Getting Started

Aspose.Note FOSS for Python is a free, open-source library for reading Microsoft OneNote .one section files. It provides a public API modeled after Aspose.Note for .NET, backed by a pure-Python MS-ONE/OneStore binary parser. No Microsoft Office installation is required.

What You Can Do

  • Read .one files: open any OneNote 2010, OneNote Online, or OneNote 2007 section file
  • Traverse the document DOM: navigate pages, outlines, outline elements, and all content types
  • Extract text: read plain text or inspect individual formatting runs (bold, italic, hyperlinks, font color)
  • Extract images: retrieve embedded images as raw bytes with filename and dimensions
  • Extract attached files: save embedded file attachments to disk
  • Parse tables: walk table rows and cells, read column widths and cell content
  • Inspect tags and lists: read OneNote tags (NoteTag) and numbered list metadata
  • Export to PDF: save any loaded document to PDF using the optional ReportLab backend

Prerequisites

RequirementDetails
Python3.10 or later
Operating systemAny (Windows, Linux, macOS), OS-independent
Microsoft OfficeNot required
PDF exportRequires reportlab>=3.6; install via the [pdf] extra

Installation

Install the core library from PyPI:

pip install aspose-note

If you plan to export documents to PDF, install with the [pdf] extra:

pip install "aspose-note[pdf]"

For detailed installation options (editable installs, virtual environments), see the Installation guide.

Your First Script

The following script loads a OneNote section file, prints the section display name and page count, then lists every page title:

from aspose.note import Document

doc = Document("MyNotes.one")
print(f"Section: {doc.DisplayName}")
print(f"Pages:   {doc.Count()}")

for page in doc:
    title = (
        page.Title.TitleText.Text
        if page.Title and page.Title.TitleText
        else "(untitled)"
    )
    print(f"  - {title}")

Important: The public import path is from aspose.note import .... Do not use import aspose_note or from onenote import ..., as those are not the correct package names.

Extract All Text 

from aspose.note import Document, RichText

doc = Document("MyNotes.one")
for rt in doc.GetChildNodes(RichText):
    if rt.Text:
        print(rt.Text)

Export to PDF 

from aspose.note import Document, SaveFormat

doc = Document("MyNotes.one")
doc.Save("output.pdf", SaveFormat.Pdf)

Requires pip install "aspose-note[pdf]".

Next Steps