Navigator

March 4, 2023

Last updated on August 20, 2026

The Navigator window is an assistant that keeps track of your visited pages, lets you manage a reading list, and helps navigate through headings of the current page.

 

Open the Navigator either from the OneMore menu or by pressing Alt + Shift + N

 

 

 

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Notes

If the Navigation service is disabled in Settings, page history is no longer recorded. The headings pane and history pane are hidden, showing ony My Reading List. You can always add to the reading list regardless of whether the Navigation service is enabled or disabled.

 

As you navigate to each page, it is not added to the history list immediately. Only after you've viewed a page for a minimum amount of time, will OneMore add it to the history list. This time limit can be customized in Settings.

 

Your navigation history is recorded even when the Navigator window is not open. OneMore records this history in a simple Json text file stored as %APPDATA%\OneMore\Navigator.json.  None of this information is transmitted off of your local machine; it is used for the sole purpose of displaying in the Navigator window and persisted in a file only so that the history can be collated across OneNote sessions.

 

The Navigator window is "persistent", meaning it tries to stay above other window along with OneNote. If it gets in the way, you can minimize like any other window. The standard Windows shortcut to minimize the current window is Win + Down

 

Parts of the Navigator Window

 

Current Page Headings

This pane displays a hierarchy of headings on the current page. You can use this to quickly navigate a long page, by following the heading map rather than scrolling and searching.

 

  • Click the filter button to quickly filter the list of headings to something specific, matching the text you type.
  • Click the refresh button to reload the updated headings; this pane is not updated automatically as you navigate.

 

My Reading List

The My Reading List pane provides a way to manage a temporary ordered list of reference pages that you intend on reading or getting back to at some point, and then removing from this list once done. This is more of a short-term holding pen for pages, whereas the Favorites menu is intended for long-term reference.

 

  • Click the up/down arrow buttons move one or more items up or down in the list.
  • Click the copy button to copy the name and hyperlink of selected pages to the clipboard.
  • Click the delete button to remove selected pages from the reading list.
  • Right-click items to show options

 

These are related command on the Navigator ribbon menu.

 

Add Page to My Reading List

Default shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + B

Adds the current page to the My Reading List panel in the Navigator window. Clicking the link in My Reading List will bring you back to the last position on this page.

 

Add Paragraph to My Reading List

Adds the current paragraph to the My Reading List panel in the Navigator window. Clicking the link in My Reading List will bring you back to this paragraph on this page.

 

 

History

The History pane shows pages that you've visited, even across OneNote session. This is a limited list, as specified in Settings, meaning that it will only track the latest n number of pages that you visited. Once the history pane contains that number of pages, as you visit a new page it is added to the top of the list, the oldest page will be removed the bottom of the list.

 

The Navigator records the time that you started reading each page. The time and the full path to the page is shown in a tooltip as you hover over each page in the History pane.

 

 

The Copy button copies the name and hyperlink of one or more pages in the history list to the clipboard. These can then be pasted into another page or another editor.

 

  • Click the filter button to quickly filter the list of pages to something specific, matching the text you type.
  • Click the reading glasses button add selected items to the the reading list.
  • Click the copy button to copy the name and hyperlink of selected pages to the clipboard.
  • Click the delete button to remove selected pages from the history list; press Ctrl + A to select all items and then delete to clear the whole list.
  • Right-click items to show options

 

 

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© 2020 Steven M Cohn. All rights reserved.

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