Request: Auto Tagging

[cctiger2 21]

I would like to request that we again have the ability to "Auto Tag" that the early (ver. 2) Evernote had.

I REALLY appreciated that I could set tags that automatically picked up notes that fit into their scope. For me this was especially handy for recipes. For example: I set up tags so that every note that was added and contained the words "ground beef" or "hamburger" got added to my Ground Beef tag.

I would really like to see this feature become part of Evernote again. I miss it very much.

Smiles,

Laura

[cavanaughmm 0]

I absolutely loved the auto-tagging that was in the earlier version of EverNote and can't understand why they would eliminate something that was so useful! :? It saved me so much time when "filing" my project notes/emails/documents. It was probably the single biggest reason I used EverNote over OneNote (consider the fact that OneNote was free for me and already installed on my PC!).

Perhaps the change over to EverNote 4 left this in the "to do" bin.. I do hope they will consider bringing it back, and soon.

[Al Sargent 21]

Yes, with the Smart Filing feature, Evernote now automatically puts in some tags. It's a step forward, but not nearly enough. We need auto-tag rules, similar to Gmail's filters, to catch what Evernote doesn't seem to be able to "learn" on its own. Here's why.

In the 15 years I've used Gmail, I've built up literally hundreds of auto-tagging rules (Gmail calls them "filters" but it's the same concept). I've done this because it makes it easier to find stuff in Gmail. All the concepts below that apply to Gmail would also apply to Evernote, to make it easier to find stuff in Evernote.

Here are some categories of auto-tagging:

1) Subset/superset relationships. For instance, when a note from a teacher calls out the name of one of my kids, Gmail automatically attaches the label "family". When a note mentions "401k", Gmail automatically attaches the label "Investments". When I receive a newsletter than mentions one of my company's competitors by name, Gmail attaches the label "competitor". You get the point.

2) Related concepts. When emails come from venmo.com and include the words "you paid", Gmail applies the label "receipt". 

3) Synonyms. My siblings have nicknames and commonly misspelled names. Gmail looks at all these, and applies an appropriate label for the sibling. That way I don't have to search for every permutation of their name or nickname.

Here are some examples of where I go through Evernote and manually tag items. It's a pain. Auto-tagging would save me a lot of time.

1. Apply tag corresponding to notebook name. So for example, everything in my Marketing notebook gets the Marketing tag. Everything in the Career notebook gets the Career tag. And so on. I put notes into one of a couple dozen notebooks. But sometimes a note could go into one of two different notebooks. For example, my career is marketing. So, sometimes I'll use the web clipper to pull in something that could go into the career notebook, and sometimes it goes into the marketing notebook. But to find it later, I'll tag it both "career" and "marketing". That say, since everything has a tag, just search by tag.

2. Tag by person name. Do a search for various spellings of my coworkers names, with quotes, as in "John Doe" or (mispelled) "Jon Doe" or nickname "Doe". Then apply a tag "johndoe". This makes it quicker to find meeting notes for that person. Or an article that was referred by that person. 

3. Tag by content type. Quick, what's the advanced search operator to find all notes with a PDF? It's resource:application/pdf. Not the easiest thing to remember, right? So I'll select all notes, search for resource:application/pdf, and tag as "pdf". Much easier to find PDFs. I'll also search for "docs.google.com/document/", "docs.google.com/spreadsheets/", and "docs.google.com/presentation/", and tag those "google doc", "google sheet", and "google slides", respectively. 

4. Tag by synonym. I take notes for an activity I do, sailboat racing. One type of boat is called a Vanguard 15. But articles I pull in through the web clipper might refer to "V15" or "Vanguard 15". I search for both, and apply the tag "Vanguard 15".

5. Tag by superclass. Also in the realm of sailing, I'll put in articles on boats that are called Knarrs, J/70s (also written J70, without the slash), J/105s, (and, J105), and so forth. All of these are a type of boat called a keelboat. So I'll do all those searches and apply the tag "keelboat". In the realm of work, when I clip an article that contains the word "GDPR" or "HIPAA", I'll add the tag "compliance", againn to make things easier to find.

6. Tag by related concept. Someday I'd love to race a boat to Hawaii, and I use Evernote to gather information I'll need to do those, since you're pretty much on your own in terms of packing food, surviving a gear failure (or worse, sunken boat), and so on. There are two main races, Pacific Cup on even years, and Transpac on odd years. They pretty much have the same challenges. When I use web clipper to pull an article with "Pacific Cup" in it, I apply the tag "transpac". Vice-versa when the article contains the word "Transpac". 

Yes, that's a lot of tagging. And I do even more. All to make it possible to locate notes among the thousands I have in Evernote. Hopefully this shows how auto-tagging would be useful.

[Zxcy 1]

I would ike to see an option to autotag when a note is moved to a notebook and auto untag when it is moved to another notebook. All additional tags should be still available on the note of course. 

[yikeouch 23]

Thanks for reminding.

I want to give the parent tag to the notes with child tag, not only when the tag move occurs. And remove the old parent tag when new parent tag is given. If I want to keep old parent tag, I can add it manually. This will have the advantages of both hierarchical system and tag. It will allow hierarchy with nested tags (vertical ) and allow horizontal link of notes with single tag.

Try the web app named "Workflowy" and you will understand my concept.

[jefito 5,598]

For example, when I have Note A, B, C with tag 1, and I move the tag 1 under tag 2 as tag 2's sub-tag.

I hope evernote will auto-tag the note A, B, C with tag 2.

This will help a lot when sorting the tags.

I would hope that this would be an option -- it's not behavior that I would use.

Anyways:

Is this a rule that takes place only when moving tags around? That is, given 'tag2' is a parent of 'tag1' are you allowed to have notes with only 'tag1', but not 'tag2', or does the auto-tagging take place when the tag move occurs?

What about if you then move 'tag1' from 'tag2' to under 'tag3'. Should 'tag2' be removed from any notes that are have 'tag2' (assuming that 'tag3' is then added)?

[yikeouch 23]

I have another request for auto tagging.

For example, when I have Note A, B, C with tag 1, and I move the tag 1 under tag 2 as tag 2's sub-tag.

I hope evernote will auto-tag the note A, B, C with tag 2.

This will help a lot when sorting the tags.

[jefito 5,598]

Thanks, it does look that way, so Good Folks of Evernote, please consider this a FEATURE REQUEST!

By virtue of it having been suggested, I'm sure it's on the list...

~Jeff

[uncletoddy 1]

I'm also chiming in with my vote for auto tagging. Why did they leave it behind in the first place. This would save an immense amount of time!

[cavanaughmm 0]

AFAIK, auto tagging was left behind in EverNote 2.x There has not been auto tagging in Evernote 3.1 or 3.5 & therefore, probably not in EN4.

Thanks, it does look that way, so Good Folks of Evernote, please consider this a FEATURE REQUEST!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I absolutely loved the auto-tagging that was in the earlier version of EverNote and can't understand why they would eliminate something that was so useful! :? It saved me so much time when "filing" my project notes/emails/documents. It was probably the single biggest reason I used EverNote over OneNote (consider the fact that OneNote was free for me and already installed on my PC!).

Perhaps the change over to EverNote 4 left this in the "to do" bin.. I do hope they will consider bringing it back, and soon.

AFAIK, auto tagging was left behind in EverNote 2.x There has not been auto tagging in Evernote 3.1 or 3.5 & therefore, probably not in EN4.

[MartinPacker 2]

Lotus Notes also has this via "rules".

Maybe someone should build a "curation" agent for Evernote. But how to do it "online" I wouldn't know. "Offline" i.e. export, fiddle with the XML and reload is a potential option. I just don't the machinery is quite there yet. :-(

[JMichaelTest 19]

I'd like to raise the stakes on this one.

. . .

I want to be able to easily and automatically categorize my notes as I gleefully fling them into the gaping maw of the that omnivorous, information sucking (hoovering for our British cousins) beast that Evernote is at heart. Let me control what notebook to route my note to, what tags to apply, and whatever other metadata to be set, based on note content, title content, note source, my location or whatever else makes sense. We should be able to apply this as notes come in to the system, or an an ad hoc basis, to make mass note management tasks easier. . .

We really need to keep Evernote focused, single-minded, no bloat. I'm sure that if this is really needed by enough people then some 3rd party app or trunk app could do this.

--- OH WAIT! What am I saying??? This kind of rebuttal is for Evernote Evangelists!

--- BUT WAIT! The request is from an Evangelist!?!?!

--- We must be having role reversal!?!?

Just kidding.

Didn't know that Evangelists were allowed to request new features. :wink:

Actually I think it is a good idea. My only request is that EN fix the bugs first.

[jbenson2 2,149]

Yes, the DOS-based Lotus Agenda was a wonderful product.

It was amazing how it could analyze a simple sentence and build the database.

But then Windows came along and Lotus dropped it.

[jmpsfs 23]

Early Evernote aside, anyone who used Lotus Agenda remembers how effective and convenient auto-tagging was. I'd like to see it again.

[SRhyse 4]

That'd be the most useful feature ever, next to search.

[jefito 5,598]

I'd like to raise the stakes on this one.

I didn't use Evernote in the good old days of wine, roses and autotagging (i.e. I don't know exactly how autotagging worked), but I do use GMail, and one of its best features is its ability to set up filtering rules based on various email criteria (I do this in Outlook a lot as well). I want to be able to easily and automatically categorize my notes as I gleefully fling them into the gaping maw of the that omnivorous, information sucking (hoovering for our British cousins) beast that Evernote is at heart. Let me control what notebook to route my note to, what tags to apply, and whatever other metadata to be set, based on note content, title content, note source, my location or whatever else makes sense. We should be able to apply this as notes come in to the system, or an an ad hoc basis, to make mass note management tasks easier.

Maybe this is n not needed now, but in the future, when note volumes for folks like BurgersNFries or jbenson start to exceed the 100s of thousands, this might come in handy. I promise not to say 'I told you so'.

~Jeff

[taps 1]

+1 !!

[alessio 5]

I found the ability to auto tag notes really great in version 2 for Win.

So, +1 vote for (re)adding autotag functionality!

Aleš

[amakker 0]

Thank you for the feedback