9 replies to this topic

[Howard Hill]

Evernote doesn't support sorting of the text within a note (alphabetically) and I think this would be a great feature to have.

I have several lists of this and that, and after a while it becomes hard for me to find what I want. I prefer my lists to be alphabetically ordered.

I have seen several requests for this feature, but invariably this feature is misunderstood with the sorting of notebooks or notes. It is neither of these things; these features are already present in Evernote.

I did raise this with Evernote Support, but they just acknowledged my request and then closed the ticket couple of weeks later. Not sure what the status of my request is, or how to find out.

Does anybody know whether this feature is likely to be added, or otherwise, and if not, are there any good workarounds I could try (other than copying and pasting to and from a text editor, which is very time consuming).

Thanks
Howard

[Metrodon]

I guess that they acknowledged your request so they are aware of it.

Given the relatively small number of users that I think would find this useful, I'm guessing that it is pretty unlikely that it will be implemented.

Evernote staff do read pretty much every post on here, although they don't reply to all so you can be sure that it has been seen. Dlu or gbarry may even thank you for the suggestion....

[gazumped]

Evernote don't do disclosure (of the nature upcoming changes) and <inside joke alert> they don't do due dates either <kerching> but they do have lots of stuff in the pipeline, so "wait and see" is the only option.

IMHO they are a wonderfully interactive software house (yes, I have a TT in progress) but they have said frequently that they won't reinvent any wheels - like word processors with sorting, formatting etc. If you want that functionality, it's already available externally. And if you get your sorting, what about outlining - and picture resizing - and word counts.. There's lots of none-external-brainiac-style things that users would like, and the one thing we all agree on is that everyone else is wrong about the most important feature to add next.

Having said all of which: while its a pain to export text, sort it and re-import it, why not embed the saved file of your word-processor-of-choice in your note. Double-click the file to open it in the application and re-save to store your updated (and sorted) text. If you worry that the content of the file won't be indexed, just print off an occasional PDF draft and save that in the note too - or cut and paste the content as text, or just include some keywords, or tags so you can find it again easily.

You're gonna have to use a work-around for a while, even if Evernote decided to introduce sorting in the next public update; it's just a question of finding the least hasslefull one for the moment.

[BurgersNFries]

I would also add that EN's focus is not to be a list manager. So it's doubtful this feature would be very high on their list, if on the list at all. Another workaround would be to make each item a separate note. You can then sort by title, alphabetically.

[Metrodon]

gazumped, on 13 February 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Evernote don't do disclosure (of the nature upcoming changes) and <inside joke alert> they don't do due dates either <kerching> but they do have lots of stuff in the pipeline, so "wait and see" is the only option.

It's the inside joke that keeps on giving

[Howard Hill]

Thanks for the replies.

I didn't appreciate that the presentation of a list in alphabetical order would be considered an unusual feature (list management?).

I think of it as a fairly basic way to make single lines of text easy to read.

Anyway, thanks for all the replies and helpful ideas; I shall take your advice and wait and see.

Howard

[BurgersNFries]

Howard Hill, on 13 February 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

I didn't appreciate that the presentation of a list in alphabetical order would be considered an unusual feature (list management?).

Sorry you don't appreciate it. But it's a fact, that Evernote has stated they are not striving to be a list manager. (shrug)

[Howard Hill]

PS Just thought (ouch) that sorting lines of text satisfies the same need that is met when sorting a list of notebooks or a list of notes.

It simply helps one to find stuff more easily than if it is presented in a random list.

I guess it depends really on whether having that type of information is a fairly common use for Evernote. It is for me )

[Howard Hill]

Shrug?

Evernote can sort notebooks.
Evernote can sort notes.
Why not sort the contents of notes?
Just a hierarchy.
Purposes are identical - to find stuff by looking.

[JMichael]

I would find sorting of text useful.

Sorting is not particularly a "word processing" function. In fact, in the early days of WP, there was no sort feature.

It is more of a text or list function. Evernote does provide for list support. I submit it is a fairly common need to sort a list after having spent some time writing/development.
Sorting text is a well known (ancient) technology, and I can't image that it would be a big burden on development.

IAC, nobody asked for a full-blown word processor.