Exporting and sharing notes
PDF, Markdown, PNG, .notelnote files, and texting a note to your phone.
Open a note’s settings panel and look for Export As… . Four formats there. Exporting from the Library offers the first three of them.
A print-ready copy. Text stays selectable, tall notes are tiled into pages, and the title bar’s badges come along. You choose a destination folder; Notel writes a folder named after the note containing the PDF plus an attachments folder with the note’s files. If the note has redactions, the body is flattened to pixels so hidden text cannot be dug out of the file.
Markdown
A .md file plus an attachments folder. Checklists become real Markdown task lists (with their progress noted), and voice memos with transcripts bring the transcript along. Images that sat in the text are linked where they were; images left floating loose on the note are gathered into an Images section at the end, since Markdown has nowhere to put a picture that is not in the flow.
PNG
One image of the note, exactly as it looks, at your display’s resolution, so a Retina screen gives you a 2x file. If a note is too tall for a single image, Notel will say so and suggest PDF instead.
Shareable Note (.notelnote)
Notel’s native format: a .notelnote bundle that another Mac’s Notel opens as an exact copy, with its colors, objects, and attachments. It is really a folder that Finder shows you as one file, which matters if you are emailing it: compress it first. If your note embeds other notes, the linked notes travel too, up to 50 notes in one bundle. Two caveats: a linked note that is itself locked or redacted is left out on purpose, and its chip disappears when the file is opened on the other end; and if the web of links runs past 50 notes, Notel stops and says so rather than shipping half of it.
Reminders, window positions, and folder membership are not included; the copy opens fresh. A locked note must be unlocked before any export or share. A note with redactions can be exported safely as PDF, Markdown, or PNG, but .notelnote export refuses it because that format would otherwise carry the hidden text.
To open one, double-click it, drag it onto the Notel icon, or use Open With. The import lands in Unfiled as a brand-new copy with its own identity, so importing twice never overwrites anything. A file made by a newer Notel than yours asks you to update first.
Send to iPhone
Send to iPhone texts the note’s content to a phone number via Messages. The first time, Notel asks for the number and remembers it from then on, and there is no field for changing it afterwards, so type it carefully. It is a plain-text copy, not a live sync. To send a note anywhere else, use the standard macOS share sheet in the same menu.
The whole library at once
For a full backup of every note, setting, and attachment as one zip, use Settings → Advanced → Export/Import note data, covered in Where your notes live.