Creating Evernote ENEX files using ChatGPT

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Did you know ChatGPT can create ENEX files?

An ENEX file is the format that Evernote uses for your notes. You can import and export ENEX files in and out of Evernote which makes them quite portable.

ENEX files can also contain multiple notes so they are very flexible.

Using ChatGPT to create these files opens up a whole world of opportunities.

A few use cases I've come up with include:

• Creating custom templates

• Doing research on topics and converting that research in an ENEX file

• Bulk note creation - give ChatGPT a list and it can create separate files from that list

• Curated content - ask ChatGPT to find sources for a topic

To be honest the use cases are endless depending on the type of information you store in Evernote.

So, to the practical.

I'm using ChatGPT 5 and I have a paid account although this shouldn't make a lot of difference as I was creating these files with ChatGPT 4.

I asked the robot:

Can you create Evernote ENEX files?

And the reply was:

Yes — I can generate Evernote ENEX files for you.

An .enex file is basically an XML export format that Evernote uses to store notes, including:

Note titles, creation dates, update dates

Rich text or HTML content

Tags and notebooks

Attachments (as Base64 encoded data)

If you tell me:

The note titles

The content (plain text or HTML)

Any tags

Creation/update dates (optional)

Attachments (optional, but possible if you provide the files)

…I can produce a valid .enex file ready for import into Evernote.

Do you want me to create a single note or multiple notes in the ENEX file?

I then entered the following prompt:

Create an ENEX file with a table of all the countries in the world in alphabetical order.

It gave me this file which I've made available for download.

It got this one correct first time round and also added its sources.

Next, I asked the robot to do some research for me and provide an ENEX file with the content.

The prompt was:

Do some research on the history of Evernote. Write 1000 words and at the bottom summarise the main milestones. Then convert this research into an ENEX file.

The content was fine but the first attempt gave me a file not found error when I tried to download it so I asked it to recreate the file which it did.

I downloaded the file and dragged it into my Evernote and it was OK but all the text was in a code block so I asked for another file with normal HTML formatting.

This time I got this file.

I think specifying HTML content could be a good idea in any prompts you use.

The next test was to ask it for a holiday planner template.

Create me an ENEX file for a holiday planner template

The template it produced worked but was pretty rubbish so I asked again.

Can you create something a bit more advanced, maybe using tables and better layout. Let me download as an ENEX file

This time it did a decent job and came up with this file.

One thing to mention is that you can upload an ENEX file to ChatGPT and ask it to make changes and then give you a new file to export. This would be useful for adding research to a note or reordering a lot of data.

Another thing to mention is that the robot added a few tags to each note so if you don't want tags make sure you say this in the prompt.

Have a play and see how you get on. Let me know in the comments.

Also comment if you already use ChatGPT as a companion to Evernote.

Would you like to see a direct connection between Evernote and ChatGPT?

And finally...

The July official update video is live now. They are always worth a watch.

Have a great weekend

All the best

Jon