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
    2019-05-12T18:29:49+00:00

    I have done a casual search but not really drilled down to the quality of them. 

    Evernote an open source application/program seems to hold promise. Admittedly I have not really explored it yet in depth. 

    And it is free....but it has the 'feel' of the old OneNote as best I can tell at this point. 

    For more info: 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evernote

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-05-12T18:12:25+00:00

    Having been around IT since punch tape...YES...punch tape..then cards...etc. I have seen a lot of change.

    However, this is probably the first time that I can recall that everyone across the board software wise is required to 'adjust' to what I consider a dummy downgrade to accomidate the small screen cell phone. 

    Up till this...there was an program for your computer...there was one for your pad/cell phone. And the server in between was responsible for translation and proper insertion and use on what ever platform you used.

    And you at least had an option. This was just a ram through and MS has more than indicated that they have no inclination of going back to the old model. 

    But when you come down to it...why should they. It is a niche product...but IMHO they made is so. It never got the full blown 'push' as part of the Office suite it deserved. 

    Shame

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-05-12T15:07:42+00:00

    I use Onenote on my PC's, tablets, and smart phones. It's a great tool for gathering and propagating information to all the places where it might be needed. It's still usable, more or less, but the user experience on the PC desktop has been seriously degraded.  Sacrificing the user experience in an important platform for the sake of consistency across physical platforms is typically attractive to the developers -- reducing code bases is always looked on favorably, it makes support and future development easier -- but developers need to remember who their customers are: their customers are we, the users. The best and greatest code / software / application in the world isn't worth diddly if the users don't adopt and / or like it.

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