Note: This article was partially created with the help of AI. An author reviewed and revised the content as needed. Read more about Microsoft and Responsible AI practices.
OneNote virtual printers allow you to capture information from any application and print it directly to a page in your OneNote notebook, helping you keep digital copies of your content while saving paper. Once the information is printed to OneNote, you can access it from any device, even when you're offline. You can leverage OneNote's organization capabilities to keep all your information organized or even annotate on top of those pages.
Printing any type of file to OneNote is as simple as printing to a physical printer. You can print:
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Documents
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Spreadsheets
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Emails
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Drawings
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Diagrams
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Web pages
Printing to OneNote
Follow these steps to print your content to OneNote:
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Open the document or file that you want to send to OneNote (for example, Microsoft Word for document files, or a browser for web pages).
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Select the Print option in the application.
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From the list of printers, choose “OneNote – (Desktop)” or “OneNote (Desktop) - Protected”.
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Choose Print, and OneNote will open behind your application.
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In the window that appears, select where you want to send the file. The content is added as an image on a new OneNote page.
Formatting and Editing Printed Content
Once your document, file, or web page is printed to OneNote, you can use the array of drawing and formatting tools available in OneNote to annotate or highlight important information.
If you need to format or edit the text in the content you've printed to OneNote:
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Right-click on the image of the printout.
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Select Copy Text from this Page of the Printout or Copy Text from All the Pages of the Printout.
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Paste the copied text where you need it.
Understanding OneNote Virtual Printers
In the OneNote Windows app, there are two virtual printers available:
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OneNote (Desktop)
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OneNote (Desktop) - Protected
Both printers function similarly and allow you to print to OneNote with the same quality and performance. You can use either one to print the desired infomration to OneNote. The 'OneNote (Desktop) - Protected' printer is a Print Support app (PSA) based on the Microsoft IPP class printer driver, introduced to comply with Windows Protected Print (WPP) mode. When WPP is enabled, all non-IPP-based printers, including the OneNote (Desktop) printer, are uninstalled. In this case, you can use the 'OneNote (Desktop) - Protected' printer to print to OneNote.
Installing OneNote Virtual Printers
The ‘OneNote (Desktop)’ virtual printer is installed by default along with the OneNote Windows app. The ‘OneNote (Desktop) - Protected’ virtual printer is installed by default in all OneNote Windows app versions 2410 and later (including eligible retail versions of Office) running on Windows 11 version 26100 or higher.
If you’re on eligible Windows and OneNote versions, but can't find ‘OneNote (Desktop) - Protected’ in your list of available printers, try the following:
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If you’re an individual/personal user of OneNote, go to your PC settings and ensure that the App> Advanced app settings> Choose where to get apps option is set to 'Anywhere' and restart the application.
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If you’re an enterprise user, please work with your IT admin to ensure that the ‘AllowAllTrustedApps’ and ‘BlockNonAdminUserInstall’ group policies are set to 'Enabled' and ‘Disabled’ respectively. These settings are required to complete installation of this new virtual printer on your device. Learn more about other policy settings and registry keys that could prevent installation of this printer from our article here.
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If you’ve accidentally uninstalled/removed the printer, try uninstalling and reinstalling the OneNote app to restore it. Ensure that your notes are synced before uninstalling to avoid losing any unsynced changes. If you're having trouble syncing, learn how to troubleshoot common sync issues in our support article here.
Note: The 'OneNote (Desktop)' printer is available only on 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) devices. The 'OneNote (Desktop) – Protected' printer is available on 32-bit (x86), 64-bit (x64), and ARM-based devices.
