Evernote and PDF Files: What's Missing for a Perfect Combination?

[Rafael B 25]

The indexing of PDFs and OCR in images, which once gave Evernote a significant advantage over competitors, is now being challenged. Tools such as OCR recognition in Apple Photos and the image recognition capability in Finder are quickly gaining prominence. These integrated features on Apple devices pose a threat to Evernote's position as a leader in this regard. As these technologies evolve and become more sophisticated, it becomes evident that Evernote's exclusivity in this domain is diminishing. Unless it continues to enhance its indexing and OCR capabilities, it is only a matter of time before these competing solutions partially replace Evernote in this specific aspect of document search and organization.

 

Evernote is an essential tool for information organization and management, but for users dealing frequently with PDF documents, the ability to markup and annotate within such documents could be improved to provide a more elaborate and effective experience. In this context, the implementation of advanced markup, its indexing in searches, and the ability to create notes linked to specific sections of PDFs and other attachments would be welcomed.

 

More comprehensive markup tools, such as customizable colors, specific highlights, and targeted annotations that can later be filtered based on their characteristics or even in searches, both on computers and mobile devices. This would require the development of an enhanced indexing system that allows searching for specific markup features within attached PDFs, such as custom stamps and highlight colors, among others. This would make it possible to conduct searches not only in the full text of the document but also in the intellectual pre-production that began during the material reading.

 

From this set of functions, the ability to create Notes Linked to PDF Sections (and other attachments), citing such material, would be welcomed. This feature is very useful not only in academic paper preparation but also in all types of content creation. The ability to associate notes with specific areas of a PDF would ensure a more contextualized understanding of the content for the reader, deepening their comprehension of the material.

 

Furthermore, some prefer to read their PDFs in external applications, such as PDF Expert or Readwise Reader, for example. The markings from these services currently cannot be recognized by Evernote, which, in my opinion, is something that could be improved.

 

 

Remembering that several of these functions could be incorporated through third-party plugins, as I suggested here:  Third-Party Plugins Integration in Evernote as a premium feature

 

What do you think? Would such features enhance your PDF experience with Evernote?"

 

 

 

[Rafael B 25]

I still forgot to show two illustrations features: searching within PDF's outlines and note filtering to find specific excerpts separated by color.

 

 

                                      

 

 

                                         

[keithrgordon 0]

I wholeheartedly support the ideas here. Evernote can maintain its leading position by adding more features to how it handles PDFs within the app. For my workflow, it would be amazing if I could highlight a portion of text in a PDF, add a comment, and then be able to extract that highlighted text and comment to a new note in Evernote (or export all the highlights/comments/annotations to a single new note). If these comments and annotations could also be indexable and searchable, it would solve a major gap. At the moment I have dozens (approaching 100) large PDFs for my research, but I have to use Acrobat or other apps to adequately annotate, comment, and extract text. If Evernote could do all this, it would be a game-changer.

[PinkElephant 8,735]

You rather don’t use a Mac.

Because there EN „opens“ a pdf into the build in Preview app, which enables a ton of useful actions.

No need for 3rd party software. And no need to feed greedy Adobe yet another subscription.