Neither OneNote 2016 (desktop) nor OneNote for Windows 10 (Store) disappears now that Microsoft is merging the code bases and integrating the new Fluid framework.
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OneNote on the desktop was never ‘dead’ because it never came out of support, but the way Office 2019 removed OneNote 2016 made it look less ‘mainstream’ and more ‘legacy’. The announcement at the Ignite 2019 conference that not only did OneNote 2106 get the same support life cycle as the rest of Office 2019 (until October 2023, with extended support until October 2025) and went back to the standard Office installation (in March 2020), but that the codebases of the desktop and Store app merged also caused some confusion.
Did that mean that the Store version of OneNote was dead instead? No. The message from OneNote Principal Product Manager Ben Hodes is that this is a choice: “your notes your way”, as he put it.
“If we say ‘one place for all your notes throughout your life’, that one place is OneNote,” Hodes added. “It is not a specific endpoint or version. It is OneNote.”
So while development starts again at OneNote 2016, OneNote for Windows 10 is still being actively developed. At the beginning of 2020, Microsoft hopes to have fully merged the code base for the two Windows versions. However, that does not mean that the two versions of OneNote will merge, nor will the Mac, iOS, and Android versions become the same applications. Instead, Microsoft will be able to bring progress in OneNote 10 to OneNote 2016 in the next 18 months – and introduce the same new features in both.
Sometimes a feature comes to OneNote 2016 or OneNote 10 before it reaches the other Windows version. But the plan is that all versions of OneNote will get the same functions over time.
In particular, this is about giving OneNote new features that go to the other Office applications without the OneNote team having to write their own versions of it, and on top of the fact that the missing OneNote 2016 features must continue to port to OneNote 10. This includes the ability to save notebooks wherever you want, macros and plug-ins, using the Office AutoCorrect dictionary, the ability to paste multiple images from the clipboard – whatever your favorite missing feature is.
The official route map for OneNote functions.
Image: Microsoft
Bring Office functions to OneNote
The main reason for deciding to merge the OneNote code base to take advantage of these Office features was the Fluid framework, which is about fast collaboration, information, and tools such as cleaning up ink – all of the core values of OneNote. OneNote will have an example of the Fluid framework “sometime next year,” Hodes said. Expect more news and possibly a demo at the 2020 Build conference in May.
The way Fluid is implemented in Office and other applications such as Office Canvas is actually a good way to think about the two versions of OneNote for Windows. All apps and services that use Fluid can synchronize information back and forth with a high bandwidth (using the SharePoint Online backend), but the way it is displayed in applications depends on what fits those applications. The Office Canvas will be one implementation of Fluid, based on a common core provided by the Fluid team, but built specifically for Office. Application teams such as OneNote can choose which Fluid component they need and write their own Fluid components (and which contribute to the framework for other apps to pick up if they are useful). The OneNote team has been talking to the Fluid team for months to see how this works for the OneNote Canvas.
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Some existing Office functions can come to OneNote more easily now that Windows 10 can share the OneNote 2016 codebase, which integrates Office functions such as AutoCorrect and Spell Check Editor. The first of these are @ listings, which are already available in Word and Teams – so when you type @ followed by someone’s name, they get a notification. If it is in the OneNote notebook that is linked to a Teams channel, they will receive a Teams notification in the same way as when they are mentioned in the Teams channel. @ listings will come to OneNote in the first half of 2020. There will also be better task integration between OneNote and Microsoft To-Do.
OneNote 2016 gets the same Microsoft search function on the title bar that Office 2019 applications already have. That replaces the current search in OneNote 2016 (which has not been updated for a long time), but it does help to release more information that is stored in OneNote or elsewhere in Office. OneNote Online also gets a better search query; currently you cannot find a page in OneNote Online because the indexer is not active; hopefully the switch to Microsoft Search will solve that.
Take Store functions to OneNote 2016
Although OneNote for Windows 10 still lacks many OneNote 2016 functions, it has a number that are not present in desktop OneNote. These include more sorting options, the ability to synchronize custom tags between devices, and much better accessibility features. Once the code bases have been merged, OneNote 2016 will also receive them.
Functions planned for the combined OneNote.
Image: Microsoft
The first Store app feature that comes to OneNote 2016 is the dark mode, which is already available to users in the Office Insider program. It’s flexible, so you can have a dark interface but a white background if that makes the note clearer.
More ambitious is the fact that OneNote 2016 will get the faster, more efficient “modern synchronization” in the Store version of OneNote. The synchronization protocol used in OneNote 2016 is designed for notebooks that are stored on local shared files and are synchronized with a PC through a high-bandwidth corporate network. Other OneNote clients use synchronization designed for Internet connections that may be slower and not always available, so “modern synchronization” moves smaller pieces of content, meaning pages are updated with new content that someone else types into a note faster.
OneNote 2016 will get that, but it will still allow you to save notebooks on your own PC if you want (and synchronize them through OneDrive without having to store them in the cloud only, just like you can do today) . This can result in large files stored on your PC, including the local cache and backups (by default, OneNote 2016 stores three backups of each notebook): “In addition to ensuring that you have so many things as human as possible when you go offline, “Hodes noted. In the future, you will get more options for what is cached locally, using adaptive synchronization that looks a bit more like OneDrive Folders on Demand, where you can choose which sections you want and don’t have available when you’re not connected to the internet.
Brand new OneNote functions
OneNote 2016 does not only get Store functions. Now that the OneNote team is not trying to rewrite all desktop functions to place them in OneNote for Windows 10, both versions get new functions.
The section functions for sections and pages in OneNote have not been updated in many years and they will receive more attention and some new options.
Instead of sharing a complete notebook or e-mailing a copy of the current page, you can finally share only a portion of a notebook. There will be enterprise versions of the staff and class notebook functions that are so popular in education, where sections can be made read-only or accessible only to some people – for example, a manager who performs assessments may have a section for each staff member only shared with them.
That kind of differential sharing is useful for meeting notes: you can already get the list of participants and meeting information from OneNote, but you may not want to share it when you distribute the notes that you take during a meeting.
Microsoft information security and data breach protection are also featured in OneNote, so that regulated companies can comfortably allow staff to share notebooks without worrying about information that violates compliance. They can also audit notebooks and even set time-sensitive information to expire or be automatically divided.
These are all functions that make OneNote much more useful for companies, especially now that they can be confident that they don’t need to store notebooks in the cloud to get the latest features.
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