As I considered the problem of finding data and the problems associated with ownership of data on someone else’s software, I realized that I had things in OneNote that I couldn’t lose. I decided that I needed adjust OneNote, removing data and into another format on my hard drive so that I could find things.
The Craft Patterns
My craft pattern library, both for things that I had already done and things I have materials for, was crammed into OneNote. This was a legacy of the move from Evernote. Unfortunately, when I moved, I moved without thinking it through, and I was soon aware that I couldn’t find things.
Many of my patterns are in PDF format. They are purchased or downloaded that way, and I stuffed them into OneNote as a PDF. What I didn’t do, though, was add any descriptors as I stored them. A pattern that is a PDF only is much less accessible to search than one that has a text description of “knit sweater for 3-4 year old with minimal seaming. Made in 2006”
Pulling Out PDFs
Pulling the PDFs out of OneNote and onto my hard drive wasn’t hard. I just right-clicked on the saved PDF and chose Save As. This allowed me to save my PDFS right to the hard drive.
Pulling Out Text
Some of the patterns that I had saved in OneNote were just text with pictures.
I didn’t want the hassle of having to copy the pattern to another program and then copy over the pictures.
Since most of my patterns were already in PDF, I decided that the things I extracted from OneNote that weren’t already there would be extracted as PDF.
This was surprisingly convoluted thanks to things not lining up on the OneNote screen. The sequence is (Windows): File, Export, PDF.
Make sure that the correct “Current” item is selected – you could end up with a section or a notebook in that PDF.
The shortcut keys (which is where things don’t line up) is Alt+F, S, F.
I’m not sure why Microsoft picked S for Export (it’s usually X) or why they picked F for PDF.
Filing
After working this out, I was able to extract all of my patterns as PDFs onto my hard drive. From there it was simple to organize them in folders on my hard drive based on what sort of project it was.
I added “done” to the file name if it was a project I had already done. I added “purchased” to the front of the name to indicate those patterns for which I have already purchased materials.
And if I needed to make notes, I opened the PDF up in FoxIt (my PDF editor of choice) and notated right on the document.
Not Abandoning OneNote
I need to emphasize here that I am not abandoning OneNote. Some of my information needs to stay in a notebook format. And I will always use OneNote for my work tracking.
Summary
Using this method, I was able to extract my entire OneNote pattern library onto my hard drive in a few hours. I have been able to find what I am looking for easily – I found an heirloom pattern I had been searching for for months.