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.
Another post for my ol' Lenovo
Way back in 2006 I received a Lenovo Thinkpad x60 when I first came to the team. It has presented me...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/11/2013
Notes about testing the ink colors we added
Last month we shipped an update to the Windows 8 store that had added functionality for OneNote. I...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/09/2013
OneNote test team showing some artistic skills
Yesterday our test team took a few hours off and went to a painting studio in Kirkland. We...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/05/2013
Why didn't I realize this sooner?
Just a tip for today. I don't know why I haven't mentioned this before but this past week I have...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 04/01/2013
An update for OneNote!
I guess everyone on the internet already noticed, but we just updated OneNote and you can download...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/22/2013
Defining "bug" part 2
As our former intern and I continued our discussion about what constitutes a bug, our conversation...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/20/2013
Trying to define "bug", part 1
One of our interns from last year and I had a chat last week in which we started to debate the...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/14/2013
A new twitter service is up and running in the OneNote hallway
The former website I had used for years now to aggregate tweets about OneNote looks like it shut...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/11/2013
OneNote 2013 keyboard shortcuts
One of the tasks that I always try to find time to complete (but never seem to actually get to...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/07/2013
Finding out server status while testing OneNote
Many times when I am testing new OneNote code with SkyDrive and hit what I suspect may be a bug, I...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 03/04/2013
A quick tip for using any Win8 apps on a multiple monitor machine
I was using OneNote on a multiple monitor machine the other day and noticed that by default, the...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/28/2013
OneNote test is hiring (again)
I've been helping with our hiring efforts recently and realized that we have two test positions...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/25/2013
OneNote is #1 underhyped Windows application on Lifehacker
On the one hand, this is great news: https://lifehacker.com/5984329/top-10-underhyped-windows-apps On...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/16/2013
Simple logistics with managing offices these past few days
We have some new folks coming from other buildings here on campus (Microsoft calls its set of...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/15/2013
Lessons from the Dreamliner?
Up here in Seattle, Boeing is a very important company. Now that their Dreamliner is going through...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/11/2013
Free OneNote 2013 Quick Start Guide
Just wanted to pass along some free templates Quick Start Guides we are giving away. You can jump...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/05/2013
Saying “Goodbye” to an old machine
Just about six (or was it seven?) years ago, I suggested to the team that we needed a server to use...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 02/04/2013
The OneNote 2007 text importer executable
Thanks for bearing with me. It seems like all the old ISPs I was using to host some of the OneNote...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/29/2013
OneNote 2013 (and the rest of Office) now available
Just a quick note that OneNote and all the rest of the Office applications are now available for...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/29/2013
Automation as inoculations
One of the books I have been reading is Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 : adopting agile...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/25/2013
Updating a pair of tools
This week I am checking in some changes I am making to a pair of tools I use regularly. I wish the...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/21/2013
A simple tip for working on multiple monitors
This question came through my email this week: "I am using Windows 8 and want to dock OneNote...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/17/2013
A former OneNote tester is writing a book and you can help!
Patricia Walsh was a tester on the OneNote team until around a year ago. She left us after setting...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/15/2013
Updating a help article based on a test pass
One of the many tasks that testers perform is verifying our help files are accurate. The timing...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/10/2013
OneNote Tip: Restructuring my blog archive using subpage
Maybe it is obvious but I keep my blog articles in OneNote. I've been doing this since OneNote 2007....
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/07/2013
I have 5 monitors and 6 computers in front of me right now
One of the goals of getting a machine set up that has the capability of running many virtual...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 01/03/2013
Tip: printing long documents to OneNote
One of our power users sent me a mail last week noticing a change in the new version of OneNote. If...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/27/2012
These appeared on my door
Anyone who has worked with me for awhile realizes I love analogies and puns. So I guess I should not...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/20/2012
Getting my network card working with HyperV
This last week I upgraded (actually, wiped and installed) my nicest machine to run Windows Server...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/14/2012
The Payment calculation in OneNote
One of the testers on our team came by and had been tasked with verifying our Payment command is...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/10/2012
A quick look at the test team's Learning Center
One of the notebooks that I have open across all my machines is our Learning Center notebook. This...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/06/2012
A quick update on where I am currently using OneNote
When I first came to the OneNote team, I had a single laptop at home I was using for my notes. This...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 12/03/2012
Finished taking notes for a Coursera course - OneNote lessons learned
I finished a class I started a few weeks (months?) ago on Coursera. Now that I have had a little...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 11/27/2012
An interesting (to me) lab conversation
We are in the process of upgrading a file server we have which we use to store DMP files. We've had...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 11/20/2012
Dogfooding in Spanish
Every so often, I switch my dogfood account over to a different language just so I can make sure our...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 11/05/2012
Reading about unit tests
One of the other testers and I were talking this morning about unit tests. Here’s an example...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/29/2012
Source code for the text importer for OneNote
Way back when, the server that held the source code for the text importer got shut down. Since this...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/25/2012
Insisting on a small change to our automation
Recently I performed a code review for an automated test which was being added to our suite of...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/22/2012
Not writing a tool helps me save time
Today I had a task of modifying an existing text file 16 times and saving the file 16 times . The...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/18/2012
Working on automation, tools and a nice “shout out” to OneNote
We have a little bit of time over this month to focus on more automation and tools. These both make...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/15/2012
Free webinar for using OneNote on a touch device
Just noticed this over in the Office blogs:...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/09/2012
Taking notes for online classes is surprisingly easy
This is probably more of a tip than anything else. As you know, I am taking an online class from...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/04/2012
Making coloring hyperlinks in OneNote far too hard on myself
I received an email over the weekend in which a OneNote user had managed to change the color of...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 10/01/2012
Testing shortcut keys shows a power user tip for heavy outliners
One of my tasks this week involved testing shortcuts in OneNote. The set of keys that made me do a...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/27/2012
A great OneNote guide
Last week was incredibly busy around here and I am still getting caught up. One really nice online...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/24/2012
Omer has update his Onetastic addin for OneNote with macro support
Want to build your own little add-in that does a small but repeatedly needed task in OneNote? Now...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/21/2012
Using OneNote with an online class at Coursera
Every so often I check back in to our different user scenarios we design to make sure I still...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/20/2012
OneNote Tip: setting different levels of Priority for TODO tags
Last week I received a user request for a way to prioritize To Do tags a bit more granularly than...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/17/2012
A new process for checking in tools
Our test team is responsible for making changes and checking code into our repository for a variety...
Author: JohnGuin Date: 09/10/2012