Windows 10 OneNote app sucks.

I'm totally in sync with your opinion of "one size fits all". I've had to face variations of it since day 1 of my computing career. At my first employer senor IT managers thought a "programmer is a programmer is a programmer", that we were interchangable and could just be dropped into developing other applications and even into totally new languages.  Doesn't work that way.

I to have fought  the "one size fits all" plan for applications.   The user interface needed for a 5" "smart" phone touchscreen is not the same as what is appropriate on my i7 desktop computer with a 42" 4K monitor.  But MS keeps trying to sell us that tribble-bait.  They "improved" the QAT by spacing out the buttons to make it convenient for phat fingers on a touch screen, but cost us about 30% of the button space on our PC's.  MS dumbed down the icons color and content by "improving" them to SVG line drawings.  Fine for smartphones, not as good for PCs ...  it's frustrating.

I appreciate the extra info on the app -- and I'm all for whatever good they can do for it. I'm not against them having the app -- but those features are just not useful to me. Even if someone gave me a Surface, I wouldn't use it -- and that's not a a criticism of the Surface, it just that I don't need anything like that. I use two 22" monitors, an IBM Model M keyboard (the best keyboard ever made), and a PS/2 IntelliMouse (the vintage model from back in '90s).

I've been typing on this Model M for 27 years -- the original from my first computer in college -- an IBM 386). I have boxes of those mice to make sure that I'm set until I die (and several Model Ms to boot).

It has nothing to do with being "resistant to change" -- an assertion often used to rationalize mediocrity. There are solid reasons why that keyboard is the best ever built -- same goes for the mouse (though I exclude from the debate anyone's need for elaborate ergonomic mice or keyboards).

What I'm talking about is that on the whole -- companies do not make keyboards and mice with any sort of pride and craftsmanship anymore.

And that's what this OneNote debate is all about -- the REAL OneNote is the Model M in this domain. And what Microsoft is doing is saying, "You don't need THAT -- just use these standard keyboards like everybody else."

Except I'm not alone -- as they are a lot of people out there who still appreciate quality craftsmanship in keyboards https://clickykeyboards.com/ -- just like there are many OneNote users who recognize its greatness.

Did you watch the next youtube he did:

OneNote Page setup - Do these 3 things! (2019 top guide) 7min58https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1YVpzr7F8

It is an interesting demonstration of pen input. Sooper kool. Now all I need to do is spend a couple of grand on a Surface ...

First off, your argument is quite sound and I appreciate the way you think.

I have a different take on the "100 new features" though. That they could do "all that" and be so wildly off the mark is not something I would celebrate. I don't see it as impressive at all (not as a customer, anyway). As a developer myself (SQL Server, BI, .Net stuff), I can appreciate it to a degree in that context.

But lemme put it this way. 15 years ago, I had a team leader who had 10 years of Lotus Notes database development experience. We just had a merger and he came from the other bank. He was a great team leader -- but when I submitted a pilot for an application that could really help in merging our data, he was blinded by his background. He loved the idea -- but he wanted to implement it in Lotus Notes (since we wouldn't have to install anything that way).

My point of view: What difference does that make if it doesn't work?

But therein lies the rub -- how do you define "work"? I conceived of this whole thing -- from the full-text indexing process I built, to the pilot for the manual-matching of outliers, to the VB.Net application for a more feature-rich version of the pilot.

Why does that matter? Because I was coming at it from the perspective of a user (someone who developed an automated process that still had an unavoidable component of manual intervention.

I knew enough about Lotus Notes to know that it would not deliver what I had in mind, so I built that .Net version on my own time in one week (so I could counter his version with something demonstrably provable). I'm not trying to claim some super coding skills or anything of the kind (I was just learning VB.Net at the time). I'm simply saying that my mindset was rooted in how the user would interact with the application -- not slapping something together that we "didn't have to install."

It was not even in question once I presented my version -- it blew his Lotus Notes version out of the water. I would add that the primary user of the program absolutely loved it. That team leader had my pilot on a silver platter (and he fully approved of it) -- and yet he was still way off the mark.

Now why do you think that is? It wasn't just the platform at issue, it was the attitude in his approach. Had he worked with the data like I did, perhaps he would have seen things differently.

The point is -- Microsoft's "one size fits all mentality" is exactly line with that team leader's thinking. And I'm not telling you anything you don't know -- you said it yourself below: "Having one program to focus development on will make life easier for the MS programmers."

EXACTLY! It has absolutely nothing to do with what's in the best interests of the customer.

Microsoft is not even remotely concerned with how I use OneNote -- and it shows!

You might be interested in checking this out -- it's a video by some guy who seems to have an angle in peddling this half-****ed knockoff:

https://youtu.be/S5hLShifujw

Yes, that youtube is interesting take on the Windows 10 UWP <cr>applet. His point about adding 100 new features in 2018 is amazing. That is an incredible pace of development. Frankly it is almost unbelievable. As a former developer it would be a massive PITA just to keep up with other changes being rolled out. BUT, maybe MS should have waited another year to add another hundred missing features before they made UWP mandatory.

The point about UWP being the same across all OS's is nice, but it does not make up for missing features.  Having one program to focus development on will make life easier for the MS programmers. BUT, it means that new features will ALWAYS be limited by the lowest common denominator OS. So it will always be dumbed down due to the limits of the cheapest device supported.

dd

Did you watch the next youtube he did:

OneNote Page setup - Do these 3 things! (2019 top guide) 7min58https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1YVpzr7F8

It is an interesting demonstration of pen input. Sooper kool. Now all I need to do is spend a couple of grand on a Surface ...

Yep -- that's the same article I included in my previous reply (but thank you for sending it -- just in case I had missed it).

Yeah, I was FURIOUS when I read that -- not only because of what they were doing (which I knew was coming), but also the sickening way in which they act like they're doing us a favor. As I told William Devereux (the program manager who wrote that piece): Don't pi#$ down my back and tell me it's raining. 

Another thing that infuriates me is this idea of how they keep adding on features to pacify people -- as if that's all there is to it. The essence of the REAL OneNote is its "3 dimensional" architecture. I have mountains of material across 34 notebooks (not including the ones I don't have open on my desktop right now). It would be a nightmare trying to work with all that in the Windows 10 app (which is entirely engineered with mobile in mind). So they strip all that way in the app to open it up for space -- but I don't need all that freakin' space on my desktop, and I want to see my entire universe of operation in front of me (that's one of the things that made OneNote so phenomenal).

Now it's a glorified version of Word.

And speaking of features -- the search functionality in the app is a joke. And try pasting in a screenshot -- and maybe in an hour or so the OCR will finally pick up the text. Do the same thing in the REAL OneNote -- and it's immediate. When I brought up OCR to the guy in the video -- I didn't think it worked at all (since I had tested it before -- and seen a Microsoft agent tell someone that wasn't available yet). But in truth -- it is, sorta! So the video guy proudly peddled his propaganda about how it's there -- but not quite as good because it's on the server or whatever.

GIVE ME A BREAK! It's amateur hour every step of the way with this toy ("toddler-level" -- to borrow from another outraged customer).

Here's an excerpt of some of my debate with him:

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https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/17283"Better export options would bring it closer to 100%" -- You tacked on one too many zeros.

"single consistent platform across OneNote. If you pick up an iOS or an Android device or a Mac or a PC or even use OneNote on the web you'll now be able to have a consistent experience across all of those platforms" . . .

GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD -- along with The OneNote boss: I don't care about it being "consistent," I care about what works for me (the brilliance that you are butchering). STOP looking at everything through the prism of mobile and this "one size fits all" madness. That's the same kind of thinking that eliminated the Start button -- and we all know how that worked out. But by virtue of not having near the outrage of that debacle -- Microsoft will see it as "all is well," without an atom of regard for those who heavily rely on the REAL OneNote.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_onenote-mso_win10-mso_365hp/i-hate-windows-10-onenote/6f0d508d-7ff0-43e4-b1ed-f730fa78f41d?messageId=0d9ecd59-9f10-4376-afc0-1f71bde69525

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If you want a laugh, take a look at this initial propaganda of OneNote UWP

Here is the real title of the article

The best version of OneNote on Windowshttps://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/The-best-version-of-OneNote-on-Windows/ba-p/183974

And don't forget to read the 12 pages! (and counting) of comments. They basically say the same thing you've been saying, but starting a year ago ...  There is some really biting sniping.

One interesting comment points to this page if you want to make addins for OneNote UWP to replace lost functionality:

@ Integrate with OneNote- MS link page to instructions for building Addonshttps://developer.microsoft.com/en-US/onenote****Create empowering experiences across multiple platforms that reach millions of users worldwide.

The page above consists of links to the following 2 pages:

Extend OneNote with Office Add-ins:GET STARTED

In this article, you'll walk through the process of building a OneNote task pane add-in.

Integrate apps with OneNote using the Microsoft Graph REST API:EXPLORE

Microsoft Graph lets your app get authorized access to a user's OneNote notebooks, sections, and pages in a personal or organization account. With the appropriate delegated or application permissions, your app can access the OneNote data of the signed-in user or any user in a tenant.