"Duplicate" note option behavior

[Malcolm L 3]

I frequently use "duplicate" to create a sort of template for a new note. I thought it was obvious that if I'm creating a duplicate, it's because I want to edit the duplicate. So I don't understand why EN chooses to keep the focus on the original note and force the user to hunt down "Copy of ..." in order to continue working. Wouldn't it be more natural to shift the focus to the new note when choosing the "duplicate" option? At least, that's what I would like.

[PinkElephant 8,068]

Hmmm - just made a Duplicate. The note is a virtual twin, the note information of both notes show the same information, same tags, same notebook.

From the note itself I couldn’t tell which is the „original“ and which is the clone. I just saw that one needed a little to sync - so I assume this is the clone. Yes, EN stayed on the original, since this is the open note.

Conclusion: Why don’t you work on whatever twin you are - from my observation it makes no difference. You can continue editing the „original“, why go „hunting“ for the clone ?

[tony_cook 2]

When you Duplicate a note, the focus is still on the original note.

Malcolm is asking that EN change the focus to the newly Duplicated Note. And I agree with this.

Take MS Word for example.
If you do Save As whilst in a document, you are then editing the new document. Not the original.

I'd also like the CREATED date of the Duplicated note to be set as NOW, since that is when I created the duplicate note.

[Malcolm L 3]

Dear Pink Elephant:

 

If you can't tell the difference between the two notes, then you have problems reading the titles of the notes. "Note 1" and "Copy of Note 1" are hardly the same thing. If I do as you suggest, "Note 1" will be edited and become the new note. "Copy of Note 1" will retain the original information. But actually, I want "Note 1" to have the original information and then rename "Copy of Note 1" to "Note 2," where I will put the new information. It's not rocket science. But Evernote seems uninterested in a user's interaction with their program. They are so focused on their programming agenda that the user's experience takes a distant second place. I resent it. And I resent not being able to find a better program.

[gazumped 11,652]

8 hours ago, Malcolm L said:

They are so focused on their programming agenda that the user's experience takes a distant second place. I resent it.

Hi.  Are you basing this on more than the fact that you're having a little difficulty with this specific operation?  If so,  please share. I'd say the fact you can't find a better program suggests that most folks don't find this a particular issue...

I'd suggest you raise this with Support - in the Legacy version I'm finding that focus jumps to the 'copy' note,  - which if you have a note list showing notes in created or updated date,  or title order - should be right next to the original.  If that's not an omission from v10 they should pass the issue to developers for a future update...

[Malcolm L 3]

gazumped: Yes, I know I sound like I'm whining, but literally the last 3 things I raised with support, they said "oh we know about that one, and we're going to get to it eventually." They were very honest in acknowledging to me that they care about the user experience, but that it's second to the "huge" development project they're working on. So I'm content to stick with Evernote, and I appreciate their honesty. But this "copy of note X" behavior is something that changed somewhere along the line. The focus used to go to the new note; now it stays with the old note. Support said basically that just because they don't do anything about it, I shouldn't assume tghey don't care about the users' experience. The fact they have to say that suggests they *don't* care much about the users' experience. Anyway, I should stop whining, because as I said, I don't see a better program for my needs. And I appreciate support's honesty in keeping my expectations low. And I'm hoping EN will develop into something even more wonderful. But right now, I find that I fairly often regret not having more options over the behavior of the program.

[PinkElephant 8,068]

Probably they just have a monster of a backlog list, and usually customer support can’t set the priorities. 

We all should remember when options are mentioned, that yes, we want them, we need them, they are great. Aren’t they ?

Behind every option is the need in the program to catch it. The program needs to ask „IF this option is set THEN go that way ELSE continue here“. Give it 10 options, the tree has 10 levels of branches, give it 50 there are 50 levels. OK, you don’t need every option everywhere, so less branches. But it creates a ton of additional code, for an app that has already a sluggyness snappiness problem.

So as much as I like to get a choice, I appreciate the caution EN applies when more options are the war cry of the day.

[gazumped 11,652]

54 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

sluggyness snappiness

Nice catch... 😂

[ago 1]

On 7/19/2021 at 7:52 PM, tony_cook said:

I'd also like the CREATED date of the Duplicated note to be set as NOW, since that is when I created the duplicate note.

this would be a big saver for me ... i use duplicate all the time ... (i'd use it less if Templates brought over tags with them) ...

since notes that i've duplicated have some meaningless/obsolete/irrelevant date time stamp (DTG), i end up poking this garbage into my often-recurring notes 
"202107030000" 

even if we had a setting so that we could decide whether to retain/redo datetimestamp upon Duplicate?

[gazumped 11,652]

8 hours ago, ago said:

even if we had a setting so that we could decide whether to retain/redo datetimestamp upon Duplicate?

Hi.  Have you tried exporting a template original note as an ENEX file and storing that on your desktop?  In Legacy (which is what I use) double-clicking the file generates a new note in my database with the current date/ time.  Alternatively any text expander app for mobile or desktop can fill in that (and other) fields with a keyboard shortcut.

[tony_cook 2]

Seems that Evernote has been listening.

"After you duplicate a note, the app will now focus on the new note instead of the original"

Thanks Evernote!!

This is on version 10.19.2 on macOS which I was prompted to install today.

No change to the Creation Date behavior tho.

[Malcolm L 3]

Yes! For me, this is the most exciting element of the most recent update. I've been duplicating notes merrily ever since updating.