Copy Text From Inserted Pictures In OneNote For Mac

Related topics × OneNote for Mac help & learning Get started

• Basic tasks
• Sign in
• Sign out
• Create a new notebook
• Close a notebook
• Delete a notebook
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Send us your feedback

Take notes

• Insert and format a table
• Insert and format pictures
• Insert a mathematical equation
• Insert PDF printouts into notes
• Copy text from inserted pictures

Format notes

• Change the default font
• Check spelling
• Format text as superscript and subscript
• Crop inserted pictures

Draw and sketch

• Draw and annotate with ink

Share and sync

• Share your notes
• Export notes as a PDF file
• Protect notes with a password

Stay organized

• Create pages, sections, or notebooks
• Rename pages, sections, or notebooks
• Delete pages, sections, or notebooks
• Move or copy notes
• Use tags to categorize and prioritize notes
• Search for notes
• Change the color of a section
• Change the background color of a page

Skip to main content Sign in with Microsoft Sign in or create an account. Hello, Select a different account. You have multiple accounts Choose the account you want to sign in with. Related topics OneNote for Mac help & learning Get started

• Basic tasks
• Sign in
• Sign out
• Create a new notebook
• Close a notebook
• Delete a notebook
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Send us your feedback

Take notes

• Insert and format a table
• Insert and format pictures
• Insert a mathematical equation
• Insert PDF printouts into notes
• Copy text from inserted pictures

Format notes

• Change the default font
• Check spelling
• Format text as superscript and subscript
• Crop inserted pictures

Draw and sketch

• Draw and annotate with ink

Share and sync

• Share your notes
• Export notes as a PDF file
• Protect notes with a password

Stay organized

• Create pages, sections, or notebooks
• Rename pages, sections, or notebooks
• Delete pages, sections, or notebooks
• Move or copy notes
• Use tags to categorize and prioritize notes
• Search for notes
• Change the color of a section
• Change the background color of a page

Applies ToOneNote for Microsoft 365 for Mac OneNote 2024 for Mac OneNote 2021 for Mac

Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), OneNote for Mac can extract the text it recognizes in photos, screenshots, and scans so you can paste it elsewhere in your notes (or into another app). This offers a convenient way to capture useful and important information that you would otherwise have to manually retype (for example, text on a business card or on a printed purchase receipt).

Note: The effectiveness of Optical Character Recognition depends on the quality of the picture you’ve captured and the legibility of the text in it. Text in photos should be sharp and clearly readable. Handwritten or highly stylized or script-like text will not work very well. After you’ve copied and pasted text from a picture, it’s a good idea to look it over to make sure that all of the text was recognized properly.

Do the following:

1. Scan or snap a picture of the text you want to capture.

2. Insert or paste the picture on any page in OneNote.

3. Control-click the picture (or right-click with your mouse) and then click Copy Text from Picture.

   Tip: The OCR Text recognition process is very complex and uses Microsoft online services. Some results may take up to 24-48 hours before becoming available and enabling the Copy Text from Picture command when you Control-click the picture. Microsoft online services don’t store any of the contents of your files on its servers.

4. In your notes (or in any other app), place the cursor where you want to paste the copied text, and then press Command-V.

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