Merge OneNote 2010 Notebooks

If you’ve ever stared at a long list of OneNote 2010 notebooks and thought,
“I just want one tidy notebook, not this chaos,” you’re not alone. The
slightly annoying truth is that OneNote 2010 doesn’t have a big, shiny
Merge Notebooks button. But the good news? You can absolutely
combine notebooks into one, organize everything, and stop hunting through
ten different notebook names called “Misc” and “New Notebook (2).”

In this guide, we’ll walk through practical, tested ways to merge OneNote
2010 notebooks: dragging and dropping sections, using the Move/Copy
features, leveraging section groups for bulk moves, and even working with
OneNote package files (.onepkg) when you’re moving notebooks
between computers or accounts. We’ll also talk about cleanup, avoiding sync
disasters, and some real-life lessons learned from people who’ve actually
done this (and sometimes done it wrong first).

First Reality Check: Can You Really “Merge” OneNote 2010 Notebooks?

Let’s get expectations straight: OneNote 2010 doesn’t merge notebooks the
way Word merges documents. There’s no one-click “combine everything into a
single notebook” option. What you do instead is:

• Open the notebooks you want to combine.
• Move or copy sections and pages from one notebook into another.
• Optionally use section groups to move lots of sections at once.
• Use OneNote package files if you’re merging notebooks across devices or accounts.

It’s more like moving boxes between rooms in a house than fusing two
buildings together. But once you know the tricks, it’s pretty manageable.

Know Your Building Blocks: Notebooks, Sections, Section Groups, Pages

To merge OneNote 2010 notebooks successfully, it helps to understand what
you’re actually moving:

• Notebook – The whole file cabinet. This is what you see
  in the navigation bar.
• Section – The colored tabs at the top. Each section
  contains related notes (like “Project A” or “Meeting Notes”).
• Section group – A folder for multiple sections. Great for
  bundling sections together before moving them.
• Page – The actual note pages inside each section.

When you “merge notebooks,” what you’re really doing is moving sections (or
groups of sections) and sometimes merging sections into one another. Once
everything lives inside a single destination notebook, your merge is
effectively done.

Before You Start: Prep and Backup

Before you go wild rearranging your digital life, take a couple of safe,
boring steps first:

• Make sure everything is synced. If your notebooks are on
  a network or OneDrive, let OneNote finish syncing before moving stuff
  around. This reduces conflict errors and missing pages later.
• Create a backup notebook. Use
  File > Save As to create a backup copy of key notebooks, or
  export them as OneNote packages. If you mess something up, you’ll be
  glad you did.
• Decide on a “master” notebook. Pick one destination
  notebook that will become your merged “home base” – for example
  “Personal Master Notebook” or “All Projects 2010–2015”.

Once that’s done, you’re ready to actually merge content without the fear
of permanently wrecking anything.

Method 1: Drag-and-Drop Sections Between Notebooks

This is the simplest and most intuitive way to merge OneNote 2010 notebooks
and usually the best option if you’re working on one computer.

Step-by-Step: Drag Sections into One Master Notebook

1. Open OneNote 2010 on your Windows PC.
2. In the left navigation, open both notebooks – the source and the destination.
3. Click the source notebook so you can see its section tabs at the top
   (e.g., “Ideas,” “Research,” “To-Do”).
4. Click and hold a section tab you want to move, then drag it over to the
   destination notebook’s name in the navigation pane.
5. Hover until the destination notebook opens, then drop the section where
   you want it among the other section tabs.
6. Repeat for each section until everything you care about lives in the
   destination notebook.

You can also drag individual pages if you only want a few notes, but moving
entire sections is much faster when merging big notebooks.

Move vs. Copy: Which Should You Use?

• Use Move if you’re consolidating and don’t need notes to
  remain in the original notebook.
• Use Copy if you’re nervous and want the old notebook to
  stay intact until you’ve double-checked everything.

After moving what you need, you can right-click the old notebook and close
it. If you’ve backed it up, you can delete it later from disk or OneDrive
when you’re confident you’re done.

Method 2: Use “Move or Copy” and “Merge into Another Section”

Drag-and-drop is great, but sometimes you want more control – especially
when merging very similar sections with overlapping content (like “Meeting
Notes” in two notebooks).

Using Move or Copy for Sections

OneNote 2010 includes a handy command:
Move or Copy. Here’s how to use it:

1. Right-click the section tab you want to move.
2. Choose Move or Copy… from the shortcut menu.
3. In the dialog box, pick the destination notebook and the position for
   that section.
4. Click Move to relocate it, or
   Copy to keep a duplicate in the original notebook.

This method is especially useful when you’re being precise about where each
section should land in the new structure.

Using “Merge into Another Section” to Combine Sections

If you have two sections that really should just be one (for example,
“Client A 2013” and “Client A 2014”), OneNote 2010 lets you merge a section
into another:

1. Right-click the section tab you want to merge from.
2. Select Merge into Another Section….
3. In the dialog, choose the section you want to merge into (in the
   same or another notebook).
4. Confirm, and OneNote will move pages from the source section into the target section.

This is a clean way to consolidate duplicates. Just remember that once
merged, the original section is effectively emptied, so do this only after
you’re sure you don’t need to keep the original structure.

Method 3: Use Section Groups to Move a Lot at Once

If you’re merging a notebook with a lot of sections, moving them
one by one can feel like doing pushups for your mouse. That’s where
section groups come in.

Create a Section Group and Move It

1. Open the source notebook that has many sections to merge.
2. Right-click in the section tab area and choose
   New Section Group.
3. Give the group a clear name, like “To Move to Master.”
4. Drag all the sections you want to move into that section group. This
   bundles them like a folder.
5. Right-click the section group and choose
   Move or Copy….
6. Select the destination notebook and move the entire group.

After the move, you can open the section group in the destination notebook,
reorganize sections, and flatten the structure if you like. This trick
saves a lot of repetitive clicking when merging large notebooks.

Method 4: Merge Using OneNote Package Files (.onepkg)

Sometimes you’re not just merging notebooks on one PC; you’re also moving
them between accounts or devices. In OneNote 2010, that’s where
OneNote package files come in:
.onepkg files that bundle a whole notebook into one file.

Export a Notebook as a OneNote Package

1. Open the notebook you want to move or merge.
2. Click the File tab.
3. Select Save As.
4. Choose Notebook as the type, then select
   OneNote Package (*.onepkg).
5. Pick a location (like a USB drive or a folder you’ll copy elsewhere).
6. Click Save.

You now have a single file that contains your entire notebook, ready to be
moved to another computer or user account.

Import the Package into OneNote 2010

1. On the new computer or account, locate your .onepkg file.
2. Double-click it, or open it via File > Open.
3. OneNote will re-create the notebook from the package. Once it opens, you
   can drag sections into your master notebook or use Move or Copy.

This approach is ideal when you’re consolidating notebooks from multiple
machines into a single master notebook on your main PC.

After the Merge: Clean Up and Reorganize

Once everything is inside one notebook, you’re not quite done. A quick
cleanup makes your merged notebook much easier to live with.

• Rename sections and pages. Get rid of vague names like
  “New Section 1” and “Page 3.” Use clear titles like “Q1 Budget Review”
  or “Client Kickoff Notes.”
• Group related sections. Use section groups for themes
  like “Work,” “Personal,” “School,” or by years like “2018–2020.”
• Delete or archive trash. Old test pages, half-empty
  scratch sections, or random copied content can be deleted or moved into a
  separate “Archive” section.
• Let OneNote sync again. If your notebook is stored on a
  shared location or OneDrive, give it time to sync after major changes.

Think of this as organizing a newly combined filing cabinet. The merge puts
it all in one place; the cleanup makes it actually usable.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Merging OneNote 2010 Notebooks

A few pitfalls show up over and over when people merge OneNote 2010
notebooks. Avoid these, and you’ll save yourself a headache later:

• Moving notebooks using Windows Explorer instead of OneNote.
  Dragging raw notebook folders around in the file system can break sync or
  confuse OneNote. Always use OneNote’s own Move/Copy tools or OneNote packages.
• Not backing up first. A five-minute backup can save you
  from a day of trying to reconstruct missing notes.
• Forgetting about shared notebooks. If someone else uses
  the notebook, tell them what you’re doing. Moving or merging sections may
  affect links or how they access content.
• Creating a monster notebook with no structure. Yes, you
  can dump everything into one notebook, but if you don’t use section
  groups and clear names, it will be harder to use than your old messy setup.

When Should You Merge Notebooks (and When Should You Not)?

Merging notebooks makes sense when:

• You’re wrapping up old projects and want one archive notebook.
• You used to create one notebook per semester, client, or topic, and now
  you want a simpler “All Work” notebook.
• You’re moving from multiple PCs to one main device.
• You inherited someone else’s notebooks and want everything unified.

You might not want to merge notebooks when:

• Certain notebooks are shared with different people.
• You like having a hard separation between personal and professional notes.
• Your notebooks are huge, and combining them into one might impact
  performance or make navigation overwhelming.

In those cases, consider partial merging: combine some sections into a
master notebook while leaving special-purpose notebooks separate.

Real-World Experiences: Lessons Learned from Merging OneNote 2010 Notebooks

Let’s add some “I’ve actually done this” flavor. Here are some practical
experiences and patterns that tend to show up when people merge OneNote
2010 notebooks plus what you can learn from them.

1. The “Too Many Notebooks” Problem

A very common situation: someone starts a new notebook for every client,
every semester, every project idea and a few years later, OneNote looks
like a Netflix menu with no thumbnails. When these users finally merge
notebooks, the usual pattern is:

• Create a master notebook called something like “Work Archive” or “Client Hub.”
• Use section groups inside that master notebook, like “Clients,”
  “Internal Projects,” “Training,” or “Reference.”
• Drag sections from all the old notebooks into those groups, one by one,
  or bundle them with section groups and move them in bulk.

The result is dramatically simpler navigation: instead of 20 notebooks,
they have one or two well-structured notebooks with clear groupings.

2. The “Mixed Accounts and Devices” Headache

Another very real scenario: someone used OneNote 2010 at work on a domain
account, then later moved to a different Microsoft account at home. Now
they want everything in one place. The usual solution is:

• Export old notebooks from the original computer as .onepkg files.
• Copy those files to the new computer or account.
• Open them in OneNote 2010 on the new account.
• Create a new master notebook and drag the sections in.

It’s not glamorous, but it works consistently. The bonus: as you move
notes, you can clean up old stuff you no longer need.

3. The “I Merged Everything and Now I Can’t Find Anything” Moment

This happens when someone merges notebooks without planning the new
structure. Suddenly all their notes live inside a notebook called “Master,”
with 40+ sections that don’t make much sense.

The fix? Think about your top-level categories first. For example:

• Split sections by role: Work, Personal, Study.
• Split by time: 2018–2020, 2021–2023, 2024+.
• Split by context: Clients, Internal, Ideas, Reference.

Then, as you move sections, put them under the right section group. It’s a
little more effort during the merge phase, but it pays off every time you
search or browse later.

4. The Sync Surprise

A common surprise: after a big merge, OneNote can take a while to sync
everything, especially if the notebook lives on a network share or cloud
storage. People sometimes think they “lost” pages, when in reality, the
other machine just hasn’t finished syncing yet.

The practical lesson:

• Perform big merges while connected to a stable network, not on a spotty
  Wi-Fi connection.
• After major moves, give OneNote time to sync, and check for any sync
  error icons in the notebook.

5. The “Why Didn’t I Do This Sooner?” Payoff

Once the dust settles, most people are happy they merged their notebooks.
Searching becomes faster and more predictable because you’re searching
within one well-structured notebook instead of trying to remember which
notebook might contain that one meeting note from three years ago.

A lot of users end up with a strategy like this going forward:

• Keep one primary notebook for active work or life.
• Use section groups to separate contexts (Work, Personal, Archive).
• Create new notebooks only when there’s a strong reason (like sharing with a team).

So while merging OneNote 2010 notebooks can feel like a bit of a project,
the end result is a simpler, calmer digital workspace and one master
notebook that actually feels under control.

Conclusion: Merging OneNote 2010 Notebooks Without Losing Your Mind

Even though OneNote 2010 doesn’t give you a big “Merge” button, you have
everything you need to combine notebooks in a practical, organized way.
Decide on a master notebook, use drag-and-drop or the Move/Copy commands to
bring in sections, use section groups for heavy-lift reorganizing, and
leverage .onepkg packages when you’re moving notebooks across
devices or accounts.

Add a little planning up front, a quick backup, and some cleanup afterward,
and your mess of scattered notebooks becomes one streamlined space you
actually enjoy using. Future you the one who can find notes in seconds
will be very grateful.