OneNote Data Compatibility and Conversion Questions Answered

Folks are getting excited about the new OneNote 2010 and I can’t blame them. I’ve said for years that I believe OneNote is one of the best, if not the best, piece of software from Microsoft. Not only will OneNote 2010 be included in all Office 2010 versions, but we know it will be usable over the web and through Windows Live Sync as well. But one question that current OneNote users keep asking is: What happens to the OneNote 2007 data? Can it be used with OneNote 2010? What about data from the new version in old versions?

Dan Escapa from the OneNote team comes to the rescue again with these key points on compatibility:

• OneNote 2010 will fully read & write OneNote 2007 format notebooks, no need to convert a notebook
• There is a new OneNote 2010 format to support new features (such as versions)
• OneNote 2010 can convert notebooks from 2007<–>2010 formats and back

Dan reminds us that if you plan to share OneNote data with 2007 users, you need to convert your 2010 data into the 2007 format before sharing it. Eventually, I’d like to see Microsoft release a converter for OneNote 2007 owners. That would be helpful if they inadvertently get OneNote data in the new format but still have the old software.

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