The best version of OneNote on Windows

[William Devereux]

The below article is out of date as of Nov 4^th 2019. Please check out this article for the latest OneNote announcement.

We’re incredibly lucky to have millions of passionate OneNote users around the globe, and we love learning how we can help you remember, think, and organize better. In spending time with you, we heard a recurring theme: you want a single version of OneNote on Windows that combines all the benefits of the modern Windows 10 app with the depth and breadth of capabilities in the older OneNote 2016. We took that feedback to heart, and over the last few years we’ve been focused on making OneNote for Windows 10 the best version of OneNote on Windows.

Beginning with the launch of Office 2019 later this year, OneNote for Windows 10 will replace OneNote 2016 as the default OneNote experience for both Office 365 and Office 2019. Why OneNote for Windows 10? The app has improved performance and reliability, and it’s powered by a brand new sync engine (which we’re also bringing to web, Mac, iOS, and Android). You don’t need to worry about being on the latest version since it’s always up-to-date via the Microsoft Store, and it lets us deliver updates faster than ever before. In fact, over the last year and a half we've added more than 100 of your favorite OneNote 2016 features based on your feedback (thank you!), with more improvements on the way including tags and better integration with Office documents.

We’d love for you to start using OneNote for Windows 10 today, however we know some of you might not be ready yet. Maybe you rely on a feature we don’t yet support on Windows 10 (please let us know using the Feedback Hub), or you don’t want to store your notebooks in the cloud. If so, you’re more than welcome to continue using OneNote 2016.

What’s happening to OneNote 2016?

While we’re no longer adding new features to OneNote 2016, it’ll still be there if you need it. OneNote 2016 is optionally available for anyone with Office 365 or Office 2019, but it will no longer be installed by default. If you currently use OneNote 2016, you won’t notice any changes when you update to Office 2019. We’ll continue to offer support, bug fixes, and security updates for OneNote 2016 for the duration of the Office 2016 support lifecycle, which runs through October 2020 for mainstream support and October 2025 for extended support. For more details, please refer to this FAQ.

A preview of what’s to come

We've been listening to your feedback about what you like—and what you don't—and working hard to address it in the product. Your opinions, feature requests, and, yes, complaints have been critical in helping us shape the current experience. Today, we’d like to walk you through some of the work we’ve done to bring your favorite features from OneNote 2016 to OneNote for Windows 10, highlight some of the capabilities that are only available in the Windows 10 app, and give you a sneak peek at a few of the improvements coming this year.

Your favorite features, improved

OneNote for Windows 10 was designed to feel natural with any input method, from mouse and keyboard to pen and touch, and it contains numerous improvements under the hood for better performance, reliability, and battery life. It also has a number of new features not available in OneNote 2016, including ink effects* and dramatically improved ink-to-text (check it out—it’ll even preserve your ink color, size, and highlights!), Researcher*, a notification center, deep integration with Windows 10, and much more. 

For many of you, shifting our focus to the Windows 10 app won’t come as a surprise. Aside from a handful of targeted improvements, we haven’t added any new features to OneNote 2016 in some time. Instead we’ve been focusing on consistency, ensuring that nearly all your favorite features in OneNote 2016 are also available in OneNote for Windows 10. We’re almost there, and in the coming months we’ll be adding even more top-requested features.

Top-requested features coming soon to OneNote for Windows 10

Here's what you can expect later this summer:

• Insert and search for tags: OneNote 2016’s popular tags feature is coming to OneNote for Windows 10! Soon you’ll be able to insert, create, and search for custom tags, making it easy to mark key information and find it later. Tags you create will now roam with you to across your devices, and OneNote will even show you tags other people have used in a shared notebook so you don’t have to recreate them yourself. The new tags experience was designed based on your feedback, and it will be available later this summer.

 

• View and edit files: See live previews of Office files in OneNote, work together on attached documents, and save space in your notebooks with cloud files. You’ll get all the benefits of saving a file on OneDrive with the context and convenience of an attachment or preview on a OneNote page.

• Additional Class Notebook features: The full slate of Class Notebook features available in the add-on for OneNote 2016 will be available in OneNote for Windows 10 this summer. Best of all, you no longer need to install a separate add-in—it's all built-in!

These are just a few of the improvements coming soon to OneNote for Windows 10. The app is updated every month with new functionality, and we have a lot of cool stuff in the works—including page templates. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements.

An improved sync experience

We've been hard at work making sync faster and more reliable on OneNote for Windows 10, as well as on Mac, iOS, Android, and web. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a look at the new sync engine in action:

You can try the first set of improvements today by opening a OneDrive notebook in OneNote for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, or Android. These improvements will be rolled out to OneNote Online in the coming months, as well as notebooks on OneDrive for Business and SharePoint.

Improving the user experience

Last year, we unveiled a new look and feel for OneNote on Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android, and OneNote Online that aligned the disparate designs into a single, unified interface. In addition to bringing consistency to our apps, the new user experience scales much better for large notebooks and significantly improves accessibility for those who rely on assistive technologies. To learn more about the new design, check out our help article.

This is just a quick look at OneNote for Windows 10, but we’re not done yet. We'll continue listening to your feedback and incorporating it into our future plans, so leave us a comment below or add your feature request using the Feedback Hub. You can also join the Office Insider program for early access to the latest updates. And before we sign off, we want to say a huge thank you for your support. We really hope you love the new OneNote for Windows!

—OneNote Team

*Requires Office 365 subscription

[Jason Crider]

Most businesses don't have an office 365 subscription for every employee. I think that's what is driving this decision because common sense sure isn't.

Everywhere I've worked for the past 10 years has blocked access to online storage.

All of them blocked the Microsoft Store (where you are wanting feedback at) and Windows Store apps.

None of them had Office 365 and even if it was talked about the OneDrive portion wasn't going to be used.

All of them had OneNote available.

I'd like an answer from the author if possible.

How could someone possibly take away the option for "local storage" and actually think that's a good idea for the consumer? 

[Eric Pellegrini]

@Matthew KingsburyThe issue with the comment had very little to do with the use of "infinite". It certainly sets a tone however, and one that describes a processes taking significantly longer.

Pressing Win+Shift+s can not possibly be seen as an infinite process. It is perhaps faster than the old implementation, that is how close in time they are.

Using windows Ink had a single click more because it's a GUI as apposed to the direct keyboard short cut available. 

The comment I replied to was being hyperbolic, and I replied in a way to bring the conversation back to  a more reasonable frame.

[Doug Walsh]

Jason, same issue with me so I will have to move to a browser session.  I’m blocked in Win 10 for UWP and Windows updates are managed by the administrator. 

[Matthew Kingsbury]

@Eric Pellegrini - Win + Shift + S seems to me to be a different workflow than was described.  I can easily see how it would be insufficient for certain use cases, particularly those necessitating a higher level of precision that cropping would normally give.

[Stone Cut]

@Eric Pellegrini

Yes, there‘s a language issue. There‘s also a „I‘m-ignoring-necessities-of-loyal-users“ issue.

Infinite or not - there‘s currently no direct replacement for screen clipping. As a User I couldn‘t care less about a new API. In the best case someone comes up with a plugin that exactl replicates the old behaviour but I will need to install it (it seems it won‘t be included by default). In the worst case I will need to use some other screenshot app and then continuously paste from the clipboard constantly switching between programs.

Yes, I am angry. You are forcing a DOWNGRADE of a perfectly good application on me. This makes absolutely no sense and gets my aggravated as I have my whole life in OneNote, so to say.

While I‘m likely not the easiest to handle right now I can‘t say that your social networking skills are making it any better at this point.

[Eric Pellegrini]

@Stone CutNo one said all features were ported. No one is forcing you to upgrade, certainly not now. The developers are talking about 1-2 year time frame.

The fact that there are multiple APIs put in place for this already, including those used by MS already on Surface for directly inking to a note book … is a strange thing to ignore.

[Eric Pellegrini]

@Matthew KingsburyI don't follow what you are trying to say regarding accuracy. There are multiple ways, right now, that provide exact control over clipping that might take one click more. If you are taking so much time to do a clipped screen shot, that can't possibly be a burden.

[Ed Aldrich]

People... while we are all very passionate about OneNote, and clearly there are heated comments stating an overwhelming negative concern around this topic, let's all try and play nice together. Remember, we have language barriers in play, and high emotions to boot... I suggest we try and keep the comments directed to Microsoft and not each other, especially where some frustration may be in play.

[Ibukun Momson]

@William Devereux

Thank you for replying to my earlier post.

I am probably echoing the sentiment of most posts here, but WHY exactly was this decision made by the OneNote team? Is it simply to move on to a 'newer' technology? Is the existing desktop technology 'broken' or 'unsustainable'? (though it's certainly more stable, syncs faster and reliable than the UWP app from my direct experience) I'm really struggling to grasp the basis of this choice, and I'm pretty sure many others are as well. It is quite distressing and disappointing because it seems to make little sense.

I understand that we can 'vote' or 'suggest' features for implementation in the UWP app, but I'm not convinced that's a practical solution, simply because:

1. It is really uncertain whether your selected feature will ever gain enough votes to even show up on the radar of features to be implemented (although it is very important to you, it may not be so important to a significant population of users to gain critical mass). It's more likely be lost in the crowd of 'countless' suggestions

2. As others have pointed out, votes are often spread thin over same features suggested repeatedly in various forms

3. There is of course the ultimate fact that getting enough votes does NOT GUARANTEE that the feature will be implemented immediately (if ever). We need these features here today, not tomorrow or 'soon' because we already use them in our workflow right now!

Now compare the choice of 'voting for features' to (hopefully) come to the UWP versus a program that is working right HERE and NOW, today with all the features being requested available at your fingertips (OneNote 2016), not some proposed, untested implementation to come by sometime in the undefined future (with the accompanying bugs in any new non-trivial code which the desktop has polished and optimized for decades), and based on priority by voting at that. Users are not even asking for anything 'NEW', only that the desktop version be the base that gets maintained and developed going forward, while the UWP catches up in the background (it needs to prove itself to be a viable replacement after all, and not by forcing it on users!). This does not even count excellent macros like Onetastic. The reasons go on and on...

It is quite easy to see why hardcore users are frustrated and the overall tone may sound negative and exaggerated, but the distress is very real. Please give a comprehensive explanation that really supports this decision by the OneNote team.

[Alisdair Blackley]

This is really troubling as someone who uses OneNote every single day for work. I have played around with the UWP version of OneNote, it functions more like a gimmicky toy than a tool that people can actually use.

In my opinion Microsoft should be adding more features to the desktop version of OneNote, not forcing users into an inferior product.

Give us a OneNote desktop application with features that match what other Office products already have: Customization of Styles, Better Template Functionality, Improved Tables (i.e. Word style table editing), Better Image Editing, Ability to Group Objects... The list goes on, and these are just the functions that other office products have that OneNote should have!

I really hope Microsoft will reconsider its approach to this piece of software. If you really want a slick looking UWP version of OneNote with simplified set of tools, then have it as an option in the desktop application. The children can play in a sand-boxed area of the program the rest of us need. 

[Kevin Jacob Kurian]

Screen clipping is a must-have feature that should be available in the OneNote UWA app. I know people (including me) who heavily rely on this one particular feature in OneNote.

[Eric Pellegrini]

@Kevin Jacob KurianAgain, Windows 10 supports a number of direct screen shots directly into OneNote with clipping. 

The Surface Pen accesses one of these keyboard shortcuts to do this (double click pen) 

I use screen clipping directly into OneNote.

[Todd Karakashian]

OneNote 2016, as part of Office 365, is covered under Microsoft's Compliance and Security offerings (e.g., HIPAA support). How is the Windows 10 version of OneNote covered in this respect, especially as it will require Microsoft's cloud to store notes? I can find no mention of OneNote for Windows in any of Microsoft's documentation in the Trust Center. 

[Eric Pellegrini]

@Todd Karakashian 

"Beginning with the launch of Office 2019 later this year, OneNote for Windows 10 will replace OneNote 2016 as the default OneNote experience for both Office 365 and Office 2019."

Office 365 is HIPPA compliant, so that would include OneNote for Windows 10

[Don McCall]

I understand the desire to merge the products but the new Windows 10 app style is just not as efficient for desktop users.  The large buttons and lack of tree navigation, while they allow touch to work well are much less functional than the old style for a mouse / desktop user.  I have been a huge OneNote evangelist within our company and a user since it first came out.  I tried to use the new style app but keep falling back to the 2016 version because it is just a better fit for a heavy user who does not walk around with a tablet all the time.

I don't care if it is X64, unified, etc. the problem that I see is a 'Pen First' design.  I don't think you can have one UI that is best for both Pen and Mouse.  start building some flexibility into the apps and let the users switch between a Pen optimized style and a desktop optimized style.  ie Fly out tabs with large buttons, which is great for reduced screen real-estate and pen vs the docked tree control  which is much better when you have larger screen real-estate and a accurate pointing device (mouse)

Until you do this doing things that nerf the old product (no clipping from edge, etc) just frustrate your consumers.  Tablets and phones are great and having access to your data here is a huge benefit but lets remember that most information workers still spend 90%+ of their day at a keyboard and mouse.

[Eric Pellegrini]

@William Devereux @Kevin Jacob Kurian @Matthew Kingsbury @Stone Cut

To use the NEW BUILT IN OneNote UWP CLIPPER - I have created a Autohotkey script that mimics a Surface Pen. This takes a screen shot, and sends it straight to the UWP App, automatically allowing you to select a clipped region with no further input.

I've included the autohotkey source. Just click the executable, or install AHK and recompile the script if you want to be safe.

As with any exe, you can right click on it and define an hotkey to your liking. Or you can specify the hotkey in the script.

EDIT: New Link https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqK8KGjlwcup19BwlfWh-JaXKgbQMg

This remaps Win+Shift+s to the NEW UWP OneNote Clipper

[Hendrik Achenbach]

Someone told me about this today, and I switched to OneNote for Windows 10 immediately after reading this article, both at work and at home. I keep all of my content in the cloud anyway, and I welcome the decision to focus the development resources on one desktop client. In addition to that, to be completely honest, I was not too impressed with the speed and reliability of OneNote 2016 in terms of syncing, so I look forward to a better experience in the new client.

What I would like to understand though is how I can create a local backup of my notes in the same way I create backups of my Microsoft Office files by robocopying them from my OneDrive folder to a local harddrive. The only purpose of those files is to add an extra layer of security.

With OneNote 2016, I would export my notebooks to the ONEPKG format (as a container for the .one files) and to PDF and include those in the backup. Alternatively, I downloaded the folder that contains the link to the notebook from the onedrive.live.com, which would at least give me access to the .one files.

What should be my strategy now? I could of course continue to use the download method, but I would only do that if there was longterm support for the .one format. An export option to PDF or HTML would be a great thing to have.

Thanks
Hendrik

[Ed Hansberry]

@William Devereux - you said "The new UI is also the same one we use on web, Mac, iOS, and Android, so you have the same interface no matter which version of OneNote you're using."

Don't you see that as a problem? Why would I want an app to have the same interface no matter if it is on my 4" iPhone SE for a touch based platform, or a 27" monitor that is being driven by a keyboard and mouse?

Yes, the new UI works great on my iPhone, but I hate it on my Mac and will hate it equally when I am forced to use it on Windows 10. I have a ton of space on my Win10 and Mac screens and prefer to have a lot of stuff exposed 100% of the time as I can do in OneNote 2016, like notebook names, sections, and even subsections. On my Mac there is entirely too much clicking around to find stuff. I have over 20 notebooks loaded in our Office 365 environment since each Team has its own notebook.

The new UI is a MAJOR step backwards for those that have large screens and want to make use if them for clean navigation, not just more white space for notes and having to click-click-click to move around waiting for panels to slide open/closed.

[Ed Hansberry]

@Eric Pellegrini - OneNote for Windows 10 is not part of Office 365. It may be able to access Office 365, but IFTTT can access Office 365, as can several dozen third party products. Doesn't make them HIPAA compliant.

[M3 Sweatt]

That's a bold statement, that OneNote for Windows 10 the best version of OneNote on Windows. There are a number of areas OneNote 2016 shines, not the least of which is in workflow, stability and responsiveness. As Thurrott noted, the OneNote 2016 desktop application is the right choice in regard to use on Windows 10 with a physical keyboard and a tablet, 2-in-1 or other PC. From a practical perspective, usability is key for me and there are several workflow areas where 2016 wins. One such area is in managing content, with 1.5x as many pages listed in the right nav on OneNote 2016 (BTW, I like having an option to have pages on the right side of the app) as I do in the OneNote for Windows 10. 

[William Devereux]

@Kihyen Kim OneNote for Windows 10 supports nearly all of the same keyboard shortcuts as OneNote 2016. The full list can be found here.

@binaryhelix Thanks for your support! We're always looking at improvements to search, and we recently released a brand new search indexer which should speed up search results.

@Chuanxin Liu OneNote for Windows 10 supports all of the same image file types as OneNote 2016. Would you mind sending me a message on Twitter? I'd be happy to help look into what's going on.

@Henryk Lippert Every version of OneNote is free--it doesn't matter if you're on Windows 10, iPad, etc. If you have an Office 365 account, you'll get access to additional features. More details available here.

@Daniel Schuster Yes, OneNote for Windows 10 and OneNote for Mac support SharePoint on-prem.

@Stone Cut You can change the language setting by right-clicking selected text and selecting "Set Language." Paste formatting is also accessible by right-clicking and choosing the flyout arrow next to Paste, and you can convert handwriting to an equation using the Math Assistant on the Draw tab. And if you want to insert the current date/time, we have keyboard shortcuts for that today. If you use the button on the ribbon, please let us know.

@Doug Walsh OneNote notebooks are stored in your Documents folder on OneDrive. You can also create a OneNote notebook anywhere you want.

@Jason Crider I totally understand where you're coming from. You can still use OneNote for Windows 10 with Office 2019--you don't need an Office 365 subscription--and the Microsoft Store for Business makes it much easier to provide access to specific apps while preventing employees from downloading any app they want. It only takes a few minutes to set up. If these options don't work for you, however, or you only want to use local notebooks, you're still more than welcome to use OneNote 2016. It will still be supported through 2025 (for extended support).

@Kevin Jacob Kurian @Stone Cut Starting with the Windows 10 Creators Update, we've built OneNote's screen clipping into Windows 10. Just hit Win+Shift+S to take a screenshot and copy it to the clipboard. You can then paste it into any app, including OneNote. If you have a pen, you can also set the "double click" option in the Windows Settings app to take a screenshot and automatically insert it into OneNote.

@Hendrik Achenbach I'm glad to hear you tried the Windows 10 app after reading this! You can export a PDF by going to Print and selecting the "Microsoft Print to PDF" print driver. Local backups aren't supported at this time, but OneDrive keeps a backup and we have page versions so you can recover messed up or deleted pages.

@Ed Hansberry OneNote for Windows 10 is part of Office 365 and it includes the same security and privacy benefits you get with OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. 

[Ed Hansberry]

I think we all know @M3 Sweatt that sadly, it is a marketing driven statement. I suspect you have as many Office 365 business users that will prefer OneNote on Windows 10 for their tenant vs OneNote 2016 as you had Windows 7 users that were happy for the start menu to go away and happily embrace Windows 8.

I am beyond not happy about this. Not the least of which is retraining all my users.

[Ed Hansberry]

Thanks for the clarification on OneNote for Win10 being part of 365 @William Devereux.

[Doug Walsh]

Thanks William for the reply and for being active in this discussion.  Much appreciated!@William Devereux  

[Deleted]

@William Devereux I would be pleased if you could comment on the backup issue I mentioned.

[Chuanxin LIU]

@William Devereux, I've sent you the details again yesterday via twitter @msonenote and attached a link that helps you reproduce the problems of images. And for the notebooks listed when opening more notebook, I've also quoted a feedback in windows 10 feedback hub. Hopefully, this is could you help solve the problem.

[Deleted]

Another voice here asking for local notebook support in Onenote for Windows 10. I don't want my notebooks in the cloud.

[Yuk Fai Lo]

Despite the sometimes heated responses, I think this is a good thing, as it shows people DO use OneNote, it should be an encouraging sign to the ON team in further developing the app.

OTOH, it does seem that the team has set its agenda and is not really listening to the customers much, perhaps due to internal corporation policies (e.g. to encourage the use of OneDrive to the detriment of local/offline storage; to adopt a touch-focused interface to the detriment of keyboard users...?), and/or limited manpower and resources. Shall we continue to voice out on UserVoice and/or Feedback Hub if most of our words seem to just go down the drain after all?

Dedicated users don't like being shoveled down the throat with changes that dramatically affect routines. And it has shown that some of the team's decisions have done exactly this. Of course, this is not a democracy, but the app and corporate goodwill have surely been lost along the way. Or, perhaps those who keep voicing out their frustrations are just IT dinosaurs.

Hopefully, the team will re-think how to go forward, instead of ignoring those comments and suggestions which don't suit them, or brush them aside by corporate speak.

[Hendrik Achenbach]

@William Devereux Many thanks, I missed the option in the Print dialog window that allows you to select the complete notebook. This is very useful. While the PDF option does not support advanced features such as embedded objects (for example, e-mails), it works for me as my content is mostly text and the odd picture.

I found that it makes sense to use landscape format for the PDF; otherwise content may be cut off. An option to shrink the page content to the dimensions of the selected page format might be a good idea.

Thanks again

Hendrik

[Deleted]

Hi, 

MacBook Pro / Note 8 user

I am thrilled to hear about Office 2019 coming out. And, improved OneNote 2019 Desktop.

I just about have given up on OneNote. Much preferred, in theory, over Evernote. Sync issues CONSTANT. Not a OneDrive fan, as I have a monster system going in Dropbox for years. 

Really excited to see Microsoft aggressively addressing OneNote issues. Love Binder system. Sooooo live concept of it. Want to dive in + use when 2019 debuts! 

[Deleted]

Hi there,

I love OneNote, as it is one of the best apps implemented in the last years. However, as far as I know, OneNote for Windows 10 is not able to store notebooks locally. I don't want to store all my documents/notebooks in the cloud, e.g. notes taken at my customers. Therefore, I will keep using OneNote 2016 and parts of the news above are unfortunately a bit sad for me.

Best,

Mourad

[Doug Walsh]

Mourns,

Agreed, however it seems that everyone is going cloud based.  Evernote is cloud based and is hosted in Google Cloud.  This is the new norm unless there is someone else letting you have local based notes.  Apple Notes does this but is not cross platform.  The struggle is real!

[Doug Walsh]

One request is to get MS To-Do app Intergrated with OneNote.

[Vitor Canova Weingaertner]

Looks like everybody here agree that feature parity is a "must have".

Any feature missing will (well) be missed. And there are more people willing to abandon OneNote rather than wait for the parity happen.

I'm still using OneNote in my Android (even though search never works to find specific text) and will continue to use OneNote 2016.

Unfortunately the features missing in the Windows 10 version would make me inevitably choose another option in the future. 

[William Devereux]

@Deleted OneNote for Windows 10 doesn't support local backups, since your notes are already backed up on OneDrive. We also keep previous versions of notes (just right-click on a page and select Page Versions) and have a recycle bin for notes that are accidentally deleted.

@Chuanxin LIU Ah, thanks! It's hard to keep track of who I've talked to here vs. on Twitter. But thanks for sharing them with me and adding feedback in the Feedback Hub!

[Eric Pellegrini]

@William Devereuxis the internal file structure very different than the older versions of OneNote? 

Or are their plans to get away from the older file structure for future features? 

It can be difficult to work within the old confines of programing choices, so I am asking is the reason to move away from local storage and the older directory structure based on new development directions that are not compatible with the old format?

[Rik Hoffelder]

Talk about your dumb ideas.  Is Ballmer back in charge?  I mean really Microsoft, stop!  Please STOP!

[Thomas Höll]

As already mentioned by others here, I also want to store *some* of my notes locally.

Sorry, but it is hard to understand such a design choice that cancels a "feature" that even Notepad comes with. Please let us know why you think that cancelling this is a good idea and why you think your customers benefit from it. I am looking forward to your answer!

Thanks,

Thomas

[Deleted]

Firstly, I have (literally) tens of thousands of hyperlinks in OneNote 2016 that accesses research Pictures, Memorabilia and Articles stored in Folders (outside of OneNote) on my computer. Moving to OneNote for Windows 10, I will now (or sometime in future) have to move everything in Folders to OneDrive Folders and rebuild ALL the hyperlinks again. So, in my case, the porting to OneNote for Windows 10 won't be a quick one-time event. 

Secondly, those hyperlinks need to be built accessing OneDrive ONLINE. The desktop "copy" of OneDrive is not accessible from OneNote for Windows 10.  There seems to be a lack of collaboration and forethought in this regard.

In terms of features, the key missing elements are: 

(1.) Format Painter cannot lock to change multiple instances, i.e. it works for a single instance only.

(2.) Paragraph Spacing: No line spacing option.

(3.) Crop feature: Sorely missed. (Agree not a standard OneNote 2016 feature; but Onetastic sort it.)

(4.) Link: Paste Link should be added to the context menu.

(5.) Text recognition in pictures is not up to scratch of standard of OneNote 2016 version. And has a quirk too. If you crop only text from a picture, using an outside app, OneNote for Windows 10 no longer recognizes it as a picture with text, i.e. it's no longer an option in the context menu.

[Andrea Müller]

Do you plan to include an export function in the app?
I really do need to export a page and that's why I switch from the app on my surface to OneNote 2016 on my desktop to finish up jobs.

Would be very useful. Thx.

[Александр Болдин]

What about inserting OneDrive/YouTube videos to a page? It would be very helpful.

[Deleted]

 @William Devereux You wrote, "OneNote for Windows 10 doesn't support local backups, since your notes are already backed up on OneDrive". I have important data (business and private) in OneNote and of course I need local backups! If the data in OneDrive one day would disappear for what reason ever, Microsoft would not help! If the data in OneDrive one day would disappear for what reason ever: I would have lost the most important of my business and private data! For ever! Of course I need to keep the data myself - at least as a backup! 

[Eric Pellegrini]

@DeletedHey Martin. There are ways to access the data in onenote notebooks.

if you can tell me the type of data you are saving I could write you a program which backs up your data locally.

You could think of it as an external exporter.

[William Devereux]

@Andrea Müller You can export a page to a PDF by going to "..." > Print and choosing the Microsoft Print to PDF print driver. Does that work?

@Александр Болдин Yes! Just paste a link to the video in OneNote and we'll automatically embed it for you.

[Andrea Müller]

@William Devereux it helps, but it"s not the perfect way as there are problems with the page layout.

My onenote pages are endless(automatic)and the printer wants A-something.

I tried to print on A3 landscape

- but there are still bits missing or on differnt pages which I could possible puzzle to a big one ;)

as I receive A4s in word and pdf and comment on them by underlining or handwriting,, I add photos or links and then send them back to read only.

What do you suggest?

[Cynthia Gerus]

What if our company's web security does not ever let us access the cloud (they consider it a security risk)?  Does that mean when they switch us to Office 2019, my OneNote use is done???  Please, please, please allow for local storage!!!!

[Александр Болдин]

@William DevereuxPaste-a-link embedding works for YouTube videos, but doesn't for OneDrive videos (`https://1drv.ms/v/` links).

[Y WELIS]

It's a bad idea. ON 2016 is still the best of any other version (the Mac one is the closest).

This move will only create Open-source alternatives for ON (which BTW are badly needed).

[善博 河端]

Thank you, for improve sync between devices of OneNote.

[Markus Schebsdat]

Ich kann nicht verstehen warum Ihr immer wieder solche Entscheidungen trefft. OneNote 2016 ist überhaupt nicht mit der App zu verglichen. Allein die Möglichkeiten, die sich durch Add-Ins ergeben machen die OneNote App zu einem schlechtem Witz. OneNote ist für viele eine der zentralen Programme der täglich Arbeit . Wenn Ihr die 2016er Version einstellt und dafür eine Kinder App rausgebt , wie groß ist dann wohl das Vertrauen in Kontinuität.

Dann solltet Ihr OneNote 2016 als Quellcode veröffentlichen.

Gem for OneNote usw. können ja in der App nicht genutzt werden