Auto Tag Feature

[ProfJR 1]

Based on common tags and searchable contents.

 

[macneilpi 34]

11 hours ago, ProfJR said:

Based on common tags and searchable contents.

 

Are you suggesting something similar to the auto-naming feature that is linked to the calendar? Or that once assigned to a notebook a note would be auto-tagged with some configurable "default tags" for the notebook?

[jefito 5,589]

17 hours ago, ProfJR said:

Based on common tags and searchable contents.

 

This is pretty vague. The more specific you can be about exactly what you want, the better...

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-01-07 at 8:36 PM, ProfJR said:

Based on common tags and searchable contents.

On my Mac I implemented automatic tags using scripting

This was based not so much on search but more on questions when processing my Inbox
for example - Identify the note type
for receipts - Identify the vendor
I generate selection lists based on parent tags

I also used scripting to generate tags based on content values on my Mac import folder
One example, using scripting, I parse the contents of bank transaction csv files and assign tags based on the vendors

[ProfJR 1]

I am super new to this software/service. What I envision is this...

I want to be able to drag and drop a folder full of documents into an evernote/notebook/note and have it auto tag based on the contents.

Maybe this is a premium feature as it would need search-ability and possibly OCR to determine what the main ideas are.

(I would like to be as hands off as possible, but able to easily search and find whatever I am looking for)

[jefito 5,589]

Evernote already has searchability and OCR for all account levels. What they would need is some sort of rule-based system whereby tags could be automatically applied; that would need to be built up by experience with what you yourself do when tagging. I have difficulties believing that this would be a wholly reliable system, so some sort of feedback loop would probably be required/desired.

[Al Sargent 21]

Yes, Evernote now automatically puts in some tags. It's a step forward, but not nearly enough. We need auto-tag rules, similar to Gmail's filters, to catch what Evernote doesn't seem to be able to "learn" on its own. Here's why.

In the 15 years I've used Gmail, I've built up literally hundreds of auto-tagging rules (Gmail calls them "filters" but it's the same concept). I've done this because it makes it easier to find stuff in Gmail. All the concepts below that apply to Gmail would also apply to Evernote, to make it easier to find stuff in Evernote.

Here are some categories of auto-tagging:

1) Subset/superset relationships. For instance, when a note from a teacher calls out the name of one of my kids, Gmail automatically attaches the label "family". When a note mentions "401k", Gmail automatically attaches the label "Investments". When I receive a newsletter than mentions one of my company's competitors by name, Gmail attaches the label "competitor". You get the point.

2) Related concepts. When emails come from venmo.com and include the words "you paid", Gmail applies the label "receipt". 

3) Synonyms. My siblings have nicknames and commonly misspelled names. Gmail looks at all these, and applies an appropriate label for the sibling. That way I don't have to search for every permutation of their name or nickname.

Here are some examples of where I go through Evernote and manually tag items. It's a pain. Auto-tagging would save me a lot of time.

1. Apply tag corresponding to notebook name. So for example, everything in my Marketing notebook gets the Marketing tag. Everything in the Career notebook gets the Career tag. And so on. I put notes into one of a couple dozen notebooks. But sometimes a note could go into one of two different notebooks. For example, my career is marketing. So, sometimes I'll use the web clipper to pull in something that could go into the career notebook, and sometimes it goes into the marketing notebook. But to find it later, I'll tag it both "career" and "marketing". That say, since everything has a tag, just search by tag.

2. Tag by person name. Do a search for various spellings of my coworkers names, with quotes, as in "John Doe" or (mispelled) "Jon Doe" or nickname "Doe". Then apply a tag "johndoe". This makes it quicker to find meeting notes for that person. Or an article that was referred by that person. 

3. Tag by content type. Quick, what's the advanced search operator to find all notes with a PDF? It's resource:application/pdf. Not the easiest thing to remember, right? So I'll select all notes, search for resource:application/pdf, and tag as "pdf". Much easier to find PDFs. I'll also search for "docs.google.com/document/", "docs.google.com/spreadsheets/", and "docs.google.com/presentation/", and tag those "google doc", "google sheet", and "google slides", respectively. 

4. Tag by synonym. I take notes for an activity I do, sailboat racing. One type of boat is called a Vanguard 15. But articles I pull in through the web clipper might refer to "V15" or "Vanguard 15". I search for both, and apply the tag "Vanguard 15".

5. Tag by superclass. Also in the realm of sailing, I'll put in articles on boats that are called Knarrs, J/70s (also written J70, without the slash), J/105s, (and, J105), and so forth. All of these are a type of boat called a keelboat. So I'll do all those searches and apply the tag "keelboat". In the realm of work, when I clip an article that contains the word "GDPR" or "HIPAA", I'll add the tag "compliance", againn to make things easier to find.

6. Tag by related concept. Someday I'd love to race a boat to Hawaii, and I use Evernote to gather information I'll need to do those, since you're pretty much on your own in terms of packing food, surviving a gear failure (or worse, sunken boat), and so on. There are two main races, Pacific Cup on even years, and Transpac on odd years. They pretty much have the same challenges. When I use web clipper to pull an article with "Pacific Cup" in it, I apply the tag "transpac". Vice-versa when the article contains the word "Transpac". 

Yes, that's a lot of tagging. And I do even more. All to make it possible to locate notes among the thousands I have in Evernote. Hopefully this shows how auto-tagging would be useful.