OneNote for Windows 10 January Preview is here, gives us a glimpse of what Touch Office will look like

Now that we had the time to settle into the latest build of Windows 10 (9926), we’ve been able to get some hands-on time with the new apps that Microsoft has included. One such app in particular is a new touch version of OneNote which we have a look at below.

If you’ve seen what Office for iPad looks like, then this will look very familiar. You have a solid color bar at the top to quickly identify which of the Office suite apps you’re in, purple for OneNote in this case, and under that are tabs for the small ribbon with most used actions.

You’ve got your Sections under that, which can be right-clicked to select sections colors among other options, and to the left hand side is a pane with all the pages within that section. It’s a clean, minimalist design that should be instantly recognizable to existing OneNote users.

There’s also a hamburger button which opens up access to different notebooks, recent notes, as well as options to print and access the applications settings.

While the app in its current state is nowhere near as powerful and feature-rich as its desktop counterpart, its got most of the basics covered including the ability to select pen colors, highlight text, a lasso tool to move written text around, create tables, add pictures and files, and select paper types among others. Among the features removed was the handy radial menu, which allowed for quick access to text manipulation. Without it, we’ve yet to find a way to increase font size in the preview version, but considering the app is still in its early stages, it’s safe to assume more features will be added over time.

Microsoft notes that some new features such as text input for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean are not included in this OneNote preview build, but will make the cut in future builds via a Store update. OneNote for Windows 10 will also be a Universal App so the same app design and features will be making over to Windows 10 for phones, which would be a huge improvement over the existing app, even in its current preview form. 

If you happen to be a regular OneNote user, we suggest you use the feedback button in the new OneNote to suggest features and improvements, and if you find anything else new in the app, do let us know about it in the comments below. Otherwise, if you’re new to OneNote, you read about how it make your life easier here.