Hate and Love Evernote?

[pex 2]

Hey guys, hope you are all fine!

I know about Evernote since many years, but I have some points I don't like... I want to discuss this points here with you, and I hope someone of the Evernote-Team will tell something to this and I hope you - the community - can say something about it.

1. The App looks really ugly

For me its very important, because I work everyday in my standard apps and it makes more fun if they look nice. Apps like ToDoIst don't look great or something like this, but it looks modern or solid. Evernote looks like an old app in my opinion. The deep black on the right side in Evernote for example. OMG what is this??? The design of the folders and stacks for example and many more...

What do you think about this? My dream is, that there are many themes to choose. Many beautiful themes. Maybe only for the paid users. But they have to make Evernote more beautiful, more modern looking.

2. Folder in Folder (in Folder)

I want to have this structure in Evernote:

1 Private

2 Business

3 Professional

 

-> In Business for example:

2 Business

-> Business #1

-----> Invoices
----------> 2021
----------> 2020
----------> 2019

Main Folder (Business), Folder after his (Business #1), Folder after this (Invoices), Folder after this (2021, 2020, 2019 etc.).

Why is this not possible? I don't understand it? Every one who don't like this way don't have to use it, every one who loves a good structure, can use it.

 

3. Different ways of sorting

There are folder I like to sort by names, in other folders I like to search by date and so on.

I can't understand why this is not possible?

 

4. The options in the notes

I really like anchor-links for a big note. This is also not possible!? And I like toggle-function for some notes. This is also not possible, or?



What do you think about my points? For me this are four big reasons again Evernote.

 

Thank you very much! I am exciting to reading the answers!


Greetings
pex

 

 

[gazumped 11,667]

Hi.  Regarding your points:

1. The App looks really ugly

What would you consider is more attractive? What other apps do you find more appealing?

2. Folder in Folder (in Folder)

Discussed endlessly in the forums - please search for the arguments for and against.

3. Different ways of sorting

You can already sort by title, created date and updated date - and title gives you the opportunity to number and otherwise index notes in whatever way you choose.

4. The options in the notes

Two separate requests also raised many times before - see other threads for details.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, pex said:

2. Folder in Folder (in Folder)

Evernote has no support for file organization with folder methodology    
Instead, Evernote provides two fields (Notebook and Tags) for file organization with tag methodology

Some users emulate folders using the notebook/tag trees in the sidebar

The Tag feature includes parent-child hierarchy and can support the structure you outlined

>>I really like anchor-links for a big note. 

I use Evernote's integrated editor for basic notes    
For "a big note" I would use a word processing app   
The document can be stored in Evernote as a note file attachment

>>I like toggle-function for some notes. 

Please provide more details

[pex 2]

28 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Hi.  Regarding your points:

1. The App looks really ugly

What would you consider is more attractive? What other apps do you find more appealing?

2. Folder in Folder (in Folder)

Discussed endlessly in the forums - please search for the arguments for and against.

3. Different ways of sorting

You can already sort by title, created date and updated date - and title gives you the opportunity to number and otherwise index notes in whatever way you choose.

4. The options in the notes

Two separate requests also raised many times before - see other threads for details.

 

Hey gazumped,
hey DTLow,

thank you both for your replys!

To 1) I think a good example it ToDoIst. It has a modern and solid design. Another good looking app is Asana. Things 3 is not bad. And there are many apps out there which looks "ok". But Evernote... I don't like the design. And "design" is too big word for this...  Which other App has a deep black background? This looks really bad. And the icons etc. etc.

 

To 2) But if this is an option, I can't believe that there is only one con argument!? But I have to check it in this forum maybe.

 

To 3) I can have different standard sorting in different notebooks? In my Evernote he will use it in every Notebook.

To 4) "I use Evernote's integrated editor for basic notes    
For "a big note" I would use a word processing app"

I think there are many ways to get what you want with other apps. But what's the argument for Evernote not make this possible?

@DTLow: Toggle-function is this:

My Stories:

> The Big Deal

> Hero 2

> Last Action Hero

And then you can click on "Hero 2" for example and you can see all the text in the same not. But if you click again on "Hero 2" the text will hide. This is possible in Notion and other apps. It helps you to get a long note short. 
 

[PinkElephant 8,117]

In brief:

1) About Art (and app design is applied art) you can’t really discuss. Some like it (I prefer v10 over Legacy), you don’t, that‘s it.

2) A flat notebook structure plus (nested or not) tags is the way EN is set up and working. Notebooks are NOT the main tool to organize and combine information, that job is done by tags. A larger number of my notebooks is set up as dedicated sharing spaces with other people than to have „folders“. I won‘t enter the argument about it again, there is one of the longest threads in the forum treating this issue.

The fundamental structure of EN is set to be a flat note-notebook relation, linked together by a completely flexible, powerful tagging system. I doubt they will change it - it is ingrained into database, server programs and clients alike.

If you are a „folder“ type and don’t want to learn some new tricks, move on to another app.

3, 4) Feature requests are open, we will see (if and when)

[pex 2]

Hey PinkElephant,

thanks for your reply!

To 1) I think that's not correct. You can design a car and some will like the design and some will not like the design. Thats your point and that's correct in my opinion. But in an app, you can give the user the choice which theme they want to use. The app "Bear" for example has many different themes. So every user can choose his / her preferred theme. I think this is a solution for this. And you can make it for all paid user. You have an argument more for the users to pay for your app. For me for example this point is very important.

 

To 2) Ok, that makes me a little bit sad. Because I thought its not so difficult to code a folder-structure. And everyone who likes it, can use it. And the others can ignore it.

 

To 3, 4) Ok, we will see.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

App design: There are few (very few) that offer themes. Most are as they are, maybe dark mode, done. 

If there would be a market for apps with themes, there might be more.

Structural issues: These are design decision that are very hard to undo. When searching large trunks of data, indexing is everything, and indexing is based on the data structure. It is no this way or that way, as you please.

Notion for example does is differently - but there the user needs to set this stuff up for himself. Do it wrong … - flexibility can be blessing and evil, at the same time. I prefer the prestructured setup EN offers - leaves enough room for me to do what I need.

[kfreels 31]

On 10/7/2021 at 8:51 AM, PinkElephant said:

In brief:

1) About Art (and app design is applied art) you can’t really discuss. Some like it (I prefer v10 over Legacy), you don’t, that‘s it.

2) A flat notebook structure plus (nested or not) tags is the way EN is set up and working. Notebooks are NOT the main tool to organize and combine information, that job is done by tags. A larger number of my notebooks is set up as dedicated sharing spaces with other people than to have „folders“. I won‘t enter the argument about it again, there is one of the longest threads in the forum treating this issue.

The fundamental structure of EN is set to be a flat note-notebook relation, linked together by a completely flexible, powerful tagging system. I doubt they will change it - it is ingrained into database, server programs and clients alike.

If you are a „folder“ type and don’t want to learn some new tricks, move on to another app.

3, 4) Feature requests are open, we will see (if and when)

As noted above.... Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.... I have a friend with the ugliest car in the world and he loves it. No one can make everyone happy which is why there are alternatives. 

As for tags, it's taken me a long while to get used to using them instead of folders and I've been doing both photography and IT work for 30 years....yes, back before there was an internet! I had decades of habits forced on me that I had to break when the digital revolution came to photography and to note-taking. With my IT background I knew intuitively that tags were superior because folders themselves are nothing more than tags on the storage drive. The difference is that with folders, you only get one tag for all the information. Windows and other GUIs simply made those tags appear as folders and showed what they were related to which made sense when you had a one-to-one relationship. The problem is that you end up having to either remember precisely which folder something is "in" or save the same file in multiple places which is a very inefficient way of doing things. 

Tags lets you get around this. You can tag a single file or in this case "note" with multiple tags. So for instance, suppose you have a lovely picture of your child, her best friend, grandma, a UFO in the background, and you used a fancy new lens to take it. Which folder does that go into? Your storage by date? So if you used a date structure to your folders, you would need to remember the approximate date to get that pic of grandma if she passed away. And you would need to sift through countless photos to find the few pics of her that you have. If you stored it in a folder called Grandma, then you'll have to go through all those folders to find the good pic of your daughter for her wedding reception. Or if she wanted some good pics of her best friend, or even if you wanted to pull together the UFO pics you've taken...In each case you would want to work with them as a group. But how if they're strung out in different folders? Make copies and drop them into yet another folder? So now you have pics by dates, copies of the same pics in a grandma folder, another folder for your daughter with a copy, a UFO folder, and so on? How many copies will you have? How many ways can you break a picture down? 

Tags solves this. You can tag an individual photo with as many tags as you want. Later if you find yet another reason to tag it, you just add the tag. You want to group all pics of grandma? Just choose the grandma tag and now you have everything with grandma in it. On the drive, it's not any different than the folder structure you're used to but you can have multiple associations instead of just one. Notes have a lot in common with images. They can be anything....including photos. They can represent time, dates, events, recipes, notes, memories, shopping lists, music, literally any and everything. Choosing one specific folder can be extremely difficult and the number of folders could be enormous depending on how detailed you want to get. Or it could be simple. But if simple, tags works for that too. Just re-use the same few tags as you would re-use the same few folders. 

I really hope this helps. It does take some adjustment....and I'm still not fully adjusted despite knowing darned well that it's a superior method and not any different at the disc level. I think that if they were simply called "multi-folders" from the beginning with folder shapes instead of just being words, I would have transitioned much more easily. One recent development that is quite incredible is a Windows Store app called "Tag Explorer" which takes the Windows "File Explorer" to a whole new level blending the terms and graphical method of representing the data as we have grown used to, but employing tags in the structure instead of traditional 1:1 folder naming. Now if only there was a way to blend that into Evernote!

[gazumped 11,667]

4 hours ago, kfreels said:

One recent development that is quite incredible is a Windows Store app called "Tag Explorer"

Good general feedback,  thanks.  I looked at Tag Explorer though - it's a 2016 app with no help apparently available.  The author's website (uropium.com) doesn't seem to be active any more.  There are other apps in the store that support file tagging.