Evernote - Research tags

[gesshoom 30]

Hi folks,

I use Evernote to do my research. I often write articles with inspiration from many web clippings, my audio recordings, images I clipped or taken with my camera, etc.

Once these research items are in EV, I would like a new kind of "tag".  As I am reading a clipped source, I would like to be able to highlight text or images and assign a research tag to these items. I would apply these research tags to all the relevant source snippets I have and would like to then be able to build a new note consisting of these research tag extracts.

Essentially, by specifying a research tag in a new document, this would go retrieve all snippets I have identified with that research tag and would bring copies of the highlighted material into my new note. Here, i could re-arrange them to build my article outline.  

 

I would use the tags as follows:  If i highlight several snippets and assign them the tag "projectX:intro", it would build a collection of related research items. If, for the same article I am writing, I have another section on "how-to", I would highlight all relevant sections of my research that deal with how to do something with "projectX:how-to"....and so on

By referencing research tag "projectX", Evernaote would automatically get all the research tagged snippets for me into my new note listed alphabetically.

That would be awesome for me and doesn't seem to exist in any note taking apps out there

What do you think?

[DTLow 5,680]

On 2018-02-18 at 9:43 AM, gesshoom said:

I would like a new kind of "tag". 

A tag to be specified within the note for specific contents; snippets.  It would also have to identify the beginning and end of the snippet; or maybe some form of markup like <tagname> ... </tagname>

Currently Evernote has an extensive tag system, but it only exists at the note level.

With the current system, users are free to insert their own keywords, like _Research.  The search feature can be used to access notes with these ketwords

I'd want to maintain a master list of these keywords.

[Eldorado 26]

Just call it "Properties":

• I'd like to have the opportunity to define a self-named property with a free value to a note (like "Created", "Updated" and so on).
• It should be possible to add a column with this property within the note-list pane so that I can see my properties like the tags (but in an own column).
• Having such properties, it would be easy to assign free values, sort notes according to this column and even search for notes using a syntax like "projectX:how-to".
  • In this case, "project" is the property and "how-to" would be a value of this property.
• It's enough to assign one value to such a property.

[JMichaelTX 4,104]

On 2/18/2018 at 11:43 AM, gesshoom said:

Once these research items are in EV, I would like a new kind of "tag".  As I am reading a clipped source, I would like to be able to highlight text or images and assign a research tag to these items. I would apply these research tags to all the relevant source snippets I have and would like to then be able to build a new note consisting of these research tag extracts.

Essentially, by specifying a research tag in a new document, this would go retrieve all snippets I have identified with that research tag and would bring copies of the highlighted material into my new note. Here, i could re-arrange them to build my article outline.  

What versions of Evernote and OS are you running?

I have built a similar automation for EN Mac using AppleScript.  Please let me know if you are interested, and I'll provide more details.

[gandoe 2]

On 2/18/2018 at 1:43 PM, Eldorado said:

Just call it "Properties":

• I'd like to have the opportunity to define a self-named property with a free value to a note (like "Created", "Updated" and so on).
• It should be possible to add a column with this property within the note-list pane so that I can see my properties like the tags (but in an own column).
• Having such properties, it would be easy to assign free values, sort notes according to this column and even search for notes using a syntax like "projectX:how-to".
  • In this case, "project" is the property and "how-to" would be a value of this property.
• It's enough to assign one value to such a property.

This is something that I'm very interested in - the ability to "categorize" a note with a defined field (used to hold undefined contents). As Eldorado pointed out, when I select the "Info" icon at the top right in a Snippet view of a Note, OR when I select List view (top or side), the note's system fields are displayed. These fields include things such as: Notebook, Created, Author, Sync Status, etc. I can select and edit some of those fields (date edited, author), but not all all (subject) - which is very surprising, since I wouldn't think you actually want to edit the "date edited" field (as a system property), but likely WOULD want to edit "subject".

I would like to create and edit custom fields.

I've been using Tags, however, there are many types of data for which I do NOT want to create a unique tag. For example, I'm building a reading list system, using web clipper to collect information about various books to read (or have read), from Amazon, Gutenberg, etc. Each title is a unique note. While I can see the sense of using tags for genre, or the read / to read status, it doesn't make sense to use tags for things like author name, or reading list priority number; both of which would quickly generate far too many unique tags. For example, a "Great Books" reading list covers well over 70 books; simply ranking them, or subdividing into genres, or time periods, or some other subcategorization to then rank, would result in LOTS of tags. 

I currently have a GTD system managed in EN, in which I track project activity by month; so just for 2019, I've got 12 subtags (201901, 201902, etc.)

I would find a capability to create and manage custom fields (or "properties") VERY useful and efficient. Is there currently such a way to do this? Or is there a similar request I can upvote?

FYI, I use EN on a Windows system, as well as on my Android phone and tablet.

TIA

Ed 

 

  

 

 

[DTLow 5,680]

12 hours ago, gandoe said:

>>While I can see the sense of using tags for genre, or the read / to read status, it doesn't make sense to use tags for things like author name, or reading list priority number

This seems like a good use for tags.
I actually have author tags.
fyi - maximum # of tags is 100,000


And I implemented internal tags and new field ($)
The screenshot is a receipt and I need to track the cost for separate items.
I use scripting on a Mac to insert the tags, and extract/merge the detail

 

 

 

 

>>simply ranking them, or subdividing into genres, or time periods, or some other subcategorization to then rank 

Sorting is problematic.  
I have extracted data to a spreadsheet so I could sort it.

I also use saved searches to categorize by tag.
For example my task list uses tag:Important and tag:Urgent (Eisenhower Matrix)

 

>>I can select and edit some of those fields (date edited, author), but not all all (subject) - which is very surprising, since I wouldn't think you actually want to edit the "date edited" field (as a system property), but likely WOULD want to edit "subject".

I actually do edit the Subject Date field on my Mac using my process-inbox script
It seemed to be the logical place to store the subject date

[gandoe 2]

Thanks for the suggestions! Good to know the max limit on tags, although a profusion of tags tends to clutter (at least for me).

I do use a number of tags (all organized by tag group, identifying a particular type of data for that note), and saved searches in conjunctions with those tags, to get specific results. I've also used some title coding, and occasional "in-body" tags (e.g., "<infotype1>); but have yet to find a way to enable/create data fields for notes.

BTW, I also found that capability to export notes, with notebook and tag information, from the list views into Excel, where I can do a fair bit of data cleansing to ultimately build an effective database. 

I've seen a number of people in the Apple ecosystem talk about "scripting"; I'm assuming this is a IOS system capability (similar to macros in Excel, or VBA ?)

I wonder if there is a similar scripting capability that I could use for the Windows version. I'll have to do some searching here. 

 

Thanks for your input!

 

[DTLow 5,680]

57 minutes ago, gandoe said:

I've seen a number of people in the Apple ecosystem talk about "scripting"; I'm assuming this is a IOS system capability (similar to macros in Excel, or VBA ?)

I use Mac Applescript

The cool part is how it integrates with the different apps.  For example, Applescript by itself knows nothing about Evernote features.  We use the code   tell application "Evernote" to ...... and Evernote does the heavy lifting.

[gandoe 2]

thanks