Compartilhar via

Now that the beta is out the door, I can talk about OneNote 2010!

  • Artigo

Finally - the beta is public, so run over there and try it out! The toughest part about this blog has been trying to write about what I'm testing, but not being able to mention the new features we are adding.

So let's go way back in time and talk about a change I tested related to printing. One of the pieces of feedback we got was that folks that use rule lines on pages wanted the lines to print when they print to paper. OneNote 2010 will do this for you automatically - if you have ruled lines on a page, they will print.

Testing this was pretty simple and straightforward. Apply each rule line setting and print to both color and black and white printers. We have many of these in our lab, and some of the folks on the OneNote team also have some of the printers that include scanners built into them. While setting up was simple (create dozens of pages of different sizes, apply the different rule lines, change the rule line colors and page content), printing took quite a while. Installing the printers took time to start. Once I started the printing, I had some "free time" to move on to other tasks while the printouts were made. Then round them up and visually inspect each page.

This is where I hit a little surprise to me. If I saw a bug, I would report it in our database. Usually, I'm able to add all the needed information to the bug: items like screen shots, memory dumps, log files and so on. Since I had a piece of paper that was showing the bug, there was no way to add this to the database. I quickly realized the easiest way to show the behavior was to write the bug number on the printout and drop it off on the developer's desk.

Now you should see your rule lines when you print. Here's some photographic proof:

clip_image001

And just for fun, this is one of the rows of printers in one of our labs I used, taken with a really bad cell phone camera:

clip_image002

Ok, this is a very simple change we made for OneNote 2010. It was based on feedback we got from our customers, though, so I hope everyone likes the change. Like I mentioned, this was relatively simple to test. I wanted to start off talking about testing OneNote 2010 gently and move on to the more complicated tasks the test team had faced.

For now, get the beta and enjoy!

Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,

John

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2009
    Can you send me email via the link at the top right of this page?  I'd like to get a copy of the section that produces the problem. Is there ink involved?

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2009
    On-screen lines are a help to hasty scribblers on a tablet. Having converted the ink to text - does both the on-screen and printed text NOW align with the lines? Can the lines be turned off for just the printing of this specific page? The relentless advance of technology.

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2009
    The converted text does not align with the rule lines - I'll suggest this for future versions. If you turn off rule lines for "My Page", they will not print for "My Page."  As a quick test in addition to print preview, you can always print to XPS and see what will print when you print to paper. Side note for when you see the big plotter printer in the lab photo:  There is a big sign on it saying to ensure you print preview before printing.  Between the paper and the ink, it is very possible that a large printout can cost in excess of $100, so we definitely don't want to waste money.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    As a passionate and long time OneNote user, I regret to say just how underwhelmed the beta has left me. For a home user, working across just two machines it offers me very little new. Yes OK, the bug where some unticked checkbox labels do not appear in the "Show all tagged notes results" has gone, but I reported or try to report that to Microsoft 3 years ago and it should have been fixed in a service pack long since. What's worse is some of the things that have gone with the advent of the ribbon. Notably huge amounts of screen real estate to be replaced by white space on the right on most of the ribbon tabs. And whereas before, I could tag with any label with just two keyboard shortcut presses (not just the top ten with one), I can no longer do this... even if I place the tags drop down button on the quick access bar. And what I would have given to have been able to attach dates to tags, and sort accordingly. Another feature request which it would have been great to be able to discuss properly years ago. I posted it (as did others) on the Microsoft Connect forum but one never gets any impression that these feed into the development cycle, even to be discarded after consideration. Onenote is a great product, but I still get the feeling Microsoft is not taking it seriously.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    Hello John, I usually run with the ribbon minimized since I have a small screen (1024x768).  Double click one of the tabs to minimize the ribbon, and another double click will maximize it.  A single click will maximize it until you make a selection, then it will minimize again. The comment about tags is a point well taken.  I'll pass that along. And as one of the folks the monitors the connect group, I can say we do take that feedback into account.  I apologize that we couldn't get to these features this release. Thanks for giving the beta a try, and I appreciate the feedback, John

  • Anonymous
    November 23, 2009
    John, I noticed the new rule lines behavior in the tech preview and want to thank you guys for addressing it.  It's important to the way I work and it is working the way I need it to work.  Thank you also for allowing multiple favorite pens to be deployed to the quick access bar.  That really beats having to drill all the way down for them after briefly changing to the select-type text tool.

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2009
    I was disappointed to find out that neither the OneNote 2010 Beta nor the Office 2010 Mobile Beta contain a new OneNote Mobile client.  Do you have any inside information on the development of OneNote Mobile?  The 2007 client is painfully lacking even the most basic features and prevents me from not bringing my laptop to meetings.  If I could ink, draw images, scribble on photos, and do more than just simple text formatting on my phone, I would never need my laptop for meetings.

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2009
    ON Mobile: stay tuned.  Can't say any more yet. John

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2009
    Thanks, John, for the note.  I understand the fact that you are bound by confidentiality rules and so on, but do appreciate the acknowledgment that something is coming!  :-)