HT205793: Import your notes and files to the Notes app

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notanotheruser2

Q: How to migrate notes from OneNote to Apple Notes?

I want to transfer all my notebooks and pages and notes from OneNote into Apple Notes. Is this possible while still keeping individual notes separate?

 

Copying one by one is not an option, i have more than a hundred notes. I tried exporting in docx, doc, pdf, xms, mht. I tried converting to text and html. But all of the above is either not supported by the import or imports one long note instead of individual notes. I have PC and Mac at my disposal for this.

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Posted on Sep 14, 2016 2:09 PM

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Q: How to migrate notes from OneNote to Apple Notes?

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  • by Skydiver119,

    Skydiver119 Skydiver119 Sep 14, 2016 7:16 PM in response to notanotheruser2
    Level 7 (28,242 points)
    iPad
    Sep 14, 2016 7:16 PM in response to notanotheruser2

    I don't have one note so I'm just thinking of options....do you have One Drive or another third party program? Perhaps you could export from One Note to One Drive, or e-mail them to yourself then get them into notes that way.
    I can go into my one drive, and open a file and have an option to send it to notes.

  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Sep 14, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Skydiver119
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 14, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Skydiver119

    Howdy Skydiver

    If I read the OPost right, I believe the OP gets that they can do them one by one - looking for a "batch process" of 100+ OneNotes

     

    My research shows OneNote "export" is nothing more than "Save As" a new filetype - one at a time, of course.

    How to import and export information in OneNote

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/830047

     

    too bad its not a video... I know of a couple good converters

  • by Skydiver119,

    Skydiver119 Skydiver119 Sep 14, 2016 8:04 PM in response to ChitlinsCC
    Level 7 (28,242 points)
    iPad
    Sep 14, 2016 8:04 PM in response to ChitlinsCC

    Very true. However one drive and one note can also run on a PC, which does allow for multi file transfers via windows explorer. If s/he can get the files onto his/her PC then they can do a bulk transfer into one drive. Will probably still have the tedious singular import into Notes. Or may be able to use iCloud for windows to get the one note files into the iCloud notes, which could make them accessible on the iPad.

  • by notanotheruser2,

    notanotheruser2 notanotheruser2 Sep 14, 2016 8:21 PM in response to Skydiver119
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 14, 2016 8:21 PM in response to Skydiver119

    thanks for replies, my challenge is in getting 100+ notes into Apple Notes. For example to migrate from Evernote into OneNote I just exported 1 file from Evernote and imported it into OneNote. That's it, done. All notes were still separated. Now that I used OneNote for a while (and changed a whole bunch of notes) I want to try Apple Notes. But the process of getting all my 100+ notes from OneNote into Apple Notes cannot be found on google. It seems the only way to do it is manually note by note, which is not a good way in my opinion. So if anyone knows a good way of getting 100+ notes from OneNote into Apple Notes, please help.

     

    I have read both articles by microsoft on how to export and articles by apple on how to import. They just use different formats, which is the cause of my issue.

     

    I also don't have any issues of getting files from pc to mac and vice versa. The tedious singular import into Notes (from OneNote) is the challenge here.

  • by ChitlinsCC,Helpful

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Sep 15, 2016 10:33 AM in response to notanotheruser2
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 15, 2016 10:33 AM in response to notanotheruser2

    I am happy to say that I understood your problem.

    I am sad to say that my (pretty good skills) search found precisely what you did - zip.

    I even used " onenote AND libreoffice " - LibreOffice is an open source suite of apps that most folks say kicks a** on almost everything = zip

     

    If I were you, I would next try the Microsoft for Mac forums and ask simply "How do I BATCH EXPORT my OneNote files to another format?" - answer Apple Notes if it really matters to the helpers there

    onenote - Microsoft Community

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/search/search?SearchTerm=onenote&IsSuggestedT erm=false&tab=&x=0&y=0&CurrentScope.ForumName=msoffice&CurrentScope.Filter=mso_m ac&ContentTypeScope=#/msoffice/mso_mac//1

  • by notanotheruser2,

    notanotheruser2 notanotheruser2 Sep 15, 2016 10:32 AM in response to ChitlinsCC
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 15, 2016 10:32 AM in response to ChitlinsCC

    thanks. Looking at the export part of this migration process, OneNote does export a lot of notes by notebook, or if I select a whole bunch of notes and then press export. It separates them by section names. Maybe somehow else in xms/mht format.

    If i knew what Apple Notes expects as a note separator I might be able to do a mass find/replace on the exported file and import it in txt format with those note separators. (tried just blank new lines with mac EOL characters and that didn't work).

  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Sep 15, 2016 11:07 AM in response to notanotheruser2
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 15, 2016 11:07 AM in response to notanotheruser2

    I am basically now a fly on the wall...

    It sounds as if your workaround 'ideas' may be on the right track

    I still say you should get with the Mac folks over at the Microsoft equivalent of ASC

    (the link I posted - it even runs on JiveSoftware like ASC does!)

  • by notanotheruser2,

    notanotheruser2 notanotheruser2 Sep 16, 2016 10:20 AM in response to notanotheruser2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 16, 2016 10:20 AM in response to notanotheruser2

    Since I wasn't able to find a better way nor find what Apple Notes expects as a separator between individual notes, I ended up doing this manually. For anyone else who wants to migrate from OneNote to Apple Notes here are the steps I repeated over and over until all notes were copied. (done on mac)

    1. Click the note title you want to copy in OneNote

    2. Shift + Command + A (selects everything including title)

    3. Command + C (copies to clipboard)

    4. Click on desired notebook in Apple Notes

    5. Command + N (creates a new note)

    6. Command + V (pastes the copied note with title on first line, which makes it title in Apple Notes)

     

    Takes about 5 seconds per note once I got the hang of it. Tedious but a workaround nevertheless. Please post here if you found a better solution.