OneNote Testing
What it is like to be a tester on the Microsoft OneNote team and day to day life as an SDET in Office. Plus a few tips for using OneNote and an occasional powertoy.
A seemingly unrelated paper I was asked to read
I've been doing a brush up on my statistics skills recently. This has been going pretty well since...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 11/05/2013
A really great parody of shipping software
From my new friends in Yammer, here is “Ship it, Maybe”:...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/31/2013
This appeared outside my office
Looks like someone was busy creating a nice piece of art on the wall outside my office: Pretty nifty...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/28/2013
Holding on to duplicate bug reports
One of the ways we can resolve and close a bug around here is as a duplicate of another bug that...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/24/2013
Clone bugs
I've been working recently with a group of "cloned bugs" and wanted to explain a bit about...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/21/2013
A really cheap estimate
One of the questions I was asked to answer this week was, “When do you estimate you will be done...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/16/2013
Creating a link to a OneNote page on the desktop
One of the blogs I linked to is gone, so I decided I should update the directions for those folks...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/11/2013
Coming up with estimates for test work
This week has been busy and one of the tasks on our plate is defining estimates for test work needed...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/04/2013
Tip for getting links to pages in a OneNote printout
Late last year I wrote about a tip for getting OneNote 2013 to print all pages of a printout to a...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/30/2013
Word count has been added to Onetastic
Thanks Omer! Way back, one of the testers here in OneNote (Jeff Cardon) wrote a word count addin for...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/26/2013
Where I was last week
I got to go to McGill University (www.mcgill.ca) in Montreal. I went to help find folks to...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/23/2013
OneNote on the Today show!
We wound up a Today show segment about "Back to School" items. If you missed it, it is now available...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/12/2013
A little about our UI-less test harness
A question that comes up quite frequently when we introduce people to OneNote automation concerns...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/10/2013
Omer has updated OneTastic with the ability to upload macros
Omer sent an email a few days ago announcing a new feature in Onetastic. Details and the links...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/27/2013
We had a "bug bash" with the new tester class at Microsoft this week
This was actually quite a bit of fun for us. Bruce, a former OneNote tester himself, transferred...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/22/2013
Defining a "bug" part 3
It is review time here at Microsoft and I already heard the phrase "I do not think I opened enough...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/19/2013
The OneNote 2013 XSD is out
Just a quick FYI that Dan put it on his blog today:...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/08/2013
I've been waiting for this book for quite a while
OneNote for Dummies is available:...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/05/2013
A week of digging through bugs
This last week has been very busy for me and others on the team. We've been digging into our bug...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 08/02/2013
Regedit added Favorites?
I have no idea how I missed this one, but at some point, at least in Windows 7, Regedit added a...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/29/2013
Updating the OneNote Text Importer for OneNote 2013
<Edit on 7/26/2013> I'm pulling this for now while I troubleshoot. Thanks for the reports and...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/22/2013
A nice photo in the OneNote hallway
Dan Escapa noticed this in the hallway today:...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/19/2013
Running the Windows 8 App Compatibility Tests
One other problem I mentioned with getting this most recent update to OneNote into the store was...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/19/2013
Our new immersive OneNote client shipped
In case you did not see the announcement on our OneNote Team blog, we shipped a new version of...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/16/2013
A tip to make outlines small before arranging on a page
This week I received an email from a fellow who wanted to move and rearrange outlines (containers)...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/11/2013
Code reviews on the test team
I've mentioned a few times in the past that before we (the test team) check in any code we have to...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/08/2013
Three OneNote clients shipped today!
The whole goal for us on any team at Microsoft is to ship software. We can optimize, debug, plan and...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 07/01/2013
OneNote’s own Nicole Steinbok talking at Ignite!
This is really great – OneNote PM Nicole gave a start (4 1/2 minute) talk at Ignite and it is now...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/28/2013
The training session I helped with is online
Back on June 4th, a couple of us on the OneNote team helped out with an online training session...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/27/2013
Our task library should be neutral and never pass or fail a task
The way our automation is structured is roughly done in two parts. The first part is our automated...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/24/2013
Got my PC Refresh machine - a Surface Pro!
One of the nicer advantages about working here at Microsoft was our big "PC Refresh" push...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/17/2013
Another OneNote in a window
Apparently, this is happening all through our building for the different applications which are...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/13/2013
Eton?
I saw this in a coworker's window earlier this week. This is the view from the hallway: Since...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/12/2013
File sizes on Skydrive
This question came up during the training class on Tuesday in which I was answering questions behind...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/06/2013
Printing to OneNote in landscape or portrait
This question came in the last week but I do not remember where - maybe a comment on my blog - but a...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 06/03/2013
Working behind the scenes next week online during a OneNote training course
This should be pretty fun. Next week we are offering a free (in English) training course for folks...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/30/2013
Off to an all day training session
Today the entire OneNote team is headed out to an "offsite" training session in Bellevue....
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/20/2013
Tip: reverse the keyboard on your Surface when you carry it
Nothing here directly related to OneNote, but this helped many folks around here so I thought I...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/16/2013
Minor fixes (tweaks) to some test code
One of the automated tests I own had a failing result a few weeks ago and in the process of fixing...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/13/2013
A tip to color the background of text in OneNote 2013
A request I get every so often is background colors for outlines. Essentially, people want to color...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/09/2013
Pretty good article advocating for a software testing degree
I noticed a thread over on slashdot about a writer advocating for "Software Testing" as a degree...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/06/2013
Testing the finger painting feature for OneNote
By now you have probably noticed that we added a new feature to OneNote - finger painting. Read all...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 05/02/2013
Removing OneNote notebooks from the list of recently opened
An email came my way late last week from a user that wanted to remove some notebooks from his list...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/29/2013
Enabling Tablet PC Components to get ink to work
Recently a topic came up in which a OneNote user, who does not have a tablet PC, was having...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/22/2013
We have a new advertisement for Office that features OneNote!
I just noticed this today: Pretty slick, I think. I thought this one was unique enough that it...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/19/2013
Some acronyms I am using this week
I found myself using these acronyms repeatedly this week and since they are all relevant to testing,...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/18/2013
A typical test day in OneNote
Last week I had a typical day in the test team. Here's a sample of what happens. Finished a test...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/15/2013