Microsoft
My biggest complaint about this whole problem has been the fundamentally incorrect assumption that users of the desktop app would have gone into uservoice and made a request for feature for every desktop feature that they use but was missing for the "app".
So they made the decision based having 90% of the most requested features either implemented or planned. -- BUT that makes the false assumption that users who have functionally X working on the EXE version would bother taking the time to create a request in uservoice for the APP version.
And even if users had done so, who would vote up a feature that was already there and working (on the EXE).
So the whole "spin" that "this is what users want" is generating all this flack because, to users who have been using the desktop version, the rug has effectively been pulled out from underneath us. I have customers with complex workflows that use linked and embedded spreadsheets, and now the ROI on those projects are blown to heck because there is no way for the App version to have OLE.
I'm sure reality is that maintaining an EXE + 3 APPs (Win store, iPhone store, Android store) is painful - and based on what they have done the 3 app versions probably have a lot more shared code so dropping the EXE saves a lot of engineering bandwidth and lets them build better APPs on a tighter budget.
But telling us that they are doing this because this is what we asked for just gets me riled up.
I tried to use the app version again in Oct/Nov 2018 - and I think I was able to use it exclusively for about 2 days (not counting workflow processes) - but the 3rd time I'm sitting there feeling frustrated trying to do something that I know is bone-head simple to do -- like print selection not a full "page"!. // I don't want copy what I want to its own page so that I can print it, or use Shift-WindowKey-S to snip it into bitmap and print that or any of the other workarounds. I want it to just work. And there are so times when I want to do something that is easy to do in the desktop EXE version that just either can't be done or takes hours or research to figure out with the App version.
But no embedded spreadsheets (RENDERED not just a link you click on), missing add ons, printing, memory consumption (oh yea the app takes over 30MB more RAM than the EXE), lack of control for layout (tabs on left/right/top etc.).
And then try to use the app -- I mean why the heck if the APP is docked on the right side of the screen does it GRAY out navigation panes as an option - HIDE ALL is forced on you. (Litterally I went off for 20 minutes to see if maybe its better since Oct and now I'm frustrated and pissed again)
Oh yea, and Export page to PDF, where is that?
Oh look this is what its given back:
"Note: Exporting and importing notebooks through OneNote Online is only available for notebooks stored on personal OneDrive accounts, not for notebooks stored on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. For information about exporting notebooks to PDF files from OneNote 2016 for Windows, see Export notes from OneNote as a PDF ." (Which means use the DESKTOP/EXE)
I have to stop as now this is turning into a rant.
Dear William Devereux and OneNote team --
We understand accept that Mobile apps will not be as full featured as desktop programs (at least for the next 5-7 years). We know that you want to make the best mobile apps you can. But we disagree, as paying Office 365 and Microsoft 365 customers, that we should therefore have a less functional Windows PC experience, especially in the business world.
Please revisit this idea that you are only going be an "app" and not a full program.
Thank you.
