technicians as well.

Conclusion

Passwords can be a simple way to protect your data from prying eyes. Although you cannot protect the entire notebook, you can lock down certain sections of your notebook. Now you know how to password protect OneNote notebook using the guide given above. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.