File Sharing Problems

How to Make Custom OneNote Tags Available to Shared Notebook Users

Rana Garcia Oct 16, 2026 868 views

Question details

Users want to know how to distribute custom tags created in a shared OneNote notebook so that all collaborators can access and use them.

How to Make Custom OneNote Tags Available to Shared Notebook Users

Product: Microsoft OneNote
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Collaborating with team members on a shared OneNote notebook where consistent tagging is required.
Observed behavior: Custom tags created by one user do not automatically appear in the tag lists of other collaborators when they open the shared notebook.

Before you start

Ensure that the team member trying to add the tag has full access to the shared notebook and can clearly see the specific note that has already been tagged by the creator.

Solution 1Recommended

Manually Add Shared Tags to Your Local Tag List

Use this solution to manually save a custom tag to your own OneNote application so you can apply it to other notes.

OneNote does not have a reliable built-in method to automatically distribute custom tags to all collaborators. Custom tags are often stored locally in preference files or tied only to the specific machine where they were created. To bypass this, collaborators must manually extract the tag from an existing note.

Locate a tagged note

Ask the creator of the custom tag to apply it to a specific paragraph, image, or text block within the shared notebook.

Right-click the tag icon

Open the shared notebook on your device, navigate to the tagged text, and right-click the custom tag icon appearing next to the content.

Select Add to My Tags

Click 'Add to My Tags' from the context menu. The custom tag will now be saved to your local OneNote tag list and can be used on other notes.

Manually Add Shared Tags to Your Local Tag List

Version Differences: OneNote for Windows 10 stores custom tags locally and within the specific notebook. OneNote 2016 stores them in a local preferences.dat file once added to your personal list.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why don't custom tags sync automatically to all users in OneNote?

OneNote stores custom tags locally on the device (such as in the preferences.dat file for OneNote 2016) rather than embedding them globally into the notebook's configuration file for all collaborators to automatically inherit.

Can I export my custom tags to another computer?

There is no built-in export button for custom tags. The easiest workaround is to create a dedicated page with all your custom tags applied to text, open that notebook on the new computer, and use the 'Add to My Tags' method for each one.

Does OneNote for Windows 10 handle custom tags differently than OneNote 2016?

Yes. OneNote for Windows 10 stores custom tags both in the notebook where they were created and in a local database. OneNote 2016 relies heavily on the local preferences file once the tags are saved to your personal list.

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