What desktop OS are you using?
Win7

You need to copy the .note files into a directory Tomboy knows about. The directories are listed here: http://live.gnome.org/Tomboy/Directories
Also you should activate the "Note Directory Watcher" add-in in Tomboy. This plugin automatically loads new notes once they have been placed into the right directory.

Tomboy has a sync feature that lets you sync with any folder. I don't see "Note Directory Watcher" anywhere.

You can read and write the .note files comfortably using Tomboy, GNote or Conboy. Using one of those application you'll have a note editing user interface. The other way to edit them is by using a text editor. You'll then have to edit the raw XML, which is probably not what you want.

Haven't tried GNote yet. Prefer not to have to edit raw XML.

Did you try the latest -devel version? It offers synchronization between Conboy <-> Ubuntu One <-> Tomboy. Maybe that's what you're looking for?

Still prefer something more direct, i.e., rather not install Ubuntu just for this.

Or do you really just want an RTF, HTML representation of your note? What is your use case?

RTF would be ideal. Any chance...?