(Archived) Feature request: Tag a paragraph

[lmsoren 0]

Hello,

I'd like to be able to tag a paragraph or a line of text. Then, if I do a search on the keyword, the tagged bit should highlight as in any other search result.

Example: I have a tag called "Good quotes". If I do a search on "good quotes" all my tagged content shows up, but the specific quote I am looking for could be buried in the 21st paragraph of a certain text. If the paragraph had been tagged, the text would be easy to spot in a search result.

I've enclosed a sketch of the idea. Hope it makes sense.

Thanks,

/lmss

[ebullient 0]

Regged to make this exact request. I clip a lot of articles to Evernote and it would be fantastic if there was an easy way to highlight specific portions that would show up by tag, especially "good quotes".

[jefito 5,589]

Interesting idea, but may be kind of a tough sell in the Evernote-Features-To-Be-Implemented market, since currently tags do not really point to anything, they're just text labels that can be applied to a note.

So there'd be a need for some kind of internal linkage mechanism to be added to the note architecture, for example, notes would need to have some internal named bookmarking ability that can refer to a note selection (or a note location, that would be handy too). Then all the API that allows you to select and apply a tag to it (just adds the tag to a note), Then the search stuff that says, hey, I matched tag "Good quotes", and I am displaying this note from that filter: do we we have any bookmarks named "Good quotes" available? OK, then highlight those selections. And add new UI to allow navigation amongst the matching bookmarks (and any other named bookmarks in the note).

So lots of interesting pieces; couldn't tell you whether anything like this is on Evernote's road map, though.

[lmsoren 0]

I'm not saying it should be easy, but I'm fairly sure it could be done in a number of ways. I have a few ideas - And believe me, if I can see a solution to a problem, so can anyone else ;-)

/lmss

[Owyn 457]

I am with Jeff. This would require major change to the Evernote schema with ripple affects through all the OS/Device implementations.

My guess. Not likely.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I'm not sure why this would necessarily require an architecture change.

Don't know about Evernote, but in HTML it is very simple to use the age old feature called anchor tag, with the name attribute. These are sometimes called Bookmarks.

For example:

Useful Tips Section 

Yes it would require a modest change in UI to allow assignment of the Bookmark and to indicate which text is assigned the BM.

But this is already done with HTML links and Evernote Note links.

The final piece would be a simple change to Search syntax and results display. I'm sure there are a number of approaches that would work but one is to use the pound symbol ("#") in the search syntax where you want EN to search not only the tag but also a BM by that name.

For example: tag:tips#

The Bookmarked text could be identified with a dashed/dotted underline.

[Owyn 457]

Evernote API Overview

[jefito 5,589]

If what is wanted is named bookmarks, then ask for that. Don't muck it all into what tags are, which is essentially free-form labels on your notes. If you feel the need to bring HTML into the conversation, then remember that in HTML, keywords are in the section, and are not to be confused with anchored tags.

[jonzinator 5]

I really want to see TAGS for paragraphs. I see the benefit and simplicity of a "bookmark" but not deep enough.

I recently submitted a very long report. Within that report were several different ideas and topics. Most of these ideas and topics have extensive notes and support material outside the report. Currently there is no way for me to see all the data pertaining to a specific TAG without having to also drag along the entire 20 page report as well as other potentially large documents. Within in that 20page is the info I wish to use but its nearly useless unless I know exactly where to look.

Just my 2 cents...

Troy

[peterfmartin 221]

When I started using Evernote, this (not being able to jump to specified parts of notes) was my biggest complaint. I still wish I could, but (a) I've gotten used to not being able to do that in Evernote, and, more importantly, ( I've looked for workarounds.

I only recently found out about the note linking feature, but this provides me with what I want (although it requires a bit more work on my part), and it might work for you.

Using your "Good quotes" example, what you would do is start a note devoted just to good quotes. Into that note, you copy the quotes you want to remember. Under each quote, include a link to its source, which will be a separate note containing that. As you can see, this takes maybe 5-10 seconds per note, but I think it will organize things exactly as you want.

[To create a note link, right click on any note in the list, then paste that wherever you want the link. From that, you can link from the text of a note to another note in your database.]

I'm no programmer, so I don't know how easy or hard it would be to change Evernote to include exactly the feature we want. But until then, or if that change never happens, this could be a good workaround for you.

[Owyn 457]

@peterfmartin Good Tip.

[lmsoren 0]

@peterfmartin: That's a fine idea! I see a few problems too, but it's probably mostly to do with how I like to organize my stuff.

I see there are other people in this thread who like the idea of tagging paragraphs, so hopefully Evernote will pick up the glove and take the challenge

/lmss

[jefito 5,589]

I see there are other people in this thread who like the idea of tagging paragraphs, so hopefully Evernote will pick up the glove and take the challenge

People, what you want are some new kind of link, not tags. Tags do not even mark unique notes, much less unique places inside a note. Note links are the closest Evernote facility so far; inner links would be useful to some, I agree. But they are not, and should not be, tags.

[lmsoren 0]

Jeff,

I suggested tags because to me and my workflow they are the fastest way around, and because tagging seems to be the most obvious tool for the job.

If there's a smarter way to solve the issue, be it links or whatever, then fine by me. It's the functionality I'm interested in: The ability to markup and index an amount of textual content within a larger piece of textual content and then save it for easy retrieval.

I'm sure that if the fine people at Evernote agree that this is a feature worth exploring, they'll find the insight that is nessecary to crack the case.

Thanks,

/lmss

[jefito 5,589]

I agree that that type of functionality would be handy, but having a bag of hammers handy doesn't turn them into drills. It's have to be something entirely new, other than tags.

[Owyn 457]

Yep. One implementation might be to support something like #section in the note link. Not trivial, but, a more natural extension. Would impact all the clients. They would have to at least survive the new links.

[vivouk 0]

I have a notebook I call 'Quotes' that addresses this issue. I'll select the paragraph/sentence from a larger article, and then put it in a note that's either titled by name (e.g. quotes by Steve Jobs) or subject (e.g. quotes about cats). I annotate each quote with a link back to the original article (in a separate Articles notebook), and then put relevant tags on the note.

Hope that makes sense!

[Smile Police 0]

I know one-note does this step really well but I don't want to use onenote I love Evernote but as I using it all the time it would be great to have this feature to make my searching better

[skillio 0]

Looking at that API link, i don't see how anchored links would be hard at all.

http://dev.evernote.com/documentation/cloud/chapters/Note_Links.php

Links already take an optional linked notebook GUID, so obviously optional parameters are supported. Don't see why it would be nontrivial to add another anchor parameter on the end, which specified an anchor GUID generated when a user manually adds an anchor link. Supported clients would scroll to the anchor point in the retrieved note.

It seems ridiculous that the link structure wasn't set up with key:value pairs anyway, the link protocol is extremely shortsighted, maybe that's part of the problem. Or not enough demand? I can't imagine scores of people haven't asked for anchor links over the years, most sufficiently-regular evernote users must want them, right?

[jbenson2 2,147]

Occasionally I will tag a paragraph in a long note.

I add a keyword tag after the paragraph. These keywords all start with 7777 to make them easier to remember.

If I wanted to tag a quote, I would add 7777quote after the quote.

Using Evernote to search for 7777quote pulls up all notes that contain the keyword. And the cursor is positioned properly so I don't have to scroll.

If I can't recall the keyword, I would search for all notes containing 7777 to refresh my memory.

The need for this type of search is minimal, so I don't have a lot of them.

[jfrfcse 0]

I agree that that type of functionality would be handy, but having a bag of hammers handy doesn't turn them into drills. It's have to be something entirely new, other than tags.

OneNote does it with tags and it works excellent.  And the lack of being able to build todo lists based on paragraphs in different notes is what keeps me from moving from onenote to evernote.  In OneNote I just mark whatever I like to put on my todo list with a tag, and then I can make a summary page (automatically) of all tags that have a checkbox and I have my todo list.  Wonderful.

 

What do you suggest instead of tags?

[jefito 5,589]

I agree that that type of functionality would be handy, but having a bag of hammers handy doesn't turn them into drills. It's have to be something entirely new, other than tags.

OneNote does it with tags and it works excellent.  And the lack of being able to build todo lists based on paragraphs in different notes is what keeps me from moving from onenote to evernote.  In OneNote I just mark whatever I like to put on my todo list with a tag, and then I can make a summary page (automatically) of all tags that have a checkbox and I have my todo list.  Wonderful.

OneNote's concept of the term "tag" must be different from Evernote's, then.

 

What do you suggest instead of tags?

Dunno. Bookmarks?

[jfrfcse 0]

 

 

I agree that that type of functionality would be handy, but having a bag of hammers handy doesn't turn them into drills. It's have to be something entirely new, other than tags.

OneNote does it with tags and it works excellent.  And the lack of being able to build todo lists based on paragraphs in different notes is what keeps me from moving from onenote to evernote.  In OneNote I just mark whatever I like to put on my todo list with a tag, and then I can make a summary page (automatically) of all tags that have a checkbox and I have my todo list.  Wonderful.

 

OneNote's concept of the term "tag" must be different from Evernote's, then.

 

What do you suggest instead of tags?

Dunno. Bookmarks?

Bookmarks has already been suggested.  This thread is leading nowhere.  I'll stay with OneNote.

[jefito 5,589]

Bookmarks has already been suggested.  This thread is leading nowhere.  I'll stay with OneNote.

Not sure what you're expecting to happen. You're asking for a solution that Evernote doesn't provide, or that tags be somehow enhanced to provide what you want, as far as I can tell. I believe that Evernote tags cannot be thus enhanced without losing the idea of what Evernote tags do today. So the suggestion of "bookmark" was just for a different name for the mechanism for what's being requested, which as we know, isn't in Evernote, though it's more akin to note links than tags. As it is, this will be something that Evernote will consider as a feature request, so it could happen, but Evernote doesn't typically let on what their feature roadmaps are in advance, so it's hard to tell.

But if OneNote is working for you, then that's the way things are supposed to work.