Linking to Embedded Documents

[marros 0]

Hello. I use Evernote an awful lot for taking meeting notes and also for centralising my notes and readings from university lectures.

One thing that has been a bit frustrating is this:

I can embed an existing  document (word, excel etc) into Evernote which is a feature I really like and use an awful lot. However, if I then open that document from within Evernote and make some changes, only the copy of the document within Evernote is changed. My original document on my hard drive on my Mac does not get updated. This means that if I make any changes I have to save to twice - once back to Evernote an then I have to remember to do a 'save as' and also overwrite the original document. 

It would be so useful to have Evernote update both copies when opening documents from within the app.

[PinkElephant 8,072]

It used to be like you describe your preferred behavior. Since v10 this was changed, the original is no longer updated.

If you want to get the prior behavior, where the original document is updated, you need to use the legacy client.

[Ray Sidney-Smith 158]

On 2/27/2021 at 5:47 AM, PinkElephant said:

get the prior behavior, where the original document is updated, you need to use the legacy client.

I must never have used this in Evernote Legacy, but can you detail the behavior that is different in Evernote 10+? The behavior I am understanding in Evernote Legacy as: I take a document (for sake of argument, a Microsoft Word document called Example.docx) from my Documents folder in Finder and drag into a note in Evernote. Then, I open that copy of Example.docx in Word, make edits, save and close back into the note. Now, I navigate to my Documents folder in Finder and that Example.docx will also be changed by my edits. Is that the behavior you're saying Evernote Legacy had?

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

[marros 0]

I am not sure what it was like in Evernote Legacy. But certainly with Evernote 10+ if you take a document such as a word document, say from  the my documents folder and drag it into Evernote. if you then open the document from within Evernote and make some changes, then the original document (in the my documents folder) is NOT updated. Also, if you open the original document in the my documents folder and make changes then the copy wthin Evernote is NOT updated. This is a bit of a fiddle in that if you need to make changes, then what I have been having to do is to remove the document from within Evernote, then go to the document in My documents, make the changes and then finally add the document back in to Evernote - I was just asking if it would be possible to make this a simpler process by having the document in Evernote linked back to the original document in the my Documents folder rather than Evernote creating its own separate copy?

[Mike P 2,624]

44 minutes ago, marros said:

I am not sure what it was like in Evernote Legacy. But certainly with Evernote 10+ if you take a document such as a word document, say from  the my documents folder and drag it into Evernote. if you then open the document from within Evernote and make some changes, then the original document (in the my documents folder) is NOT updated. Also, if you open the original document in the my documents folder and make changes then the copy wthin Evernote is NOT updated. This is a bit of a fiddle in that if you need to make changes, then what I have been having to do is to remove the document from within Evernote, then go to the document in My documents, make the changes and then finally add the document back in to Evernote - I was just asking if it would be possible to make this a simpler process by having the document in Evernote linked back to the original document in the my Documents folder rather than Evernote creating its own separate copy?

Having two copies of the same document seems like a potential disaster in the making. Surely that can't be best practice. Personally I either:

Add the document to EN and then delete the copy on my computer. If I need to edit I do so on the copy on EN. EN automatically saves it back to the note.

OR

Keep the copy on your computer and add a link to it within the note on EN. I'm afraid I only know the Windows format for the link.

[PinkElephant 8,072]

The current situation where documents will not update is a productivity killer. As @Mike P describes it easily leads to different versions of the same document, stored in different notes.

In addition many modern programs keep a change history inside of the document itself (if enabled). To keep prior versions there is no need to keep older copies.

There is some hope: On the Mac saving changes back to the original files attached to a note has started working some releases ago.

It works with the MacOS Preview app, and it works with the Apple Office suite iWork (for example Numbers). Documents opened from a note and changed automatically save back to the original note on closing. Could not run a larger test now with other programs.

So maybe EN just needs to take this ability to Windows.

[John Hewetson 0]

I am looking for advice as in "best practices". I am brand new to EN and my main need is for filing PDF, Spreadsheets, word docs and receipt images for fast retrieval. I am going through the substantial tasks of getting all my data into EN. Majority of my data is PDFs or emails so no problem there. It is the "word docs" I am struggling with. My long term goal is to delete original documents off my drive and end up just having copies of these files in EN. For the first year at least I will de-risk things by keeping all the originals on my drive as a backup but not saving any changes to them. With the Excel files I can see the information in the note when I do an attachment without having to launch the spreadsheet so again no problem. However with Word Docs I can't see the contents of the file so I believe that my only option is to save a PDF copy attach it AND the word file (to be able to modify it later on). I am a "Personal user" but would upgrade to "Professional" if it there is something in that package that might reduce the keystrokes. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.