In OneNote the Search bar has moved, How do I put it back to where it was?

Anonymous
2025-05-22T20:51:54+00:00

Version 2504 Build 16.0.18730.20122 on Windows 11.

I have been using OneNote for years, all of a sudden when I opened it up today, the Search bar has moved from its correct place on top of the pages list on the side, to now being in the upper right corner of the actual notes main page.

When I type in a search, the list of pages where the search term shows up now covers up half of the notes field, meaning you can't read half of the page to see if the search result is actually what you are looking for or not, making the entire search function pretty much useless.

How can I move the search box, and more importantly, the list of pages that contain the search result, so that it no longer covers up the actual notes page that I need to read?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | Other | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-27T15:18:10+00:00

    I sent them a "nice" note in the Help - Feedback section.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-27T14:26:01+00:00

    So in order to "Give more space for notes" they put a search box that can't be moved in the notes field and made it cover up half of your notes when you use the search so it literally is doing the exact opposite of what they supposedly made the change for.

    Wow, I hope someone lost their job over that level of screw up.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-26T13:32:05+00:00

    I HATE THE NEW DEFAULT search bar!! Make it a placement option. DO NOT force this new placement. The new search bar covers everything!!

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-05-26T08:13:27+00:00

    Thanks for sharing that article.

    I can't believe that Microsoft would misrepresent their own software! Microsoft makes excellent software, but occasionally makes a mistake, and this is one of those mistakes.

    The article says, "We’ve eliminated the unused horizontal space between the ribbon and your canvas". That's not unused space. It's normally filled in by all the tabs within a notebook. This is such a bizarre "update" by Microsoft! The search box was placed in a very efficient spot in terms of screen "real estate" - right in line with the tabs line. You can search for "tabs" screenshots on any web browser, and see picture after picture of the search box placement being very efficient. Microsoft has had this aspect of the User Interface well designed for years. And now it's changed, with no option to keep it in the excellent historical location? This new change is bizarre, especially since it is not based on the typical notebook with multiple tabs.

    Here's a typical example you can find on the web in previous version of OneNote. Wow, that is great UI design for efficient search box placement!!

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