Request for nested folders

[Alan Moore 7]

I really miss not having nested folders in Evernote for organisation. I've read various threads about using tags and realise I could cobble together something similar... but my brain doesn't work that way!

I was moving to Joplin because of this but I miss too many other features that Evernote provides.

How hard can nested folders be to implement? Google, Dropbox, pCloud all have this feature.

Anybody else miss this organisational method?

[PinkElephant 8,717]

Very hard - it was explained several times already. It would require a massive rewrite of app and server software.

[Alan Moore 7]

3 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Very hard - it was explained several times already. It would require a massive rewrite of app and server software.

That's so sad to hear. I've been a paying customer for over 10 years and enjoy being able to have embedded videos and the audio playback is also great.

However, stacks are a complete waste of time as I need another few layers to organise the various areas of my life. My sidebar is becoming too cluttered as a result.

I'm having a serious think about this. Evernote is becoming costly and cloud storage is so cheap nowadays. Joplin is free, has nested folders, it's open source and has great, free sync with Dropbox.

I'm really struggling to hold on to my Evernote subscription... and I want to!

 

[DTLow 5,744]

1 hour ago, Alan Moore said:

Anybody else miss this organisational method? (nested folders)

Evernote has never had support for folders    
For organization users are provided two fields: Notebooks and Tags   
Some users mistakenly consider notebooks to be folders 

My organization method is tags; minimal notebooks  
I reflect hierarchy with my name standard       
For example; Budget, Budget-Housing, Budget-HousingRent, Budget-HousingUtilities   

> How hard …

I don’t think it’s difficult to implement hierarchy (nesting)   
Evernote already did this with the Tags field   
It requires updates to the database structure, and user interface
 

[AlbertR 689]

1 hour ago, Alan Moore said:

Anybody else miss this organisational method?

Not really. I use some stacks for overall-grouping (Family, Housing, Hobby, Finance) and notebooks therein (familiy members, buildings, hobbies, banks). Main (and|or finer) grouping is done by tags that can be structured in hierarchies.

By using tags you have one big advantage that cannot be achieved with folders: You can assign as many tags as you need to a note. But a note can reside only in one folder...

[PinkElephant 8,717]

There are 2 elements that work together: Tags and (saved) searches.

Tags allow to assign notes to logical classes - as it would be done with folders, but more flexible. Say you have an invoice. You assign 3 tags to it: Type (Invoice), Date (Year), Vendor (Acme). This allows to find it by any of these 3 categories, or by any combination. It is like 3 folders, but at the same time.

Want all Invoices from 2021 ? Choose Invoice and 2021 from filters. Want all notes with anything from Acme from 2020 to 2023 ? Choose these tags from the filters (or use the advanced search syntax).

You can now save any selection you need more often as a Saved Search. By selecting the Saved Search, you get dynamically the same search result. It is like a folder, but one you can configure, and it can show content you could never find by stuffing them into a folder structure.

Now you start tagging all invoices that need to be paid with an Open-tag. And all done with a Paid-tag. You can decide to see all Invoices that need attention by selecting Invoice and Open from the Filters. You can then apply a Paid-Tag to all of them, and remove the Open tag. All this without moving a note from where it is. With folders, you can't, because it means having the invoices just in one place. You can't have it at the Invoices, the Open, the 2023 and the Acme -Folder, all at the same time.

If you start using tags for workflows, Invoice and Open is a natural for a saved search used frequently. With Professional (or >Teams) you get even more options for searches, by using Boolean expressions for complex searches.

This is how EN is designed to work, and that's how you are expected to use it. Folders are no main way of organizing in EN.

[Alan Moore 7]

Thanks for all the help, folks. I'll have another look at tags!