I use the Notes feature of Microsoft 365 in Outlook all the time. I love how easy it is to throw large amounts of ideas and information into a note on the fly, to be dealt with later.
I don’t have to remember a file path to where I’m saving, or even choose a specific folder. I don’t have tons of text files clogging up my desktop. It’s all tucked away neatly to be accessed in Outlook or via OWA.
I can search for notes quickly and easily. I don’t have to worry about whether the info can be seen by anyone but me.
Notes are my repository for information of all kinds – articles I’m working on, contract changes I need to consider, products I want to remember to research, and pretty much anything else.
I realized today that one of the things that makes Notes so convenient also makes it easy to lose what you’ve written. As you edit a note, the changes in the note are auto-saved. There is no “save” feature. The content syncs to the cloud and you’re done.
Today I accidentally deleted a ton of important info from a note consisting of ideas to improve our onboarding of new technicians. I immediately realized what I had done, and furiously began hitting Ctrl-Z, trying to undo it. But because I had overwritten the content more than once, I couldn’t undo it.
I almost started to panic, thinking about all the work I’d have to recreate it. Then I remembered two things.
First, I remembered what I always tell our customers: “I’ll tell you when to panic.”
Then I remembered our Datto Backup for Microsoft 365. Our Backup for Office 365 backs up every bit of Microsoft 365 data. I’d never tried to restore a note before, but I figured since Notes are Exchange data, it should work.
I logged into the backup admin portal and within about a minute, I had my note back without overwriting any data or restoring anything else. Phew!
Datto SaaS Backup for Microsoft 365 for Business (it’s available for Google too!) is both affordable and invaluable. Ask us for more information.