(Archived) Is Evernote the solution I'm looking for?

[Philosofy 1]

My job is in sales for a chemical distribution company. I sell thousands of products, and can't remember everything. I've been playing with Bento, but I think Evernote might fit the bill and be easier to work with.

I'd like to justify getting an iPad. It would be great to show presentations to customers with, and have the data I could use on a sales call. Evernote could help with this.

First, I need to have my presentations organized. I have plenty of training presentations, but often only a couple slides are what I need. I need the presentation stored on my iPad, along with keywords. So, a presentation called "2009 Training" is too vague for me to remember what's in it. I'd like to be able to attach the name of the manufacturer (ABC Chemicals), the subject ("Exterior Pigments for Housepaints"), and some notes on the presentation (ie, "Good color chart on slide 36. Competitive offsets on slide 42.")

Second, I have plenty of Tech Data Sheets for my products. Ordinary file systems on computers won't let you attach notes. One of the things I sell is colored pigments. Data that you need to know about pigments include the color index number, the color, exterior durability, the shade of the pigment, etc. On one sales call, a customer might ask if I have any blue pigments. I'd like to pull up a list of the blue pigments, along with being able to look at the notes on those products. (Do you want inexpensive? Exterior durable? Heat resistance? Automotive grade?) Or a customer could tell me he is developing a new automotive paint, and I'd like to be able to bring up a list of pigments durable enough for automotive use.

I envision different notebooks for the different types of products I sell (pigments, resins, UV absorbers, anti oxidants, etc.) Can Evernote search all those notebooks for my criteria? Will it scan the pdf's of the literature I attach, and let me search on those? Can I exclude the search from the body of the pdf, and search the attached notes only? Can I email the attached files to my customer from Evernote?

Also, many of my customers have lousy cell service in their labs, and do not have wireless networks. The data needs to be on my phone, iPad, and computer. From what I understand, Evernote can handle that without a problem. It would also come in handy for my expense reports. I know there are lots of expense apps out there, but our accounting department wants it on their form. With Evernote, I could bring up the spreadsheet on my phone or iPad, enter an expense, and it would sync to my laptop. At the end of the week, I just attach the receipts and print out the report.

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but I think thats enough for now.

Thanks!

Phil

[engberg 89]

Evernote is primarily for taking down notes of things you want to remember (e.g. web pages), but you can also throw files into your notes for access elsewhere. If you only want to store a big set of files, and you only need to synchronize those to different computers, there are more specialized solutions (like Dropbox) that may do that well.

If, however, you also want to be able to type into notes, search within your notes, clip from the web, etc. then Evernote can be a good solutions. If you have a Premium account, you can add files up to 50MB to a note, and then open those on any device that can view that type of file. On the iPad, you can also synchronize all of your data so that you can view it without a network connection. (You won't be able to edit the embedded presentations from the iPad, but you can view them.)

[Philosofy 1]

Thanks Dave. I don't think Dropbox is the solution I'm looking for: from what I understand, it will sync files, but I need a way to attach notes to those files. I thought the Bento database would be a way to go, but Bento for the iPad won't let you add a field that links to files. What I need is keyword search, or to tag, different files. I don't need to search the files themselves, but just have a way to search the descriptions I give them, then open the appropriate file.

[crispinb 8]

Thanks Dave. I don't think Dropbox is the solution I'm looking for: from what I understand, it will sync files, but I need a way to attach notes to those files. I thought the Bento database would be a way to go, but Bento for the iPad won't let you add a field that links to files. What I need is keyword search, or to tag, different files. I don't need to search the files themselves, but just have a way to search the descriptions I give them, then open the appropriate file.

Dropbox does sync HFS extended attributes, which is where things like 'Spotlight Comments' and coloured labels are stored. There are many 3rd party apps that allow you to 'tag' files on the mac, and again these generally use HFS EAs (see eg http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilit ... -for-os-x/).

On the face of it, this aspect of your requirements (syncing files plus attached notes) could be achieved by using Dropbox plus a tagging scheme.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

IMO, the best way to see if something will work for you is to actually use it. In the very distant past, I've had the misfortune of sitting through demos of software that left me with stars in my eyes, begging my manager for approval to get the software. And then when you actually sit down to use it, you realize it does some very cool things, but maybe not the stuff that you want it to do. With EN, there is no trial version. Only free & premium. If the free account does all you need it to, you could conceivably use it forever without paying a cent. If you want to experiment with a feature of the premium version, you can pay the hefty sum of $5/month for a month to see if it works the way you think it will.

[Philosofy 1]

I started playing with Evernote tonight, and this thing ROCKS! Its just what I was looking for! I have one problem and one question:

1. I tried to upgrade to a monthly premium account, and my iPhone tells me I need to purchase the app first. ???

2. I have folders with large numbers of files that need to be separate notes. Is there a way for to drag files into Evernote, and each file will be a different note, or some way to import them? Right now, the only way I can do it is to create a new note in the appropriate notebook, click on that note switch to finder, drag the file into the note. Can I drag a bunch of files, or create a lot of new notes automatically?

[ruudhein 29]

If you're using one of the desktop clients (I'm on Windows and use both Evernote 3.1 and 3.5) you can add "watch" folders from which Evernote will automatically import files.

Each files you place in that folder will get imported into a new note

[engberg 89]

1. I'm not sure what you're referring to for the purchase. If you wanted, you could try to buy a monthly or annual subscription from the phone again. If you get this error message again, a screen shot would be really helpful.

Otherwise, you can just log in to your account on our web site and upgrade your subscription there via a credit card.

2. Try dragging two files and drop them onto either our application icon, or onto a notebook. That should create two different notes.

[Philosofy 1]

Thanks Dave. It worked great.

Now I have another question: is there a way to tag multiple items at once? I've dragged a whole bunch of files into a notebook, and it made each one a separate note, and even named them! I'd like to highlight ones that will get a certain tag, and tag them all at once, rather than one at a time.

If possible, I'd like to rename all the files, also. The files are named "MSDS Product A", "MSDS Product B", etc. But I might want the renamed to just Product A and Product B.

This program is great! Your explanation on the App store page really doesn't do it justice.

[engberg 89]

There's no way to change the titles in a batch, but if you create your tags on the left side, you can drag multiple notes and drop them onto a tag to assign that tag to all of the notes.

[Philosofy 1]

There's no way to change the titles in a batch, but if you create your tags on the left side, you can drag multiple notes and drop them onto a tag to assign that tag to all of the notes.

That's a great way to do it! Thanks!

Here's another question (one that I should probably read the FAQ for), but when my co workers see what I can do with Evernote, I'm sure they'll want it as well, along with the work I put into it. Is there a way to send them my data so all their notebooks will look like mine?

[engberg 89]

You can use File>Export to export a selected set of notes, or right-click on a Notebook to Export all of the notes in that notebook. That will create a file on your computer that contains a copy of each of those notes. Someone else can Import it to create duplicate notes in their own copy of Evernote. Those copies are separate from yours, so any changes you make won't be reflected on their computers.

From the web, you can Share one of your notebooks with someone else. They can view and edit notes in that notebook from the web (only). In the future, we plan to allow guests to access the contents of Shared notebooks from within our native client software so you don't need to use the web.