Moving your notes across
You don't have to start over. You can move notes in plain text files, in Markdown or in an export from your current notes app across to OttaNote.
Text, Markdown and HTML
Almost every notes app exports to Markdown or HTML, and plain .txt files can be used without converting them. OttaNote reads all three.
You choose the files, one or a whole folder, mixed together if you like, and you choose where they go: an existing folder or a new one. Each file becomes one note, with the file name as its title.
Your formatting comes along from Markdown and HTML: headings become headings, lists become lists and - [ ] becomes a checkbox you can click. A .txt file is read literally, so a # or a * stays exactly as you typed it. Web addresses do become clickable, and each line becomes its own paragraph.
Or paste
For a single note you don't need to make a file. Paste Markdown or formatted text from a web page into a note, and OttaNote asks whether to turn it into headings, lists and checkboxes, or whether you want the text without formatting.
Coming from Evernote?
Evernote exports a notebook as one .enex file. We read that file directly, and in OttaNote it becomes one folder with all the notes in it.
You export your notebooks and pick them all at once. For each notebook you see what is in it, untick what you don't want to bring along and change the folder name before you start, since Evernote often names the files Notebook (1).enex. Individual notes end up together in one folder.
Your formatting comes along, such as headings, bold, italic, colours and links, and so do your checklists with their levels and what you had already ticked. PDFs and images come along as attachments. The dates a note was created and modified stay the same, so you don't suddenly have a thousand notes from today.
A second time comes without duplicates
OttaNote recognises notes you already have, with text and Markdown files too, and asks what to do for each note. Reading in the same export again gives no duplicates, and you can switch in stages.
Mind the limit of the free account
Free goes up to 50 notes and 50 MB of attachments. A bigger archive needs Plus, so check first how many notes are in your export.
Exporting to open formats
You can take everything out again, as Markdown, HTML or PDF: per note, per folder or all at once as a full backup on your own device.