Use of Apple Pencil on Evernote iPadOS 16 - Scribble toolbar use '

[Claudiofpiga 54]

Hi, is anyone' using the Apple Pencil for the iPadOS 16 Evernote app handwritten input?
since I've updated, to iPadOS 16, the Scribble toolbar is not available in the notes body / content I Just simply doesn't show up.

I've already checked and it is not a hardware issue or iPadOS issue, the problem is with evenote - thanks

 

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Scribble works for me in a notes body. Since it is only made for text, there are no tools for drawing, different line colours and the like. I write, it is transformed into computer text - done. The stylus gestures work as well.

If you want something else, instead of posting pictures of something that is not there it would make sense to post a picture of the toolbar you are missing from another app. Just as a hint: Apple Notes is no equivalent - here the drawing tools are enabled at the same time, which is not the way it works in EN.

If you want to insert a drawing into an EN note, use the blue + menu, insert a Sketch element and start drawing.

[Claudiofpiga 54]

Toolbar for scribble is not color for drawing option  ; the toolbar for scribble is the return option ( next line ) , keyboard and undo / redo . 
you may have seen , the little rectangle at the bottom ( that is the toolbar for scribble) , that in my case is not available at the note’s body 

[PinkElephant 5,130]

No, doesn't show. You need to use the pencil gestures instead.

In general the forum is user2user. So in such a case where we here agree we can reproduce an issue, your next step is a support ticket to contact EN staff.

[Claudiofpiga 54]

Ok , I’m not alone 

I’ve already submitted a ticket , sometimes users know better 

as far as I know , there are no pencil gestures in EN , I’ll check 

thanks 

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Hmmmm, it may be there are little gestures, but when I tried, a zigzag line up and down for example served to delete a piece of text, a diagonal line served to select a word, etc. Not really much, but since I don't use Scribble I lost interest in trying more.

It has problems to read and correctly transcribe my handwriting. I have to correct every other word, and that makes the experience clumsy.

When I use the pencil to write, I use GoodNotes 5. It still outperforms Scribble in the quality of handwriting to text transcription. Just the process is different: First I write a bunch of words, then I use the lasso to select it, tap on it and choose "Transcribe". I then get the whole text as a computer text I can use, copy etc.

[Oleg Papka 0]

9 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Hmmmm, it may be there are little gestures, but when I tried, a zigzag line up and down for example served to delete a piece of text, a diagonal line served to select a word, etc. Not really much, but since I don't use Scribble I lost interest in trying more.

It has problems to read and correctly transcribe my handwriting. I have to correct every other word, and that makes the experience clumsy.

When I use the pencil to write, I use GoodNotes 5. It still outperforms Scribble in the quality of handwriting to text transcription. Just the process is different: First I write a bunch of words, then I use the lasso to select it, tap on it and choose "Transcribe". I then get the whole text as a computer text I can use, copy etc.

As far as I know there are no gestures for new line. And for me this problem with this Scribble toolbar is very important. I always use it just for this one button that moves your cursor to the next line.  
Also about GoodNotes, this is not the most efficient way to always transcribe, I just got tired of it after the first day of using it.

Hope in Evernote would be extended support of drawings soon.

[PinkElephant 5,130]

The base format of a note in EN is a flavor of HTML, just like the web sites you use every day.

How many of these allow to draw directly, without a special nested extension holding a canvas ? Correct, none. EN does the same: You can use Sketch to insert a drawing object into a note. And that is it, don’t expect anything above or beyond it.

About Scribble: As mentioned above, I don’t use it, because it kills my productivity through the very high rate of spelling errors and mistakes in picking the correct word. Good if it works for you - but I doubt there will be ANY (and I mean ANY) improvement for the combination „iPad - Pencil - Scribble“ in EN in the foreseeable future. Don’t wait for it to happen, and for sure don’t build use cases on expecting it to materialize. This is the best advise I can offer, without any inside knowledge.

[Claudiofpiga 54]

This issue with the Scribble toolbar is entirely after iPadOS 16.
with the previous iPadOS, the toolbar for return to next line / undo / redo / keyboard was available everywhere. it is iPadOS 16 that killed the toolbar ( I hope it will fixed)

For me, I can't understand EN can't maximize  the use of a pencil and handwritten recognition in a tablet

My opinion only 

 

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Up to now the focus was on creating and extending functions that work on all mobile devices. They have not optimised for a specific segment - and there are no signs this will change soon.

Plan without this ability.

About functions lost with iOS 16: Issue a support ticket, if you want a chance to get it back.

[g-jones 7]

Hi @Claudiofpiga - same issue for me, thought it was an iPadOS issue and submitted feedback until I realised it is only EN that has the issue... I'm a paid subscriber and the missing toolbar renders evernote unusable for me...

Thanks for posting, I'll also raise a support ticket, hopefully this can be fixed

[Claudiofpiga 54]

@g-jones , in my case , after iPados 16 I couldn’t see the scribbletoolbar anywhere ( EN and any native app) . I had a long support session  with Apple on the phone , they couldn’t find the “glitch” .
After several days browsing forums , I accidentally found that if you   turn on Shortcuts under keyboard in Ipados settings , the toolbar will appear .( for me , it was turn off after the upgrade) 

unfortunately , it worked fine BUT in EN note’s body (even  it wotks in any place of EN like search , tags , etc but not in the note’s body , where you can only see the edit bar) 

 

I’ve already submitted a ticket to EN , so far 4-5 days with no positive answer 

my only solution so far : if you write with Scribble , for the return to a new line , use the finger to open the screen keyboard , do return  and then back to the pen . Annoying 

 

[Claudiofpiga 54]

On 11/2/2022 at 4:23 AM, g-jones said:

Hi @Claudiofpiga - same issue for me, thought it was an iPadOS issue and submitted feedback until I realised it is only EN that has the issue... I'm a paid subscriber and the missing toolbar renders evernote unusable for me...

Thanks for posting, I'll also raise a support ticket, hopefully this can be fixed

Hi @g-jones , do you have any news from EN support ? I was told that technical eng will take care of if , so far nothing

[g-jones 7]

Hi @Claudiofpiga unfortunately nothing yet… I’ve sent across a screen recording and an activity log as requested by Support - nothing so far…

[Oleg Papka 0]

@Claudiofpiga @g-jones

 

I have also sent an issue letter, provided screenshots and screencast. But it seems like tech support just don't want to dive in this problem.

I was provided with screenshots from tech support's iPad, where everything works. 

In other words, they think that we don't know how to use devices or app.

 

Today I just sent another letter that once describe the situation in simpler words, repeating myself once more. Hope this would help.  

If you're interested, I will write on it here when letter would be replied.

 

I also paid member and writing notes with Apple Pencil was so satisfying and now this functionality just gone. Hope soon it will be fixed.

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Could it be that support already knows pretty well what is asked for here ? Not that another ticket would not help, it shows one more user has the same issue.

That’s probably more or less what the next ticket will do on a already known problem. I don’t expect support to get enthusiastic when I come along with a problem. I hope they understood it and group it together with maybe existing others, to pass it on to the devs.

[g-jones 7]

Hi @Oleg Papka thanks for sharing, for sure frustrating when you receive a response like that, but I'm sure the intentions were good! Hopefully we'll get resolution soon as at the end of the day, we all just want to continue using a great product!

Hi @PinkElephant as customers/users, there's some key words in your response like 'probably', 'hope', 'maybe': we shouldn't have to make those assumptions... If support came back and said something like "this is a known issue, but every additional activity log/ticket gives us more info to resolve the problem", or even "this isn't being tracked as a widespread issue so is not being taken further", at least it is a clear communication, whether we like the response or not.

As for not expecting support to get enthusiastic when we come along with a problem? Let's set aside the fact that some of us are paying for a service that is not currently working, and focus on the human element: if someone working in a Support role reacts that way to a Support ticket (which by definition in most cases will be a 'problem'), I would be working with that person with the aim of a career change, because that is surely not a healthy or fulfilling role/experience for that person.

Even if this turns out to be human error, I'm happy to be told I'm the issue, but would also like to be told where I'm going wrong so I can get back to using their product, which is typically another responsibility of those in a Support role.

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Just to avoid a misperception: I am just another user, paying for the service I use, maybe with a few more posts here and supposedly some more tickets with support there.

If somebody answered a ticket of mine with „…. How GREAT you found another bug, and how NEATLY you worded your ticket, such a LOVELY screenshot ….“, I would surely ask myself if that person missed the job description a bit. Saying this as a person who in a former life was managing a considerable support team for a highly complex (physical) product, with a six digit price tag. These customers didn’t want chitchat, because it cost them time, they wanted a professional reaction based on interest in their use case and problem, if possible a viable workaround, and finally a solution.

Probably that is my cultural bias towards support. Make it an opinion, just like yours.

The problem we are discussing in this thread would from my perspective be an issue in a very low category: It does not take a device down or creates a loss of data, it does not make the app crash, or block its use. It is a new malfunction in a marginal use case (because the app is explicitly not promoted for Apple Pencil scribble use), slightly annoying. The workaround is obvious: Put down the pen, type it in.

Something like this is entered to the backlog, and processed through a „fix this as well queue“. Depending on the dev effort needed and available resources, it may be solved quick - or pending for a long time, like some other annoying bugs.

This scheduling is usually not in the hands of support any more.

[g-jones 7]

Appreciate your perspective and opinion, but we'll have to agree to disagree on some elements, which is fine... my work is providing complex IT infrastructure and service solutions, so also have some pretty decent insight on support organisations. If you look back at my comment I didn't capitalise anything in my hypothetical responses from support, nor did I go anywhere near as to suggest they should complement the user on the quality of their support ticket (although I could be pedantic and suggest there is the basic concept of positive reinforcement that might help ensure those users raise useful and detailed tickets in the future that would ultimately lead to lower fix times...) - but, the best people I've worked with in Support organisations relish the prospect of problem solving, and if multiple tickets come through for the same issue then that just means more data with which to problem solve and get to the root cause. I won't say the worst people in Support, because that's not fair to those individuals - instead I will say those who are less happy in Support roles - are those who have a regular "oh dear, not another customer with the same problem" reaction.

One comment I can absolutely agree on is that we're looking for a professional reaction, and ultimately a solution (as I said, whether it's one we like or not).

I appreciate it might be a low category issue from your perspective, and would absolutely agree for anyone who doesn't use Apple Pencil for EN, and indeed that may be the same categorisation from ENs perspective as a business. But the fact remains that the function previously worked, and we currently have no idea whether it is on any backlog to be fixed and work in the future... if Support come back and say "that's a low priority with a long lead time to fix, if at all", then that's cool, the (assumed) small number of users this impacts can then make their own decision... but at the moment, we don't have any info 🤷‍♂️

Have to say, I'm very intrigued on what the highly complex physical product with a six digit price tag could be - sounds like there could be some pretty interesting engineering there! 

[g-jones 7]

Hi @Claudiofpiga  @Oleg Papka - I had a response from support:

“Thank you so much for your patience as I've looked over your ticket with my technical team. We wanted to reach out and confirm our engineering team is aware and working on a fix for the behavior you've shown in your screen recording with your Apple Pencil and Evernote with iPad OS 16.1 installed.
 
While we do not have an ETA when this will be fixed, we're hard at work on a fix to be release in an upcoming app update with Evernote. To see the schedule/announcement when this is released, please bookmark Evernote release notes.”

[Claudiofpiga 54]

same as me ….. we can only be patient now 

thanks for sharing

[Claudiofpiga 54]

@G-jones 

in addition , see the response I got 

wanted to reach out and let you know that I am able to reproduce this exactly as you've shown it. I've gathered all of the very helpful information you provided and reported this to the development team. I'm going to close this ticket while the development team investigates the issue. 

lets wait a bit more 

[tumnahi232 1]

I use the Penultimate app made by Evernote on my iPad Air and Apple Pencil. Works really well for me. I wrote in Penultimate and the notes appear in Evernote. They're not editable in Evernote. Which can be a pain if I then just want to type something to add to that note whilst on my MacBook. I got used to that though.

[g-jones 7]

On 11/10/2022 at 11:56 PM, Claudiofpiga said:

@G-jones 

in addition , see the response I got 

wanted to reach out and let you know that I am able to reproduce this exactly as you've shown it. I've gathered all of the very helpful information you provided and reported this to the development team. I'm going to close this ticket while the development team investigates the issue. 

lets wait a bit more 

hi @Claudiofpigahave you seen anything yet? I haven't seen any updates so far but could well be user error!  

[Claudiofpiga 54]

No news so far , I understand EN has closed the ticket because the problem has gone into development .

it’s hard for me to believe so few people are using scribble with EN Ipados 

lets wait 

[PinkElephant 5,130]

Personally I don‘t use it - it has a dreadful recognition rate, compared for example with GoodNotes, which does it nearly flawlessly. Error correction takes more time than scribble can ever safe.

No idea, it probably is just my hieroglyphic handwriting that prevents the use.

[Claudiofpiga 54]

On 11/30/2022 at 11:56 AM, g-jones said:

hi @Claudiofpigahave you seen anything yet? I haven't seen any updates so far but could well be user error!  

Hi ,

 

Good news! in today's update I see that the glitch has been fixed.
Scribble toolbar is now available at the notes bodies

[Oleg Papka 0]

Yeeeeyyy finally!!! 
Thanks for informing about. Just updated and it works. It's been a while but result is good

[g-jones 7]

I can see it now, I think that’s a pretty good turnaround for an issue that only affected us Apple Pencil users! ☺️