Request: Remove 2 column focus view for shortcuts/recent notes (want to see the note list)

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

I have *tried* to embrace the two column note view that results when you access a note from the shortcuts or recent notes. I feel like I've given it a fair shot. But, I continue to REALLY dislike it.

I think it's because it makes the shortcuts and recents notes far less useful to me, because, particularly in the shortcuts, very often I need to navigate to notes that are related to the shortcut that live in the same notebook, and I can't get to the notebook. I keep trying to click the "expand" button to collapse the note view, but, this only expands the note focus, not contracts it.

The solution I end up going to is to have to search for the notebook (an annoying and inefficient step), or click the "go to notebook" button in the note (which I often forget is there as an option) so that I can get back to seeing the note list.

This feature feels very confining to me. I really don't like it.

Am I missing something about what point of this is? Why is the interface forcing us to not access the note list? Why wouldn't you just give me the option to do a full expand on the note if I want to (I love this feature). I guess I just hate that it is imposed on me. And, the way I work, it doesn't work for me, at all. It's jarring and puts an undesired hurdle in my workflow.

Are other users actually liking this feature? If so, could someone explain to me why you like it? Or, could a team member explain what the reasoning is behind the feature? I'm trying to understand what I'm missing.

And, regardless, my vote is for this to go away. I just want shortcuts and recent notes to navigate to the note in the note panel, with the note list still showing. If others agree with me, I hope you'll vote this up.

[ABEN 73]

Totally agree with it. It's really annoying...

I asked the same question in October at the release of Evernote 10, if you can turn it off - but they just said: 

Quote

That's by design. If you click on a note from the sidebar, it omits the note list and only displays the note. If you want to show the notes in the notebook, click on the notebook icon on the top left corner of the note. 

 

 

I hope they soon give us the option to have the 2nd row always displayed when using the shortcuts or searching for something....

I get upset every day about this current 'feature' and it has made my workflow very worse because I actually always work with ,,Viewing All Notes'' all the time...

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

@ABENThank you for consolidating the forum requests on this. I did a search but couldn't even figure out what words to include to describe this – glad to see it has been brought up before. In the current configuration, and, based on @Nick L.reply, I see that they want us to click the notebook icon on the top of the note to navigate to the notebook. I'm aware of this navigational option, but I don't like that i have to take this extra step (and, for some reason, I am not "learning" to do this – and I learn how to do new paths in Evernote pretty quickly – for example, I've adjusted to the reminders button being moved and I now embrace the checkbox vs checklist options). This hints to me that the UI design for this could be improved.

And, since this feature is clearly by design, I continue to wondering what the logic/benefit is behind this feature. I can't figure it out. It's not the new "full focus" feature, and it isn't the standard navigation feature. Instead, it's a display view that creates less function that what is within the expected experience for the user. 

I see that @stocky2605expressed his dislike for this feature back in October. I'm wondering if he has evolved his opinion or found a reason for it over the past few months?

[Mike P 2,642]

14 minutes ago, Stacey said:

I see that they want us to click the notebook icon on the top of the note to navigate to the notebook.

You go to the notebook but loose the note ie the focus goes to the top of the notebook. I had hoped to see the notes before and after the note I had selected.

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

2 hours ago, Mike P said:

You go to the notebook but loose the note ie the focus goes to the top of the notebook. I had hoped to see the notes before and after the note I had selected.

Yes...you're so right. That's exactly what's happening! That's the other reason I'm hating this feature...thank you for pointing it out @Mike P. It makes NO sense. If I go through the thought process/choice to actually shortcut a note (presumably it has some contextual importance to me at the time I shortcut it), why would I not want to be navigated directly to that note when I go to the note list? You work shortcuts the same way I do – the notes around it in the notebook matter – A LOT. And, this feature has stripped that context away and made it unintuitive, multi-step, and a thinking exercise (where there doesn't need to be one) to use both the shortcuts and recent notes. No wonder I dislike it so much.

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

I'm sad to see that the Quick Switcher (now available in v10....thank you Evernote!) triggers this two column layout if you switch to a single note (vs a notebook or stack). This behavior makes the feature (Quick Switcher) just *that* much less efficient for me, and gives me the tiniest of friction/frustration each and every time (which is A LOT) I use it and have this experience.

The quick switcher is the #1 daily command I use and now if I want to see the note in relation to the other notes in its notebook, I have the extra steps of needing to click the Notebook button, and then have to locate the note in that notebook. This is really disappointing to me as a power user.

I once again ask if anyone (from Evernote or a user that likes this feature) can explain to me what the logic is behind this navigational/interface decision? If I have to deal with it – which it looks like the feature is spreading vs going away – I want to understand what I'm missing in terms of how it is desired behavior. Grasping for anything to help me embrace this and also teach its value to other users.

[ABEN 73]

I also wanted to let you know again, that I totally agree with Stacey!

 

Seeing All Notes at all times is (was) one of the most powerful features of Evernote and one of the main reasons, why I don't switch to Notion, etc. ...

 

I have over 175 smaller notebooks with sometimes as few as 20 notes, which means I usually want to switch back and forth between the different notes in the notebooks very quickly (whether I'm clicking on a link in the note, Favorites, Quick Switcher, Search, etc.) -> And I ALWAYS want to have All Notes in the Middle column visible all the time(!), because it's so central to the overall view of everything I have in Evernote (for example, if I just updated 10 notes from 10 different notebooks and want them visible at the top of the All Notes column).

 

It's just so frustrating to have the All Notes column covered up every time, as soon as I click on a link in a note, Favorites, Quick Switcher, Search, etc.! And I slowly can't hold back my anger anymore with this current setting ... 

 

Just please give us the option to decide for ourselves, whether we want the center column (All Notes) displayed or not! 

 

For example: 

• Option 1: ALWAYS see All Notes. (Favorite of mine and many others I know).
• Option 2: Column with the notes of the particular notebook.
• Option 3: Hide the column (as it is at the moment unfortunately... ).
  • Option 3.1: Hide the column - but keep the current note displayed when you click on the current notebook in the upper left corner...

 

Please dear Evernote team, I hope you give us the choice to decide for ourselves, which option we want to have!

 

 

Thank you!

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

I think @ABENhas proposed the ideal solution – giving users the option and having it be a preference. Got my fingers crossed that this is in the works. In the meantime, I'm going to keep piling up the use cases where this behavior is problematic. Just came upon a new one today.

I use templates regularly. This creates a lot of notes that have similar names, inherited from the template with a modification on the name typically at the end of the note title (in the way I use templates).  So, when I use search to search for the template name, I get a lot of options (all the times I've used the template) in the search menu. And, the menu isn't wide so I can't see the whole name of the note. So I guess to which one I want. In Legacy, it doesn't really matter if I selected the correct one, because if I didn't, I could see the other iterations of it right next to the one I selected and down or up arrow to the right note, or sort the notes column by title, or by date updated (whatever helped me to surface the version I was looking for in that context). 

But, in v10, if I pick the wrong one, it gives me the note in a 2 column view. I then see it is the wrong one, have to go to the the notebook via the button at the top, it doesn't hold the focus on the note that was found in search, and I'm lost. SO INEFFICIENT and FRUSTRATING (enough for me to use ALL CAPS!!!!)

[May L 53]

@Stacey @ABEN

Thank you for the feedback. It is an app wide design to open to the full note view so users can focus on the note they are working on. This appears to work well for most users however, it is a departure from legacy and I understand your frustration given it doesn't work well for your use cases. We will ponder on this feedback some more as there are multiple options to address it.

Meanwhile, Stacey - if you switch to a notebook then the note list will appear and you will be able to select notes that way. Can you share if this works for your use case? Also regarding your templates use, if you switch to the note from Quick Switcher, you will likely be able to see the whole note title.

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

@May LGreat to hear from a team member on this. To clarify, I want to be sure we are on the same page. You said:

"It is an app wide design to open to the full note view so users can focus on the note they are working on.". 

I want to be clear that I LOVE the new full note focus option (which I understand to be this feature):

And, what I love about it is that it is an option for me to use – it's not enforced upon me, and, it DOES provide focus and a distraction free way to interact with the note. I think this is a smart and useful feature, and a very nice improvement over Legacy. This feature gets a thumbs up from me.

What I have an issue with is when I access the same note from shortcuts (or recents, or quick switcher). In this situation, Evernote's removed my choice to view the notes list (which is what @ABENhas proposed should be a preference that we get to set and I completely agree – we don't want this forced 2 column layout ever!) and I have no way of easily getting to the 3 column layout that displays the note list at all:

Because, when I click on the notebook to navigate to it, it does this:

You may have understood my gripe correctly, but, I wasn't sure, and hadn't used any visuals in my complaint, so wanted to make sure I was communicating clearly. And, I'm happy to hear there are multiple options to address this. For me, my preference is the one that requires as few clicks as possible (the most efficient option). So, even if you fix the issue where when I click through to the notebook, it holds the focus on the note that took me there,  I don't want to actually have to click that notebook button to be taken there. I just want to be able to see the note list when I click a note from shortcuts/recents/quick search.

As to your thoughts about my template use case, yes, the Quick Switcher gives me a bigger view of the note title, so that is an option. I'll work with this to see it that works for me. Thanks.

 

 

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

Another workflow example – this change makes it a bunch more steps to simply add a note to shortcuts. See video.

[Mike P 2,642]

1 hour ago, Stacey said:

Another workflow example – this change makes it a bunch more steps to simply add a note to shortcuts

My issue is that I simply forget that I can add to shortcuts from the three dots menu when my normal practice is to drag the note into the shortcuts area. I'm not sure that three dots -> add to shorcuts is that much more complicated it is just the fact that I am forced to do it that way simply because EN has decided to hide the note list.

[May L 53]

@Stacey Thank you for the detailed posts with visuals. I did understand you correctly the first time - (you are a very clear communicator!) but its always nice to have visuals to make 100% sure since thing can get lost in translation so I appreciate the extra effort you went through with the screenshots and the video to share another use case.

@Mike P Thank you for sharing your use case as well. 

Please know we are actively thinking through this feedback as these are all great points. We love your passion for Evernote and want to help you work efficiently. There is definitely trickiness to designing the UI to accommodate a diverse set of user preferences but we agree we can do better here.

Thank you again for the feedback.

 

[Heidi Hock 1]

I'd like to express my strong support for what @Stacey and group are requesting here.  To force-feed a two-column view is highly unintuitive and disrupts my flow.  Please allow this to be a user preference. Thank you! 

[PinkElephant 8,117]

+1

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

Logging another issue that is forced view causes me: I don't have a way to open the note in it's own window from this view. Frustrating.

[Mike P 2,642]

15 hours ago, Stacey said:

Logging another issue that is forced view causes me: I don't have a way to open the note in it's own window from this view. Frustrating.

How about using the three dots menu -> open note in new window.

That being said I still hate the 2 column view and do not understand the design logic.

[Stacey Harmon 1,104]

11 hours ago, Mike P said:

How about using the three dots menu -> open note in new window.

Ah! Yes...thank you. I looked, but my eye skipped over this option (probably due to my frustration in the moment). Appreciate you pointing this out.

 

11 hours ago, Mike P said:

That being said I still hate the 2 column view and do not understand the design logic.

#likeminds

[VincentC 266]

Adding to a dated thread... sorry about that...  but I can't help but comment

I'm not anything like as power a user as the users who are commenting here.  And that's relevant:

For me, consistency in behavior makes it easier to learn the platform and apply it to my needs.  I bumped into this thread because I was getting confused by the seemingly random changes in views.  "Hey, what happened to that column... uffda."   And I woudn't have perceived that clicking on the notebook name to get back to three column view was a feature -- I would have just perceived it as "Now what just happened!??", especially since I would have lost the focus on the note -- "Where did it go?"  IMO, any perceived benefit of increased focus gets lost on a non-expert user like me who nevertheless uses Evernote All The Time... and I just perceive making the program harder to use.  And I have to say, there are a bunch of these kinds of things like this that I come across -- what I perceive as quirky behavior that  gets in the way that I really don't want to take the time to get to the bottom of.  For me, consistency of behavior is really important.

Hope this perspective is helpful.

Vinnie

[Mike P 2,642]

On 5/27/2021 at 7:39 PM, May L said:

It is an app wide design to open to the full note view so users can focus on the note they are working on.

Sorry to react to such an old post but the thread got bumped and I thought of something else. If it was the "full note view" that we get by clicking the expand note arrow at the top left of the note pane it wouldn't be as much of an issue. It can be reversed simply by clicking the arrow again. The issue is the disappearance of the note list and thus being not able to see the note in context or access the functions that we habitually access from the list.