Depending on how you use OneNote, you can insert your computer's current date and time anywhere in your notes. This is handy when you want to mark text or track chronological events, such as a log of phone calls or entries in a blog or journal.

Note: Inserting the current date and time in your notes is different from the page creation date and time that OneNote places underneath the page title whenever you add a new page to your notebook. You can change or remove the page creation date or time if you’d like.

  1. In your notes, place the cursor where you want to insert the current date and time.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Click Insert, and then click either Date, Time, or Date & Time.

      Screenshot of the Date and Time button in OneNote 2016.

    • To insert the current date and time, press Alt+Shift+F.

    • To insert only the date, press Alt+Shift+D.

    • To insert only the time, press Alt+Shift+T.

OneNote uses the date and time format specified in the Windows Control Panel. If you want to change the appearance of dates and times in OneNote, follow the steps below for your version of Windows.

  • Windows 11 Close OneNote and open Settings app. Click Time & language > Language & region, and then choose the region and format of your preference in Regional Format. You can customize the formats by expanding Regional Format and clicking Change formats. Any changes you’ve made will be applied to future date and time stamps that you insert; existing notes won’t be automatically reformatted with the new settings.

  • Windows 10 Close OneNote and open the Control Panel in Windows 10 (From the Search bar in the lower-left corner of the screen, type control panel). Click Clock, Language, and Region, and then click Region. In the Region dialog box, on the Formats tab, choose the time and date formats you want, and then click OK. Any changes you’ve made will be applied to future date and time stamps that you insert; existing notes won’t be automatically reformatted with the new settings.

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