Inaugural Post

First, the boring stuff: Hi, I'm Donovan.  I've been a developer on Microsoft Office OneNote since starting at Microsoft last June.  (As the latest addition to our developer team, people just call me the new guy.  That's "Mr. New Guy" to you. :)  This isn't my only blog -- from time to time, I've been known to question life's little inconsistencies in a less formal setting.

 

It's no coincidence that today marks my first post on MSDN.  If you were awake at 2am this morning, and also happened to be surfing by your favorite website, you may have been surprised to discover that Martians really do have wings.  Elsewhere on the internet, however, the floodgates were opening, and the OneNote SP1 Preview was released!

 

[And don't be deceived by the "Service Pack" title.  Like so many other things, the name can be deceptive.  Don't get me wrong; we did an unholy amount of bug exterminating for sure.  But it's the new features and usability tweaks that I think you're really going to enjoy.]

 

I'm responsible for several of the features making their debut in this release from the development side of things -- namely the new DataImport APIs, Password Protection, as well as some of the less noticeable UI tweaks such as Resizable Page Tabs, Folder Move, etc.

 

Now that you've had a chance to play with some of the new features… (What?  You haven't installed the preview yet?  *sigh* I'll wait. Ok, ready now?)  I'm curious to know what you think: what do you like?  Even more importantly, what do you dislike?  I'm not making any promises, but input really does helps us know what we need to change.  So be brutal.  You won't hurt my feelings.  I'm tough.  After all, that's why they call me Mr. New Guy.