Importing from Outline

If your team uses Outline for documentation, you can move a whole collection (or an entire workspace) into Paper in one go.

Export from Outline

1. In Outline, open Settings → Export.
2. Choose the workspace (or a specific collection) and pick Markdown as the format.
3. Wait for the email with your download link, then download the .zip.

Choose Markdown rather than HTML. HTML bundles styling that Paper would strip on import anyway, and Markdown preserves the same headings, lists, code blocks, tables, callouts, and checkboxes - and imports faster.

Upload the ZIP to Paper

1. In Paper, click + Add source (or use New page → Import from Outline).
2. Open Import from Outline and click Choose ZIP file.
3. Pick the export you downloaded from Outline.
4. Paper unpacks the zip and streams progress as it converts each page. The modal shows the current page name, how many pages have finished, and an estimate of time remaining.
5. When the import finishes, click Open imported pages to jump into the root page Paper created.

The original folder structure from Outline becomes nested pages, so collection → document → sub-document hierarchies are preserved.

What gets imported

• Page titles, body text, headings (H1-H6), and paragraphs.
• Bullet lists, numbered lists, and checklists.
• Code blocks (with the language hint preserved).
• Inline formatting: bold, italic, links.
• Tables.
• Callouts and quotes.
• Folder structure - documents stay nested under the same parents.

Limitations

• File and image attachments aren't carried across - Outline's export bundles them as separate files, and Paper imports the Markdown body only. Re-upload important attachments as Paper sources after import.
• Comments aren't imported (Outline doesn't include them in the Markdown export).
• Re-running the import creates a new set of pages rather than merging with previously imported ones.

Tips

• For very large exports, the import runs in the background - you can close the modal once it shows "processing" and check the sidebar later.
• If a page fails to convert, the import doesn't abort. You'll see the failure listed in the result and the rest of the pages still come across.
• Outline exports are typically smaller and faster than Notion exports because there are no inline databases or embedded media to resolve.