One Note desktop as we know it will disappear eventually. Previously announced by Microsoft earlier this year it is now starting to happen. If you are a big fan of OneNote 2016 as we are you are probably very disappointed by this news.
Well hopefully we can ease the fear and transition just a bit.
First of all here is the scoop…. OneNote 2016 desktop is not being replaced by another desktop version. If you are using it today you are ok for now. If you are familiar with Office 365 and the OneNote Online application that is still (not unlike most other Office products) a lightweight version of the desktop version. The On-Line version is NOT the replacement thankfully.
Introducing ‘OneNote’. Yes – just one word nothing else. This is a new app automatically shipped with the latest versions of Windows 10. It is said that if you currently use OneNote 2016 desktop that should not disappear (yet). As long as you have used OneNote 2016 previous to the Windows 10 updates it should continue to work. However if you have not used the desktop version you will be forced to use ‘OneNote’
Initially it will take a little time to adjust to the look and feel of the product. Change is good right? Diving in deeper though you will notice most of the common actions you could do in the desktop version are still possible with ‘OneNote’. One item missing that jumped out was the common snip tool. WINKEY-SHIFT-S or right click on the Desktop icon in the taskbar would launch a quick panel for snipping.
Introducing Snip and Sketch. This is a separate Windows 10 app that is now included with the 1809 update. Previously available in the store this is now part of the system.
Without diving into all of the changes in this post you can review the good and bad with the following Microsoft article.Microsoft OneNote details
Essentially the other major change is the local OneNote file in the desktop version will no longer be available. Since many users of OneNote realized a while ago that hosting the file in a shared location like OneDrive was the ideal place to store the file this change should not be detrimental to most users.