joplin/readme/apps/import_export.md

Importing and exporting

Importing

Importing from Evernote

Joplin was designed as a replacement for Evernote and so can import complete Evernote notebooks, as well as notes, tags, resources (attached files) and note metadata (such as author, geo-location, etc.) via ENEX files. In terms of data, the only two things that might slightly differ are:

• Recognition data - Evernote images, in particular scanned (or photographed) documents have recognition data associated with them. It is the text that Evernote has been able to recognise in the document. This data is not preserved when the note are imported into Joplin. However, should it become supported in the search tool or other parts of Joplin, it should be possible to regenerate this recognition data since the actual image would still be available.

• Colour, font sizes and faces - Evernote text is stored as HTML and this is converted to Markdown during the import process. For notes that are mostly plain text or with basic formatting (bold, italic, bullet points, links, etc.) this is a lossless conversion, and the note, once rendered back to HTML should be very similar. Tables are also imported and converted to Markdown tables. For very complex notes, some formatting data might be lost - in particular colours, font sizes and font faces will not be imported. The text itself however is always imported in full regardless of formatting. If it is essential that this extra data is preserved then Joplin also allows import of ENEX files as HTML.

To import Evernote data, first export your Evernote notebooks to ENEX files as described here. Then follow these steps:

In the desktop application, open File > Import > ENEX and select your file. The notes will be imported into a new separate notebook. If needed they can then be moved to a different notebook, or the notebook can be renamed, etc.

In the terminal application, in command-line mode, type import /path/to/file.enex. This will import the notes into a new notebook named after the filename.

Importing from Markdown files

Joplin can import notes from plain Markdown file. You can either import a complete directory of Markdown files or individual files.

In the desktop application:

• File import: Go to File > Import > MD - Markdown (file) and select the Markdown file. This file will then be imported to the currently selected Notebook.
• Directory import: Go to File > Import > MD - Markdown (directory) and select the top level of the directory that is being imported. Directory (folder) structure will be preserved in the Notebook > Subnotebook > Note structure within Joplin.

In the terminal application, in command-line mode:

Type import --format md /path/to/file.md or import --format md /path/to/directory/.

Importing from other applications

In general the way to import notes from any application into Joplin is to convert the notes to ENEX files (Evernote format) and to import these ENEX files into Joplin using the method above. Most note-taking applications support ENEX files so it should be relatively straightforward. For help about specific applications, see below:

• Standard Notes: Please see this tutorial
• Tomboy Notes: Export the notes to ENEX files as described here for example, and import these ENEX files into Joplin.
• OneNote: First import the notes from OneNote into Evernote. Then export the ENEX file from Evernote and import it into Joplin.
• NixNote: Synchronise with Evernote, then export the ENEX files and import them into Joplin. More info in this thread.

Exporting

Joplin can export to the JEX format (Joplin Export file), which is a tar file that can contain multiple notes, notebooks, etc. This is a lossless format in that all the notes, but also metadata such as geo-location, updated time, tags, etc. are preserved. This format is convenient for backup purposes and can be re-imported into Joplin. A "raw" format is also available. This is the same as the JEX format except that the data is saved to a directory and each item represented by a single file.

Joplin is also capable of exporting to a number of other formats including HTML and PDF which can be done for single notes, notebooks or everything.