18 replies to this topic

[jamieaa64]

I really love the idea of Evernote and I really want something that is non-microsoft so that I can use it on all devices (especially Android Tablets).

However there are a couple of pretty simple features of OneNote I love:

• I like being able to click anywhere on the screen and start typing. When I write notes on paper I rarely stop from the top left corner and write things like a letter. I like being able to make full use of my space. This is a game changer for me because the whole point of these note programs is for them to help me feel creative and not get in the way.
• When I want to make a table (and this happens loads) I can just hid tab after typing something and it becomes a table
• When I want bullet points I used Ctrl + Fullstop
• I can use drag and drop to re-order bullets and tables.

I know onenote can do more advanced stuff then this but I don't really care about that stuff because I just want something that replaces a pad of paper. And its a shame because i really love the idea of evernote.

Are my criticisms fair? Or am I just using Evernote incorrectly and there are other ways around things?

[gazumped]

Hi and welcome to the Forums. I don't think your criticisms are criticisms. You're saying something equivalent to you'd like strawberries more if only they tasted like plums. You're correct however that Evernote doesn't currently provide any of these facilities, and if you want to make this a feature request I'll gladly +1 it!

[jamieaa64]

How do I post a feature request?
I googled it but just got a thread about how there is no specific feature request place apart from the boards.

I feel like the first most important request would be a pretty major re-write of Evernote! Could be wrong on that

[gazumped]

Your Google was right - posts here get read by the Evernote team and added to the wish list (which probably stretches around the planet by now). No guarantees your suggestion will make the cut, and no timescales to implementation if it does, but you can rest assured you have already done your best to improve the world (or at least the pachyderm portion) to One Note standards. I'd genuinely welcome all those improvements and I'm sure that EN will get around to them...

[GrumpyMonkey]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

I edited your title to make it a feature request.

Being able to type anywhere is nice, but seems pretty unique to ON. Am I wrong?

As for the tables, the more complexity you add, the less likely they are to work consistently across platforms. My guess is that EN is unlikely to put much more development work into tables along the lines you proposed.

I don't know much about bullets, but EN has them, along with a shortcut key. I guess you could re-assign keys.


The re-ordering of bullets is coming along, and is much improved. It looks simple, but even Word is funky about bullets, so I am going to guess that it is slow-going and difficult to get them to do lots of things.


I think I could sum up all of this to say that I like your feature requests, but as gazumped said, it is like saying you'd like X more if it were more likeY. In part, at least, I suspect EN is what it is because of what it does: your external brain on every device. ON is device-specific and can afford to program to the devices. Your trade-off is a little less control over how you format content for more control over where you view content. I'm more interested in having access anytime and anywhere, so I chose EN.

Some forum members use both

[jamieaa64]

I think it is pretty unique to ON but really there is only ON and EN that do this well. Before ON and EN the equivalent thing to just jot notes would be Notepad or Paint. I'd argue microsoft Paint is a place outside of One note that does typing everywhere. I kind of feel EN has gone for a better version of notepad and Onenote has gone for a better version of Paint. But for a lot of the work I do (Writing up ideas, categorising them, or doing things like making user stories or maketting stuff), it's really helpful to be able to write anywhere as I can start working on things before having to worry about formatting. (I know some software planning people where Paint is their primary tool)

Regarding re-ordering and tables. The main thing I find that gets in the way with most table tools is having to decide the size of the table before I start filling it with content. Usually I don't know how big the table will be as I'm typing it. The reason why I focus on going on about being "Creative" is because if I have an idea in my head I want it down on paper as quick as possible. Having to make even a tiny descion like table size is annoying. By making it so the table is created by clicking "tab" means it can grow organically.

---

Regarding multiple devices. Making it so that you can type anywhere on the screen across multiple devices may be tough. If I create devices with crazy layouts I imagine viewing them on the screen will be complicated.

Thanks for the info about shortcut keys.
Jamie

[GrumpyMonkey]

I think it is pretty unique to ON but really there is only ON and EN that do this well. Before ON and EN the equivalent thing to just jot notes would be Notepad or Paint. I'd argue microsoft Paint is a place outside of One note that does typing everywhere. I kind of feel EN has gone for a better version of notepad and Onenote has gone for a better version of Paint. But for a lot of the work I do (Writing up ideas, categorising them, or doing things like making user stories or maketting stuff), it's really helpful to be able to write anywhere as I can start working on things before having to worry about formatting. (I know some software planning people where Paint is their primary tool)

Regarding re-ordering and tables. The main thing I find that gets in the way with most table tools is having to decide the size of the table before I start filling it with content. Usually I don't know how big the table will be as I'm typing it. The reason why I focus on going on about being "Creative" is because if I have an idea in my head I want it down on paper as quick as possible. Having to make even a tiny descion like table size is annoying. By making it so the table is created by clicking "tab" means it can grow organically.

---

Regarding multiple devices. Making it so that you can type anywhere on the screen across multiple devices may be tough. If I create devices with crazy layouts I imagine viewing them on the screen will be complicated.

Thanks for the info about shortcut keys.
Jamie

I am a longtime fan of Notepad and Paint. I can't tell you how much I have used both over the years. Yet, I guess I never thought of Paint in that way, and I didn't recognize the different developmental directions taken by ON and EN. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Parisie]

I really love the idea of Evernote and I really want something that is non-microsoft so that I can use it on all devices (especially Android Tablets).

I´m working with EN and (!) ONENOTE. The missing functionality of OneNonte is the synchronisizing between different PCs. This I realize with Sugarsync and you can get it with skydrive also (but Sugarsync is much better - I can help you).

Some things are really better with Onenote. For example I generate Text not with Word or EN but with Onenote. For me mostly Onenote ist overkill so I prefer for most things Evernote.

I really want something that is non-microsoft

That is your only problem with Onenote?
Normally you are safer with the products of a big company than with those of a comparatively tiny company like Evernote.

[jamieaa64]

I want to switch to being able to do all my work from an Android Asus Transformer. I think I will try and play with Onenote for Android though.

I don't trust Microsoft's commitment to being cross platforms even if they currently have an android app.
What do you mean by generate text?

[GrumpyMonkey]

I want to switch to being able to do all my work from an Android Asus Transformer. I think I will try and play with Onenote for Android though.

I don't trust Microsoft's commitment to being cross platforms even if they currently have an android app.
What do you mean by generate text?

I had the Transformer Prime for a while. That is a nice device, and I hope that Jelly Bean and Butter make it even better! I am afraid it won't work for me at the moment, because of rather specialized needs I have for my current work, but I am hoping to do more work on Android in the future. Certainly, the Nexus 7 is tempting. I didn't push the button, though, so I bet if I want it then I will have a long wait!

I am quite keen on the Android EN client, and I think it would be enjoyable to use on the Transformer. I disagree with Parisie about the issue being one of large/small companies. In my experience, the small companies are the enjoyable ones. It has been years since I have actually contacted a Microsoft representative with a problem. The last time I tried a couple of years ago they wanted to charge me 45 dollars for the privilege of figuring out why their product wasn't working. It turns out that it was a bug (formatting vertical Japanese text), and some kind folks on the Internet steered me towards a solution. Evernote? They'll get back to me within a few hours.

Anyhow, assuming that everything works as it should (they both sync well, they are both solid applications with functions that work as expected) the issue I am concerned with is portability. Is your content easily imported / exported? It is, so you have nothing to worry about with Evernote. Even better, it really doesn't matter if you switch to Apple, Microsoft, or some other device next year. Evernote has you covered

Text generation? I think the poster might mean that all of their projects begin in OneNote. All of mine begin in Evernote

[BurgersNFries]

This is a game changer for me because the whole point of these note programs is for them to help me feel creative and not get in the way.

Actually, the whole point of Evernote is to collect, organize & retrieve info from a variety of sources/devices. A by product may be that it helps you feel creative.

I know onenote can do more advanced stuff then this but I don't really care about that stuff because I just want something that replaces a pad of paper. And its a shame because i really love the idea of evernote.

Evernote, along with a myriad of other apps, certainly replace a pad of paper, unless you're making a paper airplane or spitball. WRT the "more advanced stuff", it's all relative. You'll find a number of posts from a number of different users that all state (essentially), "all I need is ___". Everyone has their own "this". EN has stated that they try to stick with features that will work across all platforms, since their goal is to have feature parity. I'd guess many of the features ON has would be difficult to implement across the various platforms EN lives on.

What do you mean by generate text?

I suspect that means making text notes.

For me mostly Onenote ist overkill so I prefer for most things Evernote.

Agreed.

Normally you are safer with the products of a big company than with those of a comparatively tiny company like Evernote.

Disagree. I think most of the time, software from "small" companies is equally "safe" as software from "large" companies. And like GM, IME, "small" companies normally have better support systems. Try getting help from MS or HP w/o handing over your credit card info.

Some forum members use both

Yup. I would be one of them. I use ON occasionally. OTOH, there isn't an hour I'm on the computer/iPad/iPhone that I don't use Evernote. More often than not, I use it more than once per computer/device hour.

[jamieaa64]

Actually, the whole point of Evernote is to collect, organize & retrieve info from a variety of sources/devices. A by product may be that it helps you feel creative.

Evernote is there to retrieve information from sources/devices? Not from my brain?

That is interesting and if so I can see how Evernote may not be useful for me. I don't need to capture info from sources or devices, I need to capture thoughts and ideas in a way that I can easily access them to generate more thoughts and ideas. The software being across different devices is secondary because if it works on different devices it will be able to more quickly capture those thoughts and ideas (as I don't have to go to my computer).

""all I need is ___". Everyone has their own "this".

Well yes I realise that... This is my "this"

I suppose I think this post is relevant because the specifitc bits of OneNote I'm talking about do not appear to be that overly complex. I know Onenote does some pretty complicated awesome stuff with OCR for example and search but its just the ability to write everywhere that is my "thing" and I think its a thing that plenty of people will share but obviously that is based on no market research.

[BurgersNFries]

Actually, the whole point of Evernote is to collect, organize & retrieve info from a variety of sources/devices. A by product may be that it helps you feel creative.

Evernote is there to retrieve information from sources/devices? Not from my brain?

I would assume your brain would be a source. By adding "help me feel creative", I'd guess EN does not focus upon being a muse. (shrug) But as I said, that may be a by product. If so, then great!

""all I need is ___". Everyone has their own "this".

Well yes I realise that... This is my "this"

I sort of figured that out. But EN makes their own decision what "this"s to add based upon real live experience & background of the inner workings of EN across all the platforms. Not what users think should be easy to implement. Even if something really is easy to implement, they also have their priority list. So just because something may be easy to implement, it may be low on the priority list. IOW, it's pretty fruitless for users to try to make determinations as to what's easy to implement or not & question why something is not implemented yesterday.

[dlu]

Noted, thanks for the suggestions

[Snkscore]

I'll add some input as a heavy OneNote user.

First, I will agree that that the ability to click anywhere to start taking notes i snice, but I can see the difficulties in implementing it across platforms and in the EN format.

However, what I think would be a nice middle ground, would be the ability to click anywhere in the EN whitespace and start typing on that line. There are lots of times when I want white space, but in order to get it I have to click somewhere and enter a bunch of carriage returns.

[debora]

Being able to type anywhere is nice, but seems pretty unique to ON. Am I wrong?
 

 

I have never used ON, but can assure you I can pretty much write anywhere while writing on paper.

I am trying to stop using paper to take notes at university and not being able to write anywhere on evernote is being quite frustrating... 

Would love to see it implemented on tablets! 

[C6REW]

I don't understand the technical reasons or know the correct description, but OneNote creates individual notes on a Note. Hence being able to create a note anywhere on the page.

Having moved to Evernote from OneNote you soon realise that this is more of a hinderance in the long term.

It did take me a while to get my head around not being able to do it. But now I feel it would leave me with some seriously disjointed notes if I had to go back to it.

Best regards

Chris

[GrumpyMonkey]

Being able to type anywhere is nice, but seems pretty unique to ON. Am I wrong?

I have never used ON, but can assure you I can pretty much write anywhere while writing on paper.
I am trying to stop using paper to take notes at university and not being able to write anywhere on evernote is being quite frustrating...
Would love to see it implemented on tablets!

Oh, if we are talking about handwriting, there are all sorts of options on the tablet! See my website (linked in my signature below) for more. I regularly take notes by hand on the iPad in lectures / seminars at university, and Evernote is quite useful for keeping it all organized.

More technically speaking, due to the structure of Evernote's notes (XHTML), you are unlikely to see this write anywhere option.

[debora]

I'd much rather type (or swype) than handwrite - it is not only faster but my handwrite becomes unreadable after some months -  while still being able to imbue my notes with some visually-structured magic.

I like to comment on the notes and pull an arrow to the right corner of the paper to sketch on an insight I've just had, a question for after-class, and even though I've been using evernote for years to organize plenty of other things, I'm struggling to keep on taking lecture notes with it, due to the lack of freedom while writing ( and the impossibility to do a quick schema/graph drawing, too).