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Creating a Word Document from a note


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Does anyone have a best practice idea for converting a note into a Word document, other than cutting and pasting? Would be great if there was a simple method to do so (ie one click and voilà!)

Thanks

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Thanks. That does seem to work, but not sure its any easier than cutting and pasting, although perhaps the formatting remains more consistent.

In any case, maybe they will add one button Word doc creation someday!

David

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  • 3 months later...

It would be really nice, if EN could export and copy directly and formatted to Word or other OpenDocument wordprocessor. Life would be even easier.

I use EN constantly, and has constantly the issue of copying formatted text from EN.

 

/Lars

www.lpmathiasen.com

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Word can still open HTML files

 

You are of course right, but it is a lot easier to convert directly, and it is much more user-friendly, in my perspective this is more in the spirit of EN. Isn't it?

 By exporting to RTF files directly, a higher rate of compatibility would be achieved, hence making the tool a lot more usable. 

 

I just tried to exprort to HTML - Word will not import pictures... You see - It begins to be user-unfreindly

 

 

02.01.2014-22.22.png

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That's curious. I've used this in the past... 

 

...and just checked again. I was able to export a couple of notes that contain images as HTML, and the images came in fine. When I exported as .mht, the images didn't come in, though. By the way, I'm running on Windows, both Word and Evernote.

 

I agree it's a drawback that that doesn't work for you, for whatever reason. Not sure that RFT or native Word export is in the near future though; they tend to stick to formats that are easily supportable (e.g. HTML, PDF on Mac).

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  • 8 months later...

I found that the exported html cannot immediately be opened by word. It gives an error. I can open the html files in text editor and then is needs to be unlocked. Only then can word open them. Is there a way to skip this step?

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  • 1 year later...

Just beginning to use Everynote and really like it, but I'm usually taking notes on an ipad mini and then compiling into a Word Document for editing later.

it sure would be nice if there was an "Export to Word Doc" button!!  :rolleyes:

 

For now, I guess it's just CTRL+C and CTRL +V

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Just beginning to use Everynote and really like it, but I'm usually taking notes on an ipad mini and then compiling into a Word Document for editing later.

it sure would be nice if there was an "Export to Word Doc" button!!  :rolleyes:

 

For now, I guess it's just CTRL+C and CTRL +V

 

The 'export to html' trick is a generic option for most wordprocessors - not everyone uses Word,  and there are at least three flavours of word doc;  lots of coding required...

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Just beginning to use Everynote and really like it, but I'm usually taking notes on an ipad mini and then compiling into a Word Document for editing later.

it sure would be nice if there was an "Export to Word Doc" button!!  :rolleyes:

 

For now, I guess it's just CTRL+C and CTRL +V

 

Copy/Paste into a Word document is your best option, and works well.  After the paste you will have an option in Word to "Keep Source formatting" or "Use Destination formatting".  I find the latter usually works best.

 

If you do this a lot, you could automate it using a Keyboard Macro Utility, like:

These tools also provide lots of other useful features.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I tried cut and paste and open as HTML but neither work perfectly.  I use nested bullet-ed lists often and I end up with extra bullets at the top of the list like below.  The blank bullets are not in my evernote original.  Any thoughts on what this is?  I end up going in and having to delete a lot of lines instead of just doing a simple cut and paste and being done with it.

 

  •   this is my list
    •  
    • List1
    • List2
    • List3
      •  
      • Nest1
      • Nest2
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Don't think there's a 'trick' to getting around this - you may be able to find a way to delete blank entries in a bulleted list using Word's Replace function,  or it may have to be done manually.  Either way once you have done it you could attach the word file with the cleaned-up list to the same note,  and make any further changes to that file.

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I tried cut and paste and open as HTML but neither work perfectly.  I use nested bullet-ed lists often and I end up with extra bullets at the top of the list like below.

 

As I stated in the post just above yours, you can use the Word option to "Match Destination Styles" just after a paste to fix most issues.

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  • 1 month later...
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37 minutes ago, Nics said:

Yes yes all good comments but a button 'export doc' would be the best solution

Yes, I suppose Evernote could devote resources to adding a Word Export button.  
But what about <insert favourite app>!!!  There could be a multitude of postings.

My opinion; if this is important to you, do as @JMichaelTX suggested above and look at one of the keyboard shortcut apps.
I'd prefer to see Evernote work on other priorities.

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On 1/28/2016 at 8:18 PM, DTLow said:

Yes, I suppose Evernote could devote resources to adding a Word Export button.  
But what about <insert favourite app>!!!  There could be a multitude of postings.

My opinion; if this is important to you, do as @JMichaelTX suggested above and look at one of the keyboard shortcut apps.
I'd prefer to see Evernote work on other priorities.

That answer in facetious. MS Word is the de facto standard for WP on PCs. Thus it should be a top priority.

Evernote is great for taking notes but not for heavy document processing. You need a word processor for that. Not making it as easy as possible to export your notes into such is simply a glaring omission. And for many a deal breaker. Evernote may have other business reasons for not implementing this "must have" solution but certainly not the one you stated. Until they make this path from En -> MSWord easier, EN will remain a hobbled application.

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1 hour ago, DonDree said:

Evernote is great for taking notes but not for heavy document processing. You need a word processor for that.

Agreed.

1 hour ago, DonDree said:

Not making it as easy as possible to export your notes into such is simply a glaring omission. And for many a deal breaker

Maybe for a few, but I doubt for many.  It is easy enough to copy/paste from Evernote to MS Word.  It takes ONLY 4 keystrokes:  CTRL+A, CTRL+C, ALT-TAB to Word, CTRL+V (these are for Windows, similar for Mac).

As I mentioned earlier, if you need to do this many times a day, then a simple keyboard macro can be written.

The other option is to just attach the Word doc to the EN Note.  Then a simple double-click on the attachment icon opens the attachment in Word.

No big deal.  IAC, these are your options for the foreseeable future.

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47 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

Agreed.

Maybe for a few, but I doubt for many.  It is easy enough to copy/paste from Evernote to MS Word.  It takes ONLY 4 keystrokes:  CTRL+A, CTRL+C, ALT-TAB to Word, CTRL+V (these are for Windows, similar for Mac).

As I mentioned earlier, if you need to do this many times a day, then a simple keyboard macro can be written.

The other option is to just attach the Word doc to the EN Note.  Then a simple double-click on the attachment icon opens the attachment in Word.

No big deal.  IAC, these are your options for the foreseeable future.

Cut & paste? Really? That's a kludgy solution at best. What about formatting? What about audio notes? What about photos? Believe me I've tried both cut & paste and HTML export/import. They both require extensive re-formatting of work already done in EN. And a complete loss of audio recorded. If Apple's Pages can give us export to Word, why not Evernote?

Believe me it is a big deal. No one wants to have to redo work.

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30 minutes ago, DonDree said:

Cut & paste? Really? That's a kludgy solution at best

Not klugy at all.  Cut, Copy, & Paste have long been the inter-app conduit.  If both apps properly support the Clipboard, it will work great.

31 minutes ago, DonDree said:

Believe me I've tried both cut & paste and HTML export/import. They both require extensive re-formatting of work already done in EN

Therein lies the real issue.  Evernote is not putting the proper rich text on the clipboard.  A copy from Evernote to a paste in Word should not require any reformatting.  If it does, then there is a bug somewhere.  I suggest you conduct a controlled test, copy from Evernote, and paste into several rich text apps, including Word.  If they are all messed up, then the issue clearly lies with Evernote.  In which case, I'd suggest that you submit a bug report.

Keep in mind that an Evernote button to "export to Word" would just be an automation of copy/paste.  If they can't copy the Note contents to the clipboard properly, then I doubt the export would be much better.

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6 hours ago, DonDree said:

Thus it should be a top priority.

I'd prefer to see other priorities get addressed.
I would think copy/paste should work fine for most use cases.  
For the exceptions, and automated button might have the same problems.

>>Evernote is great for taking notes but not for heavy document processing. You need a word processor for that.
Thats my feeling too.  If your document is so complicated, you should be filing it as an attachment in its native format.

>>Until they make this path from En -> MSWord easier, EN will remain a hobbled application.
All software has various feature limits.  I wouldn't call it hobbled.

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, getmeto said:

The best is (Doxillion Document Converter). Its a small sized software. Save Evernote page as HTML then Open Doxillion and it will convert Evernote HTML into MS WORD

Thanks for sharing.  This looks like a great tool.  I have downloaded the free home version, and hope to check it out soon.
Doxillion Document Converter Software 

Have you used it yet?  Does it do a good job of converting an EN Note to MS Word?

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While taking notes I like to audio record certain portions of the meeting/lecture, either to document the speaker's style or to have a record of a speaker's tone & salient points. Or maybe use them in a multi-media presentation. There are many reasons. Currently there is no way to get these out of EN and into MSWord, or a media editor. This is big. A sophisticated export function can handle this task. A crude, brute cut & paste operation cannot.

Using a third party app to do what EN should? Again, more unnecessary work. My work flow begins with note taking and proceeds to word processing. I think most/many users have the same or similar process. For EN to not provide a simple efficient path between the two is a deal breaker for me.

I think I will try using Pages for awhile. It is cloud based, allows for sharing work between users and provides a smooth transition to the next stage of Word processing. These are fundamental work sharing tasks. Can it really be the case that EN doesn't think they are critical!/! I'm dumbfounded.

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On January 30, 2016 at 11:29 PM, DonDree said:

RE: Attachments
A sophisticated export function can handle this task. A crude, brute cut & paste operation cannot.

I have been satisfied with the cut/paste process
- I've only needed it for single notes; it wouldn't be adequate for a batch,
It seemed the best process to ensure the formatting didn't get corrupted.
It included my image attachments; not sure about audio attachments.

Lately though, there is a known bug with attachments.  
My images are getting lost in the cut/paste - Assuming I catch it, I have to go back and handle the images individually,

 

 

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12 hours ago, DonDree said:

Using a third party app to do what EN should? Again, more unnecessary work.

I'm not sure that's true.  Having and using the right tool for the job is more important, to me, than a little inconvenience.

Evernote provides a range of mid-level, sometimes low-level, tools.  Often they will work OK.  Rarely will they provide the same power and capability as a dedicated tool.  MS Word is a great example.

If you really need a good audio record, you might try AudioNote.  The iOS app sync with the Mac app via Dropbox, and it is easy enough to attach to a EN Note.

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7 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

I'm not sure that's true.  Having and using the right tool for the job is more important, to me, than a little inconvenience.

Evernote provides a range of mid-level, sometimes low-level, tools.  Often they will work OK.  Rarely will they provide the same power and capability as a dedicated tool.  MS Word is a great example.

If you really need a good audio record, you might try AudioNote.  The iOS app sync with the Mac app via Dropbox, and it is easy enough to attach to a EN Note.

Your answer, along with most of the others above, begs the question: why is the solution always a work-around? Mature applications identify these kinds of problems and get to work on solutions immediately. From what I can gather here, this problem is not even on EN's radar, not even a priority. Not even some sort of acknowledgment like yeah we know the problem exists and we're working on it. Instead we get lame Mr. Fixit type advice. Nothing personal. There's a lot that's good in the application. But it's time for EN to step up to the plate and demonstrate they are listening to their users. Not listening is what gets applications (like Twitter) in trouble.

Thanks for the tip on AudioNote though. I'll check it out. But there again, if I find it useful do I really even need EN?

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1 hour ago, DonDree said:

Your answer, along with most of the others above, begs the question: why is the solution always a work-around?

It's not always a workaorund.  Sometimes it's about choosing the right tool.  Clearly we don't agree on what Evernote should provide, and that's fine, and I have no problem with you requesting Evernote to do more.  Although MS Word has a table function that can do calculations, I almost never use it for calculations.  Instead, I use Excel, which is far superior.  I don't expect Microsoft will ever turn Word into Excel.  :)

Until/IF Evernote provides the features you want, I hope you can find other tools to meet your needs.

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Evernote just published a blog which acknowledges that Evernote can't do everything, and that Evernote users will and do use a variety of tools:

Speed Up Evernote Workflows with Zapiers Multi-Step Zaps

Quote

Although we’d love to imagine that Evernote is the only app you’ll ever need, the reality is most of us use a lot of different apps throughout the day, and juggling them can be a headache. That’s why we love Zapier, which made our list of Evernote Business Essentials and was one of our platform awards finalists in 2014.

I'm not plugging nor recommending Zapier (I've never used it).

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/14/2015 at 1:16 AM, JohnnyH said:

I tried cut and paste and open as HTML but neither work perfectly.  I use nested bullet-ed lists often and I end up with extra bullets at the top of the list like below.  The blank bullets are not in my evernote original.  Any thoughts on what this is?  I end up going in and having to delete a lot of lines instead of just doing a simple cut and paste and being done with it.

 

  •   this is my list
    •  
    • List1
    • List2
    • List3
      •  
      • Nest1
      • Nest2

I've just had a look at the source of the exported note. Evernote appears to add an extra layer to the list which (when removed) makes it possible to remove the extra bullet point.

1. Save the note as HTML

2. Open the file in a text editor

3. Search and replace </li><li style="list-style: none; display: inline"> with nothing

4. Open the file in Word

5. Kick back and admire your handywork

 

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6 hours ago, EduardoFandangle said:

1. Save the note as HTML

2. Open the file in a text editor

In the below GIF, you'll see 2 simple workarounds for editing the HTML (ENML) of an Evernote note on the Web Client:

  1. AlterNote Chrome extension
  2. ENML Editor

 

EDITING EVERNOTE HTML.gif

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  • 7 months later...

To those who think this is not a big deal, it is. Evernote markets their product as a word processing tool, e.g., they directly market to writers. That's me. I love Evernote but am running into some serious formatting issues as I try to make my work available for others to read or edit. I work off of an Android platform, so I'd like to copy and paste into Google Docs or some similar cloud app (that I can access with my Android platform). The Windows/Word workarounds listed here do not work for me because I'm Android-based.

From my research, people have been complaining about this issue for years (at least circa 2011) and Evernote has done nothing. Someone should alert them that it is 2016, soon to be 2017 and they ought to get their act together since they are, in fact, marketing their app as a word processing solution. If they are happy making money from selling Evernote as a word processing solution, then they ought to treat it as such. The fact that users on all platforms cannot simply copy and paste their work from Evernote into another word processing app (and retain the most simple formatting) is a stain on Evernote's technical reputation and their integrity as a company. 

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2 hours ago, erdman31 said:

Evernote markets their product as a word processing tool

I definitely agree that copy/paste interoperability, and overall editing tools, should be improved. But I'm curious about the statement above. I've never thought of EN as a word processor (I first learned about it from a writer who uses both EN and Scrivener, but also a dedicated word processor, as I do now). Can you point me to where they market it as such? If they do, they're clearly exaggerating.

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6 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

I definitely agree that copy/paste interoperability, and overall editing tools, should be improved. But I'm curious about the statement above. I've never thought of EN as a word processor (I first learned about it from a writer who uses both EN and Scrivener, but also a dedicated word processor, as I do now). Can you point me to where they market it as such? If they do, they're clearly exaggerating.

It's not a word processor it's a note taker which makes it only all the more imperative that they have some kind of a functional export system to get the document into a word processor.  This is one of the biggest downfalls of an otherwise very capable application. 

The fact that they have never recognized this or begun work on a solution, is just mind boggling. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 1/30/2016 at 3:54 AM, JMichaelTX said:

Agreed.

Maybe for a few, but I doubt for many.  It is easy enough to copy/paste from Evernote to MS Word.  It takes ONLY 4 keystrokes:  CTRL+A, CTRL+C, ALT-TAB to Word, CTRL+V (these are for Windows, similar for Mac).

As I mentioned earlier, if you need to do this many times a day, then a simple keyboard macro can be written.

The other option is to just attach the Word doc to the EN Note.  Then a simple double-click on the attachment icon opens the attachment in Word.

No big deal.  IAC, these are your options for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for the reminder about CTRL+A. That certainly helps! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Everyone is missing the real reason that EN does not want to do this easily in bulk. If you could export to Word it would make it far too easy to switch to a competitor like OneNote. Not having an easy means to migrate keeps users from disrupting ENs revenue stream by switching products. 

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18 hours ago, cgcordry said:

it would make it far too easy to switch to a competitor

Did you notice that Evernote makes it easy to export your data
On my Mac, I can easily export my data (HTML format) and take my data anywhere I chose

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37 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Did you notice that Evernote makes it easy to export your data
On my Mac, I can easily export my data (HTML format) and take my data anywhere I chose

This also works in the Windows client.

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  • 2 months later...

Yes there is!  :-) I know this is an older post, but i've racked my brain over this same issue. I apologize if this has been answered already since i've not read through all the posts, but here's how i've got it to work:

In your Evernote note (i'm using a MacBook):

  • right click on windows or 2-finger tap on mac
  • choose "convert note to pdf"
      • the pdf is saved in your the Evernote notebook you are working in
  • select the newly converted pdf so it's in your main Evernote window
    • download it to your computer by clicking the download icon in the upper right corner   
  • open the pdf in Adobe Acrobat (or a viewer- I'm assuming it works in a pdf viewer but not sure) 
  • In the Adobe main menu bar: 
    • File --> Export to --> Microsoft Word
    • Save as desired 

 

  • Viola! Evernote a la Word :-) 

 

Best

 

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On 8/12/2017 at 11:50 AM, pepita96 said:

here's how i've got it to work:

Wow!  That's a lot of steps, and requires another expensive app (Acrobat).

I use either of these processes, and it is very quick:

  1. Copy/Paste from EN Mac to MS Word
  2. File > Export > HTML file.  Open exported file in Word.
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6 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

Wow!  That's a lot of steps, and requires another expensive app (Acrobat).

I use either of these processes, and it is very quick:

  1. Copy/Paste from EN Mac to MS Word
  2. File > Export > HTML file.  Open exported file in Word.

With the new Mac OS coming out Adobe isn't required as they have made the Preview app quite a bit better to handle PDF viewing and editing.

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On 2017-08-12 at 9:50 AM, pepita96 said:

In the Adobe main menu bar:     File --> Export to --> Microsoft Word

 

7 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

File > Export > HTML file.  Open exported file in Word.

Looks like the choices are

  1. EN enml copy/paste > Word
  2. EN enml > html > Word
  3. EN enml > pdf > pdf app > Word

Can anyone advise on the quality of the Word document?  Does it duplicate the EN note? How are attachmentments presented?

I found the EN enml > html conversation to be very accurate; it duplicated the EN note

The EN enml > pdf conversion resulted in embedded images and other attachments lost

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On 8/12/2017 at 0:50 PM, pepita96 said:

Yes there is!  :-) I know this is an older post, but i've racked my brain over this same issue. I apologize if this has been answered already since i've not read through all the posts, but here's how i've got it to work:

In your Evernote note (i'm using a MacBook):

  • right click on windows or 2-finger tap on mac
  • choose "convert note to pdf"
      • the pdf is saved in your the Evernote notebook you are working in
  • select the newly converted pdf so it's in your main Evernote window
    • download it to your computer by clicking the download icon in the upper right corner   
  • open the pdf in Adobe Acrobat (or a viewer- I'm assuming it works in a pdf viewer but not sure) 
  • In the Adobe main menu bar: 
    • File --> Export to --> Microsoft Word
    • Save as desired 
  •  

 

  • Viola! Evernote a la Word :-) 

 

Best

1. When right clicking on a note there is no option to convert to pdf (I'm talking Windows here)

2. If you file/print to a pdf program, you will get a pdf file. But upon opening it in Adobe Acrobat and attempting to export to Word you get a message saying you need a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Pro to perform the conversion. Again, another expensive work around to do something that should be built in to Evernote.in the first place.

 

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4 hours ago, DTLow said:

 

Looks like the choices are

  1. EN enml copy/paste > Word
  2. EN enml > html > Word
  3. EN enml > pdf > pdf app > Word

Can anyone advise on the quality of the Word document?  Does it duplicate the EN note? How are attachmentments presented?

I found the EN enml > html conversation to be very accurate; it duplicated the EN note

The EN enml > pdf conversion resulted in embedded images and other attachments lost

Of these three I've found number 2 to be the best work around. If your attachments are photos they will convert. If your attachments are voice memos, sorry but there is still no way to retrieve these files. They are permanently locked in to evernote. I've abandoned using the built in audio recorder and have switched to using a hand held digital recorder, which gives me files I can easily upload into Word. But again this creates more work for me because I have to make sure my audio files are coordinated with the correct note in EN.

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21 minutes ago, DonDree said:

something that should be built in to Evernote.in the first place.

You’re welcome to add your vote to the feature request below

I disagree with your conclusion, and there’s no indication Evernote is considering adding export formats.  It would be a good idea to look at work-around solutions

>>another expensive work around

I have no suggestions for Windows but I’m sure there’s inexpensive solutions

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, DonDree said:

If your attachments are voice memos, sorry but there is still no way to retrieve these files. They are permanently locked in to evernote.

Actually, if you use the html export, you will see all attachments with the html note, including audio files

From my Mac    59924d69358d8_ScreenShot2017-08-14at18_23_53.png.87a1440fdf875046be127d7aec378cce.png

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  • 6 months later...
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It is very disappointing to see that the question, answers, and comebacks have been recycling since 2011. The only thing that has changed is my age (now 72) and my desire to be able to convert my EN notes to a more economical and usable format for my students and descendants.

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1 hour ago, jimurozu said:

 ... my desire to be able to convert my EN notes to a more economical and usable format for my students and descendants.

Evernote supports export into html format.  I'd consider this economical and usuable; it's ubiquitous.

You could also look at cloudHQ which gives various format options, including Word and PDF.

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  • 2 years later...
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4 hours ago, SamWrites said:

Just another idea but how about get it to OneNote and from there you can certainly get it to MS Word.

Hi. You're adding to a 2-year old discussion.  And it seems to me getting to Word is pretty easy these days - export to HTML and open the file with Word (or your word processor of choice) which (these days) should be pretty easy.  Worst case copy and paste the content from Evernote or from a browser viewing that HTML file into your WP of choice.  Easy and quick.

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