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Add images, videos, and files to OneNote pages

  • Article

Applies to Consumer notebooks on OneDrive | Enterprise notebooks on Microsoft 365

You can use img, object, and iframe elements to add images, videos, and files to a OneNote page when you're creating or updating the page.

  • Use img to render an image on the page.
  • Use iframe to embed a video on the page.
  • Use object to add a file attachment to the page.

Adding images

Images can be added by URL reference or by sending raw data. Microsoft Graph supports the following methods of adding images, logos, and photos to OneNote pages.

Add a public image from the web

Use img with src="https://image-url" and specify the URL of a publicly accessible image. Renders the image on the OneNote page.

Add an image using binary data

Use img with src="name:image-block-name" and send the image file in a data part of a multipart request. Renders the image on the OneNote page.

Add a webpage snapshot

Use img with data-render-src="https://webpage-url" and specify the URL of a webpage. Renders a snapshot of the whole webpage on the OneNote page.

Add an image rendered from HTML

Use img with data-render-src="name:html-block-name" and send HTML in the data part of a multipart request. Renders the HTML as an image on the OneNote page.

Add images of PDF file contents

Use <img data-render-src="name:part-name" /> and send the PDF file in the data part of a multipart request. Renders each PDF page as a separate image on the OneNote page.

Add an image file as a file attachment

Use object with data="name:file-block-name" data-attachment="file-name.file-ext" type="media-type" and send an image file in the data part of a multipart request. Adds a file attachment to the OneNote page and displays a file icon.

Note

To get images on a OneNote page, first send a GET request for the page content. This returns the URLs to the image resources on the page. You then separate GET requests to the image resources.

Image attributes

An img element can optionally include alt, height, and width attributes, and the style attributes max-width and max-height.

Image media types

Microsoft Graph supports TIFF, PNG, GIF, JPEG, and BMP image types. To capture an image that uses a different format that you don't want to convert, send the binary data in a multipart request. You don't need to use Base64 or otherwise encode the binary data that you send.

Note

The API detects the original input image type, and returns it as the data-fullres-src-type attribute in the output HTML. The API also returns the image type of the optimized image in data-src-type.

See limitations that apply when creating pages that contain media.

Add a public image from the web

In the input HTML of your request, include <img src="https://..." /> and specify the URL of a publicly accessible image for the src attribute.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image: Public URL</title>
    <meta name="created" value="2015-11-11T12:45:00.000-8:00"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This page displays an image from the web.</p>
    <img src="https://..." width="300"/>
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Add an image using binary data

In the input HTML of your request's Presentation part, include <img src="name:part-name" />, where part-name is the unique identifier for the data part in your multipart request that contains the binary image data. Just send the binary data, don't use Base64 or otherwise encode it.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image: Image binary data</title>
    <meta name="created" value="2015-11-11T12:45:00.000-8:00"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This page displays the uploaded image.</p>
    <img src="name:image-block-name" alt="a cool image" width="500"/>
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="MyAppPictureId"
Content-Type: image/jpeg

... image binary data ...

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Add a webpage snapshot

You can use Microsoft Graph to snapshot entire webpages and insert them into new pages. This method is useful to archive webpages or capture complex webpages that have features that OneNote doesn't support (like some CSS).

In the input HTML of your request, include <img src="https://..." /> and specify the URL of the webpage you want to insert for the src attribute.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image: Webpage capture</title>
    <meta name="created" value="2015-11-11T12:45:00.000-8:00"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This page displays an image of the webpage.</p>
    <img data-render-src="https://www.onenote.com" width="200"/>
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Add an image rendered from HTML

When you pass the HTML as a data-block, be sure there is no active content that would require user credentials, or a pre-loaded browser plug-in. The engine that Microsoft Graph uses to render the HTML page into an image has no ability to log in a user, and doesn't include plug-ins like Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime, and so on. That also means that dynamically-loaded content, such as might come with an AJAX script, won't appear if getting the data requires user login credentials or cookies.

In the input HTML of your request's Presentation part, include <img data-render-src="name:part-name" />, where part-name is the unique identifier for the data part in your multipart request that contains the HTML.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image: HTML block</title>
    <meta name="created" value="2015-11-11T12:45:00.000-8:00"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This page displays the block of HTML as an image.</p>
    <img data-render-src="name:html-block-name" alt="a cool image" width="500"/>
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="html-block-name"
Content-Type: text/html

<html>
<body>
<h1>This HTML will render as an image</h1>
<p><b>Don't</b> try to embed another <i>data-render-src</i> type-image inside the HTML part--
it won't work. Instead, use URL-based real images like this:</p>
<img src="https://cdn.onenote.net/1664161560_Images/OneNote.ico" />
</body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Add an image file as an attachment

In the input HTML of your request's Presentation part, include <object data="name:part-name" data-attachment="file-name.file-ext" type="media-type/media-subtype" />, where part-name is the unique identifier for the data part in your multipart request that contains the binary image data. Just send the binary data, don't use Base64 or otherwise encode it.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image: Binary image data as file attachment</title>
    <meta name="created" value="2015-11-11T12:45:00.000-8:00"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This page contains the image as a file attachment.</p>
    <object data-attachment="image-file.jpg" data="name:image-block-name" type="image/jpeg" />
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="logo1-file"
Content-Type: image/jpeg

... binary file data ...

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Learn more about file media types.

Adding videos

You can embed videos in OneNote pages using <iframe data-original-src="https://..." /> in the input HTML.

Supported video sites

  • Dailymotion
  • Office Mix
  • Sway
  • Sketchfab
  • TED
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Vine

iframe attributes

data-original-src

Required. The URL of the video.

Example: data-original-src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ztr44aKmQ8"

width

Optional. The width of the iframe that contains the video. Default is 480.

Example: width="300"

height

Optional. The height of the iframe that contains the video. Default is 360.

Example: height="300"

Example

In the input HTML of your request, include <iframe data-original-src="https://..." /> and specify the URL of the video for the data-original-src attribute.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>A page with an embedded video</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <iframe data-original-src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ztr44aKmQ8" width="340" height="280"/>
    </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Adding files

You can add file attachments to OneNote pages using an object element in the input HTML. If you're adding a PDF file, you can use an img element to render the PDF pages as images.

Add a file attachment

Use <object .../> and send the file in a data part of a multipart request. Adds a file attachment that displays a file icon on the OneNote page.

Add images of PDF file contents

Use <img data-render-src="name:part-name" /> and send a PDF file in the data part of a multipart request. Renders each PDF page as a separate image on the OneNote page.

File attributes

The object element requires the following attributes.

data-attachment

The file name and extension to display on the OneNote page.

Example: data-attachment="filename.docx"

data

The name of the body part in the multipart request that contains the binary file data. Microsoft Graph does not support passing a URL reference here.

Example: data="name:part-name"

type

The file media type, used to determine the file icon to use on the page, and which application starts when the user activates the file on the device from OneNote.

Example: type="application/pdf"

File media types

Microsoft Graph uses predefined file-types icon for attached files, or a generic icon when the API doesn't recognize the file type. The following table shows some common file types that are recognized by the API.

  • application/pdf
  • application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
  • application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation
  • application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
  • image/png
  • image/jpeg
  • image/gif
  • audio/wav
  • video/mp4
  • application/msword
  • application/mspowerpoint
  • application/excel

See limitations that apply when creating pages that contain media.

Add a file attachment

In the input HTML of your request's Presentation part, include <object data="name:part-name" data-attachment="file-name.file-ext" type="media-type/media-subtype" />, where part-name is the unique identifier for the data part in your multipart request that contains the binary file data. Just send the binary data, don't use Base64 or otherwise encode it.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with an image file attachment</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This is an image file attachment.</p>
    <object data-attachment="Logo.jpg" data="name:logo1-file" type="image/jpeg" />
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="logo1-file"
Content-Type: image/jpeg

... binary file data ...

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Add images of PDF file contents

In the input HTML of your request's Presentation part, include <img data-render-src="name:part-name" ... />, where part-name is the unique identifier for the data part in your multipart request that contains the binary file data. Just send the binary data, don't use Base64 or otherwise encode it.

Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=MyAppPartBoundary
Authorization: Bearer {access-token}

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="Presentation"
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>A page with images of the pages of a PDF file</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>The pages of this PDF file render as images.</p>
    <img data-render-src="name:file-part" alt="PDF file as images" width="500"/>
  </body>
</html>

--MyAppPartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file-part"
Content-Type: application/pdf

... binary file data ...

--MyAppPartBoundary--

Size limitations for POST pages requests

When sending image and file data, be aware of these limitations:

  • The Microsoft Graph REST API has a 4 MB request limit. Anything above this will fail with the error message "request too large (413)".

  • The request limit of the underlying OneNote REST API is higher, but you cannot access it via the Microsoft Graph API.

    • The total POST size limit is ~70 MB, including images, files, and other data. The actual limit is affected by downstream encoding, so there's no fixed byte-count limit. Requests that exceed the limit might produce unreliable results.
    • The limit for each data part is 25 MB, including the part headers. Data parts that exceed the limit are rejected by Microsoft Graph.

  • The maximum number of images per page is 150. When using the src="https://..." attribute, the API ignores img tags beyond the limit.

  • The maximum number of data parts is 6 per POST, including the required Presentation part.

  • Each request can contain up to five img elements that use data-render-src and one object elements that uses data-render-src. Additional image and file references are ignored.

  • The maximum number of images in a single POST is 30, no matter which method you use to send them to the API. Additional images are ignored. If you want to capture a webpage that contains a lot of images, consider capturing the whole page as a snapshot.

When to use HTML versus data-render-src

When trying to decide between putting HTML directly onto the OneNote page instead of using the data-render-src attribute, consider the following:

  • Complex HTML is probably best sent to the rendering engine via data-render-src, rather than attempting to modify the HTML to fit into what Microsoft Graph can accept. This is also true when your HTML includes tags that aren't supported supported.

  • Accurate page rendering to preserve the layout and look of the page is probably best done with the rendering engine via data-render-src.

  • Directly-editable text is often best done with inserting the HTML directly onto the page. The rendered images are scanned by an optical character recognition (OCR) system, but it's just not the same.

  • Snapshot-in-time for historical or archival purposes is usually best done with the data-render-src method.

  • Marking-up a web page design for revisions is one place the data-render-src truly shines. Using OneNote's inking capabilities, you can draw on the image to indicate changes or call out important areas. Having the web page as an image makes that a lot easier.

  • Very large images, or images in formats that OneNote doesn't directly accept, can sometimes be thumbnailed and converted with the data-render-src attribute more easily than by doing it in your own code. Even if the image is also available online, embedding the data in your POST can sometimes make the captured page available to OneNote users sooner, by reducing the total number of round-trips needed to build the OneNote page.

Sometimes, the best way to determine which method will work best for your users is to try it both ways as you develop your app.

Permissions

To create or update OneNote pages, you'll need to request appropriate permissions. Choose the lowest level that your app needs to do its work.

Permissions for POST pages

  • Notes.Create
  • Notes.ReadWrite
  • Notes.ReadWrite.All

Permissions for PATCH pages

  • Notes.ReadWrite
  • Notes.ReadWrite.All

For more information about permission scopes and how they work, see OneNote permission scopes.

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