Export OneNote pages with subpages, creating PDF with a bookmark per subpage

Question

Export OneNote pages with subpages, creating PDF with a bookmark per subpage

Félix Hauswirth 20

Hello,
I use OneNote a lot, and have created pages with subpages.

I would like to export a page with its subpages to PDF, and have a bookmark per subpage. But contrary to Word, where i can select "create bookmarks using headings", no such option exists in OneNote. How can i get a PDF with bookmarks per subpage ?

Thank you in advance for any help

Answer accepted by question author

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Answer 1

Hi @Félix Hauswirth,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on my research, your observation is correct! OneNote currently does not provide a native option to export a page with its subpages to PDF while automatically creating bookmarks for each subpage. This is a design limitation compared to Word. At the moment, if you need bookmarks, you would have to manually add them in a PDF editor after exporting the content from OneNote.

If you’d prefer a more streamlined solution, you might consider using an add-in called Gem for OneNote. It offers several advanced features, including one called “Save Page as PDF”, which converts OneNote headings into PDF bookmarks automatically.

For your reference, here are two helpful resources:

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I hope this gives you a helpful approach to consider. If you have any additional questions or need further clarification, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to assist within my scope.

Thank you again for your time.

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Rin-L 10,580 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-28T09:00:32.2233333+00:00

Hi @Félix Hauswirth,

Just checking in to see if the above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to leave a comment. If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as the Accepted answer.

Warm thanks.

Answer 2

Currently, OneNote does not provide a built-in feature to export pages with subpages to PDF while automatically creating bookmarks for each subpage. Unlike Word, which has an option to create bookmarks based on headings, OneNote's export functionality is more limited in this regard.

However, you can export the main page and its subpages to PDF using the Publish method, but this will not create bookmarks for each subpage in the resulting PDF file. If you need bookmarks, you may have to manually add them in a PDF editor after exporting the content from OneNote.

For further assistance, you may want to explore third-party tools or scripts that could automate the process of adding bookmarks after the export, but such solutions are not natively supported by OneNote itself.

References:

Answer 3

Félix Hauswirth 20

Thank you for your answer, and the additional info explaining Gem.
As this is not an original Microsoft product, we cannot use it, as Store is blocked for our users.

Hopefully, Microsoft will put this feature request on a roadmap for a future release of OneNote.

Kind regards,

Felix Hauswirth

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Export OneNote pages with subpages, creating PDF with a bookmark per subpage

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