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Control Which Image Shown in a Note's Thumbnail/Snippet View


marcelo

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The largest smallest dimension?

Yeah. For example, if you have 3 images with the following dimensions:

75x100

100x400

200x300

The "smallest" dimensions are 75, 100, and 200, respectively. We're going to use the image with the largest of those "smallest" dimensions (i.e., 200).

There are probably better ways to describe that algorithm, but that's how we've been describing it internally.

with all due respect, what you really mean is the "largest smaller" dimension. :D

for the word "smallest" to apply, you'd have to be comparing at least 3 items -- or, in this case, dimensions (such as the 3 sides of a triangle, or 3 or more of anything, really). but images are two-dimensional; they have only height and width. therefore, neither dimension is the "smallest" of the two; it's the smaller of the two. :)

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The way the system works now is completely non-intuitive. A larger image does not mean a better representation of what the note is about. I could make a strong argument that the first image in the note (above a certain size threshold) would be the most representative of the note. For example, I took a clipping of a product page. I want to capture the primary product but also the "related products". However, the images of the related products happen to be larger than the primary product so now I have a note about one product with images for a different one shown as the thumbnail. I have similar frustration for other scenarios as well. I agree, the image for the thumbnail on the note should be user-selectable. It's fine to have a default, but I should be able to override it if I wish. Right-click the image --> Set as thumbnail. Simple. Even if that is a desktop-only feature, that's fine. The product already has certain features that only exist in certain implementations of the product, so that's nothing new.

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@Gimpster: Please read the discussions jbenson2 posted, it is *not* the largest image that is used. On the other hand, overriding the system-selected image used would be a nice improvement. It's not clear to me that that's something that is transferred with the note; it may be determined on-the-fly by the client (I haven't been able to figure it out by looking at an exported .ENEX file yet), though I suppose it's also possible that that's determined by a call to the server, too.

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I wasn't searching to find out whether or not changing the thumbnail was possible, I was searching to find out how to go about changing the thumbnail. I guess that's what you get when you make assumptions! :)

I hope this will be implemented at some point soon. As Gimpster pointed out, a desktop-only option would be fine (similar to changing the added and modified dates).

As it stands now, your notes can really end up with some odd and completely illogical thumbnails!

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As it stands now, your notes can really end up with some odd and completely illogical thumbnails!

Most of my thumbnails are so illogical that I pretty much just ignore them in the Snippet view.

It would be very cool to right-click on the Snippet View Note, and select "Choose Thumbnail".

EN could present a selection of images in thumbnail size for the user to pick from.

It would seem that EN has all of the data it needs to do this in a small popup window, since the Note images are all files which EN knows for each Note.

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One of the ways I use Evernote is to store photographs (JPEGs) with notes on how I've processed them and a copies of the picture as processed by the camera (JPEG) and the original file (RAW format) . So, typically there will be three images in the post, interspersed with text:

Edited JPEG

Camera JPEG

RAW file (this is not displayed in the note, as you need specialist software to interpret RAW files, so it is just a file attachment)

I like to have the edited photo first, so you can see it straight away and then scroll down to see my notes.

I also share some of these notes in a shared notebook with fellow hobbyists, so these comments also relate to the Web version of Evernote.

In Windows.

Evernote seems to choose the last JPEG you add to a note as the thumbnail and this is invariably the camera JPEG, which doesn't look as nice.

In Web.

Evernote doesn't display a thumbnail in the snippet at all, although it does if there are only JPEGs in the note. I think it wants to make a thumbnail of the last image added to the note but it can't because it's a RAW file.

I would prefer Evernote in all cases to use the first image in the note.

Can anyone think of any way of achieving this?

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AFAIK there's no way to choose which picture EN uses in snippet view where there's a choice of files. I don't think it regards RAW and as image file format though.

You could try to force your 1st picture to the head of the queue by zipping all the others, so there's only one choice; or maybe use apply two-note policy - put your headline picture in one note and add a link to another note with the rest of the details. If you're sharing these notes it would speed up page loading - the 'index' note could just be a small(er) thumbnail version of the main picture with the full detail in a linked Note.

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gazumped is basically correct; Evernote chooses the thumbnail for the snippet. The procedure used, at least the last time that anyone from Evernote commented on it is something called the 'largest smallest dimension'; it's explained here: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18482-choosing-a-thumbnail/page__hl__largest%20smallest

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You could try to force your 1st picture to the head of the queue by zipping all the others, so there's only one choice; or maybe use apply two-note policy - put your headline picture in one note and add a link to another note with the rest of the details. If you're sharing these notes it would speed up page loading - the 'index' note could just be a small(er) thumbnail version of the main picture with the full detail in a linked Note.

Thanks gazumped. Those scenarious would solve the problem but inconvenience me in other ways! But I appreciate you taking the time to think about it.

gazumped is basically correct; Evernote chooses the thumbnail for the snippet. The procedure used, at least the last time that anyone from Evernote commented on it is something called the 'largest smallest dimension'; it's explained here: http://discussion.ev...gest%20smallest

Thanks for the link jefito. I see now, the problem is that all my images are the same size so it's either picking randomly or using some other rule (not sure why I get no image in snippets in the Web version though). I could resize the other images to make sure my preferred image is the one that appears as the thumbnail, but that too is a faff.

I think I'll just live with it as it is.

From the other topic I see it's been suggested before that users be able to select which image appears as a thumbnail and I think that would be good. I can imagine hovering over the thumbnail and seeing alternatives to click on.

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I would really like to be able to choose the thumbnail. Is there a way to make and/or support suggestions for new Evernote features (like UserVoice)? Or will people just raise these topics in the forums and hope that they get the attention of Evernote developers?

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So may I add my voice to this request.

Thanks to you guys for explaining the largest-smallest or whatever algorithm. I can see clearly now. However, I would love to choose which one of the pictures in a note is shown as preview thumbnail. Because the "largest-smaller or whatever" pic rarely is the one that indicates my note perfectly. ;)

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Hello,

I am new to Evernote, I just started using it today and the first wall I hit was not being able to change the thumbnails on my notes. Then I came to this forum and read all this stuff about choosing the right algorithm for automatically generating a thumbnail.

What puzzles me is: How do you put that much thought into selecting an algorithm for auto-generating an image for a more intuitive note-taking experience... and not consider letting us pick our own?

For instance, I'm trying to use EN to compare-shop different audio interfaces for my macbook... a note for each model I'm considering... but the thumbnails are a mess; they show the store logos or ads that also appear on the page but none show the actual item I'm trying to compare. Is my intuition that far-fetched? This forum topic started a year ago, and it's still unchanged, really?

Is it me? If there's a different, more positive way for me to view this, please let me know.

Thanks

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OK, got it. I think anything else would have too many words, and "largest smallest" probably works because it's short and easy to remember (and apparently self-contradictory). Cool.

...except it's somewhat ineptly named, because at least 3 items (in this case, "dimensions") are required for the suffix "-est" to be applicable. therefore, since an image has only 2 dimensions, 1 dimension would be the smaller of the two, not the smallest. so, it should be the "largest smaller" dimension. :)

but i don't think jeff coined the phrase, so it's not his fault. :)

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The fact that something is the smaller of two items doesn't make it any less the smallest.

with all due respect, you just don't get it. if you understood grammar, you'd realize your statement was nonsensical. :)

you can't just decide to use the wrong word because it "sounds right" to you. though you may think the two words are interchangeable, they simply are not. the smaller of two items is NOT the smallest. it's the smaller. the word "smallest" is grammatically incorrect. period. if you use the word "smallest," the fact that someone will understand what you "mean" doesn't change the fact that it's grammatically (and mathematically) incorrect.

unless there are at least three items being compared, "-est" is ineligible for use. there are no exceptions. :)

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You may be on somewhat better ground grammatically speaking, but with "all due respect", you have no idea what you are talking about, mathematically speaking. Maybe you should "put your best foot forward" and try to learn something. You do have more than two feet, do you not?

Because despite what you claim, it is mathematically correct: "smallest" refers to the smallest member of a set, regardless of how many elements are in the set (even if there's only one). When we apply the function "smallest" to a set, it doesn't return failure if the set has at least one element, it just returns the smallest element. In computer programming, I don't need to write a special function that operates only on sets of two items, I write one function that works for all.

unless there are at least three items being compared, "-est" is ineligible for use. there are no exceptions. :)

Except for the exception when the number is indeterminate from context. *cough, cough*

So maybe yes, you are technically correct with respect to grammar, but language is used for communication, and if someone understands what I say, then language's work is accomplished. So feel free to pick your prescriptive nits if that's how you want to spend your time here but everyone here (including you) understands the phrase "smallest dimension", even when it's applied to a two dimensional object. Language and the human mind are both flexible enough to manage.

By the way, I've noticed a lot of misspellings and misplaced commas elsewhere in the forums, and I think there's a run on split infinitives going on in the Android forum; are you up for it?

p.s., following an insult with a smiley doesn't make it less insulting, it makes it passive aggressive. You might want to watch that.

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You may be on somewhat better ground grammatically speaking, but with "all due respect", you have no idea what you are talking about, mathematically speaking. Maybe you should "put your best foot forward" and try to learn something. You do have more than two feet, do you not?

math was one of my college majors. i began my college mathematics courses at the age of 15, and i ultimately graduated summa cum laude (valedictorian) with a 3.98 GPA.

it was one of our math professors who taught us that "the language of mathematics is exact, concise, and precise." if you're comparing only two objects (or concepts), the word "smallest" simply cannot, and does not, apply. the fact that you believe with all your heart that it does does not change that. that's all i have to say on the matter.

p.s., following an insult with a smiley doesn't make it less insulting, it makes it passive aggressive. You might want to watch that.

i didn't write "insults," per se; i simply stated facts. but, aware that they might bristle, i added smileys to indicate friendly disagreement. i'm sorry you didn't appreciate that approach. with that in mind, in the purest sense -- meaning "possessing a lack of knowledge on a subject," as opposed to lacking intelligence -- i'll just say: you're ignorant. (no smiley. better?)

we're at an impasse... there's nothing more i can add, and nothing you can say that will change the facts. at this point, you'll be tempted to digress into pure insults, and i'm not going to participate in that. so, i will read/post no further, and i wish you the best of luck. (again, no smiley. i hope that's to your liking.)

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First: if by saying "I'm sorry", however you're apologizing for your part in that misunderstanding, then I sincerely return the apology, for my part in it.

That said, math was one of my majors as well. I am certainly not ignorant on that score. It's been 30+ years since graduation, but my in my field -- computer software -- I still use math a pretty fair amount (that would be an understatement). Curiously, as it happens, I also took a college math course and a computer programming course at the age of 15, but that was just a one-off thing; I'm not trying to start a "who's got the biggest, um, brain" contest here.

But are you really, really saying that there can be no smallest element of a set containing two objects? If so, you are sadly mistaken. The term "smaller", in math and in general speech, mind, is a specialization of the more general concept of "smallest", but which is only used to apply to sets of two things. That doesn't malke "smallest" stop working on sets containing two (or even one) objects; it's just a convention that we have that we use "smaller" to apply to sets containing two objects. For sets with cardinality equal to 2, "smaller" is equivalent to "smallest". For sets of other cardinality, "smaller" doesn't apply.

Mathematically we might say something like: smallest is a function mapping a set of numbers A to the number x in A, such that for all members y of A, x <= y. This works for all sets of any cardinality, except of course, the empty set, which has no members. There's nothing wrong with calling out smaller as a specialization of smallest; mathematicians apply special names to common or useful subsets all the time, but that's all it is: a specialization of a more general rule. The smallest function doesn't magically stop working when it encounters a set of two elements, it just returns the smaller of the two.

[by the way: your professor's saying ("the language of mathematics is exact, concise, and precise") is cute, but not exactly mathematical by his own definition, as "precise" and "exact" are synonyms, and so therefore not "concise". Maybe it was just wishful thinking?]

And the linguistic rule whereby we apply to "smaller" to pairs of items, and "smallest" to sets of items with 3 or more members and sets with indeterminate size, that's just a convention, just like the rule whereby we ought not seek to blithely split infinitives, or start a sentence with "and", or the kazillion other conventions that operate in some realms of the English language (but certainly not all of them). You might prefer to call these conventions "facts", but they're not exactly enduring ones. So long as meaning is conveyed without confusion, and I'm pretty certain that you are not confused by the use of "smallest" when applied to two dimensions. Miffed, piqued, or annoyed, perhaps, but that's just a matter probably best kept between you and your favorite grammar book.

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Apologies for the necropost, but I would like to throw in a vote for some way to override what thumbnail I use for a note. This would be helpful in journals where you want to add an image to a note, but you also use a different set of images to put at the end so you associate that day with that thumbnail image. Perhaps a right click on images that says "Make this the note thumbnail in X view?"

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Hey guys,

I had the same problem today and ran into this post.

I know for some going around chaning sizes is a bit tedious, however here is something that worked for me:

System Description:

Windows 7 Professional

Evernote version 4.5.6

1) Once all your images are loaded on the note right click on those you want to resize.

2) The image will automatically be selected and a pop up menu will appear.

3) Select "open with" option and then choose Paint

4) The file will open in Paint and windows will read it as a temp file from memory.

5) Choose resize and resize the picture to a smaller size, let's say 50%.

6) You can then click save and windows will automatically save the file in Evernote automatically resizing the image on the note itself.

It seems Windows has the ability to recognise the file loaded from Evernote and resize it on the fly.

It is not an automated solutions an I know is not as good as what we would all want which is right click --> set as thumbnail.

But it works pretty well and it saves a lot of time of mucking around with a picture file and try to resize it before loading it into the note.

I hope this works for those that want a better way.

Cheers,

=)

./h

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I'd also love to have a feature, which lets me pick my own thumbnail.

The current algorithm is -lets name it- random. For me as user it makes absolutely no sense to use this algorithm.

In each of my notes I have multiple images with more or less importance. And the thumbnail should be the most important or meaningful image. Not the one with the best proportions!

Please, please include this feature!!!

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Just as a matter of interest? what was the thinking behind this rule to select the thumbnail LOL.... why not just go with the first or last image/attachment in the note?

I think this is a case of the programmers trying to be cool with a "clever" algorithm, yet they did not have a good understanding of the end-user's needs/perspective. We have tried several times to convince the EN team that the current selection process does not work very well, but they don't seem to want to hear it.

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Just as a matter of interest? what was the thinking behind this rule to select the thumbnail LOL.... why not just go with the first or last image/attachment in the note?

I think this is a case of the programmers trying to be cool with a "clever" algorithm, yet they did not have a good understanding of the end-user's needs/perspective. We have tried several times to convince the EN team that the current selection process does not work very well, but they don't seem to want to hear it.

I don't think your speculation about the developers is supported by the evidence. In fact, they seem very concerned about the user experience :)

What I got out of the developer comments in this thread is that they were looking for a way to populate the thumbnails with images that would make sense to the user and avoid having horizontal bars or other non-sensical images showing up. The process occurs automatically and actually does a good job in most cases for me. As we discussed in the other thread, there are good things about the product, but also areas that need improvement.

It seems like a smart design decision, and I like it, but I think it would be nice if users had the option to overide the algorithm in a note. Hopefully, the developers will consider this in future updates.

Just because the developers don't do what we ask them to do doesn't mean they are not listening or not hearing us. We may have been un-persuasive. They might be waiting to roll it out together with a different update so that they don't have to recode for a new interface. They might disagree. Or, they could be too busy. Who knows? Rather than questioning their commitment to a good user experience, I think we can offer real life use cases that will help them design it better in future ones.

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It seems like a smart design decision, and I like it, but I think it would be nice if users had the option to overide the algorithm in a note. Hopefully, the developers will consider this in future updates.

I disagree. It may be "smart" from a technical point of view, but not of a users point of view.

There is very little correlation between the image size and what image is the most important, or most relevant, to the user.

On top of that, the thumbnail often crops the image in the middle, making it almost unrecognizable.

Don't see anything "smart" about this.

Choosing the first image whose width and height are both greater than that used for borders would be "smart", as well a give the user control over which image is used for the thumbnail.

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It sounds crazy on the face of it..... But they will have tried different settings and could immediately see the effect on thumbnails.... The problem is everybody's notebooks are different so what might work well for the majority may be rubbish for 40% of users.....

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It seems like a smart design decision, and I like it, but I think it would be nice if users had the option to overide the algorithm in a note. Hopefully, the developers will consider this in future updates.

I disagree. It may be "smart" from a technical point of view, but not of a users point of view.

There is very little correlation between the image size and what image is the most important, or most relevant, to the user.

On top of that, the thumbnail often crops the image in the middle, making it almost unrecognizable.

Don't see anything "smart" about this.

Choosing the first image whose width and height are both greater than that used for borders would be "smart", as well a give the user control over which image is used for the thumbnail.

It works pretty well from this user's point of view. The images chosen are appropriate, and even when cut-off (as they must be to fit within the constraints of the snippet view), they are perfectly recognizable.The designers must have done something right if the results work so well a lot of the time (for this user, at least), so I'll stick with calling the current implementation "smart." It would be "smarter," of course, if they added the ability to override the existing algorithm :)

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It seems like a smart design decision, and I like it, but I think it would be nice if users had the option to overide the algorithm in a note. Hopefully, the developers will consider this in future updates.

I disagree. It may be "smart" from a technical point of view, but not of a users point of view.

There is very little correlation between the image size and what image is the most important, or most relevant, to the user.

On top of that, the thumbnail often crops the image in the middle, making it almost unrecognizable.

Don't see anything "smart" about this.

Choosing the first image whose width and height are both greater than that used for borders would be "smart", as well a give the user control over which image is used for the thumbnail.

It works pretty well from this user's point of view. The images chosen are appropriate, and even when cut-off (as they must be to fit within the constraints of the snippet view), they are perfectly recognizable.The designers must have done something right if the results work so well a lot of the time (for this user, at least), so I'll stick with calling the current implementation "smart." It would be "smarter," of course, if they added the ability to override the existing algorithm :)

Additionally, most people who have created/designed apps have made choices that seemed good at the time & later realize it may not have been. Reversing such choices may not always be an easy task. I have no idea whether EN has had any second thoughts on this choice. Nor do I care, b/c personally, I have no issue with the thumbnails. But I do think it's a waste of time to rag on the devs for choices they have made & applying each individual user's idea of what is easy/smart to something they really have no clue about, which is why the decision was made & why/how it affects all the platforms EN lives on.

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Agreed, If they did change, it would need to stay as is for all the previous notes uploaded (as no doubt some people love it!) But you could have an option to go back to an old note and select another preference as well as overide when creating new ones.

So I think we've done this to death now... so I'm out B)

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In my experience (on a Windows system), if I delete the picture that is selected as thumbnail, EverNote then pics the next picture as thumbnail. So I go through this process (delete, save note, undo) successively until it picks the picture I want. Tedious, but usually works.

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I have read some posts regarding how Evernote 'decides' to select the thumbnail image to show on notes and I still do not understand why I cannot override this behavior by clicking on an image in a note and selecting "Assign Thumbnail". Until this is done I cannot pay money for Evernote as Springpad managed to get this working.

Even with this automatic method, Evernote PC vs Web vs Android do different things. On the PC I somehow managed to get the thumbnails that I wanted showing by cut/sync/pasting until it worked (highly annoying). Then I go to view my notes on the Web or Android client and the thumbnails are completely different (super annoying).

The most frustrating thing about the poor automatic selection is that even though I have say a 400x400 image that I wish to use as a thumbnail, it keeps picking PDF files that are also inside the not as the thumbnail. And RARELY is the first page of a PDF something I want as a thumbnail.

So *please* add a user assignable thumbnail option! I know better than you what I want to see as the thumbnail.

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Return of The Zombie Thread

Quick question...

Thanks for the algorithm, but I have one request...

Why not at the very least provide an override feature?

That cant be to hard. Assuming that because an image has specific dimensions it is thus more important is great for auto selecting an image. Why not provide a Right-Click Option such as "Choose Tumbnail."

I'm working on a pattern library and a feature like this would be great, especially considering the fact that "In Action" or "Examples of Use" images/Screenshots are much larger than the typical dimensions of lets say a Combo Box, Text Input Field, Drop Down Menu, etc....

A "Choose Thumbnail" option would be AMAZING!

See attached file for example..

post-105814-0-75117800-1348864416_thumb.

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I would also like the ability to choose the thumbnail for a note. As an example, I have photographed several recipes; one picture of the actual dish and one picture of the accompanying text (recipe). In most cases the thumbnail chosen is the 'wrong' one. I would like the thumbnail to be the picture of the dish itself not the recipe text.

I've also spotted what appears to be a bug. I have EN running on my Android phone and Windows 7. In one case the thumbnail on the PC is 'correct' (i.e. a picture of the dish) but it still shows a text thumbnail on my phone, despite syncing.

Please, please, please add the ability to choose the thumbnail.

Regards

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I too would also like the ability to choose the specific thumbnail for a note, or make it always use the first image in a multiple image note.

My use case is using a notebook for my wine cellar. I like to take a photo of the front of the bottle and another image as the back of the bottle. I'd like to be able to set the image of the front of the bottle as my thumbnail.

Thanks

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+1 for an override option. The current selection algorithm might be sufficient for many users, but its unpredictability makes the card view much less consistent and useful than it could be, especially when you actually need fine control over how your data is displayed.

When attaching similarly or equally sized images, the thumbnail selection appears to be random and at times unexpectedly changes when tags are added, titles or note data changed etc., further causing frustration.

Some additional issues I have encountered:

A note containing both PDFs and attachments (such as a .pages document) does not display the PDF as thumbnail (as expected), but the icon of the attached file:

post-115310-0-36712400-1355155389_thumb.

Even when the source image resolution seems sufficient, thumbnails often appear letterboxed:

post-115310-0-18452600-1355155393_thumb.

All of these issues add to the feeling of the card view feeling very clunky and almost buggy at the moment.

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whenever i come across this problem, i sign in using the web interface.

in web evernote, whichever image you upload first to the note will be the thumbnail assigned to the note. not the most convenient workaround but beats understanding the whole "largest smallest" algorithm and editing the photos for that. in fact, i didn't know one is expected to do all that just to assign a thumbnail to a note until today!

support a feature to pick our own thumbnail like the others. can't imagine that's more complicated than the existing algorithm?!

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Evernote you are awesome.... :wub:

But lets stop the talk about algorithm.... I don't care....But something I do care about, is the custom thumbnails.

Looking forward to this feature second quarter 2013. :ph34r:

hey 2vet ! thank you for the tip !!! :D

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I FULLY Agree, this should definitely be something we can choose from ourselves. WE know what we want as our thumbnail image and no algorithim in the world will ever beat that.

 

Seems like a pretty darn easy feature to program into Evernote.  Just right click and choose "Set as Thumbnail" if the one the algorithm isn't what you want.

 

 

Thank you in advance for adding this to the next release guys :-)

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Thank you in advance for adding this to the next release guys :-)

Seeing as how this is something that's been asked for for at least a couple of years (Forum search is handy), you may need to wait a few more releases...
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All is in the title  :)

It will be great to choose wich image in a note could be display in the thumbnail. Actually after grab an internet page with the webclipper, Sometimes it's the first image, sometime not...

Best,

JC ( sorry for bad english ... I'm a froggy frenchy )

 
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All is in the title  :)

It will be great to choose wich image in a note could be display in the thumbnail. Actually after grab an internet page with the webclipper, Sometimes it's the first image, sometime not...

Best,

JC ( sorry for bad english ... I'm a froggy frenchy )

 

 

Hi. Welcome to the forums! I have merged your thread with this one on the same topic. 

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I'm also TOTALLY frustrated by this limitation. I use the note cards as a visual database for collections and also for home inventory, and half the time the thumbnail image is not representative.

 

WE NEED THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE THE THUMBNAIL!!!! OR AT LEAST AN OPTION TO USE THE TOPMOST PICTURE IN THE NOTE (that would be simple to implement, right?? A whole lot simpler logic that the current convoluted and useless algorithm...).

 

As other posters have said, it is fine if this capability is confined to the desktop version.

 

I cannot understand how this thread has been going on for literally YEARS with no action.

 

Sorry for "shouting" but this is an elementary feature that is NEEDED in order to make Evernote useful.

 

Why is it not being addressed? Can someone at Evernote give a coherent reason why?

 

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

 

[Moderator: merged post with existing topic on choosing thumbnail]

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Another vote for letting us choose our thumbnail, or simply make it the first one in a note that is above a certain minimum size. That is easy to implement on the developer side, yet gives the user control.

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!

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I can't believe all the arguments over semantics and algorithms,  when the need is clear, there needs to be a way to choose the "featured image" Wordpress can do it, a 1001 other app(lications) so why not Evernote?.

 

As a second choice you can use whatever selection you like, but Evernote, take note, the ability to select an image (if so wished) is clearly what I and many (most?) of your customers want, surely on that basis you should simply find a way to service this customer requirement (and soon) because giving your customers what they want is what your supposed to do?

 

No doubt someone will dispute my logic?

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Absolutely agree.  The current situation is a complete complex mess.  A simple method of choosing which image is displayed as the overall thumbnail image for the note would be extremely useful.  I'm surprised such a useful update hasn't yet been implemented.   

 

I can't believe all the arguments over semantics and algorithms,  when the need is clear, there needs to be a way to choose the "featured image" Wordpress can do it, a 1001 other app(lications) so why not Evernote?.

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Hi,

 

I'm new to the forums so pardon me if I'm not going about it in the right way....

 

I've been trying out Evernote over the past couple of months and in general I love it but there is one thing I find very frustrating: there appears to be no way to control which part of an image is used as the thumbnail. The result is that the thumbnails are off centre or the main detail of the image is half cut off. The bottom line is that I think it makes the thumbnails look fairly unprofessional (which is a real pity because most of the rest of the Evernote interface looks great). 

 

I'm not really a FaceBook user but I seem to remember when creating a FaceBook profile the program allowed you to choose which part of a larger image you wanted to crop use as you main profile image. I wonder why Evernote has not built in something like this?

 

There is another forum thread entitled "Choosing a Thumbnail" from a year or so ago where another user called JMichael mentions this topic in passing stating: "the thumbnail often crops the image in the middle, making it almost unrecognizable" but no one else picks up on the point and the discussion goes on to other things.... anyway to me it is a pretty glaring flaw so I thought I'd make a new topic and see if others agreed with me....

 

 

 

 
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So.... 

 

It seems like I can select a photo.... crop the image.... select which part of the image to use as my icon / thumbnail / avatar on these Evernote user forums....

 

but I can't select and image, crop it, and select which part of it to use as a thumbnail when I'm actually using Evernote itself...?

 

I wonder what the thinking is behind implementing the feature for the forums but not for the actual program? Seems like a strange ordering of priorities....

 
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Yeah. I figured something like that. My second post was really just a bit of a lame attempt at some humour.

I didn't really want it to deflect attention from my main point: I think Evernote would look more professional if you had control over which part of an image is used as the thumbnail. It would look more professional and that would make it more useful in a professional setting.

That's all. 95% or 98% of Evernote is fantastic IMO.... it just has a couple of annoying little quirks that keeps it from being perfect at least for what I'd like to use it for.

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I have just created a whole bunch of notes that are made up of photos of the front and back of all the plastic cards in my wallet (trying for a thinner wallet). Most notes are just two photos, one being the front and the other the back of a card.

 

When I look at all the notes in my notebook I find that some notes are using the first photo (front of card) as the thumbnail and other notes are using the second photo (back of card) as the thumbnail. How do I fix  it so the notes always use the first photo as the thumbnail? This will make it easier when searching for a specific card.

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I have just created a whole bunch of notes that are made up of photos of the front and back of all the plastic cards in my wallet (trying for a thinner wallet). Most notes are just two photos, one being the front and the other the back of a card.

 

When I look at all the notes in my notebook I find that some notes are using the first photo (front of card) as the thumbnail and other notes are using the second photo (back of card) as the thumbnail. How do I fix  it so the notes always use the first photo as the thumbnail? This will make it easier when searching for a specific card.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18482-choosing-a-thumbnail/

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Thanks for super quick reply.

 

All I can say is "that's just weird". Would never have worked that one out. Glad I asked.

 

I have increased the size of the image I want as the thumbnail by a few pixels to force it to be the thumbnail.

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+1 for the option to select a primary/featured/thumbnail image. 

 

I'm sure much thought and research went into creating your algorithm, EverNote, and I appreciate that. It sounds like a wonderful way to select a default image when no other information about what's truly important to the user is present

 

But for a truly excellent user experience, allowing us to override the algorithm for individual notes by selecting the primary/featured/thumbnail image is crucial. 

 

An etic approach made sense before Evernote had a userbase; now that you have a substantial one, an emic approach is better suited. And the natives have spoken: being able to choose this image is important and will improve the experience.

 

I began using Evernote (quite recently) not only because I wanted a way to create visual notes (by adding images, drawings, etc), but because I wanted a way to visually scan my notes within notebooks to more easily find what I'm looking for and get a quick visual snapshot of the ideas/notes I have within notebooks. This puts great significance on the thumbnail image; often, however, the Evernote algorithm doesn't select the image I feel is most representative, making this tool less powerful and my experience more frustrating. 

 

Please consider adding an optional override now that you have this use user data to work with. 

 

Edited to add: If you are concerned about additional database resources being needed to make this change and the associated expense, why not make this a premium feature? 

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This worked fine on my Mac but it has had the opposite effect on my iPhone where all of the thumbnails now show the back of the cards, i.e. the second photo in the note.  :(

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I've spent much time right clicking and hunting options to be able to tweak thumbnail choices.... then a search found this thread.

Largest smallest is fine when the user had no input, but the user should be able to override. It's a case of 'IF user selects AND override exists, use override ELSE use current code ENDIF'

Please can we have this tweak added to the right click menu?

(Similarly, a notebook thumbnail image in notebook view would be lovely)

(Using Mac desktop - main. iOS. Windows desktop)

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I'm a Premium user and have been using Evernote for over a year and love it. I'm using it for a number of different uses and research projects. 

 

(1) However I wish I could choose the image that appears in the thumbnail for each note. You can't even fake it out because Evernote doesn't consistently choose the same image -- seems to choose one at random. If it always used the last image posted, then you could just make sure the one you wanted was the last image posted even if you had to cut the image and then repost it. It doesn't take the image at the top of the page either. The thumbnails are important to me as they give me a visual guide. 

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Nope - there's a zen concept called "the largest smallest dimension" which is gone into somewhere in the forums.  You can adjust the size of one picture so it will be the snippet.

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I'm currently getting some notes that don't have ANY photo in the thumbnail (on iPad while looking at notes in a notebook) even though the very first item in the post is a picture...and there are multiple pictures in the note.

Any thoughts?

I *think* the items (recipes) in question were imported via an RSS reader but not sure why that would matter...?

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Hi 

 

I completly agree - we should be able to choose the thumbnail image displayed for our notes - very frustrating - come on Evernote developers - sort this!

 

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

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Look mate, what exactly is your problem...?

 

Every time I post something you turn up to slag off my idea or put me down personally.... why? What did I ever do to you?

 

You obviously seem to think you own the forum and no one is allowed to post unless they agree with you and "Burger-and-it-is-fine-if-I'm-rude-to-everyone-because-I-don't-get-paid-for-this".

 

Well good for you. Consider your "gatekeeping" a job well done, because I'll be -blanked- if I ever read or post on these forums again. Life is way to short to waste it talking to the likes of you.

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@<actus: Everyone is allowed to post, make suggestions, rant or praise or whatever, and it's very unlikely that you'd get censored in any way. But when you post, someone is liable to respond to you, and possibly disagree. Metrodon's last wasn't personal -- call it a reminder that it's really not necessary to bump your own posts (because when they get read by Evernote staff, "bumps" really don't add anything to the conversation); maybe you disagree, but was there some reason that you thought that bumping your own post was helpful to the forum? His point on the forum software vs. Evernote software was just informational; not sure whether you took that personally or not.

 

As for the original topic -- choice of thumbnail is something that's been requested elsewhere, as you know, and personally, I'd find it useful. Not sure that I'd need cropping but that's just me.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  1. Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  2. For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  3. When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.

I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  1. Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  2. For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  3. When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.

I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  1. Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  2. For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  3. When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.

I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  1. Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  2. For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  3. When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.

I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  • Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  • For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  • When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.
I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

Please stop cross posting.

WRT testing across all platforms...therein lies the rub. Additionally, it simply may not be high on EN's priority list.

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Without knowing the actual code base, the problems with rolling out a change to the ENML spec (must be understandable in all clients), and backward compatibility issues, among other things, all you can really attest to is that you think that this would be easy to add. And before the work even gets done, you'd need to assess what Evernote wants to spend its time doing, i.e., their priorities. For one way of thinking about adding features to an established code base, see Minus 100 Points. All of that being said: beng able to choose a thumbnail would be a nice feature to have. But is it nice enough?

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

  1. Add to the images context menu the option to "Set as thumbnail".
  2. For the selected image, add an attribute like thumbnail="true" in the Evernote markup.
  3. When displaying a thumbnail, first scan for an image with this attribute. If one is not found, use the current algorithm.

I think the only real hurdle will be testing in all platforms.

 

Many of us have notes clipped from the web with the first or last image usually being the best one for the note. Much of what I clip are tutorials or instructables with photos for each step and most of the time the auto thumbnail is incorrect.

 

It may be possible that to add some features would be "extremely easy" - but if you have a detailed action plan for the next few days weeks or months which consists of other 'easy' features,  this one is going to have to wait its turn.  You never know - it might be part of the next planned release...  but I wouldn't hold your breath.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

Please stop posting identical content to different topics. If you want to comment, then that's fine, but do it once, and then post links. For example, I responded to your identical post here: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/29436-user-assigned-thumbnail-images/?p=203664

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

Please stop posting identical content to different topics. If you want to comment, then that's fine, but do it once, and then post links. For example, I responded to your identical post here: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/29436-user-assigned-thumbnail-images/?p=203664

 

That would make even more sense if it was also practiced by Evangelists, say when responding to feature requests with the standard explanation that Evernote has their own priorities in which we have no insight.

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As a developer, I can attest that this would be an extremely easy feature to add. It could be done in three steps:

Please stop posting identical content to different topics. If you want to comment, then that's fine, but do it once, and then post links. For example, I responded to your identical post here: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/29436-user-assigned-thumbnail-images/?p=203664

 

That would make even more sense if it was also practiced by Evangelists, say when responding to feature requests with the standard explanation that Evernote has their own priorities in which we have no insight.

If you wish to become an Evangelist yourself, and show us how to do a better job, you're more than welcome to sign up. As it is, some of us do a better job at linking than others, but sometimes a brief answer works just as well. In this case, though, the identical post was copied and pasted into at least four topics -- a bit of overkill in my book, and not very forum friendly, since that would cause any ensuing discussion to become fragmented. Or if you like, I could just merge all of those topics.

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Hello

 

@dlu:

Could you let us know, whether and if yes, when this feature is on the roadmap?

I'd also be interested what you, as an Evernote Employee, think about such a feature.

We've heard many users (especially in this thread: http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18482-choosing-a-thumbnail/), who really appreciate to choose the thumbnail on their own.

 

Thanks,

Dominik

Evernote does not post their roadmap or ETAs.

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I am adding my +1 to this feature request.

 

For several years I did not care about thumbnails too much, but now that I am using Evernote for cooking, correct thumbnails have become essential.

 

I grab screenshots of recipes.  I take cell phone pics of the finished product.  Both go into an Evernote note.  Because I don't want to print two pages next time I make the recipe, I prefer to size the photo smaller than the recipe screenshot.  Unfortunately, EN's algorithm then pics a random area of the recipe text as my thumbnail....NOT useful at all.  

 

The "largest smallest dimension" algorithm mandates that in my case the only way to get the correct thumbnail is to have a HUGE food image in the note, since the recipe screenshot (taken from a Kindle ebook opened in the Amazon Cloud Reader) is required to be a certain size in order to read its text.

 

I am a Premium subscriber and love EN.  I'd love it even more if we can select the displayed thumbnail.

 

 

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Why isn't this a feature yet??? It's basic...

I urge you to take some time to peruse these forums for items that users think are "basic", count them up, and then reconsider your question... :)

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Hi, I have this problem too, because I have many collaged notes where the largest image is a screenshot or a photographed text. That defeats the assumption that the largest image is the most important picture. Anyway, the thumbnail doesn't have to be the most important picture at all - it should maybe be the most graphic, that still conveys information when shown as a small square.

 

I guess I can resize the author portrait or whatever to make it huge/ square.

 

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Oh, so frustrating. I just went through this myself. I'm trying to save a number of houses that we are interested in, and the address in the text and the image of the house are the most important parts. When saving the realtor listing and photos, I'll get all sorts of thumbnails from the realtors logos, pictures of a shed, a back yard, garage interior, or just about anything other then the front of the house. Fooling around with the images trying to get the right one to display is a useless exercise. Far too much work when other apps just let me select which image I feel best represents the content. If Evernote won't let us choose, and can't read our minds, please, just make the first image the thumbnail. At least then we can control it very easily. But delete, see what it selects, undo, try it again, and again, until it finally gets it, wow, what a disaster!

 

This is basic, very much needed, I can't believe Evernote is as mature as it is and still doesn't have some of the basics done.

 

Please, please, please, listen to your users on the basic stuff first, then introduce the more advanced stuff.

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+1 or ditto or "Me, too!" or whatever I need to say...

 

I'd love to be able to choose the thumbnail image for a note.  Whether the note has multiple images taken with my phone, or multiple random images because I clipped a whole webpage, the thumbnail chosen is almost never the one I want.  Which means the thumbnails are usually a distraction, not a help.  If I could choose them, they would be an enormous help.

 

Are any developers still reading this?  Or is there another avenue for making feature requests?  Google found me this thread.

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I'm adding my two cents to this one, too.  I would LOVE to be able to choose the thumbnail.  As it stands, Evernote almost never chooses the thumbnail I would choose.  Which means the thumbnails are a DISTRACTION to finding the note I want, not a HELP.

 

If I could choose the thumbnail, when needed, it would be a HUGE HELP.

 

(I'm also a Premium subscriber, if that matters.)

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+1 or ditto or "Me, too!" or whatever I need to say...

 

I'd love to be able to choose the thumbnail image for a note.  Whether the note has multiple images taken with my phone, or multiple random images because I clipped a whole webpage, the thumbnail chosen is almost never the one I want.  Which means the thumbnails are usually a distraction, not a help.  If I could choose them, they would be an enormous help.

 

Are any developers still reading this?  Or is there another avenue for making feature requests?  Google found me this thread.

The developers are well aware of this feature request, and all posts are read by Evernote staff.  The forums are a fine place to post feature requests; you can also open a support request, if you feel that you really need to.

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I've previously posted about this, and am glad to hear that developers are aware of the need to be able to choose thumbnails for a note.

 

In addition to this feature, another sorely needed one (unless I've missed it somehow) is the ability to TURN OFF OCR for photos!!! Most of my notes are photo-centric, as I use Evernote for an image database of large collections. Now when I search for a keyword, I get as many spurious results (where Evernote has somehow "found" the word in a tree or article of clothing...) as real ones. This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program, and if I weren't so invested already, I would switch to something else today. I may even switch anyway, if these two issues aren't fixed. They are really driving me crazy...

 

While it would be best to be able to turn off scanning for any particular image, we should at least be able to choose that only PDFs are OCR scanned, rather than JPEG photos, which rarely contain searchable text. Note that I'm not talking about metadata in JPEGs, which is fine to scan, but the actual image.

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This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program

 

I haven't used Evernote much lately. Why? Because these features are crucial to what I'm using evernote for and frankly if it cant show me the appropriate image, and allow me to choose both the thumbnail, or OCR settings for images, I have no time for this product. Sadly we're using a business account, so I'm holding out.

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I've previously posted about this, and am glad to hear that developers are aware of the need to be able to choose thumbnails for a note.

 

 This thread is almost two years old so although they are aware of it, that doesn't necessarily mean they will do anything about it.  It's a shame really as it's probably not a big deal to implement and would be a massive improvement on the current situation.

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This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program

 

I haven't used Evernote much lately. Why? Because these features are crucial to what I'm using evernote for and frankly if it cant show me the appropriate image, and allow me to choose both the thumbnail, or OCR settings for images, I have no time for this product. Sadly we're using a business account, so I'm holding out.

What OCR settings would you like? Are you talking about language settings? If so, you can change them.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

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Hi GrumpyMonkey. What we are looking for is the ability to turn OCR OFF for JPEG images, since most photos do not contain any usable text, yet Evernote "finds" words all over each image, then shows them in search results. For example, I just searched for the word "vera" in my database, and of the 22 resulting notes, fully 6 of them were spurious results where "vera" was found in a tree or something. I don't want to have to deal with all the random words Evernote finds in photos, and neither do the many other posters above. I want OCR for PDFs ONLY, or the ability to designate which images get OCR applied. Or just the ability to turn it off altogether.

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