OneNote for Mac only shows 6-9 characters in Section titles

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OneNote for Mac only shows 6-9 characters in Section titles

David French 10

OneNote for Mac, with an update in the last few months, now only shows 6-9 characters per section title in the Sections panel, and ~17 characters in the Pages panel, even when the section panel and page panel is given plenty of width! User's image

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Dora-T 13,745 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @David French

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum.

Based on your description and screenshot, I understand that since an update in the last few months, section titles in the Sections pane are being truncated to only 6–9 characters, even when the pane is widened.

To better understand your situation, could you please share:

Your OneNote version (OneNote > About OneNote)
Your macOS version
Whether this happens in all notebooks or only specific ones

In the meantime, you may consider trying these steps below:

-Restart OneNote or your Mac.

-Check for updates: In OneNote, go to Help > Check for Updates and install any available updates to see if this resolves the issue.

I look forward to your update so I can assist you further.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

David French 10 Reputation points

2026-01-09T17:44:18.3166667+00:00

Thank you for your response. I experimented with the issue further and have more detail on it.

OneNote for Mac Version 16.104.1 (26010228)

Mac OS version: Sequoia 15.6.1 (24G90)

It happens in all notebooks.

More details:

The number of characters in the Sections and Pages panes no longer increase the number of characters they display dynamically when you resize the width of those panes, like they used to. (I frequently adjust the width of those panes since I'm using this on a relatively small 16" macbook screen)

The new, undesirable behavior is that the Pages pane resets the "max number of characters" (really the max displayable width) it will display per page title in that pane when you switch Sections. i.e. if my Pages pane width is narrow (i.e. only showing 10 characters), and then I switch to a different Section, and increase the width of the Pages pane, it will still only show 10 characters.

Similarly, the Sections pane resets the "max number of characters" it will display per section title in that pane when you switch Notebooks. i.e. if my Sections pane width is narrow (i.e. only showing 10 characters), and then I switch to a different Notebook, and increase the width of the Sections pane, it will still only show 10 characters.

Walk through:

I start with a small Sections width:

Then switch to a different section and increase the width of the Sections pane, and it won't show me more of the section title.

For Pages panel width, if I start with a narrow Pages pane width:

and then switch sections, and increase the width of the Pages pane, and it won't show me more of the page title:
David French 10 Reputation points

2026-01-09T18:14:04.33+00:00

Hi, I replied and provided more details, but I don't see my reply. Can you confirm if you received it or if I need to re-type it? Thanks. Update: I see it says "This comment has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The comment was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information." However I just replied with more details on the issue and included screenshots. Not sure why it was flagged?
Erland Sommarskog 134.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-01-09T22:03:48.7566667+00:00

I have undeleted your posts. The spam filter on this site can be quite aggressive at times - but so are the spammer currently as well.

I have no idea why your second post was deleted. For the first, it might have been that the version numbers looked like telephone numbers to the spam filter. (Most of the spams are trying to place phone numbers for scams high on Google through various forums.)
Dora-T 13,745 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-12T06:23:16.8766667+00:00

Hi @David French

Thank you for providing the additional details. I appreciate you taking the time to test and document the behavior so clearly.

I have tested this on my side using OneNote for Mac version 16.104.1, and the section and page titles are displaying normally in my environment.

In the meantime, you may try reinstalling OneNote to see if it makes any difference. You can follow the steps below to reinstall Microsoft OneNote from the official Microsoft website:

-Completely quit Microsoft OneNote.

-Go to Applications, select Microsoft OneNote, and move it to Trash.

-Reinstall OneNote from the official update history page: Update history for Office for Mac - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn

Please give this a try and let me know if it helps.
Dora-T 13,745 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-13T06:51:56.4166667+00:00

Hi @David French

Is there any update from you?

If yes, please feel free to let me know.
David French 10 Reputation points

2026-01-14T17:11:36.71+00:00

Sorry I'm too busy / feels too risky to me at the moment, with my current project, to uninstall and re-install. And the workaround I found of switching notebooks to reset those panels' text widths is "good enough" for me for now. I probably won't be available to uninstall / reinstall for a while, though I hope to try that eventually.

Thanks for your help with this!
Dora-T 13,745 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-01-15T01:06:21.9833333+00:00

Hi @David French
Thank you for getting back to me and for the update. I’m glad to hear that you’ve found a workaround that is working for you for now.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out again. I’ll be happy to assist you.
Neil Buchanan 5 Reputation points

2026-01-30T18:02:36.2633333+00:00

I've had the same problem with OneNote on Mac for quite some time. I've now maximised the width of panes 1 & 2 (sections and note titles) and deleted & reinstalled OneNote per your instructions. However, when OneNote loads either the section names are truncated to a maximum 9 characters, or the note titles are truncated instead (seems to depend on the notebook/section when exiting OneNote).

If I switch notebook and go back to the original notebook again within a session, the names will appear in full. This is a workaround, but it can get annoying to have to do this.

I'm on MacOS Tahoe 26.2, using a 15" MacBook Air. OneNote is Version 16.105.2 (26012530).

I tried the above with an old (2015) MacBook Pro which is running macOS Monterey 12.7.6 and OneNote version 16.89.1 (24091630). Since maximising the column widths and updating the software it doesn't seem to have this problem!

The Mac OneNote app is otherwise pretty good, although it's different to the Windows version and missing a few features.
Dora-T 13,745 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-02T11:36:50.62+00:00

Hi Neil Buchanan

Thank you for sharing your experience and providing detailed information about your environment and the steps you have already tried.

Since reinstalling OneNote and maximizing the pane widths did not fully resolve the issue, I would recommend contacting the Microsoft Support team so they can further investigate this behavior.

If you are using a personal account (Outlook.com, Live.com, Hotmail.com), you can reach support through Contact - Microsoft Support.

If you are using a work or school account, you can raise a support ticket through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by selecting Help & Support. Please note that this option requires the Global Administrator role, so you may need to ask your organization’s admin to submit the request on your behalf.

You may also refer to the following guide for more information: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn.

Thank you for your understanding.

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OneNote for Mac only shows 6-9 characters in Section titles

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