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How to Create a Summary Page for Open Tasks in OneNote

Kushani Nimanthika Sep 30, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user wants to collect scattered open tasks from various OneNote pages or meeting notes into a single, centralized task list.

How to Create a Summary Page for Open Tasks in OneNote

Product: Microsoft OneNote
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Tracking action items and organizing meeting notes across multiple pages and notebooks.
Observed behavior: Needs a centralized method to automatically gather tagged tasks into one summary page with active links to their original contexts.

Before you start

Ensure that you have consistently used the 'To Do' tag or custom task tags for your action items across your OneNote notebooks before attempting to summarize them.

Solution 1Recommended

Use the Find Tags Feature to Create a Summary Page

OneNote provides a built-in Find Tags pane that can compile all your tagged items and generate a consolidated summary page.

This built-in tool scans your notes for any selected tags and organizes them neatly in a sidebar. From there, generating a summary page only takes one click.

Open the Tags Group

Navigate to the 'Home' tab on the OneNote ribbon and click on 'Find Tags' in the Tags group.

Filter Your Tags

In the Tags Summary task pane that opens on the right, use the 'Group tags by' dropdown to organize the results by 'Tag name' to easily locate your 'To Do' tags.

Set the Search Scope

At the bottom of the task pane, click the 'Search' dropdown to define where OneNote should look for tasks (e.g., 'This Notebook', 'All Notebooks', or 'This Section').

Create the Summary Page

Click the 'Create Summary Page' button at the bottom of the Tags Summary pane. OneNote will instantly generate a new page containing all the found tasks, complete with hyperlinks back to their original locations.

Use the Find Tags Feature to Create a Summary Page

Dynamic Links Behavior: The tasks on the summary page are linked to their original pages. However, checking off a task on the summary page does not automatically update the status of the original tag on the source page.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why aren't my open tasks showing up in the Tags Summary pane?

Ensure that you have correctly applied tags to your text using the 'To Do' tag feature. Additionally, check that your search scope at the bottom of the Find Tags pane is set wide enough to include the notebooks or sections where your tasks reside.

Does checking off a task on the summary page update the original note?

No, the summary page creates a copy of the tagged items. Checking a box on the summary page will not automatically check the box on the original page. You can click the OneNote icon next to the task to jump to the original page and check it off there.

Can I automatically refresh the summary page if I add new tasks later?

The generated summary page is static. If you add new tasks to your notebooks, you will need to click 'Refresh Results' in the Tags Summary pane and create a new summary page to see the most recent additions.

Can I summarize tags other than 'To Do' items?

Yes, the Find Tags feature compiles all customized tags, including Questions, Important items, and Ideas. You can filter the Tags Summary pane to display only the specific tags you want to review before generating the summary page.

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