Can Evernote support code syntax highlighting

[OasisLee 1]

When I type codes in Evernote, it's such a mess that I can barely recognize them. Is it possible to make the code block feature more flexible, adding syntax highlighting like this forum did? 

The code block right now is worse than plain text, as plain text can be colored, the code in Evernote's code block can't.

 

[Paul A. 382]

21 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

You are asking a general note taking app to be converted into a coders tool - I hope for the sake of the huge majority of users who do anything but coding with the app EN will never follow down this trail. 

Use a proper editor for coders, that will do it all, attach the files into notes. I use COTEditor on the Mac for this end.

Evernote does have a "code block" feature, so syntax highlighting doesn't strike me as an outlandish request. There are several open-source javascript libraries that Evernote could leverage to do the heavy lifting. They would just need to test and integrate one of them.

[TheBenson 3]

Why is there a Codeblock feature, when it's just monospace with a border? At least some super basic Highlighting would help to make it useful.

Years ago I could at least paste Code from my IDE to Evernote and it would just keep the colors. Really miss this Feature. 
(Probably crowded their Database with styling syntax bloat...  attached is an image of an old Note, where I could just past all with the colors. Great!)

[Chris Ma 0]

I really feel sorry for Evernote. From the very popular software at the beginning, it has become a project that is no longer maintained; maybe the businessmen have made enough money, they don't care about the user's feelings at all!

[Mike P 1,701]

1 hour ago, TheBenson said:

Years ago I could at least paste Code from my IDE to Evernote and it would just keep the colors. Really miss this Feature.

I also miss this and I think it is reasonable to ask for it back. Some people want more - language specific colours etc - which, personally, I think goes beyond a "general purpose" tool.

You are right that the code box is a monospace box with a border. It also doesn't spell check which means you don't get code with lots of red underlines. You can of course create your own code block as a grey, single cell table and use the monospace font. You will have to live with red squiggly lines and do your own colouring but it might be helpful.

 

 

[PinkElephant 5,173]

To place a request with EN staff, you can use the feedback function or issue a support ticket. Explain your use case - in the end EN tries to serve existing customers better, and win new ones.

Personally I think allowing color font in a code block should be possible with a relatively small change - manually applied there or carried over from a tool specialised on analysing and tagging code.

Opposite to displaying colours the requests for an active colouring, maybe even code specific IMHO make no sense for a general note app.

[thicks 2]

On 11/1/2021 at 4:35 PM, PinkElephant said:

You are asking a general note taking app to be converted into a coders tool - I hope for the sake of the huge majority of users who do anything but coding with the app EN will never follow down this trail. 

Use a proper editor for coders, that will do it all, attach the files into notes. I use COTEditor on the Mac for this end.

Um no. We are asking for a note taking app to be able to inject code samples. Very reasonable. Can the elephant please leave the room?

[PinkElephant 5,173]

You are asking a general note taking app to be converted into a coders tool - I hope for the sake of the huge majority of users who do anything but coding with the app EN will never follow down this trail. 

Use a proper editor for coders, that will do it all, attach the files into notes. I use COTEditor on the Mac for this end.

[PinkElephant 5,173]

I totally agree that this would be possible - technically.

If they really want to do it, is entirely another thing. It creates yet another dependency on an external resource, and of their devs to keep it in sync with newer code syntax. Looking at the app in general, I doubt they will move into that direction.

But of course, anybody can request whatever would support his use case. Looking at some long standing requests I just think nobody should expect „it“ to happen anytime soon, or even anytime …

[komlaetou 0]

I have been using Evernote for 9 years, year by year paying for it and it is mind-boggling that such a mature tool could not implement simple code syntax highlighting.

As a content creator for software development and technology, taking note with integrated code snippet is part of my workflow and one thing that is pushing me to start testing open source alternative such as Noteshook https://notesnook.com/ is the absence of code syntax highlighting in Evernote.
Noteshook even supports evernote file migration and I am really sure a year from now I will ditch Evernote for this.

I hope anybody at evernote reading this will take this feedback seriously.

Regards. 

 

 

 

[agsteele 1,655]

I would imagine that the answer to your request is likely to be that Evernote is not intended to be a fully fledged code editor offering the coloured coding.

If that is a key feature for you then you are right to explore an application that will do what you need.

[Dave-in-Decatur 1,996]

Welcome to the forums, @komlaetou. It's mostly user-to-user here. A better way to contact Evernote staff directly is through support (https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/requests/new). But it's true that EN is really a generalist app, meant (as I see it) to offer basic functions to a broad range of users, but lacking some specific functions needed for specialized uses. Code highlighting has been requested before, I believe, and you could check the feature request forums and vote for it there. Other features, such as collapsible lists, have been equally hotly requested by people who need them for their particular purposes, but that too in vain, so far.

[Jon/t 297]

I tend to use the code block to store snippets of code and it works OK for me.

I've not really found the need for syntax highlighting myself, not for snippets. Probably because I'm old and started programming on green screen monitors 😂

10 PRINT "JON"
20 GOTO 10
RUN

If I do any programming now its usually Javascript and I write code in Visual Code and store snippets in Evernote.

[Boot17 524]

17 hours ago, komlaetou said:

As a content creator for software development and technology, taking note with integrated code snippet is part of my workflow and one thing that is pushing me to start testing open source alternative such as Noteshook

I'd love to have syntax highlighting in Evernote too and if that was an absolute-show-stopper-feature-I-must-have, then I'd look elsewhere also (but it's not a show-stopper for me). UpNote is a better alternative IMO than Notesook -- so maybe check that out if you haven't heard of it already.

That being said, there are so many features of Evernote that I love over other tools that it's not worth it to switch to something else because of this missing feature.

 

 

[TheBenson 3]

Yes. It's not about coding in Evernote. It's all about storing a snippet of whatever in a usable way!
The current state of the Implementation forces Developers away.

Evernote let's it early adopters, the tech people, down. This is why there is so much grievance nowadays...
I want to like the green Elephant, but decisions like this make it hard. The loved lost Features hurt so much. No matter what they add.

[PinkElephant 5,173]

11 hours ago, TheBenson said:

… This is why there is so much grievance nowadays...
I want to like the green Elephant, but decisions like this make it hard. The loved lost Features hurt so much…

OK, you are tech savvy, love EN so much, etc. etc. Hard to believe, at least for me, because you then twist the facts:

Legacy didn’t have the syntax highlighting feature this thread is about neither. There is NO LOST FEATURE.

As I see it there is only a small (3 upvotes so far) but outspoken group of users asking for an ADDITIONAL feature.

To set this straight: You can ask for anything, here, in feedback and in support tickets. But don’t tell ***** to make it sound more convincing.