6 replies to this topic

[Askebob]

Yo!

Hey, i'm a student, and an Evernote user on a daily basis, usually through my Mac Book Air.
I've been considering starting to use my new iPad for the evernote job,
as it would be nice to be able to to (almost) all of my jobs on one device.
Sadly, i think the Evernote iPad app suffers from a handful of different issues.

1. Overview.
My biggest gripe with the app is, BY FAR, the way notebooks are sorted, and how they're displayed in the
main menu where you can sort your books and notes in different way. First of all, the books are not displayed
as actual books, but as stacks of paper on a gray background, and the name of the "books" are displayed beneath
these said stacks. This really both looks ugly, doesn't give a feeling of actual notebooks, doesn't feel like you've got
your stuff sorted, and doesn't serve any other purpose than display your last edited note. If you have the manage your
way through your notebooks by looking at both the name, the amount of notes, and the last edited note, i really feel bad for you.
Please, would you at least give us the option to display our notebooks as notebooks, and then instead of below the books,
let us have the name of the books on the bin. This is a simple feature, that pretty much makes and breaks the overview of the entire app.
As it is now, it doesn't feel like a front page of an app for organizing your stuff, it feels like a mess.

2. Entering notes.
I connect my iPad with slick usability and fast interaction, allowing me to quickly jump from a game, to looking up something on Wikipedia,
to jotting down a note. What i feel, is that when i enter the Evernote app, i'm met with too many menus, for too few features.
I mean, when you start up, your get into the main menu with the so-called "notebooks", and when you click on one, you're presented to
a list of your notes on your right, and clicking it shows the contents in a bigger box on your left (portrait mode). Now, if you want to edit a note,
you have to go right of the page, and click on the little pen on the bottom, to open a new (SUPER USELESS) box, that serves the purpose of showing the same note, in the same size, in what looks like a stupid bloody pop-up window, and the only really difference is that you can now type and edit it.
What? Why, oh why make it look like a side action to write/edit a note, when it's the core feature of the app, for gods sake!
Atleast just let us enter a new page, not just open a popup where you can still seethe exact same note, just unedited in the background.
You have the option to extend a note, but even if you choose to do so, you still have to open a bloody pop-up window to edit.

Essentially, these two mistakes are very simple, serves no purpose, and seems to have been more trouble to make, than to not make. Simple mistakes, wastes of time that hamstrings the usability and feel of the app.

Sorry for this super rant, i just hate seeing good potential go to waste. I am of course exaggerating my points, but i still stand where i do, i can't lay down my Mac in favor of my iPad before these two are fixed. I want my iPad to feel like a fast, slick, and practical tool, and this app is screaming of clumsiness. In any case i would be sacrificing my keyboard with tactile feedback, what i need to get in return is an interface that makes it a good tradeoff. I don't write novels with Evernote, just certain parts of a lecture, the most important points, so interface is everything, when i need to go back, put the note in another book, or just decide to start typing, those seconds means a lot, both because the seconds literally means a lot, but also just the state of mind you go into when everything just works. Please give us this, i'm sure i can't be the only one with these problems.

Peace, Askebob.

[GrumpyMonkey]

Yo!

Hey, i'm a student, and an Evernote user on a daily basis, usually through my Mac Book Air.
I've been considering starting to use my new iPad for the evernote job,
as it would be nice to be able to to (almost) all of my jobs on one device.
Sadly, i think the Evernote iPad app suffers from a handful of different issues.

1. Overview.
My biggest gripe with the app is, BY FAR, the way notebooks are sorted, and how they're displayed in the
main menu where you can sort your books and notes in different way. First of all, the books are not displayed
as actual books, but as stacks of paper on a gray background, and the name of the "books" are displayed beneath
these said stacks. This really both looks ugly, doesn't give a feeling of actual notebooks, doesn't feel like you've got
your stuff sorted, and doesn't serve any other purpose than display your last edited note. If you have the manage your
way through your notebooks by looking at both the name, the amount of notes, and the last edited note, i really feel bad for you.
Please, would you at least give us the option to display our notebooks as notebooks, and then instead of below the books,
let us have the name of the books on the bin. This is a simple feature, that pretty much makes and breaks the overview of the entire app.
As it is now, it doesn't feel like a front page of an app for organizing your stuff, it feels like a mess.

2. Entering notes.
I connect my iPad with slick usability and fast interaction, allowing me to quickly jump from a game, to looking up something on Wikipedia,
to jotting down a note. What i feel, is that when i enter the Evernote app, i'm met with too many menus, for too few features.
I mean, when you start up, your get into the main menu with the so-called "notebooks", and when you click on one, you're presented to
a list of your notes on your right, and clicking it shows the contents in a bigger box on your left (portrait mode). Now, if you want to edit a note,
you have to go right of the page, and click on the little pen on the bottom, to open a new (SUPER USELESS) box, that serves the purpose of showing the same note, in the same size, in what looks like a stupid bloody pop-up window, and the only really difference is that you can now type and edit it.
What? Why, oh why make it look like a side action to write/edit a note, when it's the core feature of the app, for gods sake!
Atleast just let us enter a new page, not just open a popup where you can still seethe exact same note, just unedited in the background.
You have the option to extend a note, but even if you choose to do so, you still have to open a bloody pop-up window to edit.

Essentially, these two mistakes are very simple, serves no purpose, and seems to have been more trouble to make, than to not make. Simple mistakes, wastes of time that hamstrings the usability and feel of the app.

Sorry for this super rant, i just hate seeing good potential go to waste. I am of course exaggerating my points, but i still stand where i do, i can't lay down my Mac in favor of my iPad before these two are fixed. I want my iPad to feel like a fast, slick, and practical tool, and this app is screaming of clumsiness. In any case i would be sacrificing my keyboard with tactile feedback, what i need to get in return is an interface that makes it a good tradeoff. I don't write novels with Evernote, just certain parts of a lecture, the most important points, so interface is everything, when i need to go back, put the note in another book, or just decide to start typing, those seconds means a lot, both because the seconds literally means a lot, but also just the state of mind you go into when everything just works. Please give us this, i'm sure i can't be the only one with these problems.

Peace, Askebob.

Yo

I'd like to see some improvements in the iPad's user interface, but I am afraid that first one is not on my list. List view is, though! Hahaha. I crack myself up.

As for the second one, I would recommend FastEver XL to get notes into Evernote really quickly. However, the Mail app works great for this as well. Open it up, mail yourself a note, and it will appear in your account. The subject line = the title, and you can even tell it the notebook or tags it should have.

[JMichael]

Askebob, you've just described the reasons I quite trying to make EN iPad be my primary note taking device.
I tried hard for a year before I gave up.
While Evernote has made a number of "improvements" during the last year, EN iPad still falls far short of EN Mac, IMO.
It is not clear how long it will be (if ever) before Evernote will upgrade EN iPad to closer match the features of EN Mac.

Since you have a MBA I'd suggest that is your best tool.
I know one of major benefits of the iPad over the MBA is battery run time.

I have found that you can significantly increase your MBA battery run time by doing the following:

1. Block Flash in all Browsers
* FF: Flashblock :: Add-ons for Firefox
* Chrome: FlashBlock « Google Chrome Extensions
* Safari: ClickToPlugin
2. Run Outlook 2011 in OffLine mode as much as possible
3. Pause Automatic Sync with DropBox, Google Drive, and any other Cloud services
4. Set Evernote Sync interval to 30 minutes
5. Don't Manual Sync Evernote unless absolutely necessary
6. Run Apps only as you actually need to use them (quit when not in use)

For more info see MacBook Air 2011 Battery Life – 2 hours or 7 hours?

[GrumpyMonkey]

Askebob, you've just described the reasons I quite trying to make EN iPad be my primary note taking device.
I tried hard for a year before I gave up.
While Evernote has made a number of "improvements" during the last year, EN iPad still falls far short of EN Mac, IMO.
It is not clear how long it will be (if ever) before Evernote will upgrade EN iPad to closer match the features of EN Mac.

Since you have a MBA I'd suggest that is your best tool.
I know one of major benefits of the iPad over the MBA is battery run time.

I have found that you can significantly increase your MBA battery run time by doing the following:

1. Block Flash in all Browsers
* FF: Flashblock :: Add-ons for Firefox
* Chrome: FlashBlock « Google Chrome Extensions
* Safari: ClickToPlugin
2. Run Outlook 2011 in OffLine mode as much as possible
3. Pause Automatic Sync with DropBox, Google Drive, and any other Cloud services
4. Set Evernote Sync interval to 30 minutes
5. Don't Manual Sync Evernote unless absolutely necessary
6. Run Apps only as you actually need to use them (quit when not in use)

For more info see MacBook Air 2011 Battery Life – 2 hours or 7 hours?

Obviously, JM and I disagree about how useful the iPad is, but I will grant him this: the MBA is a nice machine, and the Evernote client on it is a real joy to use. JM's comments about battery life are really helpful too.

[nova47]

the MBA is a nice machine, and the Evernote client on it is a real joy to use.

[etage]

All really good points. I am a regular user of Evernote but have found the iPad app lacks sufficient functionality to ditch my MacBook completely for Evernote tasks. One other feature which needs addressing is being able to edit password protected documents on the EN iPad app. At the moment you can't edit password protected notes, you can only view them!

[Kent Reeder]

Hello,

The list view is crucial.

I agree that the app needs improvement. I'd also mention that the ability to view notes in the heirarchical view is very important to me. Anyone who uses tags heavily and very intentionally to organize notes would agree that this is important. The current method of viewing tags as just tiles arranged alphabetically almost makes tags useless.

Those things being said, Evernote is fantastic.