Publishing to a PDF file in OneNote 2010

Handy Programming Tips for Microsoft OneNote 2010: Learn how to publish the contents of a Microsoft OneNote 2010 notebook to a PDF file.

Applies to: Excel 2010 | Office 2010 | OneNote 2010 | PowerPoint 2010 | Word 2010

In this article
Add Library References to the Excel Workbook
Add a Standard Module to the Excel Workbook
Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor
Run the Code
Next Steps

Published:   August 2011

Provided by:    Frank Rice, Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft OneNote 2010 enables you to take and organize notes, include images and web pages, record audio, share your notes with others, and generally keep information from the many parts of your life organized within one simple application. In this topic, you use the GetHierarchy and Publish methods to iterate through the first notebook, its first section, and then retrieve the contents of the first page. You then output that information to a PDF file. To complete this task, you must do the following:

• Add Library References to the Excel Workbook

• Add a Standard Module to the Excel Workbook

• Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor

• Run the Code

• Next Steps

Add Library References to the Excel Workbook

To add references to the workbook

1. Start Excel 2010.

2. On the Developer tab, click Visual Basic. This opens the Visual Basic Editor.

   Note

   If you do not see the Developer tab in Excel, click the File tab, and then click Options. In the categories pane, click Customize Ribbon, select Developer, and then click OK.

3. On the Tools menu, click References.

4. Scroll to Microsoft OneNote 14.0 Object Library, and then select it.

5. Next, scroll to Microsoft XML, 6.0, select it, and then click OK.

Add a Standard Module to the Excel Workbook

In this task, you insert a standard module into the Excel workbook.

To add a standard module to the Excel workbook

• On the Insert menu, click Module. This adds Module1 to the Projects pane on the left side of the Visual Basic Editor.

Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor

In this task, you add programming code to the Visual Basic Editor.

To add code to the Visual Basic Editor

1. In the Projects pane, click Module1.

2. Paste or type the following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code into the module window.

   Note

   Before running the code, you need to open a OneNote 2010 notebook.

   ' Change this value to a valid folder on your computer.
   Const FILE_PATH = "C:\Windows\Temp\"
   
   Sub PublishFirstPageOfFirstSectionOfFirstNotebookToPdf()
       ' Connect to OneNote 2010.
       Dim oneNote As OneNote14.Application
       Set oneNote = New OneNote14.Application
   
       ' Get all of the Notebook nodes.
       Dim nodes As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNodeList
       Set nodes = GetFirstOneNoteNotebookNodes(oneNote)
       If Not nodes Is Nothing Then
           ' Get the first OneNote Notebook in the XML document.
           Dim node As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
           Set node = nodes(0)
           Dim noteBookName As String
           noteBookName = node.Attributes.getNamedItem("name").Text
   
           ' Get the ID for the Notebook so the code can retrieve
           ' the list of sections.
           Dim notebookID As String
           notebookID = node.Attributes.getNamedItem("ID").Text
   
           ' Load the XML for the Sections for the Notebook requested.
           Dim sectionsXml As String
           oneNote.GetHierarchy notebookID, hsSections, sectionsXml, xs2010
   
           Dim secDoc As MSXML2.DOMDocument
           Set secDoc = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
   
           If secDoc.LoadXML(sectionsXml) Then
               Dim secNodes As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNodeList
               Set secNodes = secDoc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("//one:Section")
   
               If Not secNodes Is Nothing Then
                   Dim secNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
                   Set secNode = secNodes(0)
   
                   Dim sectionID As String
                   sectionID = GetAttributeValueFromNode(secNode, "ID")
   
                   ' Load the XML for the Pages for the Section requested.
                   Dim pagesXml As String
                   oneNote.GetHierarchy sectionID, hsPages, pagesXml, xs2010
   
                   Dim pagesDoc As MSXML2.DOMDocument
                   Set pagesDoc = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
   
                   If pagesDoc.LoadXML(pagesXml) Then
                       Dim pageNodes As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNodeList
                       Set pageNodes = pagesDoc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("//one:Page")
   
                       If Not pageNodes Is Nothing Then
                           Dim pageNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
                           Set pageNode = pageNodes(0)
   
                           Dim pageName As String
                           Dim pageID As String
   
                           pageName = GetAttributeValueFromNode(pageNode, "name")
                           pageID = GetAttributeValueFromNode(pageNode, "ID")
   
                           ' Get the user's specified output folder.
                           Dim outputFolder As String
                           outputFolder = FILE_PATH
   
                           ' Create a file name using the page's name.
                           Dim fileName As String
                           fileName = pageName & ".pdf"
   
                           ' Combine the two values into a single
                           ' Variable so it's easier to use twice.
                           Dim publishContentTo As String
                           publishContentTo = outputFolder & fileName
   
                           ' Publish the page content to a PDF file
                           ' in the user specified folder.
                           ' The last parameter is not necessary unless you use the
                           ' pfEmf enum.
                           ' Note this method will fail if the file already exists
                           ' at the location specified.
                           oneNote.Publish pageID, publishContentTo, pfPDF
   
                           ' Display where the file was published to the user.
                           MsgBox "Page " & pageName & " was published to " & publishContentTo, vbInformation, "Publish OK"
                       Else
                           MsgBox "OneNote 2010 Page nodes not found."
                       End If
                   Else
                       MsgBox "OneNote 2010 Pages XML data failed to load."
                   End If
               Else
                   MsgBox "OneNote 2010 Section nodes not found."
               End If
           Else
               MsgBox "OneNote 2010 Section XML data failed to load."
           End If
       Else
           MsgBox "OneNote 2010 XML data failed to load."
       End If
   
   End Sub
   
   Private Function GetAttributeValueFromNode(node As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode, attributeName As String) As String
       If node.Attributes.getNamedItem(attributeName) Is Nothing Then
           GetAttributeValueFromNode = "Not found."
       Else
           GetAttributeValueFromNode = node.Attributes.getNamedItem(attributeName).Text
       End If
   End Function
   
   Private Function GetFirstOneNoteNotebookNodes(oneNote As OneNote14.Application) As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNodeList
       ' Get the XML that represents the OneNote notebooks available.
       Dim notebookXml As String
       ' OneNote fills notebookXml with an XML document providing information
       ' about what OneNote notebooks are available.
       ' You want all the data and thus are providing an empty string
       ' for the bstrStartNodeID parameter.
       oneNote.GetHierarchy "", hsNotebooks, notebookXml, xs2010
   
       ' Use the MSXML Library to parse the XML.
       Dim doc As MSXML2.DOMDocument
       Set doc = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
   
       If doc.LoadXML(notebookXml) Then
           Set GetFirstOneNoteNotebookNodes = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("//one:Notebook")
       Else
           Set GetFirstOneNoteNotebookNodes = Nothing
       End If
   End Function
   

   The PublishFirstPageOfOfFirstSectionOfFirstNotebookToPdf procedure uses the MSXML library to iterate through the first notebook, its first section, and finally gets the first page and outputs the page's content to a PDF file in the directory specified.

Run the Code

In this task, you run the code.

To run the code

• In the Visual Basic Editor, press F5 to run the code.

• Navigate to the directory specified on your computer and observe that the PDF file has been created.

Next Steps

• Quick Note Scenario: Handy Programming Tips for OneNote 2010