Microsoft Released Major Upgrade to OneNote for Apple Users

Microsoft's new policy from the CEO Satya Nadella of migrating all software to as many platforms as possible rather than being so Windows centric is starting to pay dividends with the release of OneNote's latest version which includes a major leap forward for both iOS and Mac users.

Recently, Microsoft launched OneNote for Kindle Fire and Fire Phone, Android alternatives, which shows just how multi-platform embracing Microsoft is beginning to become.

OneNote is intended to be a way to manage all kinds of digital notes and other information across multiple platforms using their OneDrive as a cloud solution for essential data storage and to make it cross-platform. There a few similarities to Evernote here and there. OneNote itself is not a new app having been under development for a number of years but it's one of the first apps from Microsoft to more fully embrace the web and being on as many different systems as possible.

Microsoft is clearly beginning to hear the music and understand that to survive and thrive, they need to be open to other platforms as a main strategy rather than as an afterthought. The late Steve Jobs would be proud.

OneNote for iPad and iPhone

There are separate apps for the iPad and the iPhone. Each have their benefits and drawbacks, but both have roughly the same number of matching features just with the iPhone you're forced to work from a smaller screen.

Notes can be dynamically organized by moving them around however you like. These changes are then reflected across the apps on different platforms/devices when the OneDrive cloud settings are correctly configured.

With email attachments, it's now possible to take the attachment and open it up within OneNote. This is an excellent way to take important documents and include them in project notes to keep track of project points.

Formatted text can be extracted from other sources and placed inside notes while retaining the formatting. This was a feature that was previously present in the Windows version of OneNote but not elsewhere.

Notes can also be password protected across the full range of OneNote apps.

Just as an aside, there is also a OneNote version for Android which is available in the Google Play store.

OneNote for Mac

OneNote for Mac is a good step forward with a Mac-like interface that will surely please Mac die-hards.

The new OneNote for Mac version includes some impressive PDF file handling. Adobe PDF files can be annotated with ideas and thoughts, saved for later review, and printed out when that's needed. OneNote notes can also be saved separately as PDF files in order to make them accessible to others via email.

A PowerPoint deck can be simply dragged over to OneNote for Mac and dropped directly into an existing note. This can be catalogued with other supporting documentation ready for a record of the presentation and follow-up questions afterwards. The PowerPoint deck can be viewed in OneNote or directly in PowerPoint, as needed, so OneNote users do not need to own a copy of PowerPoint to make use of PowerPoint documents which is very handy.

Other Office documents like Excel spreadsheets can now be easily inserted into a OneNote note too.

OneDrive and OneDrive for Business

The cloud service from Microsoft, OneDrive, is now integrated thoroughly into OneNote for the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. This allows the saving of notes in the cloud and easy access to all notebooks on any Apple-based platform, plus Windows of course, and Kindle Fire and Fire Phone as well.

The OneDrive cloud service has become as important to Microsoft as Google Drive is to the cloud services in Google apps. It helps tie it all together and provides new OneNote Apple users a different way to use the cloud than with iCloud or Dropbox.

Major Step Forward

OneNote represents a major step forward for Microsoft in the pledge from the CEO to be on as many platforms as possible. The app is offered free of charge and provides great value for previous users who are familiar with the OneNote user experience already and new users who may consider switching from Evernote over to OneNote. For a useful comparison of the previous version of OneNote vs Evernote vs SimpleNote, we have a recent article that may be interesting to readers.