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
    2021-05-31T23:26:43+00:00

    Funny... this was written years ago. Somehow, I just had the same thing happen TODAY.

    When I started with OneNote it had the tabs on the left-side. One day, they started appearing at the top. I got used to it and learned to prefer it. Today, I pulled it up and it's all on the left-side again. It's a worse user-experience (in my opinion) as it takes up more screen space and I just like it the way it was. I agree with the 2017 comment, make it easy for USERS to decide if a screen layout makes more sense. Change for the sake of change is so off-putting. Sigh... I'm going to keep hunting for a way to switch it back, as the previous reply was written a long time ago, so the version would be incorrect and I'm not familiar with using Apple's time machine.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-04-30T17:58:36+00:00

    Please give users the option or change it back.  Why do people want a huge chunk of their screen taken up?

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-13T22:22:31+00:00

    How bogus is that. You have decided.....
    I have more horizontal real estate. I usually work from a wide monitor on an actual Computer.  I really hate it when Software companies think they know better than their users.  Give us the option to change. It is OK if you want the default setting to be down the side, but let us choose.

    Is this also like the great new location of the searchbar for Outlook? The one where it covers up the ribbon when you click in it???  This was also decided upon by your user testing.

    Your continued travels down the path where you think you know better than your users is certainly pushing me toward linux.

    I used to like Microsoft.

    -Rick

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