How to Drag-and-drop export GoodNotes notes to PNG images on Mac (for Bear, Evernote, etc.)

GoodNotes on Mac has a nice drag-and-drop export feature, where you can select notes on GoodNotes Mac, and simply export the notes to a PDF file without hassle. This export feature lets you use other note-taking/organization services such as Bear or Evernote which allows more systematic note management and search for later use.

As a Bear user, however, I always prefer to export my scribbles as images as it displays more nicely compared to PDFs which are pasted as “attached files” and require me to double-click the file icon to view my scribbles. Unfortunately, GoodNotes didn’t seem to support the drag-and-drop export to images feature, and I seemed to be stuck with 1) Export, 2) select Images, 3) Save as <filename>, 4) Go to the saved folder, 5) unzip the notes, 6) drag-and-drop the files into Bear notes. As mouthful as it is, it is a very cumbersome process, which caused internal friction in me in making full use of the two services together.

Well, not anymore. I found a workaround! Here is the solution:

1. Create an Automator App that converts PDF to images. Simply drag-and-drop a PDF to this app, and the converted images will be saved on a pre-defined destination. I defaulted to Downloads folder which can be accessed easily through my sidebar. I followed instructions in the following links
   https://thefriendlytester.co.uk/2018/06/using-automator-on-a-mac-to-convert-pdf-to-images
   https://www.alananna.co.uk/blog/2015/12/pdf-to-png-automator-script/
   And here’s the App I created and shared on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kPk-S4GpAp0jF9Yaz-I4JGp6afuQHSpb/view?usp=sharing
2. Save the app in the Applicationsfolder and create a side-bar shortcut to it.

And when you’re using the app,

1. Drag-and-drop GoodNotes notes to this app and boom! You get the images of the note. You can adjust the resolution and the image compression format in the Automator.
2. Drog-and-drop the converted images to Bear/Evernote.

It simply works like this. Although it’s one step more cumbersome than the native drag-and-drop, if you are already a fan of the sidebar in Mac, it just adds one more drag-and-drop to the workflow, which I found is much easier than the default option.