FEATURES AND STABILITY – UWA ONENOTE

OneNote 2016 for Desktop contains significantly more (business) features and runs dependably and stable.

On features:

The adding of some features up to the release of Office 2019 in the UWA has been promised (see the comparison here https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-s-the-difference-between-onenote-and-onenote-2016-a624e692-b78b-4c09-b07f-46181958118f?omkt=en-US&ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US).

However, despite the published feature list, the UWA App does not reach the functionality of the Desktop app, especially from a business user's point of view. Though the list of planned features is considerably longer, there is barely a feature which wows a business user. There are several functions missing for business use.

This begins, for example, with the possibility to link notes to Outlook or documents and continues with the tag possibilities. Making screencaps, which is a key tool for business users, is missing as well; so do the proofreading and template functions. These are just some examples. For encrypting, check below.
The simple sharing and sending of notes, for example as a PDF, is also not possible in the UWA.

Performance:
On the test system the desktop app opens up about 3 seconds quicker than the UWA (same machine, identical procedure).
Additionally, the desktop app remains stable even when using many notebooks in parallel. The UWA version crashes more often.

User Interface

OneNote 2016 Desktop has a better, more accessible user interface.

Specifically, the structure of having tabs at the top and riders on the right is seen as uncluttered and productive by the author, but also many others. It provides a quick overview on all the content. The matrix structure is very intuitive and thus quite suitable for the business context.

This leads to the additional effort in the operability. In the UWA, there are several more clicks necessary to get a notebook's overview. For power users, this adds up to a lot of time throughout the day.

Use scenarios, desktop application & security

OneNote 2016 for Desktop is suited for more scenarios.

Even in times of Cloud First, using desktop apps in an enterprise context, which
allows for various use scenarios in everyday use, can be justified.

In particular, this refers to the currently existing possibility to save and share a OneNote notebook locally. Many companies have this as a guideline for some information.
OneNote 2016 fulfills this requirement perfectly, notebooks which are locally saved, as well as notebook saved on the network can be edited.

OneNote 2016's encryption function is also not present in the UWA version.

Development:

These are the primary suggestions of the author. The following features should exist in OneNote 2019:

• An improved tag function, to better process and connect content.
• Edit and crop images
• Increased integration of Outlook and Planner
• Link to local data sources, so that if the corresponding data is edited in OneNote, the

source is consecutively altered.

These arguments show how justified the demands and the petition are.

We ask Microsoft to revise their decision.

The undersigned

Arnbjörn Eggerz

The co-signer may offer their opinions and signature in the comments.

More information

Decision of Microsoft - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/The-best-version-of-OneNote-on-Windows/ba-p/183974

Another opinion for OneNote Desktop from Germany - http://www.rakoellner.de/2018/04/onenote-windows10-app-wird-zur-office2019-standard/

User Voice OneNote - https://onenote.uservoice.com/forums/327186-onenote-for-windows-windows-phone/suggestions/32737648-include-onenote-for-desktop-in-office-2019

Other petitions -https://www.change.org/p/microsoft-microsoft-please-do-not-discontinue-the-proper-desktop-version-of-onenote-49b9dc71-76a3-4437-8317-0960febc2d32