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OneNote's alternative, Evernote

It might seem strange for a long-standing Microsoft Office web site to say, but we’re not OneNote’s biggest fan.  We liked version 1 a lot, the development team was very enthusiastic and responsive.

But OneNote suffers from offering too much and being originally designed for the desktop.  Containers can get too disorganized and unruly on a single page.  There are so many features lumped into OneNote to the point of confusion.  The complex OneNote structure doesn’t translate well to mobile devices.  Microsoft has ongoing problems trying to make the power of OneNote fit into mobile devices.

For regular use, we prefer Evernote.  Evernote was designed with mobile devices in mind. It isn’t locked into Windows or Microsoft so it’s more consistent across computers and devices.  Evernote’s simpler structure means it’s is a lot easier to use on small screens.  Synchronization is a lot better.

If you think OneNote is a good idea but somewhat overwhelming, give Evernote a try.  It’s free for many users with a limit of 60MB of data upload per month and a maximum single note size of 25MB.  The annual price for personal use is quite reasonable.

You can thank Evernote for the free OneNote.  Microsoft saw Evernote and lesser rivals encroaching on OneNote and reacted to keep their market.

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