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(Archived) View missing in 5.1.1


Bradley Chambers

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Evernote has a bad habit of tying two separate features together.  In this case:

  • View Type (List, Snippet, etc)
  • View Location (Top, Side)

So previously the List view was on TOP of the Note contents panel.

We had been asking for Vertical List view for years.

So, when they gave it to us, they MOVED the List view from TOP to SIDE. 

 

Poor UI design, IMO.

 

They should give us a choice of location independent of type.

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When I updated this morning and saw this, my first thought is that it was a bug. I really hope it's just an "oops" and not a deliberate change to remove functionality. I'm sure I _could_ get used to having the preview pane on the right, but by forcing it to go there, Evernote just took away 50% of the horizontal real estate. Now any notes I have with long titles (e.g. many things clipped from web) are cut off.

 

I agree 100% with JMichael. This is a horrible UI design choice.

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Blah... I was excited about the reminders and due dates features, but didn't expect this... :( the list view is now basically the snippet view with sorting options. such a waste of screen real estate!!!

 

I hereby cast my vote for evernote to bring back the horizontal pane list view

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Agreed!  I installed today's update (yeah reminders!) and when Evernote restarted my bottom preview pane was gone.  WTF!  Please bring this back. 

 

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

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Seriously? This just killed usability for me. What is the point of having options to turn on all those columns if I can't fit them on the screen???

 

For years I've been using the horizontal view. I show created date, updated date, title, notebook, and tags. 

 

Come on guys stop messing with us and let us choose to keep the horizontal view. 

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Where were you all when Evernote asked on these forums to hear from horizontal list view aficionados!?

Well, what's done is done. The horizontal view is gone. Personally, I disliked the horizontal view myself, but I can see the use case, and it seems better to have more options rather than less.

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Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! As GM said, we did post awhile ago asking about any Horizontal List View fans and were expecting a backlash when we made the decision to remove Horizontal List View as a view option. 

 

If you guys haven't heard yet, this morning we released a major new feature (#1 user request) of Reminders (http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/05/23/evernote-reminders-are-here-on-mac-ios-and-web-2/) and in doing so, had to make a difficult UI/design choice of taking Horizontal List View out in designing the appearance and function of Reminders.

 

We had many users requesting a Vertical List View and it fit in well with our overall new Reminders UI. 

 

Would you guys have preferred to keep Horizontal List View over Reminders or vice versa? If so, why or why not?

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Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! As GM said, we did post awhile ago asking about any Horizontal List View fans and were expecting a backlash when we made the decision to remove Horizontal List View as a view option. 

 

If you guys haven't heard yet, this morning we released a major new feature (#1 user request) of Reminders (http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/05/23/evernote-reminders-are-here-on-mac-ios-and-web-2/) and in doing so, had to make a difficult UI/design choice of taking Horizontal List View out in designing the appearance and function of Reminders.

 

We had many users requesting a Vertical List View and it fit in well with our overall new Reminders UI. 

 

Would you guys have preferred to keep Horizontal List View over Reminders or vice versa? If so, why or why not?

Thanks for explaining the rationale! As users we want it all, so I don't know if anyone is willing to throw one or the other under the bus :)

Unlike developers, we (and I do include myself here) can ask for everything and not have to concern ourselves with how it will work in practice. I make suggestions, of course, but it is nothing like actually having to sit down and put it together piece by piece as you all do.

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Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! As GM said, we did post awhile ago asking about any Horizontal List View fans and were expecting a backlash when we made the decision to remove Horizontal List View as a view option. 

 

If you guys haven't heard yet, this morning we released a major new feature (#1 user request) of Reminders (http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/05/23/evernote-reminders-are-here-on-mac-ios-and-web-2/) and in doing so, had to make a difficult UI/design choice of taking Horizontal List View out in designing the appearance and function of Reminders.

 

We had many users requesting a Vertical List View and it fit in well with our overall new Reminders UI. 

 

Would you guys have preferred to keep Horizontal List View over Reminders or vice versa? If so, why or why not?

 

Yes, please give back the option for the horizontal list. I have billions of programs for reminders, but only ONE I use for my notes. I NEED the horizontal list. Thanks.

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Posted · Hidden by jefito, April 18, 2014 - No reason given
Hidden by jefito, April 18, 2014 - No reason given

Hi all forum readers (and Evernote):

 

Here is a thread from a ticket that I created when this upgrade first happened, before I discovered this forum. As you can see below, they appear to have made a commitment to bringing us full configurability. Now all we need is a date, or better yet, the real thing.....

 

Hello chrislumb,

Currently our development team is reviewing the possibility of bringing back the horizontal display or adding the ability for user to select a display view.
Either one will be available in a future release but unfortunately we don't have an estimated time for this.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Thank you.

Tania Iniguez
Evernote Support

 

chrislumb - Jun 01


Thanks for the 'canned' note. What are you going to do about this issue -
can you confirm when you will be bringing horizontal lists back again? Or
if you are not going to, can you confirm that too so I can get busy finding
another note taking app?

 

Thanks

Chris

Tania Iniguez - May 26


Thank you for providing this feedback on Evernote.
We really appreciate you taking the time to send us your feedback. Your comments and suggestions will help us to enhance Evernote and serve you better.
We will be sure to pass on the information you've provided to the product development team for discussion.

 

Thank you.

chrislumb - May 26


Hey guys, Your new screen formatting to show more real estate for lists and less for a current note is a bad idea.

 

This is not an improvement: I don't want my screen to be taken up by a long list of notes, most of which are not relevant to the task at hand.

How can I get my old version back? Or, when can you provide broader user configuration of screen layout?

Come on...let's get this back in shape again. Thanks Evernote team - your product is otherwise excellent.

 

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Check out our Blog: http://blog.evernote.com
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Discussion Boards: http://discussion.evernote.com/

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Thank you, Evernote, for bringing back the horizontal view. I'm grateful you found a way to accomplish it and, hopefully, not lose any features or functionality you gained when you removed it.

 

Hey Dan, if you see the screenshot I posted earlier, I don't think anything was lost in setting it up.  Looks pretty solid.  I was playing with it some last night, and I think the smart approach was to definitely have both views.  I can easily see the need for both.

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You would think Evernote understands that Reputation Management is a critical component of successful business management right? And gIven the extent of this problem and the number of people being vocal, don't you think it would be good idea to at least comment in YOUR OWN forums to let people know if this problem is being addressed? It's not like we need a 'roadmap' for your future growth plans - this is function issue, not a competitive edge issue - although if you continue to ignore it, it will certainly become your 'competitors' edge to exploit.

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+1  I review change notices before upgrading my software.  If removal of this view had been publicized with the upgrade, I would not have upgraded.  It has really disrupted my workflow for no benefit to me (I could care less about the Reminders feature...EN is not my calendar/messaging app)

 

Defeaturing a product and blaming it on a new feature, while excusing it with a "we did a poll on our forums" is mighty weak sauce.

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  • Level 5*

it's basically like finding that the new Ford car you just bought had no steering wheel and instead has a joystick. When you ask the salesman what happened, the following interaction occurs

 

SALESMAN - "oh yea, we had to remove the steering wheel to make way for the new multimedia screen - it's really cool!"

YOU - "Riiiight... but I'm used to driving cars with steering wheels - i wanted, and paid for a steering wheel"

SALESMAN - "Everyone wants the new multimedia system, and there was only this way to fit it in!"

YOU - "Well I don't want it... I'm not even going to use it - and anyway, isn't the way you drive the car more important than watching films when you're meant to be driving?"

SALESMAN - "No of course not! This is progress!"

YOU - "Erm.... it isn't.... Who's idea was this?"

SALESMAN - "Sir, we had a poster up for a week in the corner of the showroom behind the large pot-plant, to tell people about the steering wheel removal - but no-one complained"

YOU - "Well I certainly would have complained had I seen it, but I don't tend to hang around here... well I want my old car back now please unless you give me a steering wheel"

OTHER CUSTOMERS - "YEA US TOO!"

RANDOM GUY - MIGHT BE THE CLEANER - "If you guys had just hung around the showroom every day, and asked the salespeople constantly, read all the sales brochures regularly for changes, written to ford every week.... maybe the steering wheel would never have been removed"

YOU AND THE OTHER CUSTOMERS IN DISBELIEF ".......    but surely you can't be.... that's ridiculous.... i mean, i don't even know where to start........ yea we've all kind of got lives to lead sorry"

SALESMAN - "Bye Bye!"

RANDOM GUY - "I love Fords"

 

Well said Silvers.  You really hit the nail on the head!

 

Now, the question is, can Evernote see through their arrogance, admit a mistake, and take quick, corrective action.

 

This outcry is totally amazing.  It far exceeds the outcry for both Skitch 2 and EN Mac 5.  Wow!!!

 

Evernote, when are you going to realize that you do NOT always know best???  Sorry, but you are NOT the smartest person in the room.  :ph34r:

 

There is a very old adage, that has been proven again and again:  "The CUSTOMER is always right".  Wake up and smell the roses!! LOL

 

Want an example?  Look at GM and Ford, and all the other US auto makers in the late 1970s and 80s.  They refused to give the US people what we wanted, and so the Japanese and other foreign auto makers came in and stole the market.  Closer to home.  Look at Word Perfect in the mid 1980s.  Totally owned the word processor market.  Wouldn't/Couldn't adapt to the the graphical UI, and so completely lost the market to MS Word.

 

Let me close with this.  I say all of this not to bash Evernote, but to encourage you to be better.  I love your core product, but I do NOT love what you have done to it starting with EN Mac 5.  FYI, I'm still running EN Mac 3.3.0 on my primary system.  Come on Evernote, get over yourself!  :D

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1) Bring back horizontal view

2) Option to HIDE/SHOW vertical view note list

 

 

 

update:

I canceled renewal of Premium, until horizontal view problem is fixed. 

I reviewed EN on Apple App Store with a 1-star. 

 

Putting my money and ratings  inline with my opinions. Please consider doing the same.

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Here is how to downgrade (upgrade) to a previous version:

1. Backup your database

2. Go here: http://mac.filehorse.com/download-evernote/2755/old-versions/

3. Download version 5.0.7 (latest version with horizontal view)

4. Profit.

 

To the EN team: please let me know when the horizontal view returns.  I will gladly upgrade then.

 

The reason I prefer the horizontal view is that I frequently work on a small laptop screen with multiple windows open.  My limited screen real estate makes this view much more useful and intuitive.  

 

I downloaded and installed the "older" version (5.0.7) as you suggested. Works great.

 

Even when someone's climb to the top of the pack is based on merit, they're still a target. Appreciate all the EN folks have done to give us a good product. I'll keep using this version until they're able to sort things out.

 

Downgrading failed!

 

I followed the steps mentioned by JesseE and I tried downgrading to version 5.07 & 5.06, but EN was not working.

 

Any Suggestions?

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I am so incredibly disappointed in the loss of the horizontal view I've reverted to 5.0.7. Thankfully, it seems doing so has not caused me to lose the additions I made since the "upgrade."

 

I fully agree with these posts above:  

 

This just killed usability for me. What is the point of having options to turn on all those columns if I can't fit them on the screen???

For years I've been using the horizontal view. I show created date, updated date, title, notebook, and tags. 

And, 

Yes, please give back the option for the horizontal list. I have billions of programs for reminders, but only ONE I use for my notes. I NEED the horizontal list. 

And, 

By the way, I fail to see how reminders have anything to do with the lists orientation. Care to elaborate on that?

 

Surely there are ways to preserve the horizontal view and simultaneously implement reminders. 

 

I never monitor these forums or make posts, but I have been so very frustrated with this major change in how my many, many hours of work in Evernote are now displayed I felt I had to voice my concern. Please return the horizontal view. Evernote should not, under any circumstances, unilaterally remove such an important UI feature. It's unconscionable, and highly discouraging. The other Evernote views are, for me, quite useless.  My thoughts about going Pro at some point took a giant leap backwards because of this experience. 

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PS if you take the "1 written complaint = 100 unsatisfied people who leave to your competitor without saying anything "adage - we're up to 25,000 unhappy clients - and that's if you only look at the number of comments in this thread let alone all the support emails you would have received on top of this.  Evernote you really need to take notice.  Or at least come into this thread and tell us you're fixing it so we can all go home and stop picketing for truth justice and the umm ... well you get the idea. :)

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Please bring back the horizontal view.  I have a 13" laptop screen and (like many other paying premium members) will have to downgrade to a previous version for EN to be usable on a daily basis.  I appreciate the work on the reminders and do believe they will be a valuable feature to me once I can integrate into my workflow; however, if I can't use EN then reminders really don't help.

 

Thank you.

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Recently upgraded to premium for academic data and was thrilled. I was considering going premium for my business account too, especially with easy switching available. 

 

The loss of the horizontal view is a game-changer for me. I won't go premium on my second account and will likely migrate my academic data elsewhere. I just need more viewing space on my laptop and simply don't need reminders. It's rather difficult (perhaps only for me) to write extensively in such a narrow field; jacks my work-flow.

 

Please consider bringing it back.

 

Cheers.

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Hi everyone,

Thank you all SO much for weighing in. Your feedback matters a tremendous amount. I can't promise anything either way, but your comments *are* being read by Evernote employees. We don't make a decision like this lightly so please bear with us while collect information.

Thanks again.

 

Thank you for posting Jack.

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I am one of the ones that loves the new vertical view and requested it, however I never dreamed it meant users who preferred horizontal view would have to lose that, and wish they hadn't.

 

This

 

As GM said "When the bell tolls for one feature, it tolls for them all!"

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Maybe they are trying to 'ween' us off the horizontal view? Does anyone know if the Windows client defaults to Horizontal or Vertical on a new install? I'm just curious.

 

Just did a little test and installed Evernote for Windows 4.6.6 via CrossOver (not recommendable, but sufficient for this test). It opens in snippet view, but the default list view is horizontal view.

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Horizontal!  I need to see Create Date, Update Date, title, notebook and tags all at a glance.  Clearly other people do too.

I do not see how adding Reminders requires only one view.

Suddenly you took that away.  If you're going to poll people, especially people who pay, send an email!

Do you remember Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, where they posted plans for construction of a new freeway in the basement, third level down, locked filing cabinet?  Same thing.

Please please bring it back.  Keep the vertical view, keep the reminders, and bring back the horizontal view for people who are serious researchers, organizers, etc.

Thanks!

 

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Yes I get that.  And it's my position that if a company is going to allow people to be associated with them as "evangelists", whether paid or not, and have them be the primary people representing them on their forums, they should be training them how to interact with users so they make users feel good about participating and offering feedback, not angrier than when they started.

<snip>

Perhaps I am especially sensitive to this since my companies deals with a lot of similar issues and we're very customer focused and also focused on how we respond to people.  We can't give people everything they want, but it's especially important to listen to feedback and never dismiss it in such ways.  Anyhow, I don't expect to change anything here, that would have to happen because someone at the top made it happen.

That's your opinion, and that's fair enough and I respect it. Trust me when I tell you that there are rules for us evangelists/moderators, and if Evernote thinks that any of us has gone too far, they'll say something, and we'll accept that. Users also have the option of reporting any post that they find offensive/abusive/etc., no matter whose post it is. It will be looked at by Evernote staff, and discussed, seriously. Also trust me when I tell you that I do find actually helping users with their problems to be a lot more rewarding than discussing meta-topics like this, so I'll just sign off from it too.

On the topic of "blaming the user": I looked at my earlier post on "using Evernote in a way it wasn't designed to be used" vs. "using Evernote in a non-standard way" and realized that it made me seem like I was defending Evernote in this instance; that wasn't my intent. I was really just responding to GrumpyMonkey's terminology. As it is, I think that given that there was no beta for users to react to (thanks pgdahl for pointing that out to me), I can understand why users feel somewhat blindsided by the change. I can take forever-evernote at his/her word that the vertical/horizontal vs reminders tradeoff was necessitated by timeliness factor, but don't understand what the actual tradeoff was, and do hope that they do revisit this (I'd be surprised if they weren't already, behind the scenes).

@johnmarshall4 : I missed your reply to me earlier, re: analytics; sorry about that. It's a fair point, and I believe (based on a recollection of a comment by Dave Engberg a while ago) that Evernote does engage in analytics, though to what granularity I don't know. One thing analytics cannot capture, though, is features that haven't appeared in public yet, like the removal of horizontal list view in favor of the new vertical/reminders view that's the problem here. Whether they do usability testing behind the scenes I cannot say, so (to my point about the lack of beta above), I think that they dropped the ball on that one.

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As to the reason (adding reminders) I don't use you as a todo list -  i use you to store and manage information (which is what you started out being).  Don't kill what you're good at to become 'everything for everyone'.

I can guarantee you that there are over 150 users who have asked for reminders or related functionality in these forums. So if your rule of thumb is good enough for horizontal list view, then it ought to be good enough for reminders.

I think you missed the point.  I was saying that I personally don't use it as a todo list.  I wasn't saying that people don't want it.  Anyway dont take things out of context here.  The problem here is that you guys have made a problem for a lot of people by changing the core of your software and it seems like you are saying this change is permanent because of a decision you made to accomodate a new feature.  Sure go and include new features.  Just don't break your core program to accomodate new features.  And you have.  If you can't include new features without breaking a major feature then either work out a way or don't include it.  You're killing off your core.

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i'd say this thread has now become pointless. Clearly no-one from Evernote wants to comment. The views are not being listened to, and some utterly inane responses are being made by the Evangelists. I notice they are apparently evangelists for the product and not for the actual users. Any product is NOTHING without users, whether paid-up or free level. For some reason certain verticalers are sticking by the idea that you need to drop a quick email to the product vendor every few days to check that they understand you like base functionality just in case they were thinking of removing it, and apparently they genuinely do this all the time. I'd say this is complete rubbish, and they don't do this at all. A certain portion of the supplier/consumer relationship is TRUST. A consumer trusts a supplier to do the right thing for their interests. You don't need to constantly check, feed-back, comment, ensure. You buy into a product because you believe it is the right thing for you and your needs. There is responsibility on the behalf of the supplier that they don't change something so fundamental that it renders it undesirable to your loyal customer base (and there are some real loyals voicing negative opinion in this thread). Have you guys ever heard of the "new coke" fiasco in the mid 80s? Consumers of coke didn't feel they needed to constantly tell coca cola that they liked their product and please dont change it, because they trusted the brand and most importantly that the company understood the needs of the consumers; essentially what the consumers liked about the product without having to gather opinion constantly. They changed it, there was a massive backlash, they had to change it back; costing millions. Clearly Evernote is nothing compared to that, but if you make a fundamental change then you can't expect it to go well. If you posted a piddly little message or forum post then you NEED to understand that nearly all users of any product don't hang around the product forums AND if you make a stupid mistake then you are going to get complaints - LOTS of them. Have you seen how many posters in this thread have made their first ever post in it? What does that say? 

 

You can't defend this change. You can't say the users are wrong. You can't say users had the chance to give their views. 

 

If Evernote genuinely think they did all they could, or that this change should have gone ahead or that this is an acceptable way to handle the discussion that it has now created, then they know nothing about software development, stakeholder engagement, product management, usability design or customer service. 

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Count me as another vote for bringing it back (at the very least as an OPTION).

 

I use EN on a small-ish laptop and really need to be able to see longer titles and multiple columns. I know it's possible to see other columns in vertical view, but I don't want to be constantly turning them on and off - I want them all at the same time. Even Title + Updates + Tags, the bare minimum I need, takes up way too much screen space.

 

Also - I like the idea of reminders. Haven't used them yet, but nice idea. I get that they won't necessarily look as good in horizontal list view, but please let that be my problem and give me the option.

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For those needing to wind back on their mac - here's how you do it:

 

 


1. Quit Evernote from the elephant icon in the Menu Bar


2. Drag the Evernote application to the system Trash


3. Reboot your Mac


Go to the following link to install version 5.0.7

http://mac.filehorse.com/download-evernote/3330/


When you open the download, make sure to drag the Evernote icon into the Applications folder instead of running it from within the installer package.

 

 

NOTE TO EVERNOTE STAFF:  Please make sure you add 'returned horizontal view' in the first few lines of your upgrade notes because I wont be upgrading until I see you have fixed this error in judgement. :(

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Can someone point me in the direction of how to downgrade back to 5.0.7 so I can get my horizontal view back???

 

I found 5.0. here and installed it. Seems to have worked fine to go from 5.1x back to 5.0.7. But proceed at your own risk. 

 

mac.filehorse.com/download-evernote/2755/old-versions/

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I've only just implemented the system advocated by "The Secret Weapon" and now this update puts a stick in that system by severely limiting the usefulness of the list view. Please make it an option. Also, I can't for the life of me understand why reminders and alarms must have a vertical view or that it is impossible to create a system where multiple views and layouts are possible. Given the fact that evernote is supposed to be THE central hub for organising notes it makes little sense to force certain views on users.

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All valid points. Let me ask you this - have you tried out Vertical List View?

 

In anticipating our Horizontal List View fans, we also added the capability of right-clicking the title bars in Vertical List View and giving users the options of adding on filters as needed. To johnmarshall4's point and workflow of using Horizontal List View of "created date, updated date, title, notebook, and tags" -- I've attached a screenshot with those exact parameters to help you visualize what Vertical List View can do. You can also toggle the width of Vertical List View to be expansively wide as you want (and if you try it out, you will see what I mean how it can get very wide).

 

Functionally speaking, it was very difficult to reconcile Horizontal List View with Reminders because of our Reminders pane (in the attached screenshot, you'll see it listing 2 reminders of California's hidden gems and most surreal places) that would show you your reminders both in an All Notes context and on a per Notebook basis. Please know that we took it under very careful consideration but were unable to come up with a good, timely solution at this point -- all things considered. We may revisit it in the future.

 

We try our best to accomodate all of our users and their needs, and we do read and listen to user feedback that is posted on the forums  :) 

 

What exactly about Horizontal List View do you find the most useful that can't be fulfilled in Vertical List View? I am curious to hear people's workflows, aside from johnmarshall4 of using created date, updated date, title, notebook and tags.

Quite simply it's sceen real estate utilization.  With the horizontal view I have a list of notes in the notebook AND I can see the full width of the note which is particularly important for graphics, web pages, etc.  This isn't that hard, quit jerking us around.  It's not a sum zero game.  You can have horizontal displays, and vertical displays, and reminders.

 

And please do it NOW.

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And BTW, EN will spend the next two years tuning and adjusting reminders.  There are no recurring reminders, snooze buttons, etc. etc. like a good GTD.  It's like EN can only think about one thing at a time.  Reminders should be seamlessly added in, not become the center point that displaces the prior views.

 

Restore the horizontal views and you can spend the next 2 yrs tweaking reminders.  The core EN functionality is great, but the UI crew is clueless.

 

PS:  Also a Premium user.

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I have (and use) the sidebar open all the time. With the addition of the list view, I now need to make the Evernote window much wider to display a page-width of note text.

 

Also, I usually don't have that many notes in each notebook, so now I have all this wasted space in the List view. 

 

Now if the Evernote team has their heart set on using only a Vertical List view, how about giving us an option to 'auto-hide' it, or to have some sort of 'drawer' option, so that we can at least get rid of it when we don't need it? (Or, does some option already exist)?

⌘-⌥-S - That is the fastest way

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I am just posting here to weigh in and say that this UI/UX change breaks the software for me.  I didn't see a forum post (because I don't check here religiously -- I am too busy running my businesses for that).

 

I think it is unfair to say that you cannot have a reminders feature without a top-note-view feature.  That's laziness more than anything else.  Maybe its more difficult to do it, but its certainly possible.

 

EDIT: I should also say that I am a Premium user, as well...

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Blimey... what happened with this update!

 

Just to add my vote - Please bring back horizontal List View

 

Like previous posters have mentioned, this has just crippled List View. I also wasn't aware there was a poll on this change since rarely use the forum.

 

Natural language goes from left to right (and also right to left) so having it vertical means you can't see any of the content of the 9 columns you could have in the list view, and if you did expand it out, then you loose the real estate in the displayed note itself - insane !!!

 

I'll have to translate all my notes to Japanese so I can have a top to bottom language orientation for the new list view  :huh:

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I concur.  The horizontal list view was my default view and the one that I used 95% of the time.  For me has to do with two things:  a) on my 15" monitor I always have Evernote and Outlook running at the same time - outlook on the left and Evernote on the right.  This only leaves "half the screen realestate" for Evernote.  2) then within Evernote I use fairly long titles (more meaningful for me).  So in horizontal list view I could see the updated date-time, the title and the tag.

 

Now without horizontal list view the only way for me to see the title is to maximize Evernote and have it take the entire screen -- so now I'm flipping between full screen Evernote and the rest of my desktop/Outlook environment all of the time.  Far less efficient (and a bit annoying).  I like reminders coming to Evernote; makes a lot of sense, but I'm sure the creative designers at Evernote can figure a way to get reminders and still retain horizontal list view for those of us to love it; as you have already built a great product.  Rich

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Hi,

 

Premium user here - I thought that the removal of horizontal list view was a bug, rather than a choice, until I saw this topic. My personal use case is that I use Evernote in 5/8 of the screen width, and have skype/terminal/notational velocity in the remaining 3/8. This way I have a main working window and an info section on the right, and I can keep the aspect ratio of my Evernote notes usable by having the horizontal list view at the top, showing 5 lines or so.

 

Is it not possible to put the reminders in the sidebar? If they will fit in the vertical list view, surely they would also fit there.

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I have (and use) the sidebar open all the time. With the addition of the list view, I now need to make the Evernote window much wider to display a page-width of note text.

 

Also, I usually don't have that many notes in each notebook, so now I have all this wasted space in the List view. 

 

Now if the Evernote team has their heart set on using only a Vertical List view, how about giving us an option to 'auto-hide' it, or to have some sort of 'drawer' option, so that we can at least get rid of it when we don't need it? (Or, does some option already exist)?

⌘-⌥-S - That is the fastest way

 

Thanks Palladion - I found that hides the Sidebar but not the Vertical List view - would love to find a shortcut/option for that!

 

Also - does someone know how I can reinstall the previous, good, version of Evernote?

 

EDIT - I was able to grab an older version from the /Applications folder inside my Time Machine and it seems to work OK.

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Just to add my voice to this: I was also very annoyed to see horizontal view gone after updating (at the very least, why was that not mentioned in the "what's new?" note so that I could have made a decision on this rather than silently getting something taken away?). The app feels very unbalanced now -- the note used to be in the center, now I'm looking at lots of chrome on the left half of the window, and the note is pushed to the right half.

 

I also don't understand the arguments given here for why horizontal view wouldn't have worked with reminders, but anyway. I might be able to live with this if the following would be possible:

- maximise width of vertical list, basically so much that the main window is just this list (+ the sidebar). At the moment, there seems to be a miminum size for the note pane on the side. Why not just drop that completely?

- keyboard shortcut for opening note in separate window. Indeally something simple like just hitting return in the list.

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Hi guys, thanks for the feedback! As GM said, we did post awhile ago asking about any Horizontal List View fans and were expecting a backlash when we made the decision to remove Horizontal List View as a view option. 

 

If you guys haven't heard yet, this morning we released a major new feature (#1 user request) of Reminders (http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/05/23/evernote-reminders-are-here-on-mac-ios-and-web-2/) and in doing so, had to make a difficult UI/design choice of taking Horizontal List View out in designing the appearance and function of Reminders.

 

We had many users requesting a Vertical List View and it fit in well with our overall new Reminders UI. 

 

Would you guys have preferred to keep Horizontal List View over Reminders or vice versa? If so, why or why not?

 

Others have said this but since you asked: The horizontal view is great for me because I like to view several columns (date updated, created, notebook, tags, and of course title) for quick and easy sorting (and sync status so I'm sure not to log off if the program is still working). Even at full width on my desktop, both the list and the note seem crowded on the screen. And on my 11" Macbook Air, forget it. It's also how I have my email set up, and have for MANY years, so it's what my eye is used to. AND because I'm on a Mac at home and Windows at work, and this change doesn't seem to have been made to the Windows version, they don't "match." 

 

I don't understand why the reminders thing can't sit on top of the list in a horizontal view in exactly the same way it sits atop the vertical view. (Or what if reminders lived at the top of the sidebar, which is the same in ALL views?)

 

It's obviously not the end of the world and I'll get used to it, but you asked why I used horizontal view and that's why! I'd love to have it back.

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Echoing earlier premium users who noted that they do not utilise/log onto forums unless issues pop up.  And this is a major issue for me - I clip several hundred notes weekly, and each note typically has several tags each, and I am now unable to properly view/edit my note tags using the vertical view.  Adding my voice here to bring back the horizontal view as an option, even if it entails disabling the reminders feature, which I don't use anyway.

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  • Level 5*

Functionally speaking, it was very difficult to reconcile Horizontal List View with Reminders because of our Reminders pane (in the attached screenshot, you'll see it listing 2 reminders of California's hidden gems and most surreal places) that would show you your reminders both in an All Notes context and on a per Notebook basis. Please know that we took it under very careful consideration but were unable to come up with a good, timely solution at this point -- all things considered. We may revisit it in the future.

 

Well I'm shocked that you found it "very difficult to reconcile Horizontal List View with Reminders" and were "unable to come up with a good, timely solution at this point".

 

If you just look around at other software that present many different panels of info on the screen you will find lots of choices.

 

Here is just one, for example:  The Visual Studio IDE

  • Don't discount this example because it is for programmers -- that is NOT the point. 
  • The point is how VS IDE gives the user several different ways of showing/hiding/placing the various panels on the screen.
  • The main panel is the coding panel -- analogous to the EN Note contents panel
  • VS allows the user to arrange supporting panels on all sides of the main panel, including multiple panel on each side.
  • Each of these supporting panels may be set to be always open, or open when the user does a mouse-over of the collapsed panel
  • The user may choose which info is presented in each panel (i.e., which columns are presented)

You could also use Tabs to organize the different panels of info, in particular those which you don't usually need to see at the same time.

So, you could put the Reminders in a different tab than, say, the Note content.

 

Just to be clear, I am NOT proposing this as the specific solution.  I am merely pointing out that you have other options than the one you chose.

 

Whenever you come across what seems to be a hard choice that means giving up capability, challenge yourselves to find a solution that does not cause this.

 

I hope Evernote is beginning to see that because you can NOT meet the needs of all users (or even a significant portion) with ONE design, you really need to give the users some basic choices/OPTIONS on how to configure EN, both the UI and the functionality.

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Allthough it is not a big of a dealbreaker as others have mentioned, I would also like to see the horizontal list view return. But having Reminders is a very big enhancement! Thanks!!

 

With the vertical view I still have all info available but I have to get used to it.

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Evernote has done an amazing job as positioning itself as a ubiquitous information utility.  It is everywhere.  Like all good utilities, it has faded into the background and (like electricity and clean water) is just assumed to be there.

 

When you have a utility, you can only evolve it through a series of small background steps.  Ideally, enhancements should be an endless series of microinteractions that surprise and delight users (EN has actually been good at this).  This sort of opinionated change has a place in the product world, but is completely contrary to what a utility provider should be doing.

 

While I'm concerned about my loss of productivity in losing the horizontal view, I'm much more concerned about the direction of the service if this is the sort of change they company thought was going to be OK.

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This is a busy thread.  I haven't read every post, but after seeing some of the discontent on the blog, I thought I would come in here and voice their concerns.  Looks like a LOT of other people beat me to it.  As someone who wanted vertical list view, I never thought it was an either/or option.  Ultimately, I think "user choice" is a good rule of thumb.  I even Skitched a little something below.  Would this work for people?

 

skitch.png

 

 

I guess you could always have another view "Expanded List View", maybe.  And in regards to Reminders.  Maybe just handle them like you do in the Expanded Card View.  Just have them way at the top past the Note List.

 

I realize there's a lot of upset people, and as a pseudo-developer, I get that this stuff is hard.  I would just remind everyone that Evernote (unlike any other company I've seen) actually engages with their users and actively develops based on feedback.  The speed at which these people iterate blows my mind.

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As I mentioned, I actually prefer the new vertical view, but certainly didn't want to see people who preferred horizontal lose it.  Now I am curious how this is going to affect the Windows client?  It's crystal clear that reminders are here to stay and will probably be on the way with the next Windows client release.  Will the Windows client at that point also gain the vertical and lose the horizontal view?

 

I imagine there are a heck of a lot more Windows users so if the change on the Mac generated 14 pages (so far), it's going to be entertaining to see what happens when the Windows client gets the change.  Or is this fiasco causing them to rethink what they do with the Windows client before they release it?

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EN Team, please provide your position on restoring the horizontal list view and an estimated date of delivery, if applicable.  Thank you.

See post #24 in this thread. An Evernote employee does given an explanation of why it was removed. Evernote, however, does not generally make their roadmap public.
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My workflow is gone.  Without question, I need to have the horizontal list view restored.  As with other users, it is the only view I had used, leveraging it to prioritize, process and manage my work.

 

I have been a Premium member since 2008 or 2009 and had nearly dropped EN a few times over the years due to unwanted changes, stability challenges, security issues, differences across the platforms I use, etc.  However, I returned to EN as my primary work management system with a greater focus on the GTD methodology using the TSW process mentioned by other users.

 

I have invested a significant amount of time fitting EN for both my professional and personal task management system.  Additionally, I have encouraged members of my teams to take another look at EN in this capacity and begin review of the additional products and "Business" offerrings for adoption within our company.  I can say now that there may be too much risk and uncertainty in regards to how features are managed and users' issues are addressed.

 

Without the return of horizontal list view, complete with the tagging and date columns for sorting, and a greater commitment to resolving user issues, I will be moving away from EN permanently.

 

 

EN Team, please provide your position on restoring the horizontal list view and an estimated date of delivery, if applicable.  Thank you.

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For what its worth, and I won't belabour the point as it has been fully expressed by others:

  1. I too use(d) the horizontal list view exclusively as I use "The Secret Weapon" - i.e. Evernote for GTD
  2. I too read the changelog before "upgrading" and was surprised by the disappearance of a feature without any mention of it in the changelog
  3. Although I appreciate the potential usefulness of reminders (remains to be proven), I would certainly NOT have "upgraded" had I known what was coming down the pipe

As to not being able to reconcile the UI bits and pieces, you have at least 2 options that I can think of off the top of my head and I've only done a bit of Cocoa programming:

  1. Add the reminders as a section in the existing sidebar; or
  2. Add reminders in an inspector window for views where the reminder pane doesn't play well with others.

Anyhow, that's just my 2 cents.  I will try this thing for a little while longer before "downgrading" to v 5.1.0 but I sincerely hope the fix comes before that!

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Here is how to downgrade (upgrade) to a previous version:

1. Backup your database

2. Go here: http://mac.filehorse.com/download-evernote/2755/old-versions/

3. Download version 5.0.7 (latest version with horizontal view)

4. Profit.

 

To the EN team: please let me know when the horizontal view returns.  I will gladly upgrade then.

 

The reason I prefer the horizontal view is that I frequently work on a small laptop screen with multiple windows open.  My limited screen real estate makes this view much more useful and intuitive.  

 

I downloaded and installed the "older" version (5.0.7) as you suggested. Works great.

 

Even when someone's climb to the top of the pack is based on merit, they're still a target. Appreciate all the EN folks have done to give us a good product. I'll keep using this version until they're able to sort things out.

 

Downgrading failed!

 

I followed the steps mentioned by JesseE and I tried downgrading to version 5.07 & 5.06, but EN was not working.

 

Any Suggestions?

Worked fine for me.  But since you had problems, the following should be a total reset:

 

1.  Quit EN and drag the application to the Trash.

2.  Remove the Evernote folder at <your home folder>/Library/Application Support (to access your Library folder you'll need to hold down the Option key while selecting "Go" in the Finder menu.

3.  Empty the trash

4.  Install EN 5.07

5.  Start EN, enter your user info if requested.  All notes should download from the EN server.  Depending on how many notes you have and the speed of your connection this could take awhile.

 

Working fine now.

 

I used AppCleaner to uninstall EN related files on my home folder http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

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Maybe they are trying to 'ween' us off the horizontal view? Does anyone know if the Windows client defaults to Horizontal or Vertical on a new install? I'm just curious.

 

Just did a little test and installed Evernote for Windows 4.6.6 via CrossOver (not recommendable, but sufficient for this test). It opens in snippet view, but the default list view is horizontal view.

 

Thanks for taking the time to run that test, I was curious. I thought I remembered they defaulted to vertical for a while, but I could be wrong. I wonder if any view changes like this one are planned in the Windows version when they add reminders.

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After using the vertical list view today while searching, it doesn't work well at all. I thought I might get used to it, just as I did with the search button being moved in the Evernote webclipper. However, it was really awful.

 

With the vertical view, it was much harder to see at a glance just which of those 12 notes was the one I needed.

 

Please bring back horizontal view! I'd much rather have the reminder button only available in vertical view than never have the horizontal view again.

 

What's the point of taking notes if you can't search or read them easily?

 

---Mary

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Another vote (plea) for horizontal view. I've used Evernote since 2008 and have been a premium user since it was available. Vertical list view is a ridiculous waste of screen space on my laptop. For all other reasons articulated in this thread, please bring it back.

 

I also have downgraded to 5.0.7 and will hold off on future upgrades until horizontal list view returns.

 

-Jeff

 

+1

 

Great timing, I also just received the monthly receipt for my Premium Group.  The EN way - pay more, get less.

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Like everyone else, I need the horizontal list view. It should simply be one of the options. The change drives me crazy - now I can't even read the full note title in the list view. This seriously reduces the usability of Evernote on my Mac.

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Thank goodness for Time Machine. Just reverted to Friday's backup  of 5.0.7. Phew.

 

A quick anecdote: I used to go to a bagel shop in Brooklyn. It was a really good bagel shop. They always had a line out the door on weekend mornings, but everyone waited patiently in line, because the product was worth it. One day, the owners decided that bagels weren't enough, and that they had to compete for a bigger breakfast crowd. They closed for a couple weeks, remodeled, and reopened with a full breakfast menu. Guess what? They went out of business because nobody needed yet another breakfast joint. There was demand for bagels and coffee, not breakfast. 

 

The moral of the story: It's Evernote, not EverReminder.

 

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New%20coke.jpg

 

 

"The story of "new Coke" is widely recalled, but the context is often forgotten. In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company's share lead over its chief competitor, in its flagship market, with its flagship product, had been slowly slipping for 15 consecutive years. The cola category in general was lethargic. Consumer preference for Coca-Cola was dipping, as was consumer awareness. That changed, of course, in the summer of 1985 as the consumer outcry over "new Coke" was replaced by consumer affection for Coca-Cola classic.

The fabled secret formula for Coca-Cola was changed, adopting a formula preferred in taste tests of nearly 200,000 consumers. What these tests didn't show, of course, was the bond consumers felt with their Coca-Cola — something they didn't want anyone, including The Coca-Cola Company, tampering with..."

 

EN, the story is here.  Y'all might want to read it because it doesn't look like you were around to remember it.

 

Thanks for that wikipedia copy/paste, however 'y'all' haven't said anything different there really. Coca cola didn't survey their customer attitudes properly before making a sweeping change (although far be it for me to tell an American about calorific fizzy drinks). A large survey doesn't mean they asked the right questions, and understood the answers properly. Evernote may have asked the right questions, although it seems very few people remember being asked, so I would say they didn't ask in the right way, and only asked a small subset of the user-base.

 

You could say the note-taking market is saturated, because how many note-taking apps do people need... and maybe that's why Evernote have tried to differentiate themselves with this peripheral functionality that most people will never use (I feel sure). I don't think this vertical note fiasco highlights militant brand loyalty however, but what it does highlight is that people expect core things about the product to be the same, and that the rest will evolve and improve around that core. 

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In addition to the issues already mentioned in this tread (wasted screen space, content now too narrow, etc) I just discovered another issue... search results.  Before (with horizontal view) when I would search I'd get a set of pages back where I could see the title, date, notebook, etc. Now (because of the narrow list columns) I just see the first 3 or 4 words of the title which is almost useless.

 

PLEASE bring back the horizontal view, or unfortunately I (like many other paying premium members) and going to have to downgrade to a previous version.

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Here are two things we are missing and it has been rampant in this thread...

  1. When was the last time a developer was allowed to make a decision of this magnitude?  These are the guys in the engine room shoveling coal.  Did they cause the Titanic to hit that iceberg?  No.  It was the idiot who worked for the company.  See, developers would actually listen to people.  EN the corporation had a new field to plow and decided they needed to make way.  I applaud the developers and all they do.  Find the moron who was after the new revenue stream and you've found the bad guy.
  2. Who in God's name ever made such a major change in usability with an unassuming poll?  EN phones home to do its thing.  It's cloud-based.  The folks at EN know exactly what their user-base is.  How many votes were actually cast, that EN then chose to use as a basis this pathetic, don't vote don't complain defense?  .05%?  Really.  Every other company on the globe asks you if it's ok to collect usage data to "improve" the product. Why isn't EN?  If EN did I'd bet you'd learn that there is an 80/20 rule happening here.  80% of users chose the horizontal view.  Of those, a fraction are in this thread generating 80% of the anger in the forum.

Furthermore, Microsoft doesn't want to get rid of the Metro interface because they need to grease the skids to get people to learn THEIR interface on THEIR portable devices.  They've already lost the portable war and are trying to come back from the dead.  That is their ULTERIOR motive.  That is why we are being bludgeoned with something we don't want.  That is why the entire PC industry is in a free-fall at a time they can least afford.  Don't be surprised if Windows Blue doesn't bring back the start button.

 

Does EN have an ULTERIOR motive for this change?  If they don't bring back the horizontal view, you can bet there is one, that we are the convenient and contrived patsy, and the motive will reveal itself in time.

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Here is how to downgrade (upgrade) to a previous version:

1. Backup your database

2. Go here: http://mac.filehorse.com/download-evernote/2755/old-versions/

3. Download version 5.0.7 (latest version with horizontal view)

4. Profit.

 

To the EN team: please let me know when the horizontal view returns.  I will gladly upgrade then.

 

The reason I prefer the horizontal view is that I frequently work on a small laptop screen with multiple windows open.  My limited screen real estate makes this view much more useful and intuitive.  

 

I downloaded and installed the "older" version (5.0.7) as you suggested. Works great.

 

Even when someone's climb to the top of the pack is based on merit, they're still a target. Appreciate all the EN folks have done to give us a good product. I'll keep using this version until they're able to sort things out.

 

Downgrading failed!

 

I followed the steps mentioned by JesseE and I tried downgrading to version 5.07 & 5.06, but EN was not working.

 

Any Suggestions?

Worked fine for me.  But since you had problems, the following should be a total reset:

 

1.  Quit EN and drag the application to the Trash.

2.  Remove the Evernote folder at <your home folder>/Library/Application Support (to access your Library folder you'll need to hold down the Option key while selecting "Go" in the Finder menu.

3.  Empty the trash

4.  Install EN 5.07

5.  Start EN, enter your user info if requested.  All notes should download from the EN server.  Depending on how many notes you have and the speed of your connection this could take awhile.

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Here are two things we are missing and it has been rampant in this thread...

  1. When was the last time a developer was allowed to make a decision of this magnitude?  These are the guys in the engine room shoveling coal.  Did they cause the Titanic to hit that iceberg?  No.  It was the idiot who worked for the company.  See, developers would actually listen to people.  EN the corporation had a new field to plow and decided they needed to make way.  I applaud the developers and all they do.  Find the moron who was after the new revenue stream and you've found the bad guy.
  2. Who in God's name ever made such a major change in usability with an unassuming poll?  EN phones home to do its thing.  It's cloud-based.  The folks at EN know exactly what their user-base is.  How many votes were actually cast, that EN then chose to use as a basis this pathetic, don't vote don't complain defense?  .05%?  Really.  Every other company on the globe asks you if it's ok to collect usage data to "improve" the product. Why isn't EN?  If EN did I'd bet you'd learn that there is an 80/20 rule happening here.  80% of users chose the horizontal view.  Of those, a fraction are in this thread generating 80% of the anger in the forum.

Furthermore, Microsoft doesn't want to get rid of the Metro interface because they need to grease the skids to get people to learn THEIR interface on THEIR portable devices.  They've already lost the portable war and are trying to come back from the dead.  That is their ULTERIOR motive.  That is why we are being bludgeoned with something we don't want.  That is why the entire PC industry is in a free-fall at a time they can least afford.  Don't be surprised if Windows Blue doesn't bring back the start button.

 

Does EN have an ULTERIOR motive for this change?  If they don't bring back the horizontal view, you can bet there is one, that we are the convenient and contrived patsy, and the motive will reveal itself in time.

 

I guess we don't know who signed off the change, it's unlikely to be a lone developer. It's been done for a reason, but the reason is misguided. I tend to think that Evernote are trying to differentiate themselves from other note-taking apps by adding new features, which will enable them to put the prices up later because hey, look at all these extra features? That's conjecture clearly, but I can't imagine any other reason extra functionality would take precedence over 'core' functionality in this way.... apart from genuine stupidity of course. Question is if someone created a feature request for say... an egg-timer in Evernote, and a hundred people +1ed it, would Evernote build that in? If that's where reminders come from, you need to understand the core vision of your product, and not let certain users guide the direction of it, whilst studiously ignoring complaints from the rest... doesn't make any sense. 

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Another vote in favor of bringing back horizontal view.

 

Why did horizontal view have to go anyway? I now understand that there was a forum post asking for feedback on horizontal view, but when it comes to features, why in the world should it ever be an either/or proposition? That would be like Microsoft asking Word users if they preferred boldface or italics because they can't have both!

 

I presume after this amount of feedback that horizontal view will be returning soon, but does anyone know if it's possible to downgrade to the prior release until this is fixed? I don't really need to be reminded to take notes (or whatever GTD things people do with Evernote), but I do need to be able to write them!

 

I'm on a Mac and I have an older version available on my laptop. I'm just worried that the update changed the database so that the old version won't work anymore.

 

Edit: Actually, I guess I could just wipe the entire thing and download my entire database from evernote's server into the old version.

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I noticed when I installed 5.1.3 that it "updated" my database.  Has anyone successfully downgraded to 5.0.7 with a database that has been "updated" by 5.1.3?  Or was it necessary to use an old database backup?

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As to the reason (adding reminders) I don't use you as a todo list -  i use you to store and manage information (which is what you started out being).  Don't kill what you're good at to become 'everything for everyone'.

I can guarantee you that there are over 150 users who have asked for reminders or related functionality in these forums. So if your rule of thumb is good enough for horizontal list view, then it ought to be good enough for reminders.

 

The question is how did these become mutually exclusive?  Did the people asking for Reminders also say "get rid of horizontal views"?  It's a simple screen real estate problem.

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  • Level 5*

As to the reason (adding reminders) I don't use you as a todo list -  i use you to store and manage information (which is what you started out being).  Don't kill what you're good at to become 'everything for everyone'.

I can guarantee you that there are over 150 users who have asked for reminders or related functionality in these forums. So if your rule of thumb is good enough for horizontal list view, then it ought to be good enough for reminders.
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Paid User here adding a vote for the return of Horizontal View

 

It's essential to my workflow.

 

 

I hope that until an updated version with Horizontal View is released I can use an old version from Time Machine.

 

 

 

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I don't think it is idiotic to provide occasional feedback to developers. In fact, I think it is better for me to provide feedback before something unpleasant happens rather than after it does. My litmus test is: if I would miss it if it was gone, I try to mention how important it is to me. 

 

 

I am suggesting that if more people had told the developers that this was a feature that was important to them, the more likely it might have been that they would have considered finding a way to include it. 

 

 

<Sarcasm>

 

Dear Evernote,

 

I really love taking notes with your product. I use it to take notes everyday. Please don't remove the ability to take notes it is my favorite feature and is very important to me.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Loyal Customer Since 2005

 

</Sarcasm>

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I'm a new user - and just moved all my stuff to evernote - really liking it. However, I just updated and can no longer get the horizontal list view - which makes it really cumbersome for me to use. I will not use Evernote until I can have a horizontal view - because it is just too frustrating for me to use.

 

Please bring horizontal list view back 

 

- a new, and previously happy, customer.

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I'm a premium member as well and I agree we all need horizontal view.  

 

Political parties say that for every 1 written complaint you can be sure there are at least 100 others who haven't bothered complaining.  So at that rate there's already at least 15,000 unhappy people that I can put my finger on based on 150 complaints just in this forum alone. And that's just from this forum - let alone whatever your poor support people are dealing with in your 'normal' support channel.

 

As to the reason (adding reminders) I don't use you as a todo list -  i use you to store and manage information (which is what you started out being).  Don't kill what you're good at to become 'everything for everyone'.

 

And making a major usability change like this without a beta?  Asking in your forums is great to get some feedback - but most of your avid users are not computer programmer junkies who watch your software forums religiously.  They are normal people who have lives enjoying whatever they enjoy doing. 

 

Bottom line - major stuff up here guys.  Please fix this quickly otherwise a lot of people, including myself will need to explore other options.  My loyalty is with you so this is where I would rather stay, but from the 'finality' of the comments I've read here, I really hope you listen to your customers and please fix this.  You've just made it totally user-unfriendly in my book.

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Hi Evernote Employees,

 

I'm a dedicated premium user with almost 12k notes. Center of my digital life on OS X, iphone, ipad, and webapp on linux.

 

Please bring back the OS X horizontal list view. I rely on it for note sorting by attributes and I really do need the width. Can't hide the sidebar: I frequently use shortcuts there and I drag notes to tags as a way of tagging quickly. 

 

 I <3 Evernote and am looking forward to its continued success and evolution. This was a learning experience for the devs and users, and that's OK. Keep up the great work, and thanks for the engagement in the forums.

 

best,

Stephen

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That for me seems to be the strangest part of this, why does adding reminders mean that you can't have a horizontal list? If it's a UI issue, well then just figure it out before you release the update, don't remove a pretty unrelated and useful feature. 

 

The prevailing "we know best" attitude fails again I'm afraid.

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@megsaint Fair comment that @Evernote gave an explanation. Body of opinion seems to be they should think again. In Hegelian dialectic terms we're just looking for "synthesis". :-) I would hope it would be found in greater customisability of the user experience.

(And I remain bemused by the notion that Reminders made some things impossible.)

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it's basically like finding that the new Ford car you just bought had no steering wheel and instead has a joystick. When you ask the salesman what happened, the following interaction occurs

 

SALESMAN - "oh yea, we had to remove the steering wheel to make way for the new multimedia screen - it's really cool!"

YOU - "Riiiight... but I'm used to driving cars with steering wheels - i wanted, and paid for a steering wheel"

SALESMAN - "Everyone wants the new multimedia system, and there was only this way to fit it in!"

YOU - "Well I don't want it... I'm not even going to use it - and anyway, isn't the way you drive the car more important than watching films when you're meant to be driving?"

SALESMAN - "No of course not! This is progress!"

YOU - "Erm.... it isn't.... Who's idea was this?"

SALESMAN - "Sir, we had a poster up for a week in the corner of the showroom behind the large pot-plant, to tell people about the steering wheel removal - but no-one complained"

YOU - "Well I certainly would have complained had I seen it, but I don't tend to hang around here... well I want my old car back now please unless you give me a steering wheel"

OTHER CUSTOMERS - "YEA US TOO!"

RANDOM GUY - MIGHT BE THE CLEANER - "If you guys had just hung around the showroom every day, and asked the salespeople constantly, read all the sales brochures regularly for changes, written to ford every week.... maybe the steering wheel would never have been removed"

YOU AND THE OTHER CUSTOMERS IN DISBELIEF ".......    but surely you can't be.... that's ridiculous.... i mean, i don't even know where to start........ yea we've all kind of got lives to lead sorry"

SALESMAN - "Bye Bye!"

RANDOM GUY - "I love Fords"

This is so cool.  And so representative of the situation.  5 gold stars for you to put it in such an articulate and humorous way. :)

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Yup. I can't believe this is missing either. Just about fine on a large screen, but not so great on a laptop. 

 

So not happy with evernote right now. 

 

Even Microsoft realise that a vertical list only works where you want to display one or two fields of information. 

 

 

So there we go - Evernote - more inconsistent user interfaces than Microsoft !!!

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New%20coke.jpg

 

 

"The story of "new Coke" is widely recalled, but the context is often forgotten. In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company's share lead over its chief competitor, in its flagship market, with its flagship product, had been slowly slipping for 15 consecutive years. The cola category in general was lethargic. Consumer preference for Coca-Cola was dipping, as was consumer awareness. That changed, of course, in the summer of 1985 as the consumer outcry over "new Coke" was replaced by consumer affection for Coca-Cola classic.

The fabled secret formula for Coca-Cola was changed, adopting a formula preferred in taste tests of nearly 200,000 consumers. What these tests didn't show, of course, was the bond consumers felt with their Coca-Cola — something they didn't want anyone, including The Coca-Cola Company, tampering with..."

 

EN, the story is here.  Y'all might want to read it because it doesn't look like you were around to remember it.

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Just downgraded until the horizontal view is restored. Longtime Evernote user (since it was just one big evernote without note titles), and been a premium user since it became available, not because I need any of the extra features (I really just use a ton of basic text notes), but because I want to support the company. I've seen hundreds if not thousands of UI changes in Evernote, and this is the first one that really broke my workflow. I use fairly long titles for my notes, and I can't even read them in vertical view without taking double the horizontal space. This is literally my first time using the forums since I started using Evernote in 2005 or so.

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I'll just add my voice in as well. I'd also like to see either a return of horizontal view, the ability to hide views altogether (not my preferred option, but I'd do better without that extra column). On my MBPr, I have Evernote displaying in all spaces, and only taking up the right half of the screen so I can use it in conjunction with all of my other programs. I write a lot of product documentation for software development, and having my notebook take up that much more real estate and/or reduce the size of the notes/document space I have to write in is far less effective for me.

 

I've only visited the forums a couple of times to figure out how to do a couple of specific things in Evernote (like highlighting text). A few minutes ago I updated the app and was surprised to see horizontal view disappear. I spent about 20 minutes fumbling around trying to figure out how to get it back, then came here, found this thread, and learned it was by intention. I'm going to try as a few others have suggested and use Time Machine to find the previous version of the app - hopefully that works.

 

Thanks for listening.

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+1 for bringing back horizontal view, and keeping reminders in a collapsable vertical tab if needed.  Even with the old UI I always thought it was still too wide when minimized horizontally.  Now with the list view in another vertical tab, it takes up way to much much width on the screen to be useful.  EspecialIy impossible on a laptop when working back and forth between other apps.  

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I have now downgraded to v5.0.7 (thanks, JesseE for the link to the older version) in order to get back the horizontal list view.

 

This whole business is very disappointing. Reminders are a great new feature that I would love to be able to use. I commend EN for implementing this. But the approach taken is dismaying. First, the notion that reminders and horizontal view are intrinsically mutually exclusive is patently absurd. This is kind iof like a car manufacturer saying you can either have air conditioning or an audio system in your car, but you can't have both because there's not enough room on the dashboard for both sets of controls. Second, the idea that you might be able to asses the impact on the broad user base of a major UI change by posting a very low-key query ("do you like this feature and why?", http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/34709-horizontal-vs-vertical-list-views/) on a forum frequented by a minuscule proportion of your entire user base is unrealistic to say the least.

 

Thanks to the many folks who have done a good job above of articulating the reasons why eliminating the horizontal view is a bad idea.

 

I will be watching update notices and hoping for the introduction of the clear appropriate solution-- a mechanism for users to choose whichever list view works best for them, without sacrificing access to key features (like reminders).

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I am one of the ones that loves the new vertical view and requested it, however I never dreamed it meant users who preferred horizontal view would have to lose that, and wish they hadn't.  BTW, I find some of the posts in this forum sort of half-directing blame at complaining users for not knowing the road map and not speaking up to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen on a forum :).

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