Link certain tags with certain notebooks

[idoc 411]

One of the most repetitive tasks that I perform on Evernote is to take notes from my inbox and assign them tags and move them into another notebook.  In some cases, a certain tag will always be linked to a certain notebook.  For example a tag that bears the initials of a family member (GH, OH, YH etc) means that that note always goes into my "Home" notebook.  Therefore, it would be nice to associate those tags with an automatic move to "Home".  The way this would work is that if you put in that tag and then click on "Move Note", it should automatically move the note to "Home".  Instead, I now have to select Home even though the last 700 times I used this tag it always went to Home.  Also, one related item, I notice that even though we select a notebook within the "Move note to..." dialog box it still requires clicking "Move" at the bottom ie: a wasted click.  In the example below you see that I have put a tag called "2023 Greece" which should go into the "Travel" notebook.  So you can see in the next screen shot that I select the "Move note to..." option and it prompts me to enter the notebook name (instead of defaulting to Travel since every other note with that tag has gone there).  Nonetheless, I now type the first few letters and I see "Travel" appear as the only possible notebook.  At this point I should be able to simply press Enter.  However, there are still two more clicks I have to do ie: I have to select the Travel notebook and then click on "Move".  Not the end of the world but it gets annoying if you do 30 of these a day.

 

[Mike P 2,960]

2 hours ago, idoc said:

One of the most repetitive tasks that I perform on Evernote is to take notes from my inbox and assign them tags and move them into another notebook. 

I suppose the obvious question is, with such a sophisticated tagging system, why do you need different notebooks? The family tags could sit underneath a master home tag and 2023 Greece could sit under a travel tag. You could tag notes with the master tag as well or just rely on the "include sub-tags" drop down.

My notes all go into a "AllMyNotes" notebook unless they are in a shared or offline notebook. Moving batches of notes into a single notebook is easy and now reasonably quick.

[idoc 411]

I use tags and notebooks in different ways.  For example, I may have a tag such as "2023 Greece" which was in the Travel notebook.  However, if I was going to Greece for a work-related issue it would have been in "Work" instead.  When I am looking for places that I have been to while on vacation I could simply bring up the Travel notebook and just scroll through it until I find what I am looking for.  This is easier than trying to remember if my last trip to Utah was tagged under  2022 Utah or 2022 Salt Lake City or 2022 Ski.  Also, because I use both tags and notebooks I don't have to be so precise with my note names.  For example, the search query "intitle: Honda Pilot" under the Home notebook will bring up repairs and maintenance records on that car.  The same search under the Taxes notebook will bring up notes relating to tax deductions etc.  Therefore, when I name my notes I don't need to be that precise because I know I will instantly find the proper context once the tab and notebook are entered.

[gazumped 12,042]

I use Filterize which checks each newly synced note and - based on keywords in the heading or the body of the note - assigns the appropriate tags and moves the note to the correct notebook for those keywords.  I subscribe to Filterize too,  but I recall there was a 30-day trial if you wanted to try that out.

[idoc 411]

What do you do if it moves it to the wrong notebook? Would you even notice?  I usually only notice things in my default inbox. Once it gets moved to another notebook I tend not to notice it. Also, how often does it mis-tag?

[Dave Green 260]

9 hours ago, idoc said:

At this point I should be able to simply press Enter.  However, there are still two more clicks I have to do ie: I have to select the Travel notebook and then click on "Move".  Not the end of the world but it gets annoying if you do 30 of these a day.

The keyboard approach might be better.  On the Mac, it is ⌃+⌘+M (for move), then type enough notes to get the folder into the list, hit TAB one or more times till the destination is highlighted, then hit Return to finish the move.

[Mike P 2,960]

10 hours ago, idoc said:

I use tags and notebooks in different ways.  For example, I may have a tag such as "2023 Greece" which was in the Travel notebook.  However, if I was going to Greece for a work-related issue it would have been in "Work" instead.  When I am looking for places that I have been to while on vacation I could simply bring up the Travel notebook and just scroll through it until I find what I am looking for.  This is easier than trying to remember if my last trip to Utah was tagged under  2022 Utah or 2022 Salt Lake City or 2022 Ski.  Also, because I use both tags and notebooks I don't have to be so precise with my note names.  For example, the search query "intitle: Honda Pilot" under the Home notebook will bring up repairs and maintenance records on that car.  The same search under the Taxes notebook will bring up notes relating to tax deductions etc.  Therefore, when I name my notes I don't need to be that precise because I know I will instantly find the proper context once the tab and notebook are entered.

Everything you describe can easily be translated to tags. eg if you click on a tag you can then add search terms (like intitle:Honda Pilot) just like you can if you had clicked on a notebook.

It comes down to personal preferences and what you are used to. Personally, I find tagging more flexible and enjoy that I can add a tag that is current at the moment (e.g. work) without destroying that fact that it is also travel. I have already described how you could easily scroll through all travel notes by either tagging with the overarching "travel" tag or using "include sub-tags".

There is no right or wrong answer in the tag vs notebooks debate and I'm simply suggesting a way of solving your particular problem.

[gazumped 12,042]

7 hours ago, idoc said:

What do you do if it moves it to the wrong notebook? Would you even notice?  I usually only notice things in my default inbox. Once it gets moved to another notebook I tend not to notice it. Also, how often does it mis-tag?

Filterize doesn't move or tag wrongly,  though I can certainly choose keywords that give me mixed results. Since all this is happening on recent or recently changed notes I simply look at my All Notes view and any anomalies are usually obvious.  I have a 'safety' rule that if my notes contain a certain tag Filterize doesn't touch that note regardless of content,  so I can correct the occasional mistake (maybe half-a-dozen in 10+ years) or assign a note myself if I need to do so.

Filterize can also assign a separate incoming email address to each notebook that you have created so immediate redirects from email client to notebook are also possible.

[idoc 411]

Thanks Gazumped. I will look into it. Still confused by how filterize could know how to tag and move when even I often need to think it through. For example, a scanned map of London refers to my current trip there (2023 London) and not previous trips (2020 London). Also, the current trip is work, not personal (different notebooks). And I’m going with another person (who has her own assigned tag). I can’t think how filterize could assign these but will certainly play with it and see how it works. 

[gazumped 12,042]

48 minutes ago, idoc said:

Still confused by how filterize could know how to tag and move

I mentioned the magic keywords - you'd have to set up rules for "Any note with the keyword 'london' and a created date of greater than January 1, 2022 but less than January 1 2023" forinstance to punt things to the correct folder.  Filterize doesn't actively 'manage' anything for you - it just follows rules you set up.  It's greatest value for me - apart from the time saving element of just putting all my notes into one pot to get them sorted out - is that it applies my rules consistently and tirelessly.

If I decide a new note needs a new tag/ notebook selection I can quickly add a rule so that all notes with similar content will get the same treatment,  and as I said before - sometimes I make less than optimal choices with keywords and have to go back over old ground,  but for me the net gains are worth it.