Using our powertoys to test OneNote & updating MergePages
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Jeff Cardon fixed a crashing bug in the merge pages addin. If you tried to merge pages in a read only section, the addin would crash (although OneNote kept running). You can get the update at https://johnguin.members.winisp.net/Shared%20Documents/mergepages_setup.zip. Thanks to Theo Buis for pointing this out!
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One of our MVPs, Kathy Jacobs (link to her site https://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/callkathy), asked last week about whether we use the addins/powertoys to test OneNote. The answer is yes, and here's an example.
I use the Table of Contents powertoy almost daily as part of my regular work routine. I have the setup file for it saved on my backup hard drive and install it on any machine which I have to use Office 2007 for testing. It's a great smoke test for our ability to add toolbar buttons, icons (I have a batch file to copy a bitmap over and a registry file to make the toolbar use the image instead of the text label), tables, creating pages and tables, links and some XML verifications. I use this tool from a user standpoint - each new build of our service pack for Office 2007 had better not break any functionality with this addin (and so far, it hasn't :) ).
I don't specifically have a test plan to "always install the addin, create 5 pages, set modify dates to differing times, create the table of contents, verify the new page is created, verify the order of the pages in the table, verify the table size, etc…" I just use it and if I notice a problem I start to narrow it down. We have automation scripts to test and verify those actions.
Other tools, like Merge Pages , can be more difficult for me to naturally use on a daily basis. I simply don't need to combine pages each day. I could make duplicate pages and combine them, but that is not a normal part of my routine. I lose the "dogfood" aspect of using OneNote as a regular part of my work day. Instead of integrating OneNote into my routine, I start defining some test tasks first, and then applying them to my work. This is not "real world" testing anymore. It's repetitive nature makes it look like a good candidate to automate, though. And between everyone around here who has installed this addin, we can assume it gets used by at least one person a few times per week.
And the tools like importing books from Project Gutenberg are very seldom used. I imported Siddhartha by Herman Hesse a while back and am still reading it. Plus, from a testing point of view, the only unique functionality of this addin is reading a text file and parsing it into chapters, both tasks unrelated to OneNote. The OneNote API used creates sections and pages, and these tasks are well tested by other addins. Using this daily would not gain much in depth testing of OneNote.
Comments, questions, concerns and criticisms always welcome,
John