Microsoft Eases Transition from Evernote to OneNote

Not sure why this took so long, but Microsoft now has a OneNote Importer utility that will import your Evernote-based notes into the software giant’s completely free Office-based solution.

I was tipped off to this neat and necessary utility by Mary Jo Foley. Apparently, it just shipped today for the first time.

The OneNote Importer is available from the Microsoft web site. It’s a simple wizard-based application that looks for your local Evernote data rather than connect to the cloud. Meaning, you’ll need to have Evernote installed on your PC and sync before you can use OneNote Importer. Or at least have exported your Evernote file in .enex format. Oddly enough, you don’t need OneNote installed to use it, however: It will import your notes to the cloud.

A support page provides more information.

“The OneNote Importer finds any Evernote content on your computer and sends it to OneNote. You can choose any Microsoft Account to use with OneNote, no matter if it’s a personal Hotmail, Live.com, or Outlook.com account, or a Microsoft Account given to you by your work or your school. You likely already have such an account, but you can just as easily create a new one for free.”

To be clear, OneNote is completely free. You don’t need to “own” Office or subscribe to Office 365. You can get the full desktop application—Outlook 2016—or a lighter mobile app version for Windows desktop. But it’s available everywhere for free: Windows phones, iPads and iPhones, Android, the web, whatever.

Good stuff.