
Microsoft plans to consolidate its disparate OneNote apps.

Microsoft introduced the web version of OneNote in 2014, more than 10 years after launching the original desktop version. Microsoft will provide better integration between the OneNote web app and Teams, making sharing and viewing links to notes and notebooks possible while chatting inside the collaboration app. Microsoft will bring feature parity to the OneNote web and desktop apps over the coming weeks.

It also lets document viewers know if they have editing privileges. The mode switcher helps prevent accidental changes to content, Das said. Like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the OneNote web app will allow people to toggle between editing mode and viewing mode on documents. They will also be able to write a note using a stylus as soon as it touches the canvas of a touch-enabled device. With the upcoming features, people using the web app will have the ability to resize embedded videos, zoom in and out of documents, and copy and paste tables and lists without losing their original format.

Now, "Gartner primarily classifies it as a personal note manager, a competitor to Evernote." "OneNote was once a trailblazer, operating as both a content type and a content manager," Gartner analyst Larry Cannell said.

Nearly every company with a Microsoft 365 license has employees taking notes on the digital notebook. OneNote is one of the most popular apps in Microsoft 365, according to Gartner. The improvements will be beneficial to OneNote users who want to access the web app remotely from a PC, tablet, smartphone or any device that doesn't have the app installed. Microsoft did not specify which new web app features are available now and which will roll out over the next few weeks.Įqualizing the One Note web app with the two desktop versions is "so users can confidently get their jobs done on whatever platform they prefer," wrote Chetna Das, program manager at Microsoft, in a blog post.
