43 replies to this topic

[mp537]

I've read a number of forum entries concerning pasting text into Evernote and getting double spaced lines in the note. What I'm trying to do is take text in Evernote and copy it out into a text file. It seems when I do this, I get double spaced results.

For example, I create some simple text in BBEdit. Then I copy and paste the text into a new note in Evernote with no problem. But when I then copy/paste the same text from the note I just created back into a new text file, it comes out double spaced in the text file.

I've tried simplify formatting before copying the text out of Evernote. I've also tried pasting into Word, TextEdit, vi, etc and the pasted text from the note always comes out doublespaced.

The reason I use this is because I typically log config files(rc, hosts, etc) into Evernote before I make changes to systems I manage. That way I have them handy for quick access should I need to roll back changes.

Using Evernote 3.3.0 for Mac. Any idea?

[GrumpyMonkey]

I've read a number of forum entries concerning pasting text into Evernote and getting double spaced lines in the note. What I'm trying to do is take text in Evernote and copy it out into a text file. It seems when I do this, I get double spaced results.

For example, I create some simple text in BBEdit. Then I copy and paste the text into a new note in Evernote with no problem. But when I then copy/paste the same text from the note I just created back into a new text file, it comes out double spaced in the text file.

I've tried simplify formatting before copying the text out of Evernote. I've also tried pasting into Word, TextEdit, vi, etc and the pasted text from the note always comes out doublespaced.

The reason I use this is because I typically log config files(rc, hosts, etc) into Evernote before I make changes to systems I manage. That way I have them handy for quick access should I need to roll back changes.

Using Evernote 3.3.0 for Mac. Any idea?

Hi. Welcome to the forums.

This is a difficulty I have encountered as well. There are a couple of solutions. You can export the note as an HTML file, open the note into your browser, and then copy/paste. Or, just log into the Web client and copy/paste from there.

[mp537]

Thanks Grumpy. I was afraid it was going to have to be something like that. Interesting thing though is if I create the text in a new note and then paste it into a text file, it comes out okay(1st line is messed up though). It seems to be pasted text or drag/dropped text files that don't copy out well.

[mp537]

One more workaround....BBEdit can use grep for find/replace parameters.
If I take the text from the note, paste it into BBEdit(with a bunch of blank double-space lines), I can find/replace on ^\r and it will remove all blank lines. I can then copy from BBEdit to console, etc.

[GrumpyMonkey]

Thanks Grumpy. I was afraid it was going to have to be something like that. Interesting thing though is if I create the text in a new note and then paste it into a text file, it comes out okay(1st line is messed up though). It seems to be pasted text or drag/dropped text files that don't copy out well.

This is my observation, but I may be wrong. The <div> and <p> tags are causing extra line breaks to be inserted, so it isn't just copy/pasted text, but text created in Evernote as well.

[Mary R]

This has been a major barrier for me being able to use Evernote to create text (as opposed to just storing it for filing). The reformatting required when pasting from Evernote is really quite cumbersome. This is a very basic function that is so broken that it is unusable. I'm finding these kinds of things are getting progressively more disappointing.

[Mary R]

I've found a way around this. If you email the note to yourself, the program/site that receives the note usually ~can~ handle the line breaks correctly upon copying to the clipboard; so you can copy from there and then to wherever you wanted to paste it to begin with. Not an ideal solution, but something to use while waiting for better text editing.

[pedro7]

I am having this problem as well and I must say it is quite annoying. I manage several different systems and keep the plain-text configurations in Evernote, but it is very disrupting to my work flow to not be able to make changes right into Evernote, copy the text and paste it right into the Terminal or into an email or report, because of the extra line breaks. Please fix this!

[GrumpyMonkey]

I am having this problem as well and I must say it is quite annoying. I manage several different systems and keep the plain-text configurations in Evernote, but it is very disrupting to my work flow to not be able to make changes right into Evernote, copy the text and paste it right into the Terminal or into an email or report, because of the extra line breaks. Please fix this!

As someone who works primarily in plain text, and really needs the spaces, line breaks, and so forth to be accurate, this is quite a disruption in my workflow as well. I suppose one could argue that we are plain-text nerds, geeks, and in the minority here, but I imagine everyone would appreciate knowing that their text will move out of Evernote without any problems.

[mabisoh]

Did anyone find a resolution to this issue. This is quite troublesome. Like many of you, I write and edit in Evernote and then paste elsewhere. Losing all my formatting is a waste of time.

[Mary R]

Email the note to yourself. Nearly every mail program or webmail site can handle basic text formatting and so you can use it to properly handle the copy/paste part of your notes. It's an extra (and annoying) step, but it's better than having to fiddle with everything after you've pasted the mess evernote sends to the clipboard.

[Chad Skeeters]

I'm having the same issue, and I don't like the work arounds mentioned above.

I use Clyppan's "Always paste clippings as plain text" setting to get text into Evernote with no formatting and I'd really like a shift+ctrl+c to copy the text to the clipboard in plain format when moving data out of Evernote -- or something to that effect.

[dbck]

Same issue on almost every note i wrote. After copy and paste i have an extra \n after each line.
Why results a new created note in evernote with the format...

Hello World!
hello
world!

...after a copy and paste into textmate, sublime text 2 or i think nearly any other texteditor like program on the mac in

Hello World!hello


world!

Thats really strange because is removes one \n after "Hello World!" and adds additional ones for each line.
The doubled \n disappears if the copied note isn't plain text. So if you temporary bold the complete text and copy it. The copied text looks like...

Hello World!hello
world!

... without doubled \n, but not correct. After turning bold off the doubled \n are back in copied text.

The behaviour is the same if i first create the given text from above in textmate copy and paste it to a new created evernote note and copy and paste it back to textmate. The text isn't equal to the origin.

I think it is a bug and hope the evernote team will fix it soon.

[Jake Porway]

I found this super annoying as well so I wrote a simple "Copy as plain text" script for Mac. It's a quick-n-dirty fix if all you need to worry about is copying text - http://jakeporway.co...st-script-ever/

[DavidPierson]

Jake's approach is probably the best.

On Windows, pasting with formatting is often unwanted - there is a terrific free (and tiny) program called PureText by Steve Miller that pastes as plain text. Rather like pasting into vanilla Notepad and copying back out. I use it all the time (copying into emails etc) and to copy into EN to get the consistent text font and size.

If I was on a Mac I would not hesitate to try Jake's script..

[dbck]

Mainly I write markdown in my notes. To copy the plain text into an other editor I currently set the whole text to bold and then I copy and paste it in a editor (e.g. Sublime Text 2). After that the extra line feeds are gone and I turn of bold in the note. The workaround is acceptable for me. BUT I would prefer that copy and paste acts like any copy and paste which means it may copy the format of the text too, but not change the text or add format to plain text! In my eyes this is simply an annoying bug and should be corrected as soon as possible. Regardless of whether workarounds exists or not.

[novelist]

+1 in wanting a fix for this. Currently looking at migrating from Simplenote, which is increasingly unreliable. Better handling of plain text in Evernote is a must. Two major issues:

1. This "extra spaces on copy/paste" issue.
2. Plain text notes aren't genuine plain text: they just have formatting cleared and a different font applied.
2a. There's no keyboard shortcut for making a note plain text.

[rynowin]

+1 in wanting true fix

[kuroir]

+1, this is incredibly annoying. The worst part is that there's no consistency, so you can't fix this with regular expressions…

When copying the following text, from Evernote:

Line 1

Line 3
Line 4

Pasting it into a plain-text application, you end up with:

Line 1

Line 3

LIne 4

There's no possible way to differentiate that!

I managed to fix all the other cases, but this one is just making it impossible to develop a fix.

[biglep]

+1

Is this on the Evernote team's roadmap? This is really annoying.