#+title: Convert OneNote to Markdown (or Org-Mode)
#+date: <2024-04-06 Sat 10:00:00>
#+description: Learn how to convert OneNote pages or tabs to another format, such as Markdown or Org-Mode.
#+filetags: :dev:
#+slug: convert-onenote-to-markdown

If you're looking to convert your OneNote content to another format, such as
Markdown or Org-Mode, you're in luck. I use a solution that doesn't require
other programs, such as Evernote or Notion. Personally, I used this solution on
a managed corporate laptop that doesn't allow installation of other programs
like these.

This solution uses OneNote and Pandoc on Windows 10.

* Export OneNote Content to Word

To start, export any pages or tabs from OneNote to the Word format (=.docx=):

1. Open OneNote desktop.
2. Select =File= and then =Export=.
3. Select the scope of content to export, such as =Tab= or =Page=.
4. Name and save the file in an easy to remember location. I recommend your
   Downloads or Desktop folder.

* Download Pandoc

Start by downloading Pandoc from their [[https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases][GitHub releases]] page. I cannot install
=.msi= files on my corporate laptop, so I downloaded the
=pandoc-3.1.12.3-windows-x86_64.zip= file, which contains a simple =.exe= file
that you do not need to install - you will simply run it from the command line
below.

Once downloaded, unzip the archive and move the =pandoc.exe= file to the same
folder where your Word documents were saved above. If you prefer, you can move
this file to an easier location, such as =C:\Users\youruser\Downloads=.

* Convert Word to Markdown

In this example, I will be converting the Word documents to Markdown, but Pandoc
supports [[https://github.com/jgm/pandoc?tab=readme-ov-file#the-universal-markup-converter][a ton of different formats for conversion]]. Choose the format you prefer
and then modify the following commands as needed.

To perform the conversion, open the Command Prompt. If you can't find it, open
the start menu and search for it.

Within the command prompt, navigate to the directory where you stored the
=pandoc.exe= file and the Word documents.

#+begin_src cli
cd "C:\Users\yourusername\Downloads"
#+end_src

You can verify that you're in the correct directory with the =dir= command.

#+begin_src cli
dir
#+end_src

Once you have verified that you have the command prompt open in the correct
directory with the =pandoc.exe= and the Word documents, you can run the
following loop to convert all Word documents to Markdown.

#+begin_src cli
for %f in (*.docx) do (pandoc.exe --extract-media=. --wrap=preserve "%f" "%f.md")
#+end_src

This loop will perform the following actions:

1. Find all documents matching the pattern =*.docx=, which means all Word
   documents ending with that file extension.
2. Iterate through all files found in step 1.
3. For each file, perform the pandoc command.
4. Within the pandoc command, =--extract-media= saves all media found in the
   files to the current folder, with pandoc automatically creating a =media=
   subfolder to hold all images.
5. Within the pandoc command, =--wrap=preserve= will attempt to prseerve the
   wrapping from the source document.
6. Within the pandoc command, the final step is to specify the output path with
   =-o=. This option adds the =.md= file extension to recognize the output files
   as Markdown files.