Allow sharing to evernote without opening up evernote screen, as with Google Keep or Zoho Notebook

[nicholsceilechair 3]

Currently sharing to evernote from another app opens up the fullscreen evernote. I wish it could just do a small box over the existing screen, where you could select your options like tags and notebook, without changing the active app. Google keep notes and Zoho notebook allow this. If it were changed I would immediately get evernote premium, but right now it interferes too much with workflow.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,998]

Hi, and welcome to the forums. You might want to check out a 3rd-party app called Speed Clipper, which lets you clip multiple selections of material from multiple sources to a single note in Evernote, without opening the EN app. Of course, if you want to separate the material into separate notes, you can always do that later. This isn't precisely what you're asking for here, but might be useful in some situations.

[gazumped 12,020]

?? I don't have Evernote on my Android screen unless I need to look something up - all my 'clips' are shares to Evernote from the browser or app I'm using.  I do get a green swirly dot on screen to show the clip is being recorded,  but that goes away on completion...

[LukasHD 2]

 It is incredibly disturbing and stops the workflow that evernote is opening everytime you maybe want to safe a link, a phrase or article while reading or going through something. 

Please change this. For cues how this can work, please check how other apps implemented this functionality. Pocket is doing a great job here for example. 

[jefito 5,598]

5 hours ago, LukasHD said:

 It is incredibly disturbing and stops the workflow that evernote is opening everytime you maybe want to safe a link, a phrase or article while reading or going through something. 

I just use the share button and send it to Evernote via the Evernote clipper. Doesn't that work for you?

[LukasHD 2]

It is possible to share things to Evernote, but when doing that I switch completely to an Evernote screen where I can edit the note. I don't want to edit the note though. I just want to keep reading and safe the article for future reference. Maybe yes, tag it, but  not necessarily add anything to the note. 

Pocket implemented this much better. 

I am using Android on a Samsung S8 btw. 

[LukasHD 2]

See screenshots in reverse order below.

When sharing to Evernote I end up in Evernote. I have to press three or four more times to get back to where I was before saving the bookmark. 

This is simply bad design.

[jefito 5,598]

OK, I think I see what you're saying. Not sure why, but I don't always get dropped into Evernote after a clip operation. It may only happen if Evernote is currently running. But when it happens, all I need to do is press the Android back button, and I get returned to the place where the clip originated.

I think that a setting to say "just clip, don't open the Evernote application" would be nice, but it's not been a big problem for me.

 

[nicholsceilechair 3]

Quote

It is possible to share things to Evernote, but when doing that I switch completely to an Evernote screen where I can edit the note. I don't want to edit the note though. I just want to keep reading and safe the article for future reference. Maybe yes, tag it, but  not necessarily add anything to the note. 

Yes. Exactly. So much this.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,998]

This is all very peculiar, because clearly some people are experiencing this immediate switch to Evernote upon sharing to it and others are not. I don't think it ever happens for me. In fact, I think sometimes I've been a bit bothered that I had to manually go to Evernote to inspect the result of the sharing! I wonder if it could have to do with the particular source of the share. @LukasHD, since you have a Plus account, you should have access to technical support. It might be well to raise this with them.

[nicholsceilechair 3]

Hmm, I also have a Samsung device: Galaxy Tab S2. Might be a clue.

[LukasHD 2]

It does always happen, no matter from where I share it to evernote. Is it true that for some people this doesn't happen? As far as I understand it simply doesn't bother some people, but it does happen. 

When sharing to eg Pocket one can still simply press the button that pops up on your screen to either tag the note, comment it, or entirely switch over to the app. This leaves open all possibilities for advanced editing, but doesn't disturb the workflow. It is simply a better implementation of the sharing functionality. 

 

[gazumped 12,020]

1 hour ago, LukasHD said:

It does always happen, no matter from where I share it to evernote. Is it true that for some people this doesn't happen? As far as I understand it simply doesn't bother some people, but it does happen. 

When sharing to eg Pocket one can still simply press the button that pops up on your screen to either tag the note, comment it, or entirely switch over to the app. This leaves open all possibilities for advanced editing, but doesn't disturb the workflow. It is simply a better implementation of the sharing functionality. 

 

Have you tried sharing to Pocket and then clipping to Evernote from there?

[LukasHD 2]

22 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Have you tried sharing to Pocket and then clipping to Evernote from there?

Yes, that works perfectly. Pocket implemented its sharing funcionality really well. I do that when I do want to safe text from a website. When I share the website to Evernote from Chrome browser on Android, it will only save the bookmark as a note. When I share it to pocket, it will safe the contents of the website in the background (which is what makes pocket a separate app concept). Afterwards I can share the contents from the website from Pocket to Evernote.

What I am unnerved about though is that sharing things to Evernote is not seeminglessly integrated into the workflow of reading, researching or gathering information. This is what a note taking app is there for. So sharing it first to another app, doesn't really solve that problem. It is simply something I would hope that the Evernote team did take more serious. Its two separate issues now. (1) Evernote opening everytime when sharing something to Evernote and (2) Website content cannot be shared to Evernote from a browser when using the browsers sharing function. 

There is plenty of other issues like this. Like how hard it is to share a note as a text message, pdf or email, instead of as a link to a Evernote. I cannot share something like this to external co-workers or friends. 

Unfortunately Evernote is anyway the best option available at the moment. It would be so easy to make it better and perfect the workflow. 

[gazumped 12,020]

1 hour ago, LukasHD said:

It would be so easy to make it better and perfect the workflow.

It might be easy technically,  but for users who don't use or need your workflow Evernote would have to build in options and choices.  Getting all that together and designing it to work in various OS's, screen sizes and devices is still a major operation with a considerable cost factor.

Your concern that

1 hour ago, LukasHD said:

sharing things to Evernote is not seeminglessly integrated into the workflow

...is mainly relevant to workflows where research and information gathering is the main activity.  I do some of that,  but when I use the Android app,  the note popping up afterwards (which I've established it does for me too!) is such a minor thing that if I don't need to add/ edit a title,  add tags or otherwise curate it,  a quick tap gets me back to the browser (or other) window almost instantly.  The interruption is so minor I hadn't been aware that it happens until your post.  I'd want to to continue.

When I do more in depth research I've used Pocket as a triage area for clips - I follow up links.  references and random thoughts and dump all of it in Pocket.  At this stage I'm reading only for hints as to 'might this be useful?'  'Are there other places I should look?'.  I'll then use Pocket as my reading area,  deleting anything that's irrelevant,  duplicated or unhelpful and save everything else to Evernote.

If you want to propose that an option to suppress the display of notes after clipping is made available,  we could move this thread to a user-votable forum if you prefer...  there is some justification in that the option already exists in other operating systems.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,998]

Ah, I see it now! Please forgive my denseness. I was only looking at clipping/sharing a Web page from a browser, in which case Evernote does not automatically open. But selecting text in any app and using the menu to Share to Evernote does indeed cause EN to open with the text in place in a new note. I'm not terribly inconvenienced by this, since it lets me title the note and tweak the text, but I can see that it could certainly be annoying depending on one's workflow.

Let me repeat my suggestion earlier in the thread, to check out a 3rd-party app called Speed Clipper, which lets you clip multiple selections of material from multiple sources to a single note in Evernote, without opening the EN app. You do have to select the specific note first, but this does work to keep one's focus on the material being saved rather than constantly going into Evernote.

[LukasHD 2]

As described previously, Evernote does open when sharing from a browser. 

Its very simple. Other apps do a better job implementing sharing functionality. 

Evernote could pick up some cues there. Using third party apps to make a quick note is not acceptable. 

Thank you for your help anyway. 

[nicholsceilechair 3]

Quote

...is mainly relevant to workflows where research and information gathering is the main activity.

I suppose so, but that encompasses all of reading books for me.

[janat08 1]

Oh yes, the most critical features of mobile app are presenting user with a onscreen keyboard, and then forcing them to witness the app testing their internet speed and reliability.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,998]

 

3 hours ago, janat08 said:

Oh yes, the most critical features of mobile app are presenting user with a onscreen keyboard, and then forcing them to witness the app testing their internet speed and reliability.

Troll of the day award to you, my friend.