Interesting to see Microsoft ramping up the OS X/iOS offerings under the new CEO:

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-make-onenote-available-for-free-for-macs-7000027256/#ftag=RSS14dc6a9

That is certainly good news for us Mac users. Thanks for the link!

Steve Z.

This is good news -- thanks for the tip. My OneNote library grows steadily.

It will be interesting to see what "full-fledged" (the reviewer's words) means in practice. Neither OneNote on the web or OneNote on iOS are yet "full-fledged" as of yet - mainly missing the drawing tools, which is a feature I use quite a bit in Windows OneNote. In fairness, its also the case that not all Evernote apps are fully-featured either, compared to the desktop version.

Maybe the updates will also fix the problems that OneNote on 8.0 and 8.1 have with attaching printouts, especially PDFs.

That's true - it's why I also use Outline+ on my iOS devices, despite the fact that together, OneNote and Outline+ take up a fair amount of space! But Outline+ does the drawing bit very well.

OneNote for Mac may be imminent, according to latest reports: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/03/12/one-note-mac-os-x-free/

Many thanks for the news.

(It's interesting, incidentally, how OneNote has moved from being, in its earliest days, the application that no one knew how or where to deploy or what use to make of it , to becoming now the bait for the MS marketing mousetrap.)

Which just goes to show we CRIMPers were right all along!

After all, how much more of a mixed-up mashup of outlining techniques could you have than OneNote?

Not to mention the kitchen sink...

According to German magazine 'Computerbild', both Mac and Windows desktop versions of OneNote will henceforth be free. Dang, that's cool!

http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-News-Windows-Microsoft-verschenkt-OneNote-PC-Mac-9905536.html

Now out - and free on Windows and the Mac.

On the basis of little more than ten minutes' usage, its functionality seems simpler and much less extensive than what I remember of the Windows version eight years ago. Perhaps for a free 'starter' edition that is inevitable. Curio has no reason to feel threatened yet.

The Mac version issued today (20140317) appears to have essentially the same features and menus as the web version (onedrive.live.com). Of course, several things that appear on OneNote ribbons on the web or in OneNote 2013 are replaced by commands in Mac's menubar or contextual menu - so it's a good idea to click around and see what's available where in the interface. The interface is "modern" -- reminds me of the new version of Pages and Numbers.

OneNote Mac doesn't appear to support inserting PDFs or print-to-OneNote. I was unable to drag documents onto a page.

OneNote 2013 on Windows has the fullest feature set in the OneNote family -- for now. Perhaps in time Microsoft will merge platform features into a single footprint?

From what I've read, it doesn't have drawing/sketching or proper outlining (sigh!); so it's actually much closer to the web or iOS versions than the Windows desktop version.

For those who want something a little more sophisticated, don't forget Outline (http://outline.ws/mac which does support file embedding, although not yet drawing (they're working on it!).

A quick follow-up on the Outline app: The syncing problems I mentioned earlier in the thread appear to now be fixed.

Another quick follow-up. Apparently it is out now, and it's free. Take a look here:
http://blogs.office.com/2014/03/17/onenote-now-on-mac-free-everywhere-and-service-powered/

Jim

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it really makes me see OneNote as a universal option. However, it causes me to worry that innovative apps like Outline and MagicalPad are just going to die out because they can't compete with Microsoft -- especially if OneNote is free everywhere.

Still, that's not going to stop me from using OneNote. I have started a list of areas in which OneNote Mac has limitations:

1. As far as I can tell, the only way to export your notes is to save as a PDF (other than simple cut and paste). On the PC, there are a host of export formats.
2. No custom tags.
3. No drawing tools.
4. Can't customize the date format.

Additionally, OneNote requires Mavericks (OS 10.9), which I am reluctant to install on my MacBook Air. It has slowed my MacBook Pro to a crawl at times. So that's an issue I'm going to have to wrestle with. Maybe I'll have to rely on Outline on my Air.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

However, it causes me to worry that
innovative apps like Outline and MagicalPad are just going to die out
because they can't compete with Microsoft -- especially if OneNote is
free everywhere.

I agree, this is called unfair competition in my book.

Ah, I knew there had to be a catch. I've been using OneNote 2010 on my Windows PC, which I paid for. I just downloaded the free 2013 edition, which was working just fine until I tried to create a new page in one of the notebooks that I keep on my computer (instead of on SkyDrive), and got a messages saying "Subscribe to Office to continue using this notebook." From the "Learn more" link:

[begin quote]
Anyone can download and use the free version of OneNote. When you subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium for just $9.99 per month, you get the premium version of OneNote, which easily integrates with the other latest Office applications and comes with additional capabilities, including the ability to:

Create notebooks on your PC. Create notebooks saved to your hard drive (offline) in addition to being saved to your OneDrive. Being able to work with notebooks offline as well as online is great for anyone with a spotty network connection or those who are always on the go.

Support your business needs. Your notes are synced to your OneDrive for Business, so you and your teammates can collaborate easily. For added security, you can password-protect your notebooks. And with Office 365 you get the latest Office applications, which means you get a complete note-taking experience, with embedded Excel files and added Outlook tasks, meeting notes, and contacts.

Record your notes. Why just write or type your notes when you can video- or audio-record them at the same time? That way you’re sure not to miss any important information. Perfect for students and for those important meetings.
[end quote]

Is this the deal breaker? Maybe. I don't want or need all my work notebooks, which I keep on my PC at the office, floating around on SkyDrive or on my other devices. Indeed, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Steve Z.

"easily integrates with the other latest Office applications"

I assume that means things like the "print to OneNote" driver.

So, the come-on is "you can have the minimalist OneNote for free, or you can pay the monthly freight and have a version that has the features that the older, cheaper, but not free, version had." IOW, Microsoft has wrapped a significant price increase into an empty bag.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Microsoft wrote:
>easily integrates with the other latest Office applications

Oh wow, that's profoundly disappointing. I still use 2010, which (as you say) I paid for and is very good.

So it's pay wads of dough to Microsoft for Office 365 (whether you want the whole thing or not), or pay slightly less wadded quantities of dough to Evernote for a very similar service.

Or just use Notebooks instead...

FYI, be careful about deleting sections in the Mac version. Whereas on the Windows version, deleted sections can be recovered from the system trash/recycle bin, on the Mac version no such luck, as far as I can tell. (Seems to me they should include a warning that the action cannot be undone.)

Paul Korm wrote:

Mar 18, 2014 at 07:23 PM

...

So, the come-on is "you can have the minimalist OneNote for free, or you
can pay the monthly freight and have a version that has the features
that the older, cheaper, but not free, version had." IOW, Microsoft has
wrapped a significant price increase into an empty bag.

___________________________________

Well, it's potentially a lot cheaper than you might think. Try US$9.95 - take a look at this post on DonationCoder.com:
MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review - http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=35950.0

I have to say though that I am disgusted with MS' apparently misleading advertising on this OneNote FREE version.

It must be said, there are various ways round the MS restrictions, for example by creating notebooks from other OneNote clients (e.g. Outline+ or MobileNoter). You can do that from iOS, too (the iOS version of Outline+ is very modestly priced, and happily interacts with OneDrive, as well as Dropbox et al).

I've just installed OneNote 2013, which has promptly replaced OneNote 2010. It's quite happily creating notebooks, in fact, but maybe that's because I had a fully paid-up version of OneNote 2010?

I'm glad to see they haven't further restricted the Windows desktop version's functionality: it still creates mini-outlines! In fact, the whole outlining thing has been slightly refined, with a variety of new tiny mouse-over icons and a new context menu.

So I'm a happy bunny!

MadaboutDana wrote:

I've just installed OneNote 2013, which has promptly replaced OneNote
2010. It's quite happily creating notebooks, in fact, but maybe that's
because I had a fully paid-up version of OneNote 2010?

I have a fully paid up version of ON10, but I was still given the message I needed to subscribe to Office in order to continue to use my locally stored notebooks with ON13. I believe that's really the only significant restriction with ON13, but for me that's a big deal. I seem to be able to use ON10 without any major issues, although when I use the ON10 screen clipper, it opens ON13 and saves the image there. I am a little afraid to uninstall ON13, because I'm not sure how that might affect ON10.

And I will agree that ON13, for the brief time I was using it, seemed like an excellent app... cleaner than ON10.

One thing I'm unsure of, and maybe someone here knows the answer: If you subscribe to Office, can you save notebooks locally on the Mac and iPad, or are you restricted to SkyDrive or OneDrive storage?

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

One thing I'm unsure of, and maybe someone here knows the answer: If you
subscribe to Office, can you save notebooks locally on the Mac and iPad,
or are you restricted to SkyDrive or OneDrive storage?

I don't know about Macs or iPads, Steve, (I wouldn't touch the things), but I subscribe to Office 365 and I can save my files anywhere - there's no restriction to SkyDrive only.

Graham

Strange: I have a mixture of local and OneDrive notebooks, and haven't received any such message (so far!).

I'll let you know if I do!

And as Graham says - despite Microsoft's efforts to persuade you there is only One True OneDrive, you can save Office files anywhere you like.

Ha! No sooner had I written that than I tried to create a new page in one of my local notebooks, and sure enough, the little message 'Subscribe to Office to continue using this notebook' popped up. Evil! Evil!

Actually, it appears that if I move the notebook to OneDrive, I can continue using it, but I don't want to do that.

And there's an amusing side. The page I've just tried to create does appear, doesn't get deleted, and can be edited. So the little message box is lying! It's just a PITA.

So to sum up: the message appears, but it's lying:
you can EITHER continue to use your notebooks locally (just dismiss the lying message whenever you create a new page),
OR you can move them to OneDrive (without necessarily subscribing to Office).

Weird. Only Microsoft...