Automatic Note Titling ?

[AdmiralP 75]

In the legacy version, when you started a new note, the first line typed where it says "Start writing....Template" used to auto-populate the Title field of the note.

Mow it doesn't appear to do that, you have to copy/paste if you'v ebeen used to getting the Title auto-filled.

Please can we have the auto-fill behaviour back?

[AdmiralP 75]

Well EN version 10.42 delivered a nice surprise this evening.

having typed in to the body of the note. you can just click in the Tile area of the note an the first line of text from the note body is inserted into the Title field.

Nice job Evernote!
Thanks for listening to your users. 

[agsteele 2,393]

I seem to recall that the beta testers prferred the new approach which is possibly why it doesn't work the old way any longer. It might depend on a good number of votes supporting your preference

 

[AdmiralP 75]

Again, I feel this is one of those things which slows down my workflow having got used to being able to start typing the title in the body of the note and getting the Tile foield auto-populated. I then had the option to edit what went in the title and/or extend the first line of the note body, rather than having to select/copy/paste

[Don Dz 165]

I prefer the auto-fill title, but it is a controversial feature from way back, hopefully they will make it optional, to make everyone happy.

[smmontgom 2]

+1 for autofill title. Unless I can figure out a way to toggle this behavior on, I'm going to go back to an older version of the windows app to get it back. It's much slower for my note creation workflow to do a separate title for every note and having "Untitled" appear in most of my new note titles (and the first line of the body text in my thousands of old notes) is much slower to go through search results.

[megb 4]

+1 for adding back autofill title. A bunch of "Untitled" notes is not helpful at all, and you can always change the title afterwards if you don't want the autofill (which is what you have to do now anyway as no title is added).

[deyo246 6]

21st century, Ai, automation all over the world, companies want to automate every single piece of everything - Evernote disables the auto-populate option for note title 😐

[PinkElephant 6,316]

Some are orderly and start a new note with first deciding about the title. These systematic people feel some stress now. Others are happy, because when they open a new note, they want to hack away without fumbling around thinking about a title. Titeling, notebooking and tagging can wait !

There are 2 possible standpoints about where the cursor should be when a new note is created. Only those who are happy with as it is now will not come here to complain.

[shu7 1]

I prefer automatic titling, too....

[micorre 1]

automatic titling is much better...I'd like to have it back too...

[SUVVV 1]

Automatic titling is what i prefer. Please give us the option.

 

[Brother52 2]

+100 for auto-titling!

3 steps forward , 2 steps back, 1/2 step forward again is getting annoying.

This concept seems to be alluding the development team...Preferences or Settings or Options.

We do live with this program on a daily basis.

[GVIL 2]

Please add back auto title.  Why add a step to the work flow?   This is frustrating and very disappointing.   

[johnmartintaylor 2]

I vote for automatic titling.  At least give us the option.

[Cuchulain 10]

I also prefer and miss autotitle. Please make it optional, it speeds up my workflow a lot.

[esceo 0]

I DO NEED the possibilty for an automatic title on a note from template.  I cannot understand this is not possible.

[PinkElephant 6,316]

The note title is similar to a file name (well, not exactly, because the real denominator of a note is a long unique code).

When I create a file from a template in Word, Pages, whatsoever, and save it, it has an automatic title: „Untitled.xxx“. This is more or less what EN does when you create a note from a template.

What exactly do you want ?

[herzleid 4]

On 7/10/2022 at 4:25 AM, PinkElephant said:

The note title is similar to a file name (well, not exactly, because the real denominator of a note is a long unique code).

When I create a file from a template in Word, Pages, whatsoever, and save it, it has an automatic title: „Untitled.xxx“. This is more or less what EN does when you create a note from a template.

What exactly do you want ?

You are comparing mobile-native app with desktop-native apps. In mobile-native apps like Evernote, the less hassle there is the better. Often you want to jot things down on your phone but don't have the time to enter the title. The autofill is useful in a way that it doesn't populate bunch of "untitled" to clutter your notebook. The solution is make auto-fill optional to keep everyone happy.

 

[etf123 10]

Please, please bring this back as an option.  I don't need todos in Evernote (but appreciate those who might) - but taking away functionality rather than making it optional is infuriating.  

[eridanos 8]

Can you please bring back the auto-titling option pretty please?

This is extremely annoying. We need to take the most tedious of extra steps just because you can't really think straight over what's useful and what's not.

We don't need to-dos. Stop jumping on the wagon of the latest productivity gimmick.

You had ditched the related notes as well. Massively off-putting. Please get your priority straight, and perhaps start using the tool you are developing? That would help you frame simple use cases of your very product.

[PinkElephant 6,316]

Who „you“ - just other users here ?

Apart from this: Your post leads to the impression that you put your individual priorities above all. Personally I don‘t start notes in a way that would serve as a title - and search will find it, if in the title or not. So for me auto titles would just be a nuisance- I would have to erase what was autotitled before I could start typing the title I want. So, no, no auto titles wanted.

I am pretty sure many users view EN through their own use cases, and love the new features that you qualify as not important. If you don‘t like what you get, go look for another solution. It is pretty clear where EN is going to invest their dev capacity - it is likely not in features that will make you a happy camper.

[Boot17 925]

4 hours ago, eridanos said:

We don't need to-dos.

Speak for yourself. I find tasks much more useful than auto-titling a note. Also, related content was just a waste of space for me. 

[NoteNerd3000 9]

+1 vote for Automatic Note Titling as a feature request.

I would really like this to have this as an option that can be enabled (particularly for iOS), where perhaps the first sentence of the note automatically becomes the title. This is something I really appreciated on the Apple iOS Notes app.

I already love that Evernote defaults to having the "body" of the note selected, so as soon as you have an idea you can start typing immediately. This is great for quickly jotting down an idea without breaking your train of thought or flow from the moment you have it.

It's also beneficial when you have several ideas and need to create a few notes very quickly. 

The problem is, having to go back and add the title is cumbersome, and also interrupts one's train of thought, especially when one is creating several notes in a short amount of time.

It is also redundant (adds extra manual work) when one would anyway have been fine with the first sentence becoming the title. 

And lastly, the lack of automatic note titling causes note titles to look identical which is difficult for organization because then a bunch of notes show up in the list as "Untitled Note".

So, it would be great if Automatic Note Titling is something that can be turned on/off to satisfy those need it and those who don't.

 

[Don Dz 165]

A reminder to all who want this feature: Evernote staff will only notice votes at the top left of this page, rather than on individual comments.

[agsteele 2,393]

Actually I'm not sure that there is any evidence that up-voting these threads has any impact on development of the Evernote app. But no harm on trying...

[Don Dz 165]

2 hours ago, agsteele said:

Actually I'm not sure that there is any evidence that up-voting these threads has any impact on development of the Evernote app. But no harm on trying...

On development?  Difficult to know for sure, they do have their own plans in any case, but as far as noticing, it has been mentioned before on many occasions.

[agsteele 2,393]

A few people say it would make a difference but in 14 years I've not seen a scrap of evidence that up-votes count for anything. Happy to be proved wrong and, as I said, no harm in trying 😉

[etf123 10]

16 hours ago, Don Dz said:

A reminder to all who want this feature: Evernote staff will only notice votes at the top left of this page, rather than on individual comments.

Thanks Don Dz - have upvoted (is that really a word?).

[PinkElephant 6,316]

Since there are places where you can downvote as well, it probably is a word worth using.

[Don Dz 165]

8 hours ago, AdmiralP said:

Well EN version 10.42 delivered a nice surprise this evening.

having typed in to the body of the note. you can just click in the Tile area of the note an the first line of text from the note body is inserted into the Title field.

Nice job Evernote!
Thanks for listening to your users. 

Must be a beta, that version is not available for my computer.

[Mike P 2,110]

1 hour ago, Don Dz said:

Must be a beta, that version is not available for my computer.

Definitely not beta. The automatic update system is notoriously slow. You can download directly.

[AdmiralP 75]

As MikeP says - mot a beta version, but the latest public release. I font experience any significant delays with the auto update system on Windows. I do notice that the Release Note posts here in tge EN Forums can take a while to appear...

[Mike P 2,110]

11 hours ago, AdmiralP said:

Well EN version 10.42 delivered a nice surprise this evening.

having typed in to the body of the note. you can just click in the Tile area of the note an the first line of text from the note body is inserted into the Title field.

I'm not entirely sure I like the new behaviour. It might work well in the example given in the release notes where the first sentence of the note happens to be a sensible title. If it's a proper sentence you get the entire sentence upto some max number of characters. The saving grace is that the new title text is highlighted by default so you only have to press delete to get rid of it.

[Don Dz 165]

I downloaded it directly (as usual, updating makes the Legacy version panic until you restart it).

It is a strange compromise for those who want the feature vs those who don't.  I envisioned it as a feature that can be disabled in options, but they implemented it as an automatic feature that only works . . . manually?

Weird.

I still miss the ability to see the title at all times when scrolling down a long note, but I guess that's another topic.

[PinkElephant 6,316]

Just a remark: If the text in the first line contains a date in the way 04.08.2022 (at least in my place on this planet this would be the cultural convention), the newly created title will be truncated at the first period.

„MyTestTitle 04“ is what is left from „MyTestTitle 04.08.2022 to find out how it works“.

Not a game stopper, but something to keep in mind. Better write any dates in the international order 20220804. Makes for better sorting as well.

[AdmiralP 75]

4 hours ago, Mike P said:

I'm not entirely sure I like the new behaviour. It might work well in the example given in the release notes where the first sentence of the note happens to be a sensible title. If it's a proper sentence you get the entire sentence upto some max number of characters. The saving grace is that the new title text is highlighted by default so you only have to press delete to get rid of it.

Yes it seems slightly different from how it was handled in Legacy, But, I'm finding it very workable and fits with my personal workflow. As you say the tirle being highlighted after it's been placed is a handy feature that allows the editing of the title.

[AdmiralP 75]

4 hours ago, Don Dz said:

I downloaded it directly (as usual, updating makes the Legacy version panic until you restart it).

It is a strange compromise for those who want the feature vs those who don't.  I envisioned it as a feature that can be disabled in options, but they implemented it as an automatic feature that only works . . . manually?

Weird.

I still miss the ability to see the title at all times when scrolling down a long note, but I guess that's another topic.

As I noted elsewhere I'm finding it a good solution, but I agree that it would be improved if the feature could be enabled/disabled under user preferences

[AdmiralP 75]

2 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Just a remark: If the text in the first line contains a date in the way 04.08.2022 (at least in my place on this planet this would be the cultural convention), the newly created title will be truncated at the first period.

„MyTestTitle 04“ is what is left from „MyTestTitle 04.08.2022 to find out how it works“.

Not a game stopper, but something to keep in mind. Better write any dates in the international order 20220804. Makes for better sorting as well.

Good spot that!
I guess there has to be some logic in the code that decides how much text from the note is going to be put in the title field. I imagine it's probably "up until the first nw line or full stop (period) - whichever comes first". I generally use the "20220804" or "4th August" formats rather than the dd.mm.yy style anyway. As you say that's beneficial for sorting purposes.

[Dave-in-Decatur 2,720]

Thanks, @AdmiralP! So far I've only tried it on the Web version, but it works as advertised there. FYI, you can also go to the title line by using Shift+Tab as well as clicking, but the title line will never populate if you don't do one or the other. I just know I'm going to find this annoying, and I'd certainly prefer to have a setting with which to turn it on or off. But there it is, and for now I may have to adjust my work flow to make sure my first line is what I want for a title. NB you can change the first line as many times as you want, and only what is present as the first line when you move into the title field will stick. So if you type the date or anything else (e.g. a URL) with a period and thereby might truncate the auto-title, you can fix it, if you think about it, before it gets applied.

[PinkElephant 6,316]

It is available in all new clients now, that is 10.42 in desktop and web, and 10.37 on mobile devices.

One can type and correct in the note, but once you type into the title field, it grabs the content from the first line of text in the note body. One restriction applies: If there is a „ . „ (period) somewhere in that text string, it stops filling the title field at exactly the first period. So be aware with dates or with numbers having a period as thousand-separator (international) or decimal point (US).

If you don’t like the title, it is highlighted and can be deleted with a click/tap.

[Don Dz 165]

3 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

It is available in all new clients now, that is 10.42 in desktop and web, and 10.37 on mobile devices.

One can type and correct in the note, but once you type into the title field, it grabs the content from the first line of text in the note body. One restriction applies: If there is a „ . „ (period) somewhere in that text string, it stops filling the title field at exactly the first period. So be aware with dates or with numbers having a period as thousand-separator (international) or decimal point (US).

If you don’t like the title, it is highlighted and can be deleted with a click/tap.

Maybe it works that way on Android, but on my iPhone, it grabs whatever line the cursor was last at, rather than the top line.  I am sure they will fix that eventually.

[PinkElephant 6,316]

17 minutes ago, Don Dz said:

Maybe it works that way on Android, but on my iPhone, it grabs whatever line the cursor was last at, rather than the top line.  I am sure they will fix that eventually.

… if you issue a support ticket, they may even do it. Thanks in advance !

[NoteNerd3000 9]

Woohoo thank you Evernote team!!! Just grabbed the iOS 10.37 update and I see the automatic note titling! Lowkey, would prefer if it did it without tapping the title, but I’ll take it! Loving that we have the automatic title!

 

and the new update seems to have made  Evernote SUPER snappy/fast on iOS. No lag at all it’s blazing fast. Hope it stays that way.

 

As a new user, I’m impressed and grateful for such quick responsiveness from the team!

[etf123 10]

Yippee - so nice to have this functionality back (well, mostly back - still have to click on title) but this is much better for me.

Hope this doesn't impact those who got used to this feature not being there.

 

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 2,720]

19 hours ago, etf123 said:

Yippee - so nice to have this functionality back (well, mostly back - still have to click on title) but this is much better for me.

Hope this doesn't impact those who got used to this feature not being there.

 

 

Oh, but it will. Sigh. Eventually I assume it will become a setting to switch on and off. But for now I must put up with an ugly redundancy: the title of my note also appears as its first line, and it will require extra editing to fix it. Meh. Still not an asteroid hitting the earth. Just a ... hemorrhoid. 😄

[NealO 0]

Seems if EN would just put the cursor focus on the title we could type something, click return, then onto the body, so pretty good/normal functionality.  But instead EN puts the cursor focus on the body and when we start typing there's no title and things get messy.  Option A would seem a simple fix. 

Additionally, it would be cool if we could optionally pre-populate the title with "YYMMDD-" where we could then type a title after the mini date.  Not sure if something's wrong but when I moved some files to a new notebook in EN their "last edited date" was updated and it messed up sorting order.

Similar to a previous comment, audiofiles are being assigned mm.dd.yyyy format whereas yyyymmdd is WAY better for sorting esp if downloaded to a directory.  Ironically, I have an old EN audio note from 2019 which had yyyymmdd in the title, which was better.

[agsteele 2,393]

3 minutes ago, NealO said:

Seems if EN would just put the cursor focus on the title we could type something, click return, then onto the body, so pretty good/normal functionality.  But instead EN puts the cursor focus on the body and when we start typing there's no title and things get messy.  Option A would seem a simple fix. 

Additionally, it would be cool if we could optionally pre-populate the title with "YYMMDD-" where we'd type the title after the mini date.  Not sure if something's wrong but when I moved some files to a new directory, their "last edited date" was updated and it messed up sorting order.

Similar to a previous comment the audiofiles are being assigned mm.dd.yyyy format and yyyymmdd is WAY better for sorting esp if downloaded to a directory.  And as one who makes a lot of audio notes it would be nice to have the option of putting that shortened date in the title too.  Ironically, I have an old EN audio note from 2019 which had yyyymmdd in the title, so whoever changed that didn't make such a great choice.

The request to put the cursor focus in the title field has been discussed at length. It seems there are proponents for both approaches. So I guess it would  have to be an option setting. Search the forums and add your voice/vote as appropriate.

The last edited date for notes updates whenever you make ANY change to a note.  So move to a new notebook is a change so the date changes.  This has been the case since the arrival of Evernote 10.  I can see your title tagging idea would assist.  I'd do that with AutoHotkey in Windows That would give me a keystroke to add the date in whatever format I desired.

The dates assigned by the 'system' are normally based on your operating system defaults.  Are you in North America?  I confess that I don't capture audio with Evernote so have no idea what happens for me in Europe where ddmmyyyy would be the default. I doubt you'll find any default to the very useful yyyymmdd structure.

[Dave-in-Decatur 2,720]

8 hours ago, NealO said:

Seems if EN would just put the cursor focus on the title we could type something, click return, then onto the body, so pretty good/normal functionality.  But instead EN puts the cursor focus on the body and when we start typing there's no title and things get messy.  Option A would seem a simple fix.

Have you glanced over this thread? For several months now it has been possible to type a line at the top of a note, where the cursor is automatically placed, and then at any time click or Shift+Tab or F2 into the title bar, and it populates with that first line. (Unless that's what you mean be "things get messy." It's not my favorite either, but it does work to create a title.)

8 hours ago, NealO said:

Additionally, it would be cool if we could optionally pre-populate the title with "YYMMDD-" where we could then type a title after the mini date.

This can be done by creating a template with YYMMDD- at the beginning of the title. Of course, then you have to manually type in the date. AFAIK, Evernote has never had an auto-date field.