Hide note list? Or, more generally, why omit options?

[Caladrio 8]

I see that PC users have the option to show/hide the notes list, but I can't find that command for the Mac.  A shortcut would be nice but, to be clear, it's not just a shortcut I can't find, but the command itself.  I can find show/hide sidebar (complete with shortcut), but not the note list.  Can anybody help?  Thanks!

Michael

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, Caladrio said:

I see that PC users have the option to show/hide the notes list, but I can't find that command for the Mac.

Macs have some options for the notes list under the view menu

Hide notelist isn't an option, but you can reduce the size

[Caladrio 8]

Thanks!  In general (I suppose there must be a thread about this, but it's relevant here...), does anybody have a sense of why some functions are available in one platform but not the other?  In this case, it's not like OS X somehow can't allow the function.  Does Evernote think that Mac users and PC users just don't want the same things (and even then, it's not like the "two groups" don't overlap substantially). Do the developers from different platforms not communicate?  Do they just disagree about what users should and shouldn't be able to do?  Are there factions?!  I'm being a little sarcastic, but I feel like this...lack of desire to offer the same tools to different platforms has been going on for many years, and I just don't understand it. It ends up making the product look a little arbitrary, and the company look a little disorganized.  I can easily imagine a user being annoyed that a function they're used to having available is suddenly not an option, because they're using a different platform.  But I really CAN'T imagine a user being...annoyed by the presence of an option they don't happen to use. In other words, what harm would it do?  Obviously, I'm no longer talking just about a fairly trivial show/hide function, but about the underlying principle  that accounts for many such inconsistencies.

[gazumped 11,667]

2 minutes ago, Caladrio said:

Thanks!  In general (I suppose there must be a thread about this, but it's relevant here...), does anybody have a sense of why some functions are available in one platform but not the other?  In this case, it's not like OS X somehow can't allow the function.  Does Evernote think that Mac users and PC users just don't want the same things (and even then, it's not like the "two groups" don't overlap substantially). Do the developers from different platforms not communicate?  Do they just disagree about what users should and shouldn't be able to do?  Are there factions?!  I'm being a little sarcastic, but I feel like this...lack of desire to offer the same tools to different platforms has been going on for many years, and I just don't understand it. It ends up making the product look a little arbitrary, and the company look a little disorganized.  I can easily imagine a user being annoyed that a function they're used to having available is suddenly not an option, because they're using a different platform.  But I really CAN'T imagine a user being...annoyed by the presence of an option they don't happen to use. In other words, what harm would it do?  Obviously, I'm no longer talking just about a fairly trivial show/hide function, but about the underlying principle  that accounts for many such inconsistencies.

Hi.  Long story short - the original Evernote apps were developed by independent teams with instructions to 'do the best you can with your platform'.  So each app started out kinda the same,  but different where 'close a window' commands were less easy to implement in one or other version of MacOS as against multiple version of Windows / Android / iOS et. al.

Now its under new management,  Evernote is moving toward consistency of features across all platforms,  and has been for a couple of years.  It isn't an overnight job though with millions of 'excitable' users pushing for different features and objecting to real or imagined losses of functionality...

[Caladrio 8]

1 minute ago, gazumped said:

Hi.  Long story short - the original Evernote apps were developed by independent teams with instructions to 'do the best you can with your platform'.  So each app started out kinda the same,  but different where 'close a window' commands were less easy to implement in one or other version of MacOS as against multiple version of Windows / Android / iOS et. al.

Now its under new management,  Evernote is moving toward consistency of features across all platforms,  and has been for a couple of years.  It isn't an overnight job though with millions of 'excitable' users pushing for different features and objecting to real or imagined losses of functionality...

 

[Caladrio 8]

Thanks!  While "not overnight" strikes me as a massive understatement , I guess if cross-platform consistency has only recently become more of a priority, then, yes, they've not had a lot of time, and there's clearly a lot on their plate (also an understatement). But it's good to hear that it has become more of a priority. I think Evernote will benefit enormously from that.  I just hope that the general rule will be to add features to the platforms missing them, rather than eliminating features for the sake of uniformity.

I really appreciate the reply/background!

M.

[DTLow 5,736]

31 minutes ago, Caladrio said:

Do the developers from different platforms not communicate?  Do they just disagree about what users should and shouldn't be able to do?  Are there factions?

As @Gazumped said, historically there was independent development, so your analysis may be right

Also, the development makes use of the different platforms and screen sizes
An extreme example is that Evernote doe not develop its own mouse drivers, it uses the features available in the OS and we can use a mouse in the Mac/Window platforms
A less extreme example is the table features of the Mac/Windows OS, but not IOS

[Caladrio 8]

At this stage, I think that tablets and handheld devices (and probably the web version) having less functionality than the desktop versions is pretty understandable. I wouldn't expect uniformity between desktop and handheld until the handheld devices become way more powerful.  Plus, with limited screen size, certain functions simply become irrelevant. 

[gazumped 11,667]

Yeah - there will also be differences between 'phones / tablets  and laptops where the UI is designed to work better on big vs small displays,  or use touch control instead of keyboard and mouse options...  not an easy job!

[LogInToProceed 0]

It's been years since I bagan to use Evernote and I like it in general. However, to my surprise, every missing feature I need from Evernote's Mac client these days has been added to its Windows version years ago (at least 3 yrs ago, in this case). I am not saying that cross-platform development is easy but there is obviously a stunning difference between these two versions and the Mac version, for me at least, is only slightly better than the Web version. I think it's safe to say that Evernote, in many ways, is more of a Windows-only product.

[gazumped 11,667]

On 11/28/2020 at 3:04 AM, LogInToProceed said:

I think it's safe to say that Evernote, in many ways, is more of a Windows-only product.

Yet Macs had several options not open to Windows users and vice-versa.  Of course that was before Evernote completely rewrote their applications recently to work in broadly the same way on all operating systems - subject to minor differences due to keyboards vs screens and variable screen sizes.  See the v10 reviews everywhere...