Newsletter Archives

• The state of OneNote in 2024

  Posted on December 16, 2024 at 02:42 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  Next year the OneNote for Windows 10 app reaches end of life. It’s time to check in on how much progress the desktop OneNote version has made in the last 12 months.

  My oldest notes in OneNote are just over 21 years old, starting from a meeting with Microsoft in July 2003 about the shared source initiative that let OEMs look at the Windows codebase. I still use the software in very much the same way today. I take notes in meetings and interviews, I clip in interesting and useful information, and I search for something I remember saving.

  I have OneNote open all the time on my laptop. (It’s also installed on both my phones, one Android and one iPhone.) Although the interface has changed, the core features are much the same as they were five years ago. Like a swan, that slow glide disguises an enormous amount of effort under the surface. But apart from keeping up with Office and Windows 11, how did Microsoft do on delivering the new features it said OneNote was going to get this year?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.51.0, 2024-12-16).

  OneNote Microsoft Office, Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote for Windows 10, Teams

• What’s wrong with OneNote — and what you can fix

  Posted on March 27, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote is one of my favorite applications — but one that frustrates me far too often.

  It’s not me or you — it’s OneNote. Here’s a quick rundown of the annoying things that are just too hard (or downright impossible) to use, and some tips about how you can make those annoyances less so.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.13.0, 2023-03-27).

  OneNote Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote 2016, OneNote 365, OneNote for Windows 10

• Only Microsoft could make getting to one OneNote this confusing

  Posted on November 7, 2022 at 02:45 CST by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.45 • 2022-11-07

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  OneNote for Windows 10 isn’t gone yet — but things are getting simpler.

  Well, maybe a little.

  As I’ve explained before, the OneNote app that came with Windows 10 will be going away; it’s getting replaced by an updated version of the desktop OneNote program. Microsoft recently took the next step toward that end by removing the OneNote for Windows 10 app from the Microsoft Store and replacing it with the desktop app, now called simply “OneNote.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.45.0, 2022-11-07).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  OneNote Microsoft Store, Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote for Windows 10

• Getting to one OneNote on Windows

  Posted on June 27, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Mary Branscombe • Comment in the Forums

  ONENOTE

  

  By Mary Branscombe

  It’s finally becoming less confusing to pick the right Windows OneNote app, but you still have some decisions to make.

  After 16 years of OneNote, you might have liked the fresh new look of OneNote for Windows 10 and the way it could sync custom tags from one device to another. If that was the case, you might have liked Microsoft’s 2018 claim that it was “making OneNote for Windows 10 the best version of OneNote on Windows.”

  The official angle then was that no new features would be coming to OneNote 2016.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.26.0, 2022-06-27).

  OneNote Newsletters, OneNote, OneNote 2016, OneNote 365, OneNote for Windows 10