(Archived) What happened to note types in EN3?

[bigelliot 0]

I've been a long time Evernote user and one of my favorite features in the pre-v3 versions was the ability to easily choose predefined note types, especially to-do lists and to-do lists with dates. For the life of me I can't figure out how to do the same thing in version 3, where it seems the only two note types are "Text" or "Ink" and the only way to add checkboxes is one at a time, manually. I hope I'm missing something simple, because if these features are gone it's really almost a deal-breaker for me.

Any help?

[engberg 89]

Evernote 2.2 note "templates" relied on a non-portable Win32 executable that wouldn't work on the web, Mac, etc. We plan to introduce equivalent functionality in the future, but this is not part of the current beta.

[bigelliot 0]

Thanks for the quick reply, Dave. I find version 3 interesting, but more of a feature study than as something actually useful. For web clipping & online notes there are already plenty of other options (Google Notebook, for example), and considering it looks like the move from v2.2 --> v3 has crippled about 75% of the Evernote featureset and alienated the large portion of your userbase that actually uses Evernote to generate information rather than clip it, I hope you are able to redevelop the majority of these features.

I manage a software development group myself, and while I'm hesitant to criticize your business model since I don't know anything about your goals or your financials, I have faced similar dilemmas regarding the decision of whether to develop something as a desktop app or a web app. There's a right place for everything, and in some cases there's an accessible middle ground (.Net smart clients, for example), but one of the lessons I've learned over the years is that alienating a fanatical user group is almost always a bad idea. I browsed the v2 forum for a little while after making this post and it looks like many are in the same boat I am, and will continue using v2.2.1 until either the necessary features are added to v3 or until one of your competitors matches or exceeds the capabilities of v2.2.1, in which case we'll jump ship.

Best of luck to you -- I truly enjoy the v2.2.1 user experience and have been sharing it with all my friends and colleagues (About 30 people at my company are using it now.). 8)

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the feedback. You're correct that the current Evernote Beta doesn't yet include all of the functionality that is present in EN 2.2.1. While we hope that will the new product will (eventually) meet your needs, we'd definitely encourage you to stick with 2.2.1 if it's meeting your needs right now.

[Jims 0]

I am squarely one of the users bigelliot describes, and I appreciate his thoughtful way of stating the issue. I am hopeful that Evernote keeps its ears open to to the hard core 2.2.1 user group as it pursues its new and very different business model.

Thank you too Dave for the reply. I will keep using 2.2.1 and look to crossing over to 3.x usage after it is no longer beta. (I am still a 3.0 tester). Until then, I kindly ask for some additional 2.2.1 development of features implemented 3.0 that are compatible with 2.2.1's model, such as draggable note titles and PDF support.