Pin notes to the top of notebook

[sjgmail 22]

For example if I want move up a note towards the top of the notebook stack manually. Is this possible?

[Shane D. 1,359]

Thanks @CalS!

Hi All,

You may have noticed that all threads requesting the ability to pin notes to the top of a notebook have been merged into this thread, regardless of platform specificity. 

This was done in order to better enable us to quantify and qualify user requests, and amplify their voice.

While this does not mean this is a feature that will be coming, we certainly want to relay user feedback/sentiment to our various teams.

Moving forward, please put all commentary and votes for the ability to pin notes to the top of a notebook here!

[chad825 11]

Please allow notes to be manually ordered rather than by creation date, name, etc. I want to be able to place my notes and notebooks wherever I want in whatever order I want; an order that makes the most sense for me.

[MikeH 13]

Add my voice to those who would really the option of being able to sort notes and stacks manually. It's a feature that has been missing for years, and I say this as an Evernote Premium users of many years with 10,021 notes and counting.

Yes, I know about the various workarounds using reminders, title names, tags, one-note-as-TOC, etc. I periodically come to the forums to learn about new things in Evernote and people's clever ways of using it, and I also often search for how to do manual sorting. There are plenty of postings where people discuss one technique or another, but none are the same thing as being able to order one's notes and notebooks directly by putting them into the desired order in the note views and notebook views. The fact that people have to resort to various hacks should be enough to indicate that manual sorting is a desirable but missing feature.

Judging from some past forum discussions about this topic, some people will feel compelled to reply asking me why I want this feature, or lecture me that it's unnecessary, or helpfully point out one hack or another to achieve it.  That won't be necessary.  I would like this feature in Evernote because I believe it would make it easier and more intuitive for me to organize my notes, based on my experiences. I know workarounds exist but I find them unsuitable.  If they work for you, great!  But they don't for me.

There does not seem to be a way to request features from Evernote directly anymore, and based on what I've read in the forums, it seems like posting to the forums is the way to make our requests heard. That is my only purpose here. I know the company that makes Evernote is not obligated to implement every snowflake feature that people request. I'm not complaining that the situation is a deal-breaker for me.  I'm only trying to say "I'm another long-time user who would like this feature because it would address a long-standing problem for me".

 

 

[Ein Doofus 7]

I really hate it when startups appear to have absolutely no HCI experts. Most of Evernote is pretty smooth and intuitive but this feature shows a severe lack of insight. Why do you think people even use your app?

 

Without an electronic note taking system students need to organize bulks of printed class notes and jot down critical information into a notebook. The problem with this is you can't really copy and paste a screenshot into your notebook. Nor can you arrange those screenshots and notes into a system that follows your personal thinking process.

 

For example, I'm studying and I keep coming across the same thing that was critical in Lecture 1. I want to take a screenshot and sort it into that information. How can I do that in Evernote? I can't! You've recreated the same problem that exists with paper notebooks but put it in an electronic medium. You've created a static organizational system where it doesn't even have to exist. Please fix this.

 

Also, your Evernote peek App looks interesting but I have no idea how it relates to your main App. Do I have to create a separate notebook just for Flash cards? How would I be able to organize those flash cards when I have 100+ if I want to review only a subset that relate to a specific topic?

 

You have the largest range of features but you don't know how to organize it properly so that it's user-friendly. Please get on top of this unless you want a competitor to bridge that gap.

[leandrofnjr2@gmail.com 2]

It's so simple. Evernote is very good app , but this update is basic and necessary to organize notes

[daveseemonster 10]

I love the "create table of contents note" option - I think it is the best way to understand the content of a notebook and navigate that notebook efficiently.

 

I would like to be able to pin a note to the top of the notebook, no matter how the notebook is organized. I would mostly use this to pin "table of contents" notes, but I would use it on other occasions as well.

 

And yes, reminders would technically do it but I think that is a little ugly. For me, that would mean having 36 perpetual reminders, one for each notebook. Way too much clutter for me. I think the "shortcuts" feature could address this as well, but again, there would be 36 shortcuts that I would have to visually sort through. It would be much easier to see just the note I want as I navigate to the appropriate notebook.

 

This seems to be a hot topic, here are other posts requesting this feature, starting with this post:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/50972-feature-request-pin-notes-to-the-top-of-the-notebook-browser/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/41293-feature-request-pin-notes/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/49215-feature-request-pin-note-to-top/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/34064-request-pin-notes-and-notebooks-to-start/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/23092-request-pin-one-note-on-the-top-always/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/42968-pin-note-to-top/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/33642-sticky-notes-the-ability-to-pin-notes-to-the-top-of-a-list/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/40833-is-it-possible-to-pin-a-note-to-the-top/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18324-feature-request-pin-notes-favorites/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/30585-feature-request-for-android-client-pin-note-to-notification-bar/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/24278-feature-request-pinned-notes/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/24796-map-view-of-notes/

[bradbell.tv 2]

This seems like an important omission. Especially as I began using Evernote as a way of writing on note cards and manually arranging them as a method of writing. Oh, well. Uninstall. 

[lrainaldi 223]

Is there a way to "pin" a note to the top of a notebook. My notes sort by most recent edit which I love. But I would like to have one note stay at the top, like TOC or summary.

 

Any ideas?

[C. Wess 5]

I'd like to see a pinning option as well. 

[Fco 6]

To be able to pin notes on top of a notebook (like in these forums are pinned important topics), where you may want to gather links to important notes, or just specific remarks and descriptions for that notebook would be great.

Maybe I am not the first one to think about this, but I really miss it.

[Fco 6]

Thanks guys for your tips... They seem to be a good way around. But I just implemented the "reminder trick" and I get a list of "fake" reminders mixed with my real reminders, which doesn't look nice and tidy at all.

This is kind of  a "throwing the garbage in the living room to get the flies out of the kitchen" solution.

I would love to see something like a pushpin button on the top of my note.

[akki3489 2]

I so want an option for pinning a note. I dont like to change the date of my notes. 

please, make it happen. Eagerly waiting for this feature. 

Thanks 

[TheGooch 25]

On 1/27/2016 at 10:52 PM, akki3489 said:

I so want an option for pinning a note. I dont like to change the date of my notes. 

please, make it happen. Eagerly waiting for this feature. 

Thanks 

Same here. I'm always changing how notes are sorted, to I need a unique note attribute that designates that it should always be on top.I tried reading through the explanation of the reminders technique but it was TLDR. and if it's that long, it's too complicated to be useful 

 

the process should be this simple:

1. choose note to pin
2. click on pin icon on note
3. note moves to the top of the notes list

 

done.

[CalS 4,795]

3 hours ago, TheGooch said:

Same here. I'm always changing how notes are sorted, to I need a unique note attribute that designates that it should always be on top.I tried reading through the explanation of the reminders technique but it was TLDR. and if it's that long, it's too complicated to be useful 

 

the process should be this simple:

1. choose note to pin
2. click on pin icon on note
3. note moves to the top of the notes list

 

done.

This feature has been in the request queue for a while, so who knows if/when it will appear.  Common workaround seems to be to modify Created or Updated date, whichever date you use the most to sort, thereby forcing the note to the top.

[Lancelot3777 0]

I'd like this option as well April 11, 2016

[jameskachan 17]

While I admire your passion and dedication, this is of course a tedious and unideal process to workaround poor design. If you ever wanted to add new notes or notebooks or reflow you'd have to rename everything. 

A workaround yes, but one you should never have to do. So let's hope Evernote addresses this properly.

 

thanks for writing. 

By the way  -

I tweeted at the CEO of Evernote about this, perhaps more people should till it's addressed. 

[Jonathan Michael Copeland 13]

Yes, but I like having my notes ordered by date added. What you are suggesting will bring anarchy and chaos to my system. Thanks though. 

[jefito 5,528]

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

This topic seems more like "anarchy and chaos"

Do reminders "pin" in the Mac client? They do in some note views of the Windows client, and that works well for me.

[jefito 5,528]

On 4/4/2017 at 7:47 PM, GoTechGuy said:

It is nice to keep the most Updated notes at the top of the Notebook in Snippet View, but it would be really nice to push-pin the most important Note to the top ... and all the updated ones continue to jockey for the top under it.  The most important notes may not be updated that often mostly as a point of reference.

If you're referring to the Snippet View in the Windows client, the easy thing to do to pin a note to the top of the list is to add a reminder to it, either dated or undated. In Snippet view, notes with reminders are also maintained in a separate collapsible list at the top of the standard note list. The reminder list is also separately sortable, either by updated date or arbitrarily (my dragging notes up or down the list). This is my default configuration.

[DenisSeidel 0]

I'm really missing this feature, because this would be great for notes that contain an index of the notes in a specific notebook.

[DTLow 5,234]

Just an fyi; Evernote is rolling out a new Spaces feature.  It allows for pinning notes

[helloandyhihi 7]

I tried using a writing program called Scriviner, but I found its UI/UX too clunky. Using an Evernote notebook, you can achieve pretty much everything Scriviner does... but not being able to manually order notes is hugely inconvenient. I'm surprised people have been asking for this since 2013, it doesn't sound like it would be too difficult to implement. 

[mingomongo 2]

On 2/16/2019 at 1:31 AM, CalS said:

Asked for many times.  What is your default sort for the notebook(s)?

My default sort is by 'Created'. I've already used the trick to change the 'Created By' date to sometime in the distant future (2021) to artificially pin my notes to the top.

I'm just annoyed as to why there isn't simply just a 'Pin to the top' feature. Doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to implement...

[kavlito 0]

Please, Please, Please add this pinning feature to the top of Notebooks ( I don't care for the Reminder feature). As a freelance Tech Consultant, I have hundreds of notebooks for clients.  Within each notebook, I title the notes by date.  When I'm preparing for a future meeting, I create the note for that date, but it gets lost in the sea of notes as it is moved down when newer notes are created. I would prefer to pin it to the top of the notebook (as pinning has become a more universal feature).

However, if you are adamant about not creating a pinning feature (which seems to be the case based on how old this topic is), at least move the Reminder from the More Note Commands menu to an easily accessible icon, maybe next to the Repeat Command icon.

Thanks.

[MoribitoMT 2]

Evernote has great sort options for ordering/sorting notes. However most of times, I need to put my notes to a specific order, then I have to put number before note names, and it becomes messy. It could be great to create our notes order by kind of indexing them. Name, Date, Updated Date, etc.. great by never cover my needs. I believe there are many people out there share same problem.

1. Note Name

2. Note Name

3. Note Name

[bdkeadle 2]

I found this thread, because I was looking for how to pin a note to the top regardless of sort criteria.

USE CASE:

I keep a daily log of things I do at work. I'd like to have a TODOs/Ideas note at the top, so that in the course of my day, when I think of something I need to do at some point, or some idea, it's right there at the top for reference.  Currently, if I don't have any new TODOs/Ideas for several days/weeks, the note eventually gets pushed down out of my view (because I sort my daily notes by date).

 

[DTLow 5,234]

7 hours ago, bdkeadle said:

Currently, if I don't have any new TODOs/Ideas for several days/weeks, the note eventually gets pushed down out of my view (because I sort my daily notes by date).

Still merging the "pin" discussions.

You're welcome to add your vote for this request.  Voting buttons are at the top left corner of the discussion.

In the meantime, we can use the Shortcut Section for pinning.

• Shortcts to notes can be pinned, as well as tags, and saved searches
• I have a tag  !HotNotes at the top that gives me quick access to notes so tagged 

[lein 1]

The reminder workaround doesn't work anymore. There are important notes that I would like pined to the top. Now there is no way to do so. It is a very basic functionality. 

[SNiederauer 0]

Please, create the possibility for us users, to freeze the notes (inside notebooks) or notebooks (at main page) that us mostly use (let us choose), on the top, instead just the alphabetical organization (notebooks) or time organization (notes).

Maybe it may be attached to localization services (if the user wants) and specifically notebooks appear on the top of main page according to the user localization.

PS: Sorry if this feature already exists.

Thanks

Edited March 7, 2019 by SNiederauer
development of syntax and semantics

[Bill Butler 7]

So why after almost 6 years is this very simple request--pinning a note--not a feature in the product???

 

[Bill Butler 7]

On 3/30/2019 at 4:18 PM, DTLow said:

Do you actually know this is "very simple"?
Do you have an estimate of the work-hours and other costs for implementing this change?

DTLow, I assume this is not a rhetorical question, and thus deserves an answer. 

First some background for context to my responses. I have been developing software since I was 12, almost forty years ago. I have been servicing my clients in the role of enterprise architect for the last 20 years. During that time I have worked on everything from the IBM 3090Z down to the Arduino. I have architected, managed a team and worked on the development of a custom Point Of Sale platform for 300 stores with multi-modal distribution (register, mobile and web).  This system had HA (High Availability) requirements and was down for a total of 2 hours over 7 years.We delivered new functionality every 3-4 weeks. I have other CV stories if interested.

We have had several clients who are in the health care and social work space. These clients were extensive note takers, and we have built out note systems that are not unlike Evernote in concept with attachment and WYSIWYG capabilities.

A recent project in the health care space is currently in the neighborhood of 300K in development costs and is both web and mobile. While they haven't asked me yet to implement such a feature, being able to Pin a note in a client's file would probably take about a max of 2 man-days or say $2000 in developer time and testing.

Yes it should be simple in the grand scheme of things!!

As a guess Evernote should be using some sort of document style database (couch, mongodb, etc)  for its back end. Such storage mediums are extremely forgiving to the introduction or removal of data elements. You can add a new field to a JSON or XML block and no consumer of such a change would care.

To support pinning a note, all one needs to do is add a new bit type/boolean field to the data structure, and then make sure it is present in the (hopefully) common data management layer that exists. (Yes we can talk about sharding storage across multiple servers and the need to coordinate synchronization, but they should have tools to deal with these issues to make this update trivial.)

It will take time to update all of the presentation modes they offer (desktop, web, etc), but once again this is a relatively straight forward feature. They already have a segment of code which orders notes, and which places notes with reminders at the top of the list. It should be a day per mode to change and test code to "pin" a note at the top. 

It is simple because they have had 6+ years since the first request showed up on this feature, and they could have inlined the request with any of the other changes they were making without having any measurable development costs.

I have been using their web beta since January and haven't seen any significant changes in feature set which they were promising were coming. I have to ask myself what they are doing over there.

If I hadn't already made a solid commitment to use Evernote for the last 6 years , I might consider switching back to OneNote.

 

 

 

 

 

[jefito 5,528]

It's fun & exciting to speculate on degree-of-difficulty issues in changing someone else's software system. In the interest in supplying some extra context, some quick thoughts:

Evernote technical blog posts on Evernote architectural features -- a little dated, I think, but overall should still be relevant (modulo the fact that Evernote now does live in the cloud --  rather than their own servers):

• https://evernote.com/blog/whysql/
• https://evernote.com/blog/so-api-together-evernote-and-thrift/
• https://evernote.com/blog/a-digest-of-evernotes-architecture/
• The tech blog repository is here, for further perusal: https://evernote.com/blog/category/tech/

So somethoughts abotu the analysis offered 

• The API: adding new fields means updating the API, used both by Evernote and 3rd-party applications. What are the implications of an API change? (Evernote Developer docs here: https://dev.evernote.com/doc/, API Reference here: http://dev.evernote.com/doc/reference/http://dev.evernote.com/doc/reference/)
• At a guess, adding the pinning feature is most likely a bit (cough) more than just adding a Pinned boolean. Pinning as implemented by in reminders also includes an ordering (reminderOrderTime). I'd assume that that would be desirable here as well. How much more development time this might take would be guesswork.
• UI work seems to be underplayed in the analysis, given that pinning is not an on/off operation (or shouldn't be)
• Policy stuff:
  • Is 'pinning' a local or gobal property? I.e., if I share a note or notebook with someone else, do my pinned notes become someone else's pinned notes? Reminder state, including reminder order is shared (it's persisted in the ENML). If that's desired for normal note pinning, then the ENML spec must change as well.
  • Is pinning a note in the new way independent of pinning in the old reminder way? I.e., if you pin a note in the new way, is it automatically pinned in reminders as well?

Note that nowhere here am I suggesting that this couldn't or shouldn't be done, or making any claims on feasibility. Just providing a little more context for the armchair quarterbacks among us (I do it too!)...

[ToddC 0]

I have been waiting for this feature for years... seems incredible that this simple feature that exists on all other note taking platforms is not yet implemented in Evernote. Please please please add this!!!!  I'll send you a gift basket. :)

[Colleen O 10]

I'm trying to use a notebook as a manual. The "pages" of my manual constantly get messed up based on when I edit it. In any of my notebooks, I would LOVE to be able to rearrange notes in some order. 

Meanwhile, I've created a TOC, moved the links around to the preferred order, then used the hack to set the edit date to sometime in the future so the TOC stays at the top.

For a previous ToC that I created in another notebook, to keep certain types of notes organized without having to merge them, it has moved "down" as more notes have been added to that notebook. It seems the date hack needs to be used to keep it on the top of the list?

+1 for note pinning

[Albert Newton 0]

Is there any way to pin a post to the top of a Notebook ? 

[Sarina Z 0]

WHENNNN will we be able to PIN notes to the top??? This is an absurd oversight regarding organization functionality. 

[gazumped 8,065]

Or (on a desktop) drag the note into your Favorites section so you can get to it in one click.  It works after that on mobiles too.

[l3utterfish 14]

Yes, I came here to suggest this option. 

 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,259]

For example if I want move up a note towards the top of the notebook stack manually. Is this possible?

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

What you want to do is not possible. On the Mac, you could put the note into shortcuts, and that space on the left sidebar is the only one in all of the clients where you can manually re-arrange notes. Otherwise, you have to resort to a bit of ingenuity.

In my case, I title everything YYMMDD, so if I sort by title, then everything is arranged chronologically. I can also put a future date into the note, and my note for 2050 will always appear at the top.

You could also sort by title and put an exclamation mark (!) at the front of the note title to make it appear first. Obviously, changing the note created, note updated, and other metadata will affect the order as well.

An "index" note full of note links to important notes will give you manual sort order as well. I have one that I always start off with each day, because it has links to all of my main categories of notes.

[sjgmail 22]

For example if I want move up a note towards the top of the notebook stack manually. Is this possible?

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

What you want to do is not possible. On the Mac, you could put the note into shortcuts, and that space on the left sidebar is the only one in all of the clients where you can manually re-arrange notes. Otherwise, you have to resort to a bit of ingenuity.

In my case, I title everything YYMMDD, so if I sort by title, then everything is arranged chronologically. I can also put a future date into the note, and my note for 2050 will always appear at the top.

You could also sort by title and put an exclamation mark (!) at the front of the note title to make it appear first. Obviously, changing the note created, note updated, and other metadata will affect the order as well.

An "index" note full of note links to important notes will give you manual sort order as well. I have one that I always start off with each day, because it has links to all of my main categories of notes.

ok I see. So i f I want to make a note appear at the top of the stack I can just insert "1" and the subsequent note "2"?

Also does the android or windows version have this "shortcut" feature?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,259]

For example if I want move up a note towards the top of the notebook stack manually. Is this possible?

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

What you want to do is not possible. On the Mac, you could put the note into shortcuts, and that space on the left sidebar is the only one in all of the clients where you can manually re-arrange notes. Otherwise, you have to resort to a bit of ingenuity.

In my case, I title everything YYMMDD, so if I sort by title, then everything is arranged chronologically. I can also put a future date into the note, and my note for 2050 will always appear at the top.

You could also sort by title and put an exclamation mark (!) at the front of the note title to make it appear first. Obviously, changing the note created, note updated, and other metadata will affect the order as well.

An "index" note full of note links to important notes will give you manual sort order as well. I have one that I always start off with each day, because it has links to all of my main categories of notes.

ok I see. So i f I want to make a note appear at the top of the stack I can just insert "1" and the subsequent note "2"?

Also does the android or windows version have this "shortcut" feature?

I'd use 01 and 02. No one else has the shortcut feature... yet

[ClutterBGone 143]

For example if I want move up a note towards the top of the notebook stack manually. Is this possible?

Hello and welcome: here are several shortcuts I have used;

!:A - today's note

!A - Shopping list

A - To do list

C- You get the idea

Regards,

David in Wichita

[GrumpyMonkey 4,259]

This seems like an important omission. Especially as I began using Evernote as a way of writing on note cards and manually arranging them as a method of writing. Oh, well. Uninstall.

Hi. Welcome to the forums. It's not an omission, but a design decision (search the forums and you will find discussions about this). I would also like to see manual sorting, but if/until we get it, there are a couple of workarounds:

(1) Arrange note links in a note to create a table of contents. You can move things about as you please.

(2) Use the Shortcuts area to arrange notes as you would like.

[JohnnyJohnster 21]

I like the table of contents idea using the note links. But thats too bad rearranging is not supported. 

[jbenson2 2,122]

I like the table of contents idea using the note links. But thats too bad rearranging is not supported. 

If I don't like the sequence, and I want to fine-tune some specific notes, I will change the "Created Date" to adjust the sort. Then create a new table of contents.

[Jack Doheny 0]

I just bought a 3rd party app EverMove and it is supposed to allow you to move items around as you folks are talking about.  I just got it today and of course I'd like to use it if I knew how.  I emailed the company to see if they had any information for me.  Haven't heard back?  I think it was $1.99....  If I learn anymore I check back.

[Scruffy Dog 8]

Hi all,

 

I like to use my notepads like websites and usually have one note that acts like the homepage of a website which is used to navigate to other notes in the notebook. It would be nice if I could have this "homepage" note pinned permanently to the top of the notebook browser.

 

Cheers

[gazumped 8,065]

Obvious workarounds - use a reminder,  change the created date to 1/1/2020,  or put a'home page' bookmark into the menu bar.  Not sure I'd use this feature if it existed - it would get confused with reminders...

[Scruffy Dog 8]

I don't see how setting myself a reminder to do something in a decades is an "obvious" workaround but it works, though not as elegantly as I'd like

 

thanks

[gazumped 8,065]

You're welcome.

 

I think.

[jefito 5,528]

Reminders work pretty well for me, actually? Elegant? Perhaps not, function usually triumphs over lack of functionality, in my book, and that's the reality of today's Evernote.

As regards a table of contents note, that's actually a great use; if you've filtered on a particular notebook (btw, you don't need separate shortcuts for that purpose), you'll only see the reminder for that notebook, and not all of the other 35. Conversely, if you have 36 table of content reminders, and you're looking at your whole note collection, then you can browse the TOC reminders in the reminders list (seems useful on its own), or use one click to hide it. I don't really see much downside. Well, except for the fact that table-of-contents notes need to be updated when you add or remove notes from a notebook, which could be tedious.

[daveseemonster 10]

My concern with the reminders isn't when I'm in the notebook, its when I'm actually trying to look at my reminders and 36 of them are useless. I'm a very organized person, as I assume many are who use Evernote! I keep my notebooks pretty clean and declutter often. Definitely not elegant, I would rather do without the feature than use that work-around. But the method you described does have some benefits, too! Seeing the all of the TOC notes when looking at all notes does seem helpful! I imagine if the pinned notes feature existed, seeing all of the pinned notes in the all-notes view might be distracting as well. Then your page would consist of reminders, pinned notes, and finally your notes list. And somehow we arrive back at clutter!

[jefito 5,528]

My concern with the reminders isn't when I'm in the notebook, its when I'm actually trying to look at my reminders and 36 of them are useless.

Reminders respond to the current note filter, just as notes do, since reminders are, after all, notes with reminder stuff tacked on. There's nothing stopping you from tagging them for smarter filtering. You can also sort the reminder list separately from the note list, at least in Windows (reminder date or title), so you have some control there, too. You might consider a "TOC" tag and a "Todo" (or whatever) tag to distinguish, for example. Or if your true reminder tags have reminder dates, those will float to the top, over undated reminders.

 

I'm a very organized person, as I assume many are who use Evernote! I keep my notebooks pretty clean and declutter often. Definitely not elegant, I would rather do without the feature than use that work-around. But the method you described does have some benefits, too! Seeing the all of the TOC notes when looking at all notes does seem helpful! I imagine if the pinned notes feature existed, seeing all of the pinned notes in the all-notes view might be distracting as well. Then your page would consist of reminders, pinned notes, and finally your notes list. And somehow we arrive back at clutter!

Yeah, it's not clear to me that the proposed pinned notes solutions offer much more than reminders already do. But then again, I don't need much more than that; I'm sure that others have more ambition needs...

[JV70 0]

This seems like an important omission. Especially as I began using Evernote as a way of writing on note cards and manually arranging them as a method of writing. Oh, well. Uninstall. 

I was checking out Evernote for this feature also.  You can do it in OneNote on a PC, but not in their Android app.

[BurgersNFries 2,406]

I really hate it when startups appear to have absolutely no HCI experts. Most of Evernote is pretty smooth and intuitive but this feature shows a severe lack of insight. Why do you think people even use your app?

 

Without an electronic note taking system students need to organize bulks of printed class notes and jot down critical information into a notebook. The problem with this is you can't really copy and paste a screenshot into your notebook. Nor can you arrange those screenshots and notes into a system that follows your personal thinking process.

 

For example, I'm studying and I keep coming across the same thing that was critical in Lecture 1. I want to take a screenshot and sort it into that information. How can I do that in Evernote? I can't! You've recreated the same problem that exists with paper notebooks but put it in an electronic medium. You've created a static organizational system where it doesn't even have to exist. Please fix this.

 

Also, your Evernote peek App looks interesting but I have no idea how it relates to your main App. Do I have to create a separate notebook just for Flash cards? How would I be able to organize those flash cards when I have 100+ if I want to review only a subset that relate to a specific topic?

 

You have the largest range of features but you don't know how to organize it properly so that it's user-friendly. Please get on top of this unless you want a competitor to bridge that gap.

 

 

Well, as this is your first post, maybe you are in the wrong class.  Or maybe you need to learn more about the apps & what they can or cannot do before condemning them.  There are plenty of uses for Evernote that do not include arranging notes manually.  However, I'm easily able to copy/paste screen shots into my notebooks.  Or arrange the photos within the notes.  There is plenty of information here on the board about how to use EN, if you're interested.

 

Good luck.

[ObviousBob 129]

Reminders CAN be manually sorted - so I use them both as a task list and as a way to keep notes I'm interested in at the top of the display (Android). If you have a group of notes you want sorted, you can put them in a Notebook together, make them all Reminders, and now you have a list of notes that can be manually reordered.

 

Not that I wouldn't mind the ability to manually reorder notes. But for now, using Reminders for my currently active notes is a good workaround.

[geekyakilut 0]

 

In my case, I title everything YYMMDD, so if I sort by title, then everything is arranged chronologically. I can also put a future date into the note, and my note for 2050 will always appear at the top.

hi,

your post made me wonder whether titling everything by date is redundant (for the purpose of arranging notes chronologically) or not, 'cuz can't we already do that with sort by created?? just curious...  let me know if there are any differences.

Thanks in advance.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,259]

In my case, I title everything YYMMDD, so if I sort by title, then everything is arranged chronologically. I can also put a future date into the note, and my note for 2050 will always appear at the top.

hi,

your post made me wonder whether titling everything by date is redundant or not, 'cuz can't we already do that with sort by created?? just curious...  let me know if there are any differences.

Thanks in advance.

Hi. Yes, it is redundant. But, it makes my notes more portable (unique titles help to avoid problems and ensure that they retain some semblance of order when I carry them in and out of other apps), it means I don't have to change sorts, and I can adjust the dates as needed (a pain on the Mac and impossible on the iPad using the fields).

The ultimate minimalist workflow would be to just toss everything into your account and rely on the search features and sorts to manage it. This is entirely doable. However, you may have a tough time moving out of Evernote if you need to in the future, and you'll probably be better off working on the desktop versions of Evernote. It's up to you, but the string of numbers (20140528) at the beginning doesn't hurt anything.

[jefito 5,528]

Reminders CAN be manually sorted

Whoa, really? I can't do it on any Evernote client that I use (Windows, Android, web). You can change the reminder date, sure, but I don't tthink that that means the same thing. Or am I missing something?

[SebR 146]

There is a reminderOrder parameter (looking at an enex export, it seems to  register the time when you set the reminder), but I don't know how to easily change it : the only way I see is to reset all reminders and set them in a new order.

[phils 218]

For those on Windows wanting to manually arrange and organize (and outline) notes, you may want to check out our TuskTools Treeliner, now in beta.

[jefito 5,528]

There is a reminderOrder parameter (looking at an enex export, it seems to  register the time when you set the reminder), but I don't know how to easily change it : the only way I see is to reset all reminders and set them in a new order.

Yeah, that field. Isn't really intended to be a user-editable thing; see http://dev.evernote.com/doc/reference/javadoc/com/evernote/edam/type/NoteAttributes.html

[Adjusting 275]

 

Reminders CAN be manually sorted

Whoa, really? I can't do it on any Evernote client that I use (Windows, Android, web). You can change the reminder date, sure, but I don't tthink that that means the same thing. Or am I missing something?

 

You're missing something.

 

In the Mac, Web and Windows clients, just click on the gear at the top of the Reminders, and uncheck 'Sort Reminders by Date'.

Once you've done that, you can drag the reminders to reorder them.

 

You can do the equivalent on Android too.

[jefito 5,528]

You're missing something.

No grand surprise there. Nice, thanks!

[noblesoul27 5]

Hi. I've hit a breaking point where, considering the way I use Evernote, this feature would be extremely useful and I really want it implemented.

 

We have the ability to add notes to a shortcuts/favorites bar, which I already use.

 

However, I have a few notebooks in which I organize weekly/monthly logs, with one note that describes the data about those logs.

 

For example my vitamins/supplements notebook. I have a note with information about the ones I use, why I use them, which supplements work in conjunction with others, etc. On top of that I have weekly notes for which supplements I use each day. The sort scheme I use in the notebook is by Date Updated with Most Recent on top.

 

The reason I want the ability to pin notes to the top of a notebook is so that I could have my data note locked to one location, and not disappear to the bottom just because I haven't edited it.

 

Would anyone else find this useful, or does anyone have an alternate method I could try? My shortcuts bar has a few notes I don't really want there, but just don't want at the bottom of my notebook.

[ScottLougheed 1,314]

In some respects I think this could be useful, however, the various possible workarounds have worked so well for me I'm not really wishing all that hard....

Two workarounds:

1) Create a reminder for a note you want to pin, but do not choose a date. This way that note will always show up in the reminders list which is always at the top of a given notebook.

2) If you are sorting by Date Updated, CHANGE the date updated to be in the year 2100 or something along those lines. This will pin it to the top as long as you are sorted by date updated. This is typically my strategy. 

 

If you have several, related notes you want to pin (I find this to be the case with travel itineraries, where you have a hotel confirmation, airline ticket, and some ground transport, or whatever) I often create a table of contents note and pin only that one note, rather than the three, four, or five that make up the entire itinerary all taking up space at the top. That way it doesn't matter where the actual note with my plane ticket is, since the TOC note is always at the top and in two clicks or taps, I'm at the desired itinerary document. 

[SebR 146]

Another workaround.

You could define a tag for those notes, save a search on this tag, and optionally set this saved search as a shortcut.

Edit: if you have a Android device you can display a widget list with this saved search (I love this widget!)

[jefito 5,528]

The way that I do this is to add a reminder (dated or undated) to the note. On the Windows client, this doesn't work in List View, but does in Snippet View, which is what I use (also in Card View). Reminders are displayed in a special sublist at the top of your normal note list, and its contents are in the context of the current search; i.e., if you are viewing a single notebook, then only reminders for that notebook are shown in the Reminder List.

[noblesoul27 5]

I'm personally accustomed to card view on Mac.

 

I tried Evernote once for GTD with due dates and checkmarks and wasn't too fond of it. Using it to pin a note in that Reminders pane sounds great though. I'm going to implement this. Didn't realize the date could be changed in the info window, so I'll keep that in mind too. Tags may be an option to group together all my 'data notes'.

 

I'll play around. Thanks for the responses!

[ScottLougheed 1,314]

No problem and good luck. Playing around really is the best way to go with EN. I've found the best and the worst thing about EN is its flexibility. It can do a lot and then some, but none of it is handed to you on a platter. 

[neiljones 0]

I use numbers as tags to order notes - 1, 2, 3, etc.

And, although I haven't yet tried, decimals might help to insert new notes rather than re-tagging everything!

[BurgersNFries 2,406]

I use numbers as tags to order notes - 1, 2, 3, etc.

And, although I haven't yet tried, decimals might help to insert new notes rather than re-tagging everything!

The following is discussing notebook names but applies to titles, tags, stacks, etc.

Anticipating the number of documents amassed in some projects can be tricky and I'd rather not have to create unnecessary placeholders in anticipation (for example, 00001) (that's a lot of keyboarding just to be safe).

If you think you will have less than 100 notebooks, use numbers 001 through 999 followed by the title.

You can have 250 notebooks. And if you used numbers incremented by 1, that would be 001-250. Using 001 - 999 would be 999 notebooks.A better alternative, if you were to use this method, would be to use say, 00100, 00200, 00300, 00400, etc. as the prefix. That way, you can add notebooks in between 00100 & 00200 by using 00120 or 00150 without having to renumber all the subsequent notebooks.

I use this method often, for one particular hobbyist project I have., where I want to force the files to sort in the order I want them.

[pbreit 0]

I don't see how setting myself a reminder to do something in a decades is an "obvious" workaround but it works, though not as elegantly as I'd like

 

thanks

 

He did not say set a *reminder* for decades into the future. He said change the "Creation Date" on a note to long into the future which will have a similar effect of "pinning" a note: it will always display at the top. I was coming to request a pinning feature as well but this might work. I think pinning still makes sense, though.

[Charles London 0]

Hi,

 

I have been trying to do the same, sorting notes within a notebook;  in my case for a presentation.

I have come up the idea of creating a table of contents,  and then creating a list of the notes using the notes' link  in a index or table of contents called .Index or .Table of contents.

You can get a note link by right clicking on a note the clicking on Copy Note Link

 

(Of course the dot name appears highest in the list when the list on notes with the note book ins sort by Title)

e.g .

note name = .Index

 

1) INTROUCTION

2) OBJECTIVES

3) SOLUTIONS

4) SUMMARY

 

 

I have set-up a quick example at the public link https://www.evernote.com/pub/clondon/public

(You should add a note for the viewer that they may need to sort the notes by title).

 

I hope this suggestion is useful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Nice setup Charles,

 

Some further tips/ tweaks by @Gazumped:

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/81455-ordering-slides-in-presentation-mode/

 

One could also create a horizontal note link list at the header and footer, like so:

 

https://www.evernote.com/pub/frankman777/kanbancalendarintra-note#st=p&n=4783e23a-7010-4c8d-a447-414327246fd3

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

I still think the best method for manual ordering of Notes is using Reminders (w/o a date setting), as mentioned by @Adjusting above.  You can then show the Reminders list, order as you like, then select the Reminder/Notes that you want to present, and click on "Start Presentation".

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I still think the best method for manual ordering of Notes is using Reminders (w/o a date setting), as mentioned by @Adjusting above.  You can then show the Reminders list, order as you like, then select the Reminder/Notes that you want to present, and click on "Start Presentation".

 

Yes... manually ordering notes within the Reminders list works well for tasks... however, when it comes to presentation mode or ordering a set of notes before creating a TOC, I don't see any way of selecting multiple notes in the reminder list... also, if one reorders notes manually in the Reminders List, that does not affect the note order in the note list itself, nor does presentation mode take you through the notes in the adjusted order in the Reminder List itself. Am I missing something? 

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

@Frank:

 

In EN Mac 6.0.6, you can select the Reminders just like you do Notes, using SHIFT-click and/or CMD-click.

Doing so brings up the multi-note selection screen (just like when you select multiple Notes), where you can click on the "Start Presentation" button.

 

IOW, selecting the Note to present using the Reminders List works just like the Notes List in EN Mac.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

We're not quite there on Windows yet. Darn. That there could be the official workaround for all manner of evil.

 

There's now a small  growing list of Mac features I'd like to see on Windows 

[Sangdon Shin 0]

One of easiest way would be to make use of "Tag", tag your hot articles and sort it using "Tag" field.

[justtheJAKEster 0]

I'm actually unsure how changing the note creation date allows for the "pinning" of that note even as a work-around,  (but I could be completely just missing something here).

 

So I took my new note and I changed both the creation and updated date to 2020.  But then I went and edited another note in the notepad and, I guess as expected (?), it went to the top of the list, effectively over-riding the manual change I made in the previous note.  

 

Anyone else experience this or am I simply missing something here?

[gazumped 8,065]

If you sort the notes by created date,  things should -literally- fall into place... 

[pwbrowne 1]

I'm sorry to see there hasn't been more interest in this request. I would love this and it seems so intuitive considering it's become a common feature in social media. I'd love to be able to hop to one of my notebooks for each client and have basic info and/or TOC handy at the top. I appreciate the workaround ideas in the meantime.

[DTLow 5,234]

This has been discussed before and various solutions were suggested.  You might try a search of the forums.

The method I use is a tag; !HotNotes.  This is saved in my shortcuts section and allows quick access to a selection of notes.

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

5 hours ago, Fco said:

To be able to pin notes on top of a notebook (like in these forums are pinned important topics), where you may want to gather links to important notes, or just specific remarks and descriptions for that notebook would be great.

It is a great idea that has been discussed many time in these forums.

Until/IF Evernote decides to provide this feature, here is a workaround that works pretty well:
Use Reminders (without a date)

I have found a good use for Reminders, not as in reminding me of a due date, but in pinning key notes at the top of the list.

So, by combining a new Notebook  and creating Reminders (without dates) of key notes I need handy/quick reference to, I've been able to quickly setup a system that seems to work quite well.  BTW, the Reminders shown also respect any Tag Filters you have in place.

With the Notebook selected, the list of notes are shown, and at the top of the list are the Reminders for that Notebook, which list my key Notes.  You could think of them as "pinned" Notes.  They can even be manually ordered.

So, in the normal Note list, I can sort, filter, search the normal Evernote way.

Regardless of the state of the Note list, I can quickly reference my key notes just by one click on the Reminders line/button at the top of the Note list.   And, I can view the key notes (reminders) without a sort, which enables manual sort, or sort by date incase I do have some with due dates.

Here's a screenshot illustrating use of Reminders as "Pinned" Notes:

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

2 minutes ago, Fco said:

This is kind of  a "throwing the garbage in the living room to get the flies out of the kitchen" solution.

It's not a perfect workaround, but not anywhere near that bad.

IAC, I think it is the best we can do until/IF Evernote provides the feature you requested.  I would not hold my breath.  It might be a while.  

[KEB 0]

Can't believe I just spent a couple of hours watching tutorials and trying to figure out how to manually order notes within notebooks. It seems so basic, thought I just kept missing it in the tutorials. Well, absent that feature, Evernote is useless for me.  I guess you get what you pay for.

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

On 2/11/2016 at 5:05 PM, KEB said:

Can't believe I just spent a couple of hours watching tutorials and trying to figure out how to manually order notes within notebooks.

Did you see the workaround I posted above?

 

[DTLow 5,234]

On February 11, 2016 at 3:05 PM, KEB said:

absent that feature, Evernote is useless for me.

Can you provide more details on why you need this?

For me, the title and date sorting is usually sufficient. 
I did find that I preferred a different layout for my daily journal.
I wanted the order to be 
Activities
....
Tasks Now:
...
Tasks Soon:
☐iTunes - New Episodes
Projects 
...
So I generate the lists in date order, then I copy the links into the above sections.  I can do any further sorting by moving the links around.

Beyond that - there's only two areas that allow manual sorting. Reminders and Shortcuts
For example, if you have a set of notes you need in a manual order; drag them to the Shortcuts area.

Other than that, I would precede the title with a number (example 00100, 00200, 00300) and sort by title.  You will be able to insert new notes (example 00210)

[Analyst444 178]

Here is a link to a post I previously made to this forum, offering an idea on how to sort Notes manually.
https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/89871-how-do-i-manually-order-notes-for-presentation-mode/

@Ein Doofus - I believe that approach will handle the classroom examples that you mentioned, but I suspect it won't meet your expectations.

[DTLow 5,234]

>> I need a unique note attribute that designates that it should always be on top

I have notes I want quick access to, but I don't really want to see all the time at the top of my list.
For these, I use a special tag (!Hot Notes) and include the tag in my shortcuts area.

Per the original post of having one note (index) they always want at the top of the notes,  I would look at my default search and modify the dates/title accordingly.

I would not find this practical with dozens of notes.  
I find the Reminder section more useful for this.  
Sample below is one of my filtered lists - the note Table of Contents is always at the top
 

[jameskachan 17]

Please allow custom user sorting, or allow notebooks to be placed in grouped "Sections" - which can be arranged into a hierarchy.

 

The ability to group notebooks alongside one another based on their content makes far more sense than letting the alphabet define them.

People use Evernote in many different ways, I wish Evernote would respect the large group of individuals who would prefer to sort their work by it's content and meaning rather than just the alphabet.

 

No one would ever organize a book shelf by alphabet alone. It would be insane to mix cooking and history, erotic fantasy, law etc - all based on author or title. Arranging into categorized areas makes infinitely more sense.

[DTLow 5,234]

25 minutes ago, jameskachan said:

Please allow custom user sorting, or allow notebooks to be placed in grouped "Sections" - which can be arranged into a hierarchy.
The ability to group notebooks alongside one another based on their content makes far more sense than letting the alphabet define them.
People use Evernote in many different ways, I wish Evernote would respect the large group of individuals who would prefer to sort their work by it's content and meaning rather than just the alphabet.
No one would ever organize a book shelf by alphabet alone. It would be insane to mix cooking and history, erotic fantasy, law etc - all based on author or title. Arranging into categorized areas makes infinitely more sense.

Are you aware of notebook stacks?
I use a stack called Shared Notebooks to group notebooks.
Still doesn't resolve the manual sorting, and its only one level of hierarchy.

[jameskachan 17]

I forgot about them - Thanks for mentioning. Stacks are kinda nice, like folders I suppose —but I don't think they alone are ideal.

Within stacks, it is still not possible to manually arrange notebooks into a hierarchy or manual common arrangement.

 

Thanks though.

[Endemite 2]

On 04. april 2016. at 6:32 PM, DTLow said:

Are you aware of notebook stacks?
I use a stack called Shared Notebooks to group notebooks.
Still doesn't resolve the manual sorting, and its only one level of hierarchy.

Signed into the forums just to chip into this discussion. It is a serious omission not being able to sort notes manually. Most of the time when I plan something (an application for a fellowship, a presentation etc.) this is the only way of sorting that makes sense. It doesn't seem difficult to implement and I can't see of no reason for being reluctant to enable us to do so. Any way to vote for this "feature"?

[JMichaelTX 4,067]

3 hours ago, Endemite said:

It is a serious omission not being able to sort notes manually

Did you try using the workaround with Reminders that was posted above?

[Johan Talboom 0]

I have been puzzling because i wanted to arrange my notebooks also and actually found something that actually works (in the windows desktop version).

Number the notebooks in the order you want them to appear

Exampel

1. Inbox

2. MyStuff

3. OtherStuff

And so on, nothing happens yet they still stay in the original order.

The trick is to make stacks and after that you remove the notebooks out of the stack again by dragging them into the "Notebooks" folder and now they reappear as notebooks in the "Notebooks" folder but in the order you numbered them.

 

 

[DTLow 5,234]

1 hour ago, jameskachan said:

While I admire your passion and dedication, this is of course a tedious and unideal process to workaround poor design. If you ever wanted to add new notes or notebooks or reflow you'd have to rename everything. 

 

11 hours ago, Johan Talboom said:

I have been puzzling because i wanted to arrange my notebooks also and actually found something that actually works (in the windows desktop version).

Number the notebooks in the order you want them to appear

Example  1. Inbox  2. MyStuff  3. OtherStuff

You might use numbers 10 20 30 ....   It gives room to insert new notebooks into the sequence

>>Poor design

I see this repeated so much in the forums.    "It's a poor design because Evernote doesn't have my feature."

Its certainly a design decision, and it's a question of priorities if and when changes are implemented.

Requests for changes can be posted in the feedback forums and users can vote as to the priority.  It's a better process than tweeting the CEO.

[jameskachan 17]

I know that it's by design. I'm sure Evernote could make this happen if they wanted to. Though it would take some work. 

 

I I just think the design is bad. Human beings don't practically organize things based on alphabetical systems or when things last get modified. Our notebooks and notes are like where we put our keys or where we choose to store our clothes.  We build systems based on remembered location and place association - meaning we put like things together. Currently it's not possible to group "related" notes or notebooks alongside each other or in a hierarchical order. Imagine apple not allowing you to custom order your frequent call favourites list on the iPhone  imagine if you had to rely only on alphabetical nonsensical order.

 

Dissalowing custom hierarchy and sorting is  bad design because it's not human focused design.

 

[CalS 4,795]

Workaround, change the recent edit (updated) date of the note to 12/12/2030 or the like if you sort in reverse order.  

No official way to pin notes.  You can do some note placement with reminders but typically a PITA if you have a lot of notes in the mix.

EDIT:  should you ever modify the note you will need to change the updated date to maintain the "pinning".