pagekey/onenote-to-markdown

🔀 Scripts to convert OneNote notes to plaintext markdown files.

OneNote to Markdown

This project has been moved to the PageKey GitLab. Here is the link:

https://gitlab.com/pagekey/edu/onenote-to-markdown

onenote-to-markdown's Issues

Does not work with "OneNote for Windows 10"

Problem

There are two types of OneNote applications a user can have installed on their PC:

1. OneNote
2. OneNote for Windows 10

When using "OneNote for Windows 10" and running convert.py, the application will throw the following message !!!Error!!! Hint: Make sure OneNote is open first..

TODO

• Create some sort of error checking to detect different application types
  • An better solution would be to add functionality for both types of OneNote application types

Running convert3.ps1 sees COM error...

I opened the OneNote.
Then I just run the .\convert3.ps1 in the repo.

After a while, I saw below error.

New-Object : Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {DC67E480-C3CB-49F8-8232-60B0C2056C8E} failed
due to the following error: 80080005 Server execution failed (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080005
(CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE)).
At C:\D\sources2\onenote-to-markdown\convert3.ps1:7 char:12
+ $OneNote = New-Object -ComObject OneNote.Application
+            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [New-Object], COMException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoCOMClassIdentified,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\D\sources2\onenote-to-markdown\convert3.ps1:9 char:1
+ $OneNote.GetHierarchy("", [Microsoft.Office.InterOp.OneNote.Hierarchy ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {DC67E480-C3CB-49F8-8232-60B0C2056C8E} failed due to the following error: 80080005 Server execution failed (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080005 (CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE)).

onenote-to-markdown> .\convert3.ps1

`
New-Object : Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {DC67E480-C3CB-49F8-8232-60B0C2056C8E} failed due to the following error: 80080005 Server
execution failed (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080005 (CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE)).
At C:\Notebooks\Polytek\onenote-to-markdown\convert3.ps1:7 char:12

• $OneNote = New-Object -ComObject OneNote.Application

•        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [New-Object], COMException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoCOMClassIdentified,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewObjectCommand

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Notebooks\Polytek\onenote-to-markdown\convert3.ps1:9 char:1

• $OneNote.GetHierarchy("", [Microsoft.Office.InterOp.OneNote.Hierarchy ...

•   + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
  

`

Image embeddings problem

I used the script on win11 with the intention to import my older OneNote-notes in Obsidian.
It worked well, except for the images.

Obsidian doesn't recognize for example:
![](media/image1.png){width="9.604166666666666in" height="0.34375in"}

• the image-names aren't unique, i got the image-names like "image001" again and again for each folder which I think creates problems when linking in Obsidian.

---

Just as a personal feedback :) thanks for creating and sharing the script

Unable to find type [Microsoft.Office.InterOp.OneNote.HierarchyScope].

Hello Using powershell7 with onenote for windows 10 and am receiving the following error (see below). I have set my policy to unrestricted and installed python3 and Pandoc , my os is Win10 pro

InvalidOperation: C:\Users\username\onenote-to-markdown\convert3.ps1:9
Line |
9 | … erarchy("", [Microsoft.Office.InterOp.OneNote.HierarchyScope]::hsPage …
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Unable to find type [Microsoft.Office.InterOp.OneNote.HierarchyScope].

Thank you

Broken image links

My last commit breaks image links if they have whitespace in filename. https://talk.commonmark.org/t/whitespace-in-image-paths/1121/7
Code requires workaround.

Converter Failing on a Page

I'm getting this error:

!!WARNING!! Page Failed: C:\Users\jason\Desktop\OneNoteExport\Jason_K_s_Notebook\Health\015_Enneagram_Personality_Result___Type_4w3.md
!!WARNING!! Page Failed: C:\Users\jason\Desktop\OneNoteExport\Jason_K_s_Notebook\Health\016_Five_Minute_Journal___Daily_Journal_Techniques_and_Tips.md
!!WARNING!! Page Failed: C:\Users\jason\Desktop\OneNoteExport\Jason_K_s_Notebook\Health\017_Vaccination_Card_3_shots.md
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\jason\GitHub\onenote-to-markdown\convert.py", line 121, in <module>
    handle_element(onenote, child)
  File "C:\Users\jason\GitHub\onenote-to-markdown\convert.py", line 101, in handle_element
    handle_element(onenote, c2, os.path.join(path, safe_str(elem.attrib['name'])), i)
  File "C:\Users\jason\GitHub\onenote-to-markdown\convert.py", line 103, in handle_element
    hier2 = onenote.GetHierarchy(elem.attrib['ID'], win32.constants.hsPages, "")
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\jason\AppData\Local\Temp\gen_py\3.11\F2A7EE29-8BF6-4A6D-83F1-098E366C709Cx0x1x0\IApplication.py", line 63, in GetHierarchy
    return self._ApplyTypes_(1610743808, 1, (24, 0), ((8, 1), (3, 1), (16392, 2)), 'GetHierarchy', None,bstrStartNodeID
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\jason\GitHub\onenote-to-markdown\.venv\Lib\site-packages\win32com\client\__init__.py", line 572, in _ApplyTypes_
    self._oleobj_.InvokeTypes(dispid, 0, wFlags, retType, argTypes, *args),
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
pywintypes.com_error: (-2147023174, 'The RPC server is unavailable.', None, None)
!!!Error!!! Hint: Make sure OneNote is open first.

OneNote is open but something causes it to close causing the RPC error. Nothing gets written the desktop either.

There needs to be some error handling. I'm reviewing the youtube video and seeing if I need to clear anything. I'm using OneNote for Windows 11 and everything is updated.