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Happy Little Experiment: Templates and Table Formatting


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I'm currently using Toodledo as my task manager but really want to try to get everything into EN so been thinking about how to best bring my tasks over to EN. I'm thinking about creating a dedicated task notebook and making each task or project an individual note but using a standard task template so I can have my most-used fields from TD and they will also be searchable. (Considering using tags...not sure yet.) I like the idea of tables for consistency but we all know the table formatting is somewhat limited and I also wanted to bring in some color to EN. Just to mess around, I took a daily printable "to do" sheet I had previously created in Excel and played with the formatting to see if I could get something decent to work in Evernote. The result is attached and I gotta say, I'm actually pretty happy with it. Note that I just did this tonight so haven't played with it too much to see if it will be functional for the long term (y'know, 'cause the tables can be wonky and I've already found some things I need to be careful of). One thing that I really like the idea of is that I can use note links to link a task or item on this note to the detailed note that the task or item lives in (e.g., the "Keurig K-Cups" note link under "BUY" links to my note that contains a list of favorite flavors). 

 

One thing I'd like to share is that I found a bit of a hack to get decent formatting results. Copying from Excel into EN doesn't work at all. A few people mentioned copying from Excel to Word to EN and I found that worked BUT the row height got stretched out and I didn't like it. So...I copied from Excel to Word, from Word to a blank Gmail, then from Gmail to EN and got the end result that you see; I then added in the checkboxes manually. I recognize this three-step process is sort of a PITA but I'm essentially just creating one blank note template that I'll then copy over and over each time I want to make a new note from it. (Kinda don't get exporting/importing templates to/from my computer...the whole point to me is to have everything immediately accessible within EN...not on the hard drive of a PC I may or may not be sitting in front of?!)

 

And lastly, by tweaking and adjusting the column widths in Excel, once the table was finally pasted into EN I got it to just about fit perfectly across the width of my phone's screen when in landscape mode so no scrolling left or right. 

 

So...pretty pleased with my little experiment and look forward to playing more and eventually freeing up one pinned tab (TD) on Chrome! Also, have to give props to GrumpyMonkey for inspiring this colorful idea by sharing his colored background EN templates. Thank you GM!

 

Images: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s37/nl/3991498/53075c38-c70d-4354-9d39-1a4687817a93

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I'm currently using Toodledo as my task manager but really want to try to get everything into EN so been thinking about how to best bring my tasks over to EN. I'm thinking about creating a dedicated task notebook and making each task or project an individual note but using a standard task template so I can have my most-used fields from TD and they will also be searchable. (Considering using tags...not sure yet.) I like the idea of tables for consistency but we all know the table formatting is somewhat limited and I also wanted to bring in some color to EN. Just to mess around, I took a daily printable "to do" sheet I had previously created in Excel and played with the formatting to see if I could get something decent to work in Evernote. The result is attached and I gotta say, I'm actually pretty happy with it. Note that I just did this tonight so haven't played with it too much to see if it will be functional for the long term (y'know, 'cause the tables can be wonky and I've already found some things I need to be careful of). One thing that I really like the idea of is that I can use note links to link a task or item on this note to the detailed note that the task or item lives in (e.g., the "Keurig K-Cups" note link under "BUY" links to my note that contains a list of favorite flavors). 

 

One thing I'd like to share is that I found a bit of a hack to get decent formatting results. Copying from Excel into EN doesn't work at all. A few people mentioned copying from Excel to Word to EN and I found that worked BUT the row height got stretched out and I didn't like it. So...I copied from Excel to Word, from Word to a blank Gmail, then from Gmail to EN and got the end result that you see; I then added in the checkboxes manually. I recognize this three-step process is sort of a PITA but I'm essentially just creating one blank note template that I'll then copy over and over each time I want to make a new note from it. (Kinda don't get exporting/importing templates to/from my computer...the whole point to me is to have everything immediately accessible within EN...not on the hard drive of a PC I may or may not be sitting in front of?!)

 

And lastly, by tweaking and adjusting the column widths in Excel, once the table was finally pasted into EN I got it to just about fit perfectly across the width of my phone's screen when in landscape mode so no scrolling left or right. 

 

So...pretty pleased with my little experiment and look forward to playing more and eventually freeing up one pinned tab (TD) on Chrome! Also, have to give props to GrumpyMonkey for inspiring this colorful idea by sharing his colored background EN templates. Thank you GM!

 

Thanks for the kind words, but you've created something far more beautiful than anything I've made! I wonder if you'd be willing to share it with everyone in a shared note.

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Aw shucks, thanks for the compliment! Blame it on my obsessive compulsiveness...

 

Below is the link to the note, and I've attached the Excel file I used as the master table to it as well. 

 

Remember...paste from Excel to Word, from Word to a blank Gmail, from Gmail into Evernote!

 

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s37/sh/9ac81ee8-101b-4ed1-90ce-689cc8388158/97cd4d7ca83f252e29eceadc3739cf56

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Aw shucks, thanks for the compliment! Blame it on my obsessive compulsiveness...

 

Below is the link to the note, and I've attached the Excel file I used as the master table to it as well. 

 

Remember...paste from Excel to Word, from Word to a blank Gmail, from Gmail into Evernote!

 

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s37/sh/9ac81ee8-101b-4ed1-90ce-689cc8388158/97cd4d7ca83f252e29eceadc3739cf56

 

Evernoted. Thanks!

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  • 5 months later...

Although this does seem a bit convoluted, it works a treat so thank you for sharing.

 

We need a updateable table of data to track activity for some employees delivering leaflets.  Each person reports in via the website and the report then goes straight into Evernote. We then need a summary of the reports expected, the reports arrived, and what's to be paid. Just text is too difficult to read, Evernote tables are just too clumsy and don't enable us to copy and paste lists from our original spreadsheets.

 

I understand that Evernote doesn't want to be a spreadsheet, but this functionality is simple a way of displaying data in columns. So until it appears as a standard feature, this method will do nicely.

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Aw shucks, thanks for the compliment! Blame it on my obsessive compulsiveness...

 

Below is the link to the note, and I've attached the Excel file I used as the master table to it as well. 

 

Remember...paste from Excel to Word, from Word to a blank Gmail, from Gmail into Evernote!

 

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s37/sh/9ac81ee8-101b-4ed1-90ce-689cc8388158/97cd4d7ca83f252e29eceadc3739cf56

 

This is awesome thank you!!!!!!!!,

 

I do agree with John, however, using an HTML file for future template design formats might be the easiest and most direct way. I remember reading someplace that Evernote formatting markup is not exact but closest to HTML. Once you have it designed then just copy and paste into a note

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There is a lot of Free WYSIWIG HTML page making tools. its not any harder than designing a page in Word -- for example SeaMonkey has a free what you see is what you get HTML page making program -- this is the same people that make the Firefox Browser -- It's not like your coding HMTL

 

I'm still learning the basics of HTML so doubt I could manage this yet, but I'll definitely keep it in mind for developing future templates! Thanks for sharing.
 

A little off topic but along the same lines what works well for me in table formatting is to create my table in a basic html file which I then import into Evernote. A screen shot of one is attached.

htmltable.jpg

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks to a tweet today I checked updates on Mac and the Mac client as of 5.6 beta 5 added significant improvements to table formatting. You can drag to resize and set border and cell styles. It's still a long way from exposing CSS or giving us anything like Excel or Word and I don't know how long it will take to make this to Windows. The formats, once applied, of course then continue to appear in any client.

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  • 7 months later...

Thanks for this mammoth undertaking @freyja313! Copied your public notebook already ;-)

 

In case anyone is interested in an Eisenhower Matrix (among other simple kanban-like templates) and you like invisible (white) borders, here is an example of what I created in Word and  copied over to Evernote. It looks good across desktop and mobile devices:

 

matrix%20template.PNG?dl=1

 

You can find the public notebook here: https://www.evernote.com/pub/frankman777/kanbancalendarintra-note

 

Here's a write-up on the system I created that employs those templates... there are a couple of videos too: http://www.productivitymashup.com/blog/2014/10/7/kanban-calendar-evernote-series-1-of-5

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Why do you have to go from Excel -> Word -> Evernote? Can you not just create one in Word first?

 

Also, I'm having general formatting problems within Evernote. The text in my tables never looks right when I go to presentation mode. The tables don't stretch and expand correctly; my text just ends up getting cut off and moved to the next line under. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

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Why do you have to go from Excel -> Word -> Evernote? Can you not just create one in Word first?

 

I'm not sure to whom you are addressing this question, but since I have suggested this procedure previously, I will respond.

 

The answer is:  You are correct.  You can start in Word if that suits your purpose.  In fact, I have created a number of EN Note "Templates"  using tables I have created in Word, and copied to Evernote.

 

But if you already have a table/data in Excel, IMO, the best way to get a properly formatted table of that data into Evernote is by first copy/paste from Excel to Word, modify the Word table properties as you like, then copy/paste the Word table to Evernote Note.

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Very nicely done, Frank! I love How To videos. (I used to be almost as ambitious with Word, but alas I haven't got that much patience anymore. Plus Microsoft is forever coming out with new versions and it drives me a bit batty trying to figure out where they hide all the features I regularly use. Well that, and nobody pays me to play with Word anymore...

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Why do you have to go from Excel -> Word -> Evernote? Can you not just create one in Word first?

 

 

You don't have to. You can start in Word but I just tend to prefer Excel for making table-like stuff. I am much more comfortable in and feel I have more control over column widths, row heights and general formatting with Excel. Also, when making calendars I use Excel formulas to "calculate" the dates automatically for me. Excel =  :wub:

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