AGAIN... What is "OneNote" vs "OneNote for Windows 10"

Maybe they should call it "TwoNote"...

MS marketing is ... confusing.  At times they can be brilliant, at other times they appear to be idiots.

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They lack the imagination to come up with useful new names, so they reuse the same name for different programs.  Just think about how many programs they've called "Outlook" ...

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Up until January 2019 Onenote was bundled with MS Office.  Then someone had a brainstorm and decided to (dis)"improve" it. They removed OneNote from Office, and put the "new & improved" version into Windows 10.  One distinguishing "improvement" in the Windows 10 version is that it CAN'T save to Windows 10! (that's logical) It can only save to OneDrive.  After a lot of screaming and hollering, in an exceedingly rare move, MS allowed us to re-install OneNote 2016, and told us that spring of this year they would return OneNote to Office.

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The OneNote tile with nothing else is Office. The other is obviously Windows 10.

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OneNote

Which Version of OneNote do you Use

2020 03 04- Your Notes App Could Be Giving Away All Your Secrets

https://www.pcmag.com/news/your-notes-app-could-be-giving-away-all-your-secrets

Most people aren't aware that their note-taking app of choice may not offer encryption.

Open a notebook in OneNote for Windows 10

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/open-a-notebook-in-onenote-for-windows-10-34f08dac-f7d5-4f0d-9f1c-5eb17a4c07c2

<snip>

Note: OneNote for Windows 10 only supports cloud-based notebooks. If you prefer to store your notes on your computer’s hard drive, you’ll need to use OneNote 2016 for Windows. The OneNote for Windows 10 app won’t be able to read your disk-based OneNote 2016 notebooks unless you move these notebooks to your free OneDrive account and then open them from that location.

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Open a notebook in OneNote for Windows – 2016/2013 only

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Open-a-notebook-in-OneNote-for-Windows-2e99ead1-a1db-43e3-9945-0b0df9542888

When you first install OneNote, you’ll be prompted to create a notebook. Whenever you open OneNote, your notebook will automatically open. You can use one notebook for all your notes, or you can create more notebooks. If you have several notebooks, you can switch between them.

File format changes in OneNote 2016 for Windows

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/file-format-changes-in-onenote-2016-for-windows-a9129622-1755-470b-91e7-b2a461194036

Convert a notebook to a different format

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/convert-a-notebook-to-a-different-format-52e2f763-e138-4f6b-8de2-48362b6fe76a

OneNote 2016 has a conversion tool so you can upgrade a legacy notebook to the current format. OneNote 2010, 2013, and 2016 use the same file format so you don’t need to convert files between these versions. You can use them interchangeably.

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2019 11 13- Good news for OneNote with Windows as Microsoft does a ‘180’.

https://office-watch.com/2019/good-news-for-onenote-with-windows-as-microsoft-does-a-180/

OneNote for Windows has a better future after some reverse-course announcements from Microsoft. OneNote desktop program gets extended life and a promotion. The desktop and app versions merging into a single codebase.  We’ll also explain the strange case of two OneNote for Windows.

    OneNote for Windows until 2023

    OneNote confusion continues

    Merging code bases

    Two OneNote for Windows

        OneNote for Windows

        OneNote app for Windows 10

The future of Microsoft OneNote: Notes unleashed (47min video)

https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/79266

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Did you ever see OneNote "radial"

I think one indicator of the depth of confusion built into something is that some confusion remains after the explanation, even a good one. Now I have several explanations bookmarked for this OneNote mess, and find myself referring back to them (including this one) to re-consolidate my understanding (?) of something as abstruse as a standard note-taking app. Ffs.

I feel just like Dave and have struggled with Outlook too.  I love the information provided by Rohn007. Thank you Ken for the original expression of this conundrum. I concur 100%!

My surface had to be replaced and I am setting up the new one. In attempt to keep this PC as clean as possible when setting up, I am reinstalling as opposed to restoring from restore point. (not sure it is a good decision, but what I am going with nonetheless)

I am still not clear which One Note to use to be in alignment with the future. I don't want to have to convert 2 years later. I know that my data is both local and in OneDrive because I didn't understand the change until reading Rohn007's post.

Would love to be advised.

Thanks in advance,

Jennifer

"Ffs"

Thanks Rohn for your efforts, but aboctok sums this up perfectly. I've read & understood your replies, but 5 minutes later couldn't explain it to someone else. I'm about to take notes in OneNote—some version of it, which stores its files somewhere—which I can refer back to.

MS has always been a disaster at naming products, and having 5-6 confusing versions of them. Maybe the worst named was their music effort, which had approx a dozen name changes in as many years.

OneNote is a superb app, but it truly needs Replace and a somewhat decent styling system like Word. It would also be so nice to know where ON stores the files, and a map of Notebook names to filenames. Finally, an About page which tells which version of ON this one is would be very helpful—but it's probably missing because MS isn't sure itself.