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Guide

OneNote to Markdown: Export Notebooks and Move Them to Obsidian

OneNote has no Markdown export. You get there through Word (export a page, convert it with pandoc), through a Windows exporter that drives OneNote and Word for whole notebooks, or through the Obsidian Importer, which signs in to your Microsoft account. Handwriting is the one thing none of them keep as text. This page shows which route fits your setup and how to check the result.

Updated 2026-10-27

How to convert

  1. Decide which route fits your setup

    A handful of pages on Windows: export to Word and convert with pandoc. Whole notebooks on Windows with the desktop OneNote and Word: OneNote Md Exporter or ConvertOneNote2MarkDown. On a Mac, or if you would rather not run scripts: the Obsidian Importer with Microsoft sign-in, for notebooks you own that are synced to OneDrive.

  2. Single pages: export to Word, then run pandoc

    In OneNote for Microsoft 365, 2024, 2021 or 2016 on Windows, open the page and use File > Export to save it as a Word document. Then run pandoc -f docx -t gfm --extract-media=. Page.docx -o Page.md. The --extract-media option saves images to a media folder and rewrites the image links to point there.

  3. Whole notebooks: OneNote Md Exporter

    Requires Windows 10 or later, the desktop OneNote 2013 or later (not the Store app) and Word 2013 or later. Open OneNote with your notebooks loaded, run OneNoteMdExporter.exe, pick a notebook and Markdown. Sections and section groups become folders, images and attachments are kept, simple tables become Markdown, and the AddFrontMatterHeader setting adds created and updated dates.

  4. Or the PowerShell route: ConvertOneNote2MarkDown

    Needs the desktop OneNote and Word 2016 or later, pandoc 2.11.2 or later, and Windows PowerShell 5.x (PowerShell 7.1 and later are not supported). It exports each page to Word and converts it with pandoc, with options for subpage folders, a media folder per notebook and a PDF next to each page. Do a dry run first with its dryRun setting.

  5. OneNote to Obsidian: the Importer plugin

    Install the Importer community plugin, set File format to Microsoft OneNote, click Sign in and accept the permission request in the browser. Tick the sections you want and import. Only notebooks you own are supported, and work or school accounts may need your organization's approval (look for Use work or school access). Pages in the recycle bin are not imported.

  6. Verify, then clean up

    Compare page counts per section with the files per folder. Open a page with a table, one with an image and one with handwriting. Search for empty files, which are usually ink-only pages or locked sections. Then replace OneNote tags that came through as symbols with checkboxes or headings.

4 examples

What this looks like for different setups

The conversion is the same; what you do with the result depends on where the notes came from.

1.A few meeting pages through Word and pandoc

When it fits: Use this when you need five or ten pages, not the whole notebook, and you have OneNote and Word on Windows. Export each page to Word, convert with one pandoc command, and fix the table by eye.

A few meeting pages through Word and pandocExample 1

Site launch go/no-go, 2026-10-21

Attendees: Halima (PM), Theo (eng), Wren (support)

CheckOwnerStatus
Load test at 3x launch trafficTheoPass, p95 410 ms
Support macros updatedWren14 of 16 done
Rollback plan rehearsedTheoPass, 6 min to roll back
Status page copy approvedHalimaPending legal

Decision

Go for Tuesday 2026-10-28, 09:00, conditional on legal approving the status page copy by Monday noon.

Actions

  • Wren: finish the last two macros (refund, plan change)
  • Halima: chase legal Friday afternoon

Converted with pandoc -f docx -t gfm --extract-media=. "Go-no-go.docx" -o "Go-no-go.md". After converting, check that the page title is a # heading and promote it by hand if not. The screenshot was extracted to media/. Check how the OneNote "To Do" tags came through and rewrite them as - [ ] checkboxes if they are plain bullets.

2.A three-year class notebook with section groups, on Windows

When it fits: Use this when you want an entire notebook, with its section groups and subpages, as a folder of Markdown files. OneNote Md Exporter drives the desktop OneNote and Word and writes one folder per section.

A three-year class notebook with section groups, on WindowsExample 2

title: Week 7, Market structures created: 2025-10-14T09:05:00 updated: 2025-12-02T21:40:00

Week 7, Market structures

ECON 210, Dr. Abiodun. Lecture plus reading ch. 9.

Four structures

  • Perfect competition: many firms, identical product, price takers.
  • Monopolistic competition: many firms, differentiated product, some price power.
  • Oligopoly: few firms, strategic interdependence (game theory next week).
  • Monopoly: one firm, barriers to entry, price maker.

Exam focus

  • Draw the monopoly diagram from memory: MR below demand, deadweight loss triangle.
  • Know why P = MC only under perfect competition.

Linked pages

  • [[Week 8, Game theory basics]]

Exported with OneNote Md Exporter. Path: ECON 210/Lectures/Week 7, Market structures.md (section group, section, page). The front matter came from the AddFrontMatterHeader option. The star tag on "Exam focus" became an emoticon and was replaced by a heading. A handwritten demand curve on this page was lost; see the next example for ink.

3.A personal notebook on a Mac, moved with the Obsidian Importer

When it fits: Use this when you are on a Mac or do not want to install anything on Windows, and the notebook is yours and synced to OneDrive. The Importer signs in to your Microsoft account and reads the notebook from the cloud.

A personal notebook on a Mac, moved with the Obsidian ImporterExample 3

Kitchen renovation, contractor shortlist

Notebook: House. Section: Renovation 2026.

Shortlist

  1. Pine and Plumb: 41,500, start 2026-11-17, 10-year cabinet warranty
  2. Northfield Build: 38,900, start 2027-01-05, references not called yet
  3. Ortega and Sons: 46,200, start 2026-11-03, did the neighbor's kitchen

What decides it

  • Start date matters more than 3,000: we want the kitchen before February.
  • Must include permit filing; Northfield's quote does not.

Subpages

  • Pine and Plumb quote details

  • Questions for the references

  • Call Northfield's two references by 2026-10-31

  • Ask Pine and Plumb if they can start 2026-11-10

Imported with the Obsidian Importer (Microsoft OneNote, Sign in). The two subpages landed in a folder named after this page. The notebook had a section shared by a family member; shared notebooks are not supported, so that section was copied into a notebook of my own first.

4.A pen-and-tablet math notebook where the ink is the content

When it fits: Use this when most pages were written with a stylus. Every Markdown converter drops handwriting as text, so keep a PDF of each section as the record and write a short typed summary on top.

A pen-and-tablet math notebook where the ink is the contentExample 4

MATH 241, section 4: Eigenvalues

Source: OneNote section written with a stylus on a tablet, 11 pages. PDF of the section attached.

What the section covers

  • Characteristic polynomial: det(A - lambda I) = 0
  • Worked examples: 2x2 with real eigenvalues (p. 3), 2x2 with complex eigenvalues (p. 5), 3x3 upper triangular (p. 7)
  • Diagonalization: A = P D P^-1 when there are n independent eigenvectors

Mistakes I made in the problem set

  • Forgot that a repeated eigenvalue does not guarantee two eigenvectors (problem 6).
  • Sign error expanding the 3x3 determinant (problem 9).

Before the midterm (2026-11-12)

  • Redo problems 6 and 9 from scratch
  • Make one page of formulas from the PDF

Converted text was empty because the pages were ink. The section was saved as PDF (ConvertOneNote2MarkDown can write a PDF next to each Markdown file), attached to this note, and the summary was typed from it.

What survives the conversion and what does not

OneNote pages are free-form canvases: text boxes anywhere on the page, ink over images, tags on any line. Markdown is a single column of text. Every route has to flatten the page, and the losses follow from that.

In OneNoteWord + pandocOneNote Md ExporterObsidian Importer
Text, headings, listsKeptKeptKept
Simple tablesKeptKept as MarkdownCheck the output
Complex tables, colorsCheck the outputKept as HTMLCheck the output
ImagesExtracted to media/KeptCheck the output
File attachmentsCheck the outputKeptCheck the output
Section groups and sectionsOne page at a timeFoldersFolders
SubpagesOne page at a timeFolder or filename prefixFolder named after the parent
Links between pagesBreakKept as wikilinks by defaultCheck the output
Links to other notebooksBreakRemovedCheck the output
Tags (To Do, Important)Plain textSymbolsCheck the output
Handwriting (ink)LostLostCheck the output
Created and updated datesLostFront matter, if enabledCheck the output
Password-protected sectionsMust unlockLost unless unlockedNot listed until unlocked

"Check the output" means the tool's documentation does not say. Import one section first and look before running the rest.

Which route to pick

You have Windows and OneNote desktop, and want everything. OneNote Md Exporter is the most complete. It keeps attachments, writes created and updated dates into front matter if you ask, and converts links between pages to wikilinks. ConvertOneNote2MarkDown does a similar job through pandoc and is the better fit if you want to tune the pandoc output format.

You are on a Mac, or the notebook lives only in the cloud. Use the Obsidian Importer with Microsoft sign-in. It needs the notebook to be yours and visible in OneNote on the web. Shared notebooks are not supported; copy the pages you need into a notebook of your own first.

You need a few pages this afternoon. File > Export to Word and one pandoc command per page. It is manual, but nothing to install beyond pandoc.

Your notebook is mostly handwriting. No route will give you the words. Save PDFs, keep them with a typed summary, and use OCR if you need the text searchable.

Work and school notebooks

Notebooks on a work or school OneDrive or SharePoint are the hardest case. OneNote for the web's notebook export only works on a personal OneDrive, and the Obsidian Importer may need your organization's approval before it can read anything. Ask IT before you start: some organizations block the export path on purpose. If they allow it, the Windows exporters work on any notebook the desktop app can open.

How to verify nothing was lost

  1. Count pages per section. OneNote lists pages in each section. Compare with the files in the matching folder.
  2. Search for tiny files. A file under 50 bytes is almost always an ink-only page or a page that failed.
  3. Open the hardest pages. A table with merged cells, a page with an embedded file, a page with subpages.
  4. Click a few links. If page links point nowhere, rerun with a different link setting, or relink by hand with [[wikilinks]].

Keep OneNote installed and the notebooks intact until you have worked from the Markdown for a few weeks. The conversion is cheap to redo; a notebook you deleted is not.

Cleanup tips

  • Sync and download everything before converting

    Local exporters only see what OneNote has downloaded. Open every notebook, let it sync, and make sure images are downloaded; OneNote Md Exporter's docs point to the Download all files and images sync option when images go missing.

  • Expand collapsed paragraphs first

    ConvertOneNote2MarkDown documents that collapsed paragraphs are not exported. Expand them (its README suggests a Onetastic macro for this) before you run the conversion, or you will lose whatever was folded away.

  • Unlock password-protected sections

    Every route skips or loses locked sections: the Importer does not list them and the Windows exporters lose them. Remove the password, convert, and keep a note of which sections were protected so you can protect the result too.

  • Pick wikilinks if your destination supports them

    OneNote Md Exporter can turn links between pages into wikilinks, which is its default. Links to other notebooks and to sections are removed either way, so note the important cross-notebook links before converting.

  • Keep a OneNote-format backup as well

    Markdown is the working copy. For notebooks on a personal OneDrive, OneNote for the web can export a notebook as a zip in OneNote's own format. Keep it with a date in the name; it is the only copy that still has the ink and the page layout.

In the app

How to do this in Scribelet

  1. Zip the exported folder and open Desk Settings, Import & Export, Import from Obsidian (.zip). It takes any zip of Markdown files, so OneNote Md Exporter's output works as is.

  2. Section and section group folders arrive as tags: a page from ECON 210/Lectures/ is tagged #econ-210 and #lectures. Open the Tags view to tidy them.

  3. Attach the PDFs of ink-heavy sections to a note. Scribelet extracts the handwriting as text and writes a caption, so the math notebook becomes searchable even though no converter kept the ink.

  4. Rewrite the OneNote to-do tags as - [ ] Call the references @due(2026-10-31). They show up in the Tasks view and on your daily note.

  5. Link pages that belonged to the same section with [[wikilinks]]; the backlinks panel shows the reverse direction, which OneNote never did.

Start with the quick start if you are new to Scribelet.

Frequently asked questions

Can OneNote export to Markdown directly?

No. OneNote exports pages to Word, PDF and its own formats, not Markdown. The common routes are Word plus pandoc for single pages, a Windows exporter such as OneNote Md Exporter for whole notebooks, or the Obsidian Importer, which reads notebooks through your Microsoft account.

How do I move OneNote to Obsidian?

Install Obsidian's Importer plugin, choose Microsoft OneNote as the file format, sign in with your Microsoft account and pick the sections. The notebooks must be yours and synced to OneDrive. If the Importer cannot reach a work notebook, export with OneNote Md Exporter on Windows and open the folder as a vault. For the wider choice, read Obsidian vs OneNote.

Is there a way to convert OneNote to Markdown on a Mac?

The Windows exporters need the desktop OneNote and Word on Windows. On a Mac, the Obsidian Importer's sign-in route is the practical option, because it reads the notebook from OneDrive instead of from a local app. Its file-based route needs .onepkg exports, which only OneNote for Windows can create.

What happens to handwriting and drawings?

Handwriting does not become text in any of these routes. OneNote Md Exporter documents that ink is lost and drawings are flattened into images; ConvertOneNote2MarkDown says ink loses its position. Keep a PDF of ink-heavy sections, and if you need the handwriting searchable, run the PDF through OCR or attach it to a note in an app that extracts text.

Do OneNote tags, links and page hierarchy survive?

Page hierarchy survives as folders or filename prefixes in the Windows exporters and as folders in the Obsidian Importer. Links between pages can be kept (OneNote Md Exporter converts them to wikilinks by default), but links to other notebooks and sections are removed. Tags such as To Do and Important come out as symbols or plain text, so plan a find-and-replace.

Can I export a whole OneNote notebook at once?

Yes, but not to Markdown in one step. OneNote for the web can export a notebook on a personal OneDrive as a zip in OneNote's format, which is a backup. For Markdown, OneNote Md Exporter and ConvertOneNote2MarkDown convert whole notebooks on Windows, and the Obsidian Importer imports whole sections.

Turn your OneNote notebooks into Markdown you can search and link

Export the notebook, zip the folder and import it into Scribelet: sections become tags, to-dos become tasks with due dates, and ink-heavy PDFs get their text extracted. Free to start.

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