Is there a way to have multiple search results in Evernote Mac (like Legacy)?

[AndyDent 113]

I'm a very heavy user of Evernote.

In (paid) 12 years I've accumulated over 50K notes.

My work setup is 5 screens being 3 Macs many of which have multiple Evernote windows open so I can refer to notes. I appreciate how sync has improved - I'm working in near-realtime across those Macs.

In particular, I still run Legacy Mac version on two of those because I need to have multiple searches visible. I will often have 1 or 2 search results open long-term and do a quick search for another word.

I realise Legacy has been steadily improving - is there any comparable feature on Legacy that I have missed? Even after a couple (?) of years it still seems the common codebase of New Evernote Desktop (v10) ignores the power of multiple search results.

This is a huge missing feature for any serious writer or thought processor using Evernote.

I tried using the web version as a replacement and was warned by tech support that trying to keep multiple browser sessions open with different searches was likely to cause corruption.

My only other fallback is to run multiple different browser clients - Safari, Chrome, Firefox on one Mac and use those for my searches.

Sidenote - I too am very unimpressed with the dark pattern Evernote have adopted describing the v10 migration as an "update" to Legacy. I had to restore 50GB from TimeMachine thanks to you doing that and I didn't notice the little version number. See this thread.

[PinkElephant 8,695]

Use a browser (Safari doesn’t support it, I use Firefox) and open several tabs, each with a EN session. Each tab is independent - and you can use search in each tab to enter a different search term. 

[Mike P 2,946]

4 hours ago, AndyDent said:

In particular, I still run Legacy Mac version on two of those because I need to have multiple searches visible. I will often have 1 or 2 search results open long-term and do a quick search for another word.

I'm a Windows users so I have never had the ability to have mutliple tabs in the desktop version. Many use cases associated with requests for the reintroduction of multiple tabs would work equally well if people launched notes in a separate window and left the main interface alone. Not in this case and I would certainly like the ability to keep a complicated search while going off and looking at something else. It's not helped by the lack of a proper search history or a back button that behaves in the way you would expect. See

My workaround is to save the search as a shortcut before I go off on a tangent! In fact I have automated it so at the press of a particular hot key combination saves the search to "last_search". I can then easily come back to it. It's nowhere near an ideal solution, and would require a different way of working for you, but it's the best I've come up with so far.

 

[PinkElephant 8,695]

The use of multiple tabs should work in browsers on Windows as well. On the Mac it will run in Chrome (and many Chromium based) browsers, plus in Firefox.

[AndyDent 113]

On 7/9/2023 at 2:56 PM, PinkElephant said:

Use a browser (Safari doesn’t support it, I use Firefox) and open several tabs, each with a EN session. Each tab is independent - and you can use search in each tab to enter a different search term. 

That multi-tab approach was what Evernote tech support told me not to use and I confirmed gave inconsistent results. Maybe using FireFox will prevent problems - I was using Chrome (Mac).

[PinkElephant 8,695]

It used to be sort of dangerous with the old sync - could lead to note conflicts and duplication. I think with the new sync this risk should be removed.

[AndyDent 113]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:44 PM, Mike P said:

I'm a Windows users so I have never had the ability to have mutliple tabs in the desktop version.

Oh it's even more of a gulf by comparison. The legacy Mac version allows:

• multiple tabs within a single-note window, as well as multiple tabs within a "browser window"
• open-in-tab right-click on an Evernote link, so working from a table of contents lets you quickly see related content - seems the v10 still lacks a back button when you follow a link inside a single note window
• multiple browser windows (which is where I see the search results) so I can tile them on one of my spare monitors and glance across

[AndyDent 113]

Just now, PinkElephant said:

It used to be sort of dangerous with the old sync - could lead to note conflicts and duplication. I think with the new sync this risk should be removed.

I will believe it is safe when I've had tech support tell me so and confirmed it with my own testing. If by new sync you mean using the new browser experience then pretty sure I had inconsistencies within that.

Remember I have over 50K notes so things which are safe at with fewer notes may degrade much faster at my scale.

[PinkElephant 8,695]

You can open several notes, each in their own window - never a feature on legacy.

Plus v10 has links AND backlinks - very useful for example when TOC notes are used.

[PinkElephant 8,695]

I doubt the question of syncing a few browser windows has anything to do with the number of notes. Only the notes open in any app are in active use. The rest sits somewhere on storage, dormant.

[AndyDent 113]

1 minute ago, PinkElephant said:

You can open several notes, each in their own window - never a feature on legacy.

Read my comments above - I'm comparing to Mac Legacy which is vastly superior in multi-window support.

[AndyDent 113]

1 minute ago, PinkElephant said:

I doubt the question of syncing a few browser windows has anything to do with the number of notes. 

Are you a developer with experience in complex data sync?

The sheer weight of metadata alone with 50K+ notes has caused problems in the past especially with mobile clients.

I'll admit I'm not a web developer but the way they presenting a fluid scrolling experienc means there's a lot of work going on for lists that big. I've got to break for dinner but decided to fire up the web experience - it's still spinning after a few minutes.

[s2sailor 2,410]

40 minutes ago, AndyDent said:

If by new sync you mean using the new browser experience then pretty sure I had inconsistencies within that.

Look for posts on RTE, real time editing.  That is the new sync that is being mentioned.  It was rolled out about a month or so ago and is available only on V10, not legacy.  Legacy syncs full notes, and at times could result in note conflicts.  RTE syncs only changes as they are happening.  Note conflicts should be a thing of the past. If you open a note on two devices, as you type in one you will see the changes almost immediately on the other.  They still have some bugs to work out, but it is quite cool to see.

[PinkElephant 8,695]

@AndyDent I always wonder how Windows legacy users ever survived - without tabs …

Take it or leave it, in fact I don’t care. I know what works for me, and that’s described above.

[AndyDent 113]

4 hours ago, s2sailor said:

Look for posts on RTE, real time editing. ... RTE syncs only changes as they are happening.  Note conflicts should be a thing of the past.

Yep, finally. I'd be utterly in love with what Evernote have done if only they hadn't taken away such valuable features from my Mac experience.

I've spent years working for vendors and using better sync tech than Evernote were displaying with their embarrassing whole-note collisions. Its great to see the changes but I'm unfortunately stuck using Legacy unless they decide to support multiple results.

I just spent nearly an hour recovering some old notes - one of the nice things about the Legacy local format on Mac is that it's extremely Time Machine-friendly, so you can pull back a few notes, as I'd managed to get one Mac Evernote to utterly stall and warn about several notes I edited today.

Your comment on RTE has made me aware of one possible pattern that seems to be more vulnerable - if I have a given note currently selected on a V10 client and edit it on a Legacy Mac, it seems more likely to report sync errors. It would be a plausible optimisation to effectively open a chat session whenever a V10 client has a note selected, which probably puts the server into a special state for that note. (Ironically, I'm right in the middle of crafting a complex sync/sharing sample and article for apps using Realm and MongoDB, so my head is full of such strategies.)

[PinkElephant 8,695]

With RTE you can open and edit notes on several clients by several users (or just yourself) at the same time.

Legacy is left behind in the dust with its clumsy sync. It’s not only the full Note approach - it will first sync to local, and then in the background to the server. This shields it somehow against getting into conflict with fast RTE sync.

The main issue is that the server permanently needs to keep RTE and traditional databases on par. This will on the long term make any backend development pretty restricted.

[s2sailor 2,410]

41 minutes ago, AndyDent said:

but I'm unfortunately stuck using Legacy unless they decide to support multiple results.

I understand.  A lot of people have issues with V10.  Evernote is currently supporting two different sync architectures and they don’t play well together.  I would not recommend having both legacy and V10 open at the same time.  Supporting legacy is causing some problems with RTE so I think Legacy has a short life span.  I’d suggest either making peace with V10 or work on finding another solution better suited for your use case.

[agsteele 3,055]

1 hour ago, AndyDent said:

Your comment on RTE has made me aware of one possible pattern that seems to be more vulnerable - if I have a given note currently selected on a V10 client 

Worth saying that Legacy and v10 really don't work well together - especially at the same time. If you open a note in v10 the same note on Legacy will be locked out until v10 releases it. So sync errors are very likely.

Really, work with Legacy or v10 but not both and especially not at the same time.

Your use means you remain dependent on Legacy. I'd stick with that and start searching for an alternative product that does what you need. 

Of course you might find that you can adapt your ways of working and switch to v10. That worked for me two years ago. But I know it will not work for everyone. Given that Legacy is on borrowed time, best to make a plan.