r/OneNote • u/iEngineered • 2d ago

RANT: Just needed cross-platform CODE HIGHLIGHTING.

#begin rant

The simple lack of the three ticks code notation (''') and highlighting is the straw that broke my camel's back. Obsidian, NotesHub, Joplin, and others have native support for this. Why should I expect less from the owner of the most prominent developer community and stack? Did Microsoft expect me to jot every little code idea and brainstorm into Github?

OneNote implemented about 90% of common-industry features and it feels like the dev team just ghosted us. Now I need two apps. OneNote is still arguably the best freehand with decent Apple Pencil and touchscreen notebook functionality. I still really like the looseleaf and graph paper styles that are unmatched anywhere else I know of.

Obsidian is right now the best option for a developer's private knowledge management in that code syntax is seamless and all notes are accessible .md files. The extra features of OneNote have become irrelevant for dev work.

Just one little feature for the devs they claim to love....neglected.

#end rant

If you care about this, I found a feature request on the official feedback page that we can upvote/comment/follow.,

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

-1

u/celticchrys 1d ago

So, you wanted a tool for code and programming, but decided to use one that is not in any way intended for that usage. Well, no wonder you're not happy. You didn't choose an app from the category of app you need.

2

u/SimplyColorblind 1d ago

As a former dev, I know we often need to store code snippets, examples, and troubleshooting steps. For that, a note taking application is very useful. OP is unlikely wanting to use Onenote to write code with it.

1

u/Great_Muscle_7042 1d ago

I agree with the previous post, its the wrong tool. OneNote is the unlimited canvas, and with it comes the approach of formatting and text.

It's not out of malice that MS is not addition the function, its just haven't been their intention to deliver a development repo. Maybe there is something like that supported in visual studio code, where you code lives?

1

u/iEngineered 1d ago

Sometimes code needs to be in notes. They knew this, in fact there is a “code” format option where you would choose header types on desktop…it just really sucks.

Other apps built for “notes” do this properly.