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96
General Software Discussion / Re: What's the future of OneNote?
« on: October 02, 2019, 01:28 PM »
@rgdot:
In other words:
"You don't like the cloud then leave, we don't give a $#&%"
 :D
-rgdot (October 01, 2019, 09:14 PM)
Well, at least it's a rather clear statement of future OneNote direction from MS  :o  - one that I hadn't seen before, but which apparently expressly excludes that sector of the market that wants/needs to hold its databases on local devices (PCs, laptops).
I wonder whether all of MS Office (i.e., not just OneNote) is being sunsetted in the same way? Not sure whether that idea would meet my requirements.
Another Q I have now: Why didn't MS sunset Microsoft Money in the same way (migrate to the Cloud)? They could have done, and the market was clearly headed in that direction.   :tellme:

In my OneNote experiments, I've migrated my Notebooks to the cloud, and it's been pretty much rock-solid stability and dependability for those Cloud-based Notebooks, and a real boon for when I move to using another laptop.
However, I'm now wondering whether I will in fact be able to revert and migrate my Notebooks back to the local device, or even use the backups locally that I have made along the way.
Just supposing: Maybe it's a "gotcha" - "Oh, didn't we tell you there's no going back?"    ;D
 
Google led the way when they introduced the Chromebook, Suddenly, there was another generically useful bunch of Cloud apps that didn't need an expensive DOS/Windows-based device, but was compatible with them anyway (because the Cloud apps are Agnostic in terms of OS dependency).  Shock horror for MS.
So are MS heading in the same direction?

Incidentally, I came across  this today: (might be of use, but it's just migrating to another Cloud-only system)
evimsync
Sync Evernote notes with IMAP, Import Evernote to Onenote
EvImSync is a simple tool to sync notes between Evernote and GMail Evernote2Onenote is a tool to import Evernote notes to OneNote.

97
General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks
« on: September 30, 2019, 05:46 AM »
Hmm...Interesting post at asap-utilities.com/blog/
For developers; Application.Version returns 16.0 for both Excel 2019 and Excel 2016…!?
Is Excel 2019 just Excel 2016 with a new name?
(Click on link to go there.)
One wonders whether the same is true of OneNote...

98
General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks
« on: September 29, 2019, 09:26 AM »
@sphere:
Sorry, but I don't know where to find the unequivocal statements of purpose coming from MS, regarding OneNote, that might validate, or invalidate your concerns. MS sometimes seem to make statements that obfuscate their plans, or leave things unclear or ambiguous. I suspect that may be because they are waiting for feedback from their users (which they are getting, I gather).

This discussion thread tends to primarily cover Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks, rather than being focused on other things - e.g., (say) OneNote and MS's possible future migration or marketing strategies for OneNote. I set it up to fill what seemed to be an information void. It's accidentally become a sort of user group - though nowhere near as sophisticated as (say) exusmods.com is for the Fallout games.

If you could find some "unequivocal statements of purpose coming from MS, regarding OneNote" that cause you concern, then it could be useful if you were to share them here, for our edification and comment, but you won't necessarily find a Brains Trust here that knows enough about OneNote+MS to be able to adequately advise you or give you any answers, though there will no doubt be lots of useful comments from other DCF folk. Catching up with and understanding how OneNote works in the first place seems to be a pretty big challenge in itself.

I would suggest though that if we take Microsoft Money as an example - refer Microsoft Money Plus Sunset - Mini-Review - DonationCoder.com - then we might be able to see how MS doesn't tend to leave (probably can't allow itself to) users in the lurch when it sunsets a product. That would arguably go double for the enormous user base of the MS Office suite (which includes OneNote).
No doubt time will tell.

99
General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft OneNote - some experiential Tips & Tricks
« on: September 27, 2019, 03:28 PM »
@sphere: You are concerned that MS are going to deprecate support for maintaining OneNote standalone local client databases.
I'm not so sure that MS would become a cloud-only business, as I wrote above:
  • In Microsoft's case, they would seem to be decidedly NOT a Cloud-only business and have many examples of where their software continues for ages, or is responsibly and gracefully sunsetted (and even kept backwards compatible in the Windows 10 OS) - the most recent being, I think, Microsoft Money Plus Sunset
  • I would recommend a wait-and-see approach regarding OneNote. Trial/use it anyway. It seems unlikely that it will be killed off for several years yet.
  • A licence for MS Office 2019 Plus is available relatively cheaply - e.g., here.
  • It was possible to get MS Office 2016 Plus relatively cheaply, but I am unsure if it is still available - e.g., here.
  • As regards using MS Office 2013, I wouldn't recommend it as the OneNote functionality would be kludgy - it has been vastly improved on since, in ON 2016.
-IainB (April 27, 2019, 04:03 AM)

The idea of going Cloud-only or Cloud-compulsory would seem to take away the consumer choice of using standalone local client databases. That's why, for example I would (and do) advise clients to think twice about doing business with Evernote or (similarly) Google Docs and other Cloud-based service providers, etc.. It's simply too risky, and it's an avoidable risk. It puts Evernote or Google etc. in control of your business databases. If you can afford to take that risk - or can't afford to avoid it - then go for it, but I still wouldn't recommend it - especially if you can afford not to take that risk. That is different to things like implementing (say) Citrix Thin Client systems though, which may often seem to be (and often are, in business terms) a no-brainer from the user perspective.
The status quo of doing work on standalone local "fat" clients that are not-network-connected devices and have local databases would be a typical and fundamental user security and ease-of-use/access requirement - e.g., especially in Defence organisations.
I would suggest that commercial use of MS Office licences (which comes as a bundle with OneNote) would stop dead if MS went all fascist and disabled the app from being able to be used stand-alone - it would adversely affect potential security risks, by definition.

However, if you want to ensure that you don't get caught out with your pants down, as it were, in the event that MS does leave OneNote users high-and-dry without the future option for full standalone independent OneNote client functionality (and databases), then make sure that you have a backup copy of the latest MS Office 2016 install + all updates and stock up on MS-Office Pro licences - now!   :)

By the way, LOOK OUT! The sky is falling down! I think a lot of the supposition and discussion on this subject might/could be "fake news" promulgated by the IT media who need those clicks from the nervous and twitchy fingers of all those millions of MS Office OneNote users out there. Must be one heck of a big market.

100
General Software Discussion / Re: PearNote for Mac (like Onenote)
« on: September 26, 2019, 11:47 AM »
@sphere: Thanks for posting that (above). You pressed my CRIMPer buttons.
I don’t have a Mac to trial this with, but if it’s as good as the video says and if it meets one’s requirements, then it could be a compelling reason for migrating to a Mac.
I'm still stuck with OneNote (though InfoQube is looking increasingly attractive).

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