Retain link formatting on Apple Notes export

[applescripter17]

Using an AppleScript, I have managed to export my Apple Notes to HTML, from which I can make other conversions. However, this removes all the inline links. Is there a way of bulk exporting them while retaining formatting?

RTF seems the obvious way to go here, because that seems to be the format Apple Notes uses under the hood. I have confirmed link formatting is preserved by copy pasting a note into TextEdit, so it’s clearly possible. But I haven’t been able to figure out how to export to RTF using AppleScript. Another way might be by using Shortcuts to go through each note, copy and paste it into TextEdit, and save all the files in a folder somewhere. But I don’t know how to do this.

Does anyone know how to do this, or know another way inline links might be maintained?

This is a duplicate of an Ask Different question. I’ll paste the comments here for easier reading:

1 What is the script doing to export the notes?

2 It’s a slightly modified version of Bear’s export AppleScript bear.app/faq/migrate-from-apple-notes

2 It works perfectly apart from removing link formatting (as well as newlines not working, but I can fix that in another script afterwards).

1 That script gets the body of the note (kinda crappy HTML content, with just about everything in a division), but it doesn’t look like any of the note properties include links.

2 How do you know the note properties don’t include links, is there Apple documentation on this? (I struggled to find any.) Yes, the problem is that inline links aren’t exported, do you know of any way to do this beyond manually copying each individual note into TextEdit?

1 There is no terminology in the scripting dictionary for links, and the body (HTML) doesn’t include them, so if it isn’t a bug then they are just not provided. While hunting around I came across a few topics that go back a few years, so it looks like the issue has been around for a while.

2 Is there any way, that you know of, of automating copy paste from one app to another (in this case, Notes to TextEdit or Pages) on Mac?

[Nigel_Garvey]

Hi @applescripter17. Welcome to MacScripter.

It’s possible to simulate the keystrokes for copying and pasting using GUI Scripting. But you’d need to select the text manually (or at least click in the note) first, so it’s only really sensible for doing one note at a time. To get you started, this saves the RTF data for the currently focused note to a file on the desktop:

tell application "Notes" to activate

tell application "System Events"
	-- Make sure Notes is frontmost.
	set frontmost of application process "Notes" to true
	-- Copy all the text of the currently focused note.
	keystroke "ac" using {command down}
end tell

-- Wait for the keystrokes to take effect.
delay 0.5
-- Retrieve the RTF data from the clipboard.
set RTFData to (the clipboard as «class RTF »)

-- Save the data to file.
set filePath to (path to desktop as text) & "Saved note.rtf" -- Edit as required.
set fRef to (open for access file filePath with write permission)
try
	write RTFData to fRef
	close access fRef
on error msg
	close access fRef
	display dialog msg buttons {"OK"}
end try

Alternatively, this pastes into a new TextEdit document:

tell application "Notes" to activate

tell application "System Events"
	-- Make sure Notes is frontmost.
	set frontmost of application process "Notes" to true
	-- Copy all the text of the currently focused note.
	keystroke "ac" using {command down}
end tell

-- Wait for the keystrokes to take effect.
delay 0.5

tell application "TextEdit"
	activate
	make new document -- Assuming new documents are in RTF format.
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	-- Paste into the frontmost TextEdit document.
	set frontmost of application process "TextEdit" to true
	keystroke "v" using {command down}
end tell

[peavine]

@applescripter17

Another way might be by using Shortcuts to go through each note, copy and paste it into TextEdit, and save all the files in a folder somewhere. But I don’t know how to do this.

applescripter17. The shortcut included below appears to do what you want. A few comments:

• You need to set the destination folder at the top of the shortcut where indicated.

• The shortcut saves each note as a separate RTF file, but I suspect the notes could all be placed in one file if that’s desired.

• Because of a bug in the Shortcuts app, it’s advisable but not absolutely essential that the Notes app be open when the shortcut is run.

• I tested this shortcut on my Sequoia computer, and links and other formatting were retained in the created RTF files.

• The following screenshot only shows a portion of the shortcut.

Save Notes.shortcut (23.7 KB)

[applescripter17]

Apologies for the late response, thank you both for such detailed responses. I will try out that shortcut and report back on whether it works for me, it looks to be exactly what I need.

[applescripter17]

I have modified this shortcut to add other text to the body, such as the title of the note.

To do this I first use “Set Variable” then “Add to Variable” and finally “Combine Text”.

The combination of text works, however it is no longer RTF, but TXT.

Only the Body, or whole Note, appears to be in RTF format. But I want to do some additional processing on it before saving.

Do you know if there is a way of keeping text RTF in Shortcuts?

I tried “Get File of Type” with “public.rtf” type, and “Make Rich Text from Markdown/HTML” to make the other text RTF before combining it with the Body, but a TXT file is still outputted.

Perhaps “Combine Text” itself outputs TXT, and removes RTF formatting in the process. If so, would there be any way around this?

[peavine]

applescripter17. I don’t understand precisely what you mean by additional processing. FWIW, I’ve included below some miscellaneous thoughts on a few issues you raise.

• Adding a note body to a variable retains the RTF formatting. Adding any other note property to a variable results in a variable with a type that is appropriate to that item (e.g. text or date).

• Adding several note bodies to a variable creates a list, and each list item retains the RTF formatting. Merging the items in such a list with the Combine Text action creates a plain-text object. There is not a Combine RTF action (or an equivalent) that I’m aware of.

• I thought a possible workaround might be to create a temporary note and to add the note bodies to that note. However, the resulting note contained text only.

• The Get File of Type action allows you to create an RTF file from a note body, but I was unable to append another note body to that RTF file. Doing this with a variable that contains two note bodies creates two RTF files.

So, I don’t have an answer to your question. Perhaps another forum member will have an idea.

[peavine]

I don’t know if this will be any help to applescripter17, but the following shortcut merges all note bodies returned by the Find Notes action in a temporary note created by the Create Note action. This note is then saved as an RTF file, and RTF formatting is retained.

Combine Notes.shortcut (23.0 KB)

[applescripter17]

Unfortunately this is not what I want to do, they have to all be separate notes. I’ll try and see if I can get it working.

[applescripter17]

By ‘additional processing’ I just mean adding more text, eg putting the folder name at the bottom of the exported file.

[peavine]

@applescripter17

I’ll try and see if I can get it working.

Applescripter17. I’m sure you’ll find a good solution. It’s fun to experiment with stuff like this and to find new ways of doing things.

I played around with my earlier shortcut in which individual notes are specified in the Find Notes action and instead got all notes in a particular folder:

Combine Notes.shortcut (23.1 KB)

The following screenshot is a resulting RTF which was compiled from four notes in the specified folder. The RTF formatting is bold text, a bulleted list, and links.

[applescripter17]

You gave me a clue, so thank you. For some reason Combine Text always outputs TXT not RTF, so I have figured out that for each note I have to create another temporary note, use “Append to Note” to add text, then save that temporary note to a file, and delete it. I will post Shortcut when I have finally finished it.