Chris Pratley's Office Labs and OneNote Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/feed.xml A blog about Office Labs and OneNote from behind the scenes. Tue, 16 Apr 2019 04:53:41 GMT en-US hourly 1 OneNote Mac! Another note, another web clipping... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-mac-another-note-another-web-clipping Wed, 09 Apr 2014 11:10:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2014/04/09/onenote-mac-another-note-another-web-clipping/ This video speaks for itself. Kudos to the team.

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUsAPdv8JZ4]

]]> OneNote for Mac! OneNote is Free! We have a Service API! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-for-mac-onenote-is-free-we-have-a-service-api Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:26:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2014/03/17/onenote-for-mac-onenote-is-free-we-have-a-service-api/ Today was a great day - we released "a metric ton" of new stuff. You can read all the details on the team's official blog.

At last we were able to unveil the new OneNote for Mac release. This is something many people have asked for over the years, and the team and I are stoked to finally make it available to you all.

Second, and maybe an even bigger deal, we made OneNote free on all platforms. Now you can get OneNote (for free! not a trial version!) on Windows 7 & 8 "Desktop", Windows 8 "Metro", Windows Phone, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and we also have a version that runs in the browser. You can get all this stuff at www.onenote.com. There are a few extra goodies that come with a paid version, but I think you'll agree that the free version is a great deal. (and the paid version comes with all the rest of Office, for just $5.83/month at the annual rate, an extra 20GB of OneDrive storage, Skype minutes and more). That's a better deal than $5/mo for a single app....

Third, we released an API for our cloud service that lets developers connect to OneNote. We already have a number of partners - you can see them all here: http://www.onenote.com/apps. You can also use the API to mail notes to yourself at me@onenote.com, or get a "clipper" to add to your favorite browser that sends web pages to OneNote to help with web research.  If you are a developer interested in connecting to OneNote, check our portal on http://dev.onenote.com/.

Fourth, we released a new mobile app of our own called Office Lens that lets you scan documents and whiteboards directly into OneNote. It's available for now on Windows Phone only. Check it out!

With the free 7GB of OneDrive cloud storage available to anyone, you can stay in sync across all your devices with your notes and To-Dos, invite your family and friends to shared notebooks, and generally bask in the feeling of being on top of it all...

Today we hit #1 trending topic on FaceBook, #1 in productivity in the Mac app store (ahead of even the OS X Maverick download), and more than 50K pages sent to OneNote through our API before we could even have our party!

Here is the team celebrating today - as you can see St. Patrick's Day is all about purple for the OneNote team!

I thought I'd share some of the coverage we are getting - pretty great stuff - and love the comments - so positive!

The Next Web: Microsoft launches free OneNote for Mac, freemium OneNote for Windows, and OneNote cloud API for apps

The Verge: Microsoft launches OneNote for Mac, brings new features to note-taking service

Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows: It's Official: OneNote is Now Free for Everyone

ZDNet: Microsoft delivers free OneNote for Mac and Windows

SlashGear: OneNote for Mac launches with new Evernote-challenging tools

Engadget: Microsoft's OneNote goes completely free, launches for Macs

MacWorld: First look: Could Microsoft OneNote for Mac replace Evernote? (duh, of course it can - it was never displaced to begin with!)

GeekWire: Microsoft releases free OneNote for Mac, makes Windows version free, offers new cloud API

GottaBeMobile: Microsoft Brings OneNote to the Mac, Makes All Versions Free to Download

Lifehacker: OneNote Releases Mac Client, Web Clipper, IFTTT Support, and More

 

]]> OneNote is 10 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-is-10 Tue, 29 Oct 2013 18:45:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2013/10/29/onenote-is-10/ OneNote is turning 10 this month. We started with "OneNote 2003" and have made many releases since then, growing in leaps and bounds, along with our user base. If 2003 was its birth, its conception was back in Nov 2000, when Steven Sinofsky and I exchanged some email about creating a new app, a topic I covered in my second-ever blog entry. We called it Scribbler, and working on that team was one of the best experiences of my career. It isn't often that you get to work with smart, dedicated people all pulling together and aligned as a team, passionate about making a great product. And now, 13 years later, that still describes the OneNote team - it remains one of the tightest knit, most loyal engineering teams around. While people do come and go from the team, it has very low turnover and everyone who has ever been a part of OneNote feels a connection with it.

In my current role I have been managing the OneNote program management team once again for the last year, after a hiatus of 6 years. (I also manage the teams for Word and several new "secret" things we're working on). I am pumped to be back involved day-to-day with OneNote.

It's a terribly exciting time for OneNote. The team has spent many years improving the Windows desktop version of the product, polishing its personal and team note taking, information management and collaboration features (hello! real-time multi-user sharing that works!). Just in the last year we've stepped up our game to include big new releases on Windows8, iPhone, iPad, and Android. We also have the web app (on Skydrive) and of course we are built-in to Windows Phone 8, and you'll see more from us shortly.

We made three videos recently to highlight real people using OneNote, for real things! We found out about them via the intertubes (and Twitter) and their stories were so interesting that we contacted them and they generously agreed to show us all how they use OneNote. Check these out at http://onenote.com.

If you are interested in being organized, especially with your spouse, or collaborating effectively with your team, you should check out OneNote. You probably already own it, and it is free on mobile/slates. And it is about to get way more awesome, but I can't tell you more just right now. (wink!)

Go OneNote! (and don't forget my favorite feature, screen clipping: Windows-S, or Win-Shift-S on Windows8.1)

]]> OneNote in schools https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-in-schools Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:44:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2013/04/12/onenote-in-schools/ I came across a couple of very interesting videos from two different schools using OneNote in the classroom and with faculty. I thought you might enjoy. You really see the power of pen/ink, freeform writing surface, capturing images and media, and shared notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW1NjHoRrAY&hd=1  This is from Whitfield School in St. Louis.

http://countryday.smugmug.com/Other/HANDBRAKE/10944710_tdfbDJ#!i=1790107080&k=kknrpnZ&lb=1&s=A. This one is from Cincinnati Country Day.

It is great to see these educators using OneNote in ways that we designed for, and taking it to new heights.

 

 

]]> Onetastic - it's fantastic! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onetastic-its-fantastic Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:58:24 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2012/03/15/onetastic-its-fantastic/ I recently came across a nifty free add-in for OneNote 2010 called Onetastic that provides some capabilities OneNote users have wanted for a while: image rotate and crop, quick text styles, the ability to pin links to any part of your notes to the desktop, and importantly, gives you a "Favorites" list within OneNote itself so you can easily access your favorite note pages from a pick list.

 

Perhaps my favorite feature is OneCalendar, which builds a calendar view of your notebooks. You can easily see what notes have appeared recently, and browse by date in a familiar calendar view. OneNote already have view by date but OneCalendar really made the notes in my notebooks pop. It is especially useful for anyone using team shared notebooks, since you can see at a glance just how much others have been adding to the notebooks. Turns out - there's a lot I wasn't aware of!

 

Onetastic is made by Omer Atay a developer on the OneNote team in his spare time. What better assurance that it's safe and compatible with the product?

 

Onetastic requires OneNote 2010 (or a later version - wink wink), and requires OneNote to be on Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 or higher (I am running on Win8 Consumer Preview and it works fine)

 

Give it a spin. It's small, free, and useful. Hard to argue with that.

]]> OneNote Web App gains Ink display https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-web-app-gains-ink-display Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:25:08 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2011/09/30/onenote-web-app-gains-ink-display/ In case you missed it, the always updating Web Apps (available at http://office.live.com and embedded all over the web) got a refresh yesterday. You can read about it more here: Announcing new features you've requested.

One of the big ones for me was that the OneNote Web App can now display ink notes. So for those of you who use the stylus a lot, your notes are now visible for you to refer to on any device.

Also check out the OneNote App for iphone, now at v 1.2 with kinks worked out, and of course WIndowsPhone 7.5 (Mango) being rolled out now has improved Office app support including OneNote. Julian Kay has a nice overview with pictures.

Don't ask me about support for more platforms: Like Sgt. Shultz, "I know nothing!"

Chris

 

]]> Ribbon Hero 2: the game you can play at work https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/ribbon-hero-2-the-game-you-can-play-at-work Wed, 18 May 2011 16:39:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2011/05/18/ribbon-hero-2-the-game-you-can-play-at-work/ Ribbon Hero 2 has been out for about three weeks now. It is outpacing all our past projects in downloads by a wide margin. So far, I'd categorize the user feedback on "RH2" in the following way:

Haven't tried it: that is the dumbest thing I can imagine
Have tried it: this is cool, fun, clever, and I am getting value out of it

So, the verdict is clear: you should try it. Don't read about it and judge it. Download it, install it, and try it. If you have Office 2007 or 2010, try it at work - our data shows that most other people do. It is one of the few work-safe games imaginable - after all, you are improving your work skills through workplace training. If anyone asks why you're playing a game, tell them "you should play it too - I've already learned three new things that improve my productivity and help me go home sooner (ahem, I mean get more work done). Also I dare you to not get addicted to the lounge-y theme music."

In 2010 Office Labs released Ribbon Hero, a game that helped you get better at Office while you played it. Our major finding at that time: "that is not as dumb an idea as it sounds". In fact, people played it, liked it, and learned about Office making them more productive. Schools started using it. Some corporations deployed it. Training centers used it. Ribbon Hero has since become a poster child for the "gamification" movement, where fun is used to help learning. That's also called "serious gaming", although its catchier (and more fun!) to say "gamification".

The new version, RH2, is a complete overhaul, much more polished with a narrative and "bling", and updated to more than "sort of fun". We learned from our pals the experts in XBox and added "charming", "clever", "humourous", "self-deprecating", "tongue-in-cheek", and some other personality elements I am sure you'll enjoy. And it is a *lot* more fun. After all, helping people recover after Clippy has messed them up - how can that not be rewarding? We had some fun turning Clippy on himself:

Ribbon Hero initial comic strip

Here's a sample of the feedback we've gotten from people who have tried RH2. You should believe them.

: Microsoft Clippy is back! Ribbon Hero 2, the best tutorial ever

: Ribbon Hero 2 is actually quite nice as a game itself (not only as a helper) ->

groovyPost: “Overall, Ribbon Hero 2 is hands-down the best training tool I've ever seen.”

GeekWire: “Never let it be said that the people at Microsoft don't have a sense of humor.”

istartedsomething: “I can’t imagine a better way to incorporate learning for a productivity application”

]]> Search Commands for Office 2010: It's here! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/search-commands-for-office-2010-its-here Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:37:29 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2011/04/13/search-commands-for-office-2010-its-here/ I know there are a lot of fans of our Search Commands 2007 prototype from Office Labs out there, and many of you have written to ask us to update it to work on Office 2010. Well, thanks to some volunteer work and a little burning of the midnight oil from a few Labsters, we now have the requested update.

Search Commands is used by many people to find that one command that you know exists but can't find. It's used by others to discover what capabilities exist - for example you might search on "math" in Word and be surprised to see the deep support for equation editing that Word 2010 supports natively. Still other people prefer to navigate the Office applications using search for anything other than the most basic commands. Use Win-Y to get the search box, type a few letters, then use the number key to jump directly to the command you want. It's a different experience than clicking with the mouse or remembering a lot of shortcuts, but quite a few people seem to like it.

BTW, it's this variety of usage that interests us in Labs - we release our prototypes to see how people like to work when given alternatives. So give Search Commands 2010 a try and leave feedback on the site for the people who worked on it...

Cheers!

Chris

]]> The Garage https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/the-garage Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:41:54 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2011/01/20/the-garage/ It's not often these days I post twice in one week, but I just loved this post about The Garage @ Microsoft. This is a community that started up about 18 months ago as a grassroots effort, initiated by my team, Office Labs, but now is self-sustaining and run by the community itself. In the picture, I'm the one on the farthest left with the big cheesy smile. I think Quinn did a great job explaining what it is all about in the interview. The Garage is one of the reasons its so fun to work at Microsoft. People come together to work on their passion, and they have the support and resources they need to follow their ideas to fruition.

]]> OneNote Mobile now for iPhone! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/chris_pratley/onenote-mobile-now-for-iphone Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:49:03 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chris_pratley/2011/01/18/onenote-mobile-now-for-iphone/ It's another great day for OneNote lovers. OneNote Mobile is available for the iPhone. It's been a top customer request for awhile, so it's great to finally have this out. You can read more about it on Takeshi Numoto's blog, and Mike Oldenburg's blog goes into more detail. And if you happen to be reading this on your iPhone, the link to OneNote Mobile in the app store is here. 

The icing on the cake is that it is free for a limited time, so go get it now!

I am sure people will have lots of questiosn about this release, and want to know if there will be OneNote for iPad, Mac, Andorid, whatever. I won't be able to answer those questions, so please don't bother asking :) . If you have specific questions about OneNote Mobile for IPhone, you can ask Mike Oldenburg on his blog. I use a Windows Phone these days (which already has OneNote Mobile) so I am not the best guy to ask. As always though I am happy to chat with anyone who wants to leave a comment.

Yippee!

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