How to move onenote sections back to top of notebook?

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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

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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Anonymous

2020-05-01T05:06:50+00:00

Change it back!!! Onenote for Windows 10 is really bad compared to 2016 version. This new version feels like a bad Android app from 2016. While the proper Office 2016 version of Onenote feels like a real, powerful office application. I was hoping with the update to Microsoft 365 the weird and decidedly UN-INTUITIVE interface would be fixed, however, it sadly remains as before. The worst part is, I have found Onenote 2016 to be an app I use all through out my day at work and have really come to rely on it. I use the 2016 version and I know one day it will be gone and I will have to figure out my work flow all over again. Biggest down sides to the windows 10 version is, no window docking (truly revolutionary) and have sections on the top and tabs or whatever on the right (more writing real-estate). Can these features be brought back to the "new" version of onenote. It's really unpleasant to use currently.
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Anonymous

2020-04-11T11:21:46+00:00

JohnAynejian ~ I doubt Nick will see your comment as I suspect notifications to the many participants of this thread were suspended a long time ago. (I had to resubscribe in order to receive new notifications.) ...Anyway, consider voting and commenting here:

Leaving (or option to leave) the section tabs at the top on the page

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Anonymous

2020-04-10T13:05:35+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 :)

I think it's nonsense and lazy to just decide arbitrarily what people will want when it's a simple thing to offer a choice (as Microsoft offers a choice in views of the reading pane in Outlook, for example). Cheap and lazy and this is why Microsoft gets a bad rap, because for all the hard work you do put into these apps and all the brilliant things they do you end up with one or two glaringly stupid and lazy omissions that completely affect the user's experience when there's no real need to. Similar to how for Excel 2010 you made it so that only one instance could be opened at a time.

Your reply to Santiago is an insult, I don't know if you meant it to be smug or if you are just as clueless about your smugness as you are about how lazy and foolish it is not to give users a view option in OneNote. Sad.
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