Microsoft OneNote for Mac In the Works

I think that your title is misleading.

At several points during our software engineering lifecycle, we reevaluate our portfolio of Macintosh applications and determine whether we should add applications to it. OneNote is an application for which we have received a number of requests. Other popular requests include Project, Visio, and Access. My gathering information on use cases for OneNote is not, by any means, a statement that we will add it to our product portfolio. Understanding its use, especially in comparison to other applications to other applications on the platform (such as the Notebook Layout View found in Word:Mac 2004) help me to better understand the user’s needs and make recommendations for ways that we can meet their needs. Such recommendations are prioritised along with all of the other work that we’d like to do in any given release.

Well, I will say one thing. I am attending an MBA program this spring and it requires MS OneNote. So if it is not made for Mac, it automatically rules out MacBook as a laptop I must buy for this academic program.

I use onenote to mark up design comps and send comments out. In particular, I use the screen grab function, then mark up my changes. I do this by project and track the changes.

i use it for bug tracking. with the clip tool ist easy to make screenshots, mark on them, comment them and send them to a developer for example. if you use the internet explorer you also get the url of the website you just took a screenshot from under the picture

Yep, I use it for taking notes of meeting minutes and sharing them with the team. Also, screen clippings of quotes or articles I plan to use as resources in public speaking. I don’t make recordings much. I’ve also used it as a project planner, for visioning, and mind mapping. I’m switching to Mac, but hesitated a long time because of losing OneNote functions.

Since Office 2008 did not release onenote on the mac, I am weaning myself off of it and all MS apps. there are good alternatives out there. Don’t get me wrong, I love OneNote; however there are 3 reason on why I am ditching it.

1. .One files are larger in size than .doc or .pdf files.

2. the Cache and automatic backups eats up a ton of diskspace. I keep having to delete the backups and deleting the cache to get disk space back. Deleting the cache makes your notebooks take forever to load as it has to rebuild the cache. Optimizing temporarily eats up even more disk space as it creates a temporary cache file until you shutdown and reload OneNote.

3. I want all my apps to run native on one platform.

Circus Ponies Notebook is a real close MAC equivelant for only $49 and features automatic appendixes to create indexes of all your work.

Also, I just got burned by MS with an office 2007 upgrade on the Windows side. I can no longer do some of the things that are vital to me, plus office 2007’s GUI was a complete overhaul and I am a little lost when trying to do stuff.

I also got burned when MS did away with Front Page and Office extensions, and the new Web Essentials removed a lot and doupled the price.

I would’v ereally likes OneNote on the mac, but since it did not happen – I found something else.

What I especially liked was the ease of creating a separate notebook for each class I’m taking. Once in a notebook, i could simply Ctrl for a new page, then I could alter the header so I just had the date for that particular day. I could take notes anywhere on the page; I could move the cursor to another section of the page and start another block of notes; I could drag the blocks anywhere I needed. Within the notebook, I also had a function to create a new section, that I could name right on its tab. The integrated search feature was a real life-saver, and I really was glad it had an automatic auto-save-I never had to enable it or turn it on, it was just there. Both the Mac Word Notebook view and Circus Ponies Notebook come close, but neither is the same, and neither seems as complete and easy to use. The only improvement that the Mac Notebook view has is the “object palette” and the scribbler-they work much better than the drawing tools in OneNote for making quick diagrams on the fly as you’re taking notes in class. Again, not having OneNote is really a deal-breaker for getting a Mac; I only got one because the guy at the Mac Store said Circus Ponies was as good and did the same things-which it doesn’t; I’m still trying to figure it out, so I don’t know if it is as good or not. OneNote was really the first and only truly elegant and useful Microsoft program I’ve ever come across; the only way I can add to this is to say “get a copy, use it for some classes,and you’ll see how useful and elegant it is.”

Im considering replacing my way to big 17inch HP with a smaller lighter more portable 13 inch MAC but OneNote is essential to my productivity I use it everyday. I’m in the middle of getting my Nursing degree and I use OneNote to capture clips from webpages i use for class research, taking notes on ebook versions of my college text, tracking my budsget, and keeping track of important account info. I also use it to keep travel information organized and track of various miscellaneous info. It is easy to sync info with outlook and covert pages to pdf documents. I use OneNote constantly. Ill guess Ill spend my money on a tablet PC and wait to switch back to MACs when they have a MS office syite as featured as the PC version.

Have you considered running OneNote in a virtual machine with something like Parallels or VMWare Fusion? I hear that Fusion does a fine job of running OneNote on a Macbook.

On my MacBook Pro, I use OneNote very successfully by using VMWare Fusion running Windows XP. There are some negatives: (1) you need an extra GB of memory to run VMWare/WinXP without compromising your machine’s performance, (2) it takes time to launch vmware, this is a nuisance if you just want to quickly write a note. However, I’m willing to put up with these problems because there is really no macintosh product that I’m aware of that comes close to the beautiful simplicity and power of OneNote.

I love the ability of OneNote to take clipping from all variety of sources and paste it anywhere on the page. I had so many word documents, PDFs, pictures and web articles that were inter-related but not together on one easy to read document. Also the tabs and folders are great for organization. I had just too much clutter, and OneNote put it all together so that it made sense. I had just recently changed to a MacBook so I would rather be able to have a Mac OneNote program in order to directly import all of my old HP laptop references. I was actually shocked that it was not included with the Mac Office suite. I’m now stalled in transferring all my old files onto my Mac because I don’t know of any programs that will accurately translate the OneNote files.

I am a teacher and I cover several topics. I use the tabs labeled from A-Z. I cut and paste articles, pictures, recordings from speaches and music into the tabs that match the topic. I love that I can create extra pages for tabs that have alot of different material. My son now is considering teaching as I do and he could use this tool. At the end of the day I print the pages and put them into a leather binder with tabs from Franklin and I have a pretty nifty resourse book with the greatest quotes, stories, articles, pictures available for teaching and sharing. My sons computer is a MAC. What can I do to duplicate this? will my PC software for OneNote run on mac? Help.

I would love to donate my library to demo your new Mac One Note….if it exists. I would be a great beta site..

I also need Onenote for my work and for personal use. I have not found any equivalent for MAC so far. Maybe it is possible to run it using CrossOver. I’ll see.

unfortunately i have a MAC so i can’t really use unless i run it on the Parallel but it slows my computer right down that it takes a while just to get things started, not that i wouldn’t do it since i find OneNote useful to writing research papers and essays. Not to mention it’s useful in class where i can put both notes and diagrams around the page… Plus, i do some writing and am hoping to get pubished sometime in the future, and OneNote helps me organize my research as well as plot/ideas for my novels

Obviously it is possible using CrossOver. I have not tested personally though. So it is much lighter than using parallel.

I use it at work for everything, from taking notes, to testing bugs, keep thoughts organized and meeting presentations. I would love to be able to use OneNote at home, I can share the notebooks on a SharePoint site and view them at home form my MAC. I would love to have the option of not even taking my work computer home. :)

I use oneNote at work a lot. I use it for meeting minutes, for training materials, presentations, brainstorming and just generally keeping my life organized.

oneNote is great for presentations where simplicity supersedes looks. I find it is really intuitive and doesn’t have the layout & design constraints that “real” document apps have.

I work in CPU design, so I use Linux & PCs at work and of course, because I know better, I use Macs at home. So I’m a bit of a computing chameleon. oneNote “seems” more like a Mac app than a Windows app (no offence intended, fanboys). I think oneNote for Mac would be a big success, either bundled with Office or stand-alone.

I use onenote for notes in class, as it is easy to organize as well as fast and easy to use. I am considering purchasing a mac, and this is a staple for my academic life. It would be a huge deal-maker to have this on macs.

I have used OneNote extensively in the past when my home computers was a PC and still use OneNote at work. I love the Mac environment and wouldn’t trade it for anything; however, not having OneNote 2007+ is hugely frustrating. I have purchased Ponie’s NoteBook and it really is a lovely program but can’t compete with OneNote. I use OneNote at work for collecting quick notes and recording screen captures alongside research notes and plans (all of which are searchable.).
My wife uses the Tab functionality for educational purposes assigning a class to each Tab and recording the plans for each area. OneNote is the unknown program for PC users let alone Mac users. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve recommended OneNote to PC users. I sorely wish I could recommend it to mac users as well.

I find the ability to “print” to OneNote to be the most helpful function. I have saved a great deal of trees this way. For example for keeping track of travel, I have a tab for each trip and can “print” all receipts, itineraries, and take notes on any other information. I periodically then move trips into “past trips” tab and create new ones. When shopping I can “print” information about alternatives and keep it all in one place; it saves me from having too many bookmarks in explorer. When we bought a house it’s where I kept track of possible properties to see.

I’m considering switching to a Mac, but don’t want to give up this program.

MS probably thinks that if they do NOT put one note on the MAC, itll keep people tied to PC. I think alot of people like me will make the final leap now just out of spite. MS is so out of touch with their customers and what they need and want, that its pretty obvious it is going to use old paradigms to retain marketshare.

Id rather go learn a new system, then be held hostage. I use onenote to run my whole life. i have 4 businesses, and i keep massive one note files for each of them. I have 10 different employees synching and its the most powerful tool i have used in business for a long time. I will find an alternative and get a MAC laptop now, instead of being tied to another PC garbage notebook.

dan

I think adding onenote would be fantastic!!

I have trialed every note-taking package on the Mac, and none of them come even close to Onenote on the Mac! (and yes, I would pay $ for this product on the Mac!!).

Circius ponies is a joke – their tabing functionality in comparison very painful to use, (they do have nice indexing though) and their page format flexability is very, very poor.

PS I would consider adding (on both PC and Mac versions, Ive used the PC version for years) the following :-
a) Better integrated search
b) A standard page layout using the Cornel note taking fascility (easy to add, nice to use for students/professionals, and a great marketing advantage)
d) A basic mind-mapping fascility as well (see the Mac program ‘Curio’)
e) Perhaps a basic drawing functionality (also see Curio).

Adding those functions would make Onenote on both platforms best in class, by far!

Mark

I would love OneNote on a MAC, I haven’t tried Circus Ponies or sued Curio, and will give them a look but it would be great to keep using the one I like rather than having to use alternatives.

With some luck we can get it and for the people that use and love it like me we would be most grateful.

Jon

As far as I can tell there is nothing even remotely close to OneNote on the Mac. OneNote is based upon at least two huge metaphors:
1. Notebooks, Tabs, and Pages
2. Container based placement of content on a page that can be placed anywhere.

None of the other products really have this.

Here is another killer if you have switched to Mac and were a OneNote user: If you run OneNote inside of a VM like Parallels – and even if you run it in a “virtual window” mode (so that the windows app acts like a Mac app in that it only appears as a windowed app on the Mac desktop alongside other Mac apps) – OneNote is limited in terms of what kinds of clipboard data that can be pasted to it. Even if you find work arounds – the sense of total ease and fluidity of clipping data into OneNote is severely reduced.

So:
1. There is no OneNote equivalent (that I know of) (And Notebook, Notetaker, etc. do not use the same container approach to content placement – so they don’t count).
2. Running OneNote in a VM window still has some clipboard limitations.

This is too bad. So, I too am searching for a replacement – or really – the least diminished of possible compromises.

I work on in a Business and Marketing consulting group and OneNote would slam dunk for us, but some of us are Mac and some PC, so standardizing on OneNote is not realistic yet. By offering a Mac version you could help increase the adoption of OneNote on both platforms. It is a no brainer.

MS OneNote, Visio, Project, and Access are “standard” applications that are taught and used in my MBA program. i want to switch to Mac for many reasons, but cannot justify it with the work I am expected to do with these MS applications. Also, if I switch to Mac, i want nothing to do with running any MS applications in compatibility modes.

Moreover, my company computer is a PC notebook and there is NO getting around that. I often send files between my personal PC and work PC. Mac can read the files for the other MS apps without using a PC platform. I would like this to be true for OneNote, etc.