Microsoft is up to some sneaky business. Taking advantage of Evernote, which has fallen on some hard times as of late, Microsoft has launched a tool that makes it easier for its users to migrate from the the startup's note-taking service.
On Friday, the tech giant launched a beta version of its one OneNote migration tool, aptly titled the "OneNote Importer tool." As the name implies, it allows any user to migrate their Evernote notebooks into Microsoft's OneNote. The tool is fairly simple to use, simply install the tool, select the notebooks you want to migrate to OneNote, and then sit back and wait.
Is it worth the switch? Well OneNote and Evernote offer similar note-taking functions and only differ in a few key areas. While Microsoft's product offers a free-form canvas where you can mix text, images, documents, handwriting, audio, etc., Evernote offers tools geared for collecting media and storing it alongside text and other content as well.
As it turns out, the overall design may be where the two programs differ the most. OneNote looks like an actual notebook with tabbed sections, while Evernote's notes can be contained in different notebooks, which - for better or worse - are really just buckets of files. Migrating from one to the other is the best way to see these differences in play. Despite OneNote providing an option to use Evernote tags as tabs in its notebooks, can have multiple tags in Evernote while OneNote only allows them to live under one tab. Meaning that even notes with the same tag can end up in different locations based on what other tags are used.
With this in mind, it may be worth it just to wait for an updated version before making the switch. Darren Austin, OneNote's director of product management, was keenly aware of the aforementioned deficiencies and said updates are coming to cater to those who may not prefer an overly structured system.
"I do think that in the long term, as we think about where OneNote goes, not prescribing a particular organizational structure is something that we're looking at," he said. "Because we do think that tools should conform to the way users want to work."
However there is one clear advantage that OneNote has over Evernote, the cost. Microsoft's product is free while Evernote Premium is a $50 per year product. Granted Evernote does have a free tier, but the premium tier has more options and with $20 more you could purchase Office 365 Personal, which includes not only OneNote, but also Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.
In the end, it appears the choice on whether to switch lies in whether you're already vested in the Office ecosystem.
Check out a video of the OneNote Migration Tool in action below:
