How to move onenote sections back to top of notebook?

Anonymous
2017-05-26T06:50:42+00:00

I have found that the default onenote view is to have sections run along the top of the notebook instead of on the right (vertical view). I prefer to have my sections run along the top in the default view, but somehow, my view changed where all my sections are in a left aligned vertical view. I cannot figure out how to revert back to where all the section tabs are back along the top of each notebook. Please show me how. I cannot find this info anywhere in Microsoft support. Please note, this screenshot was taken while Office Theme = Colorful and while the "Enable Experimental Features" box was checked.

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-05-27T19:38:21+00:00

Hi Nick. I'm glad to hear you're an actual MicroSoft engineer. I hope it is an engineer specifically for the OneNote product. I want to call B.S. on your "user testing". Switching over without the option of giving your end users a choice of layout was plain stupid and short-sighted on the part of MicroSoft. I've been using OneNote for just over a year despite being an avid Apple products user. I did this on the advice of two colleagues who use Onenote regularly, and who actually work for Microsoft (as employees, not vendors). Both of them state that they use tabs across the top and they believe it is only the Apple version that was changed permanently. They stated they would revert to version 15.33 if the engineering team forced this changed upon the software! Also, why don't you take a moment to read the feedback that you've been receiving about this forced change? Not just within the VOTE page (which has risen to 370), but throughout all the tickets that have been submitted asking how to restore this, as well as posts and comments made within the Microsoft online community. The 370 votes posted are only a small percentage of dissent that's out there. Nick, take your head out of the sand. Really. You can add this as an option for those who prefer tabs on the left... But why force it? Stupid. Plain stupid. 

I have reverted back to version 15.33 using Apple's time machine. If anyone reading this wants to know how to fix this issue, the answer is revert back to version 15.33. If you don' have Time Machine, and you need an alternative means to do so, please post a message here and I will help you with this.

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Anonymous
2017-05-27T05:41:55+00:00

Hey Santiago! I'm an engineer on the OneNote team.

To bring consistency across the OneNote platforms we've moved the section selection to the left side of the screen. Through user testing we've determined that (while the migration can be confusing) users find the updated experience to be more intuitive given our hierarchy structure (Notebook => Section => Page).

You're welcome to leave feedback for this change on UserVoice :)

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-01-19T23:33:55+00:00

    Aha! I found it! it's available here:

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/install-or-reinstall-onenote-2016-for-windows-c08068d8-b517-4464-9ff2-132cb9c45c08

    and it works!

    Excellent :-). It's good that you've downloaded it. But please be aware that Windows is in the process of phasing out OneNote 2016, and with that, there will no longer be any support for that particular product. I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but try to enjoy this version while you can, and keep expressing your sentiment about the "new and improved" version of OneNote. Maybe collectively, we can get the OneNote team to hear us :-). 

    Santiago

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-01-19T23:14:14+00:00

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-01-18T17:45:59+00:00

    This is freaking ridiculous!! Thanks @SeattleSanti for the well executed illustration of the problem and persistence on Microsoft for the resolution...but seriously, how is there STILL no resolution?!

    I was none the wiser since I reverted back to Windows 7 on my primary computer years ago, but now that I have a secondary laptop with Windows 10, this is SO F*ING ANNOYING that the layouts do not match between my 2 workstations (home and office).

    Does anyone have a solution on how to revert OneNote in a PC Windows 10 environment? I want to keep Windows 10, but only revert OneNote back so I can have my tabs across the top.

    I truly appreciate your frustration... but there is a ray of sunshine for you since you’re using OneNote on a Windows platform. There are 2 versions of OneNote that are available for Windows 10. There is the current OneNote version (aptly named just OneNote), AND there is a version called OneNote 2016. Try downloading and using OneNote 2016. There you can go into settings and display Section Tabs across the top like you’re used to. But make sure you do it soon because the OneNote Team is getting ready to phase it out. For all you Apple users, we’ll either have to revert back to OneNote version 16.33, or suffer until we get enough people complaining to force the OneNote dipwad team to bring this feature back as an option.

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