Comments on the Back menu button

[Herb Martin]

1) It is very common to pull down the back menu to "see" if
the desired page is relatively close in the history list, only
to decide that "My Notebook" (now hidden under the sticky
Back menu) is needed instead.

One thought I had was that -- since this is almost always the
order when trying to "find" something -- was to reverse the
positions, NoteBook covers Back from above, not the other
way around as it is now.

But that looks to break the design of the Notebooks window
versus the Standard toolbar (with back) and so is while an
obvious 'solution' isn't likely to be implemented.

What I did in the meantime was to MOVE the entire standard
toolbar to the right of formatting -- grossly misplaced but
at least I can still see, and click, the My Folders menu button while
the Back menu is down. Ugh! This is a very Ughly! solution.

2) Alt-Left Arrow is well-established in Browsing as "Back"
and yet in OneNote it goes "left" in the folder list.

One should NOT have to stop and thing, "Oh, yes, I am browsing
using OneNote, not IE or my favorite browser."

Normally, Ctrl-Tab (and Shift-Ctrl Tab) change/cycle documents
in the current application and apparently that works (but somewhat
bizarrely on first try) in OneNote.

Alt-Left and Alt-Right should do Back/Forward History.

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

I don't see the inconsistencies or behaviour that you do.

In any program, if one click activates a menu of dropdown list, clicking
again collapses it. That behavior exists in OneNote.

Alt-Left and Alt-Right move Back and Forward through my Page history in
OneNote. Can you clarify what you mean? Did you possibly browse each
page tab in order before trying the "Back" and "Forward" buttons?

 

[Herb Martin]

I don't see the inconsistencies or behaviour that you do.

It's not an inconsistency just bad UI design.

In any program, if one click activates a menu of dropdown list, clicking
again collapses it. That behavior exists in OneNote.

Yes, the issue is that putting the Back right above the full List
of Notebooks means you are going to be hunting UNDER that
"Back" list a LOT -- since one tends to look in Back and if the
target isn't immediately found, go to the actual hierarchy in the
Notebook (where things are predictable if the user create a
useful structure.

Alt-Left and Alt-Right move Back and Forward through my Page history in
OneNote.
Can you clarify what you mean? Did you possibly browse each
page tab in order before trying the "Back" and "Forward" buttons?

Maybe, I was <now scratching my head> totally convinced it was
moving left-right on the folder-tab list....

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

Yes, the issue is that putting the Back right above the full List
of Notebooks means you are going to be hunting UNDER that
"Back" list a LOT -- since one tends to look in Back and if the
target isn't immediately found, go to the actual hierarchy in the
Notebook (where things are predictable if the user create a
useful structure.

Why don't you just move the Back button to a different place on the
standard toolbar? Customize the toolbar and drag/drop it wherever you
want it. Then you can leave the rest of the toolbar where you expect it.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote/Outlook
Operations Coordinator
Stockholm/KSG - Honolulu
http://www.scgab.com

 

[Herb Martin]

Why don't you just move the Back button to a different place on the

standard toolbar? Customize the toolbar and drag/drop it wherever you
want it. Then you can leave the rest of the toolbar where you expect it.

I did, and it is an awkward solution -- better than
covering the My Notebooks, but now the BACK is
over in the middle of the screen since that is the closet
it will fit as far as I can tell.

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

I did, and it is an awkward solution -- better than
covering the My Notebooks, but now the BACK is
over in the middle of the screen since that is the closet
it will fit as far as I can tell.

Ah, o.k. I know it's just a workaround.


--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP-OneNote/Outlook
Operations Coordinator
Stockholm/KSG - Honolulu
http://www.scgab.com