[Newbie] Onenote --> Obisdian

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Hello everyone. I’ve been looking through the forums, but thought I would ask it regardless. Though I did find a similar (closed) post from last year - (called “Newbie from OneNote totally overwhelmed”)

I’ve been using Microsoft OneNote since 2007. I use it heavily for work, and also a lot for personal. Everything from taking notes, documentation, training information, conferences, to-do’s, ideas, etc. I’m trying to see if I can start moving away from the M$ ecosystem a little more.
I currently using MS OneNote on Windows desktop\laptop, Mac laptop, Linux desktop\laptop, and iPad. For Obsidian I plan to use Mega (cloud service) as it can be used across all the devices.
**though I wonder how (or if) the iPad can be used correctly for this need and setup. Anyone doing this without using\paying for Obsidian Sync?

I do love OneNote, and I’m curious if I can set up the same processes within Obsidian. I’ve done a little reading, but I always find that talking to those who already use it is sometimes best, as others will already know the “pain”, and may have tips, tricks or suggestions.

I have a handful of Notebooks. Each notebook is broken down by sections, and then further broken down by pages and sub-pages.
I’ve always liked having the page\rule lines. (I think it’s just a visual thing - is there a template or setting for this?)
I will document out processes with text and insert images throughout the process.
Many times I will attach a document that pertains to the subject (docx, xlsx, pdf, image) - I’m not sure if you can enable\disable the file preview. Sometimes it would be nice, sometimes not - just curious.

Yesterday I started to import a OneNote Notebook (using plug-in importer) to see what would happen. Definitely a learning curve. For the most part it appears that the structure is staying intact which helps as I organize and keep certain things together. But under that ‘OneNote’ import folder I have so many individual PDF and image files just on their own and I’m not sure why. Or what would happen if I deleted them all.
Some pages I reviewed have broken links for images (although they display correctly within the same page in OneNote).

screenshot
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Searching through OneNote has always been great. Seems Obsidian is just as good.

Would love to hear some answers on the above, and any suggestions or tips/tricks as I look to go down this path.
Thanks in advance!

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I can only answer some of your questions; I didn’t move to obsidian from onenote or any other app, and I don’t use apple devicess.

For syncing I have used MEGA on windows, linux & android.

  • With the free MEGA account you have to use external solutions (MEGA’s application/rclone/etc.) If you use rclone you should be able to set it up so you can trigger a manual sync from within Obsidian if you need that.
  • If you are using a paid MEGA account with s4 object storage (all paid options, I think), you can use the plugin ‘Remotely Save’.

As for linking other PDFs/images, you can either link those files by simply typing [[example.pdf]]. If you want to embed/view them within your notes, simply add a ! infront of the link, like ![[example.pdf]].

Also, don’t worry about getting everything set up right away. You can always make adjustments as you need them.

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I appreciate that thank you.

To be honest I’ve had MEGA for so long but never really used it (in comparision to Dropbox or sync..com) but I have a lot of space and it will be perfect for this usage. but thanks for the info on it.

Last night I was playing around and the linking\embedding thing is driving me a little crazy.
Currently I’m finding, as I ported over from OneNote, in the base folder that holds all my other main folders it’s dumped a lot of pdf or image files. And that’s just a mess. Deleting any of these will of course, remove them from the note that they are within.
I figured out within settings that I could make these files go into a folder called “attachments”. Which is better but still not as ideal as just having the files embedded within.
For example: I have a picture that I’ve copied from external location and I paste it into a note. This automatically creates a file within “attachments” (because of my app setting). and if I click on the image itself within the note the link shows ! (ie: ![[Pasted image 20251202234016.png]] )

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Here’s one for those following along.
In OnteNote, we have “notebooks”. In Obsidian, we have “vaults”.
In OneNote, I can set my settings and it’s done at a global level regardless of the notebooks I’m using or add new.
In Obsidian, the settings are ‘per vault’. is that correct? So, for example, I’m working on importing and i’ve set date format, where attachments will be stored, etc. but it appears I have to redo all that if I add a new vault. Is there a way that I can create global settings so if I create a new vault and forget to set my attachment folder it’s automatically there. Perhaps a community plugin I haven’t found yet?

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notebooknavigator.com makes Obsidian “feel” like OneNote.

I embed OneNote 2013 .onenote files IN Obsidian.

Since OneNote 2013 had standalone onenote files … this is possible.

All versions after that got rid of the .onenote file type

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The OneNote Notebook equivalent in Obsidian is a folder.

Try to just have one Obsidian vault or at least the smallest number possible (Work, Home)

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Currently I have a number of Onenote notebooks sitting in my Sync cloud. I do recall the .onenote file format. I was just looking and now it’s just .one file
I wonder if that’ll still work or not? I may have to try that. How did you embed them exactly?

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that’s what I’m thinking of as well. Just a Work and Non-work vault to keep them seperate.

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I second the few vaults as possible approach, at least in the beginning.

As you noticed, each vault has its own settings, themes, community plugins, etc. These can be moved between vaults by manually copying/pasting the .obsidian/ settings folder that’s in each vault or using the community plugin Settings Profiles, but the more vaults you have the more overhead.

With multiple vaults, you’ll also miss out on Obsidian’s easy to use and great features like internal linking, linking to headings, linking to blocks, embedding files, the backlinks core plugin, and so on by having a bunch of siloed vaults.

I have a personal vault, a work vault, and a few testing vaults. That’s it. This isn’t to say multiple vaults are bad in any way; some writers have one vault for one book, etc. I just suggest keeping vaults to a minimum for now. And have fun! :grinning_face:

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I really like MEGA for it’s file versioning, which is very useful. But if you don’t want to use something external to Obsidian for sync like me, look at Koofr instead. The free version only has 10GB, but also offers file versioning with 120 days history and it has WebDAV(needed for syncing via Remotely Save).

I didn’t get what you were saying about embeddings though.

You want to have the files interactable (either a link or actually viewed) inside your notes right? The ‘attachments’ folder you set up in the settings will simply hold the actual files, while you can freely link or embed them in any files any number of times.

As for the vault settings stuff, like others said start with one vault. When you need another vault for whatever reason, duplicate (just copy the whole folder or just the ‘.obsidian’ folder) your current vault sans the stuff you don’t need.

Remember that you still have your OneNote stuff. Don’t worry about messing things up or not setting things up perfectly from the get go.