Microsoft updated OneNote today on a variety of platforms, adding audio recording capabilities and other new features on the Mac and handwriting search on Windows 8.1 tablets and iPad. Plus, the firm recently released OneNote for Apple Watch too.
OneNote for Mac has been available for a bit over a year, providing a preview of the gorgeous new ribbon-based UI that will grace Office 2016 for Mac. More to the point, it has been updated many times over the past year as well. And today, we get the latest update, which adds the following.
Audio recording capabilities. This feature works as does in Windows, so it lets you record audio that is synchronized with your notes. That means you can select a particular point in your notes and then play the audio from the time when you wrote those notes. You can also add bookmarks to your audio recordings so you can quickly get back to a key point in the event.
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View mathematical equations. OneNote for Windows lets you create complex mathematical equations, and while you still can’t create them on the Mac, you can read them if they’re already in your notes.
Recover deleted notes. You can now recover accidentally deleted notes. Select the View tab and then the Deleted Notes icon (which looks like a trashcan, of course) to display a Deleted Pages section with 60 days-worth of deleted notes. Control-click a note to restore it.
Both of these apps have been updated with the ability to search your handwritten notes for text, just as you can already search for text in actual text and in images. Handwriting recognition works in 25 languages, Microsoft says, and it will continue to expand language support and recognition accuracy in the future.
Additionally, OneNote for iPad has been updated to support a slide-in drawer UI like that on the iPhone. Looks great to me.
Microsoft recently shipped OneNote for Apple Watch—which, since Apple Watch is really just a front-end for the iPhone is really part of OneNote for iPhone—letting you access your notes on the go. As Microsoft notes, this app focuses “on lightweight interactions and places a premium on convenience … if you pinned a note on OneNote for iPhone, it will surface right at the top of your Apple Watch app, so you don’t need to hunt for it. This is perfect for when you’re frequently checking your to-do list.”
You can also capture quick notes directly from Apple Watch: Just tap the “+” button start dictating like Dick Tracy.
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