(Archived) Please add a comment field to the header area

[Pete248 9]

For all my notes related to accounting/taxes, I need to link the notes to the corresponding records in my accounting database.

So far I add the ID number from the accounting record to the body of the note. For complex HTML notes, this can be quite difficult, as sometimes it is impossible to set the cursor to the top or bottom of the note and the ID number gets mangled in-between the HTML note. In that case I add the ID number to the subject of the note. With the ID numbers spread over several places within the notes, this becomes a real mess over time.

I'd really like, if you could add a simple textfield to the notes header (similar to the author field), that is dedicated solely to user comments such as ID numbers etc. and is not populated automatically by Evernote like it is with the author field and all other header fields currently.

Making this field searchable with comment:searchtext would make it much easier to automatically match/link notes to external resources via scripts or the Evernote API.

Pete

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I would put the ID in the title. If the ID is unique enough, you can do a search on the ID. If it's not, you can do an intitle search.

Given that there is a title and tags, a comment field seems a bit redundant & I would guess pretty low on the priority list, if on the list at all.

[jbossart 0]

I'd like to support this request for a separate 'comment' field.

[MartinPacker 2]

I put an ID in the title of my expenses-related notes: A unique number for each trip I take. Thankfully I don't need to type many digits so far... :-)

I would imagine one could automate note creation with this in - certainly on Mac or Windows. As this is in the General forum I don't know which (if either) would appeal to the OP.

Martin

[Metrodon 2,184]

Why not just put it in the title? Just seems like you are adding complexity and not getting much back in return...

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I agree with Metrodon, MartinPacker & BurgersNFries, who all above suggested the best place to put identifying info is in the title. You can then do an intitle search. IE intitle:"ID number 12345"

Additional commentary here.

[dlu 628]

I like the in title suggestion. I'm tempted to think that a comment field would be the catch all field to end all other field requests, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't.

[gazumped 11,664]

...and it's +1 from me for the comment field -

I suspect I'm developing a "due date"-style fixation with this, but have a look at my suggestion of a while ago.. I thought of a sort of "supertag" to hold basic information common to lots of notes (like contact name, address, phone number) - ie more than a tag name - that you might want to access from different files. Presumably though if the accounting reference is fairly short, you could set it up as a tag directly.

[jefito 5,589]

I've never liked the idea of adding extra metadata to the title, for my uses anyways. A comment field might not solve everything, but it does provide a field that is pretty much wholly user-determined. So long as it's searchable, both specifically (via a search item in the grammar) and generally (as a literal text item is searched for in the note content, note title and tags), this would be pretty useful for a lot of folks.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't.

I'm with Jefito. Since the note portion is free form, adding a comment field seems redundant to me. And yeah, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't end requests for other fields. IMO, this (and the other threads for comment field) are a perfect example of that.

[Pete248 9]

I admit, you can add such information to the title field and frankly I use it like that already as I have no other choice so far.

But for a reference number, aka matching Evernote notes with external databases, this is clunky for several reasons:

1.) Depending on how you add notes to Evernote, the title field is already populated with useful data, e.g. title of the webpage you've clipped, subject owf emails etc. Often you want to preserve that data, so you have to add your reference number to the existing data. This makes parsing the reference number in and out of the note unnecessary complex. E.g. you must make sure, your reference number is not contained in other parts of the subject by making it very long or extend it with some unique string. In a separate header field you know the content structure, so a simple number is all you need.

2.) The reference number is mainly used by scripts communicating with Evernote while the title is mainly used for reading by a human. It is far from ideal to mix human readable and machine readable content in one field.

3.) To be able to sort your notes by reference number you have to add this to the beginning of the subject. From a readers perspective this is if even more ugly than putting it to the end of the title, see 2.)

An additional header field would make inter application communication with Evernote much easier. There are already some almost always unused header fields, like author, so I don't understand why some of you argument against an additional one. Unfortunately all current header fields including author occasionally get auto-populated with data, so none can be used for solely user contributed data, like a reference number.

My only explanation for the lack of interest in such a field is that the contributors to this thread don't do any inter application scripting with external databases.

I don't think adding an additional header field, without any auto population logic, that is solely user editable and searchable, would require major changes in the Evernote database structure. I still have hope someone at Evernote realizes the potential for such a field.

Pete

[Owyn 457]

Application data

At your request, we've added a place for you to store your application-specific metadata.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/22731-api-updated/page__pid__116213#entry116213

[Metrodon 2,184]

Application data

At your request, we've added a place for you to store your application-specific metadata.

http://discussion.ev...213#entry116213

in which you can store up to 4kb of non-user-visible metadata used by your application

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I admit, you can add such information to the title field and frankly I use it like that already as I have no other choice so far. But for a reference number, aka matching Evernote notes with external databases, this is clunky for several reasons:

I agree. I like to keep my titles manageable, and dumping in information like this is hardly ideal.

An additional header field would make inter application communication with Evernote much easier. There are already some almost always unused header fields, like author, so I don't understand why some of you argument against an additional one. Unfortunately all current header fields including author occasionally get auto-populated with data, so none can be used for solely user contributed data, like a reference number.

Personally, I think replacing the author field with a comment one would be a much better solution than adding another field. Maybe that's because I don't use the author field, though

My only explanation for the lack of interest in such a field is that the contributors to this thread don't do any inter application scripting with external databases.

Probably true. I suppose my response to this would be that there are many specific, technical uses that Evernote does not address well, and really should not, because that takes it in the direction of creep, bloat, and the inability to work well across multiple platforms.

I don't think adding an additional header field, without any auto population logic, that is solely user editable and searchable, would require major changes in the Evernote database structure. I still have hope someone at Evernote realizes the potential for such a field.

I don't really want to see another field myself, but I sure wouldn't mind your field replacing the author!

[Owyn 457]

Author is used by the Evernote email gateway. It contains the email originator email address, ie. From: address.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Author is used by the Evernote email gateway. It contains the email originator email address, ie. From: address.

Yep. But, I was thinking that Evernote could change the name to "Comments." It could still be automatically populated by Evernote as needed, but we could change the content. Alternatively, I guess Pete could just repurpose the field now and use it as a comment field, right?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Author is used by the Evernote email gateway. It contains the email originator email address, ie. From: address.

Yep. But, I was thinking that Evernote could change the name to "Comments." It could still be automatically populated by Evernote as needed, but we could change the content. Alternatively, I guess Pete could just repurpose the field now and use it as a comment field, right?

I think EN doesn't want to mix the two (IE changing the title to "comments" & then auto populating with author) b/c that tends to muff things up, in the long run, with your users/clients. ("Is it a comment field or an author field??? I want BOTH!") At least as a developer, IME. It's my understanding (from the post by Seth that Owyn linked to) is that Evernote (the apps & the company) is not using this field at all. They just added it for third party devs and/or those who have the technical expertise to dink with their own database. IMO, that's the best way to handle something like this.

OTOH, I can foresee perhaps, two third party devs both using this field for their own purposes. IOW, there could be conflicts between third party apps... So devs as well as users of third party apps will need to be aware of this. (Unless I'm misunderstanding something...)

[Owyn 457]

Yeah. There could even be conflicts with multiple apps from same developer. Seth specifically discusses that in his article.

[jmpsfs 23]

+1. This would be really handy, particularly when sorting to fine detail (as the poster suggests). I could make good use of it in writing.

Thanks for cross-posting this into the Mac forum. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

+1. This would be really handy, particularly when sorting to fine detail (as the poster suggests). I could make good use of it in writing.

It's there. However, it's not in the Evernote UI nor apparently will it be, since it appears to have been added for use by third parties and/or people with enough computer knowledge to dink with their own database. If you don't have the skill set to use it yourself, it appears you'll have to rely upon a third party developer to put together an app that uses this field for your particular purpose.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I've never liked the idea of adding extra metadata to the title, for my uses anyways. A comment field might not solve everything, but it does provide a field that is pretty much wholly user-determined. So long as it's searchable, both specifically (via a search item in the grammar) and generally (as a literal text item is searched for in the note content, note title and tags), this would be pretty useful for a lot of folks.

This feature would be very useful if implemented as jefito suggests.

We need a field that is BOTH visible to the User, and can be used by 3rd party apps.

[gbarry 2,658]

Definitely worth bringing up Snagged the entire discussion for internal discussion. Cheers.

[RobLewis 26]

I have wished for a Comment field for a long time.

People who advise "just edit the main text block because it's free-form" have obviously never struggled with trying to insert some text in a complex HTML page. And there's a lot to be said for keeping the original clipping pristine and putting comments in a separate field.

Now can I get some votes for a Star Rating attribute?

[Martin Packer 162]

As a rule I'd say "the richer the metadata available the better".

Martin

[Paulo 0]

Hi,

I started using EN a little while ago and have stumbled across the problem described here about adding a comment to an HTML page that's been clipped. Basically, when I clip a web-page, I would like to have the opportunity to write down WHY I saved the web page, like some actions I thought of that I might want to take later. This is not easy to store in a title or other 1-line field, so preferably a multi-line free form text field with some basic editing options like bullets should be available for this.

BTW, the Google Chrome plug-in allows you to add some text to a clipped web page, which is inserted nice and clean above the actual HTML. So since the appropriate software code is already available to provide this functionality, I would assume that it should not be a big effort to make this available on other platforms/browsers.

BTW-2, I've seen a request on the forum for an ability to add comments to a PDF that was saved. I can imagine that it would be very useful to add some comments to jpg's or any other non-text type of note. Perhaps it's an idea that any note in EN in essence always consists of a simple text note (which might be empty), and that any non-text item that is stored in EN is then an attachment to that simple text-note. I understand that this might impact on the EN data model, but I think it would certainly create consistency across any type of note stored in EN.

Anyway, just my 2 cents... ;-)

Paulo

[Martin Packer 162]

@Paulo Annotation of a PDF might be something that Skitch could be taught to do - once integration with Evernote clients happens.

Martin

[gazumped 11,664]

If you're saving web pages or PDFs from a desktop client you could always attach a text file to the note with extra comments, or add another note with comments just before or after your clip. Tidy up - if you want - by merging the notes later. Or (works from other platforms too) you could email a PDF to Evernote with some comments in the email. Not objecting, just sayin'.

[Peyton Stafford 3]

What about writing comments at the top, and then inserting a horizontal line to separate them from the pristine copied html below?