--- title: I ditched OneNote for Obsidian until I found one setting... description: A personal account of nearly switching from Microsoft OneNote to Obsidian due to frustration with OneNote's floating note containers. The fix turned out to be... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I ditched OneNote for Obsidian until I found one setting that changed everything | daily.dev og:description: A personal account of nearly switching from Microsoft OneNote to Obsidian due to frustration with OneNote's floating note containers. The fix turned out to be... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1Crox4vA8.png og:image:alt: I ditched OneNote for Obsidian until I found one setting that changed everything og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I ditched OneNote for Obsidian until I found one setting that changed everything **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A personal account of nearly switching from Microsoft OneNote to Obsidian due to frustration with OneNote's floating note containers. The fix turned out to be a single hidden setting: File → Options → Display → uncheck 'Show note containers on pages'. Disabling this makes OneNote pages look cleaner and eliminates the accidental creation of separate content blocks. With that annoyance gone, OneNote's strengths — rich media support, notebook structure, handwriting, and no plugin setup — become more appealing again compared to Obsidian's Markdown-first, highly configurable approach. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I stop OneNote from creating separate containers when I click near existing text? Disable the note container borders in OneNote by going to File, then Options, then Display, and unchecking 'Show note containers on pages.' This hides the visual boxes and contextual controls around paragraphs, images, and other content, making pages behave more like a continuous document instead of a canvas of movable containers. The setting is available on both OneNote for Windows and Mac. _daily.dev surfaces practical fixes like this one for people fine-tuning their note-taking setup._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@theacademe** · 0 upvotes > Even hiding the boundaries when you hover, the page is still constructed of multiple containers until you actually [merge them](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/onenote-help-and-learning/work-with-note-containers#bm4). > > > If only there was an option for a single text container per page. Until then, you just have to tell Copilot to merge all the text containers. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I thought I knew OneNote until I found these 5 hidden settings](https://daily.dev/posts/i-thought-i-knew-onenote-until-i-found-these-5-hidden-settings-lvpnwnhgx) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I moved my whole life into Obsidian, and finally understand why people are obsessed](https://daily.dev/posts/i-moved-my-whole-life-into-obsidian-and-finally-understand-why-people-are-obsessed-7isjepp68) · XDA Developers · 160 upvotes · 7 comments - [3 reasons I'm finally uninstalling Obsidian - and what I'm replacing it with](https://daily.dev/posts/3-reasons-i-m-finally-uninstalling-obsidian---and-what-i-m-replacing-it-with-vldsuvrqz) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [Introduction to Obsidian](https://daily.dev/posts/introduction-to-obsidian-ceake8lug) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I ditched OneNote for Obsidian until I found one setting that changed everything","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8"},"datePublished":"2026-08-10T11:34:22.191Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:43:05.292Z","description":"A personal account of nearly switching from Microsoft OneNote to Obsidian due to frustration with OneNote's floating note containers. 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Until then, you just have to tell Copilot to merge all the text containers.","datePublished":"2026-08-10T12:12:13.689Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1Crox4vA8#c-lgqfQlUc5","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"theacademe","url":"https://daily.dev/theacademe","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--C29_q-xW--/f_auto/v1756852849/avatars/avatar_wNAjl1VBaVx2CCjbkkb5h?_a=BAMClqZW0"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-onenote-for-obsidian-until-i-found-one-setting-that-changed-everything-1crox4va8#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I stop OneNote from creating separate containers when I click near existing text?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Disable the note container borders in OneNote by going to File, then Options, then Display, and unchecking 'Show note containers on pages.' 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