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(Archived) Feature Request: Evernote as a personal Internet - The way this program should take in the future


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Hi guys and Evernote Developers,

I am a proud user of Evernote for its ease of use and its many practicalities. I have also tried many (and most) other outliner programs on mac, windows and web platforms to see how Evernote matches up and how it could be improved. While Evernote still comes out on top, I find it hard for it to compete with web programs in the area of data collection. I also find it lacking in some areas where it could be drawing new users.

This is why I propose that Evernote take the transition into a program which lets users create and own their own personal internets. I say this as some programs like voodoo pad which I admire, let the user create their own personal wikis with automated creation of links as you type to pages with that name. I think this should be implemented into Evernote as a cool way to structure and organise your notes, but it could go further. Evernote could be the first outliner program to fully support the creation and modification of web pages internally. That is, full support of javascript, flash and all the other things that make the web work so that when an article is clipped from the internet, it works exactly the same in Evernote (some features to block the ads would be good though). I have heard users ask this before, so why not go all the way. Evernote should not only be able to run pages natively, but browse the web as well. This would be extremely useful for data collection if you could have the internet and the outliner in the same window! Also, to go with this would have to be a large search bar up the top (of course), bookmarks (of web pages and notes), a startup page (how about the new Evernote pin-up board acting also as a web quick start page) and the ability to assign a note or web page to be your startup page, viewing history and if possible extensions or the ability to use chrome extensions of something. Also, for the developers, some tools to modify the scripts on the page (including note xml) would be useful, like the tools bar and editor at the bottom of the chrome and safari web browsers. All these features can be implemented by using code from the open source Chromium browser.

To appeal to the web developers, it would be great also if Evernote was a bit more like Coda - a great and very simple web coding program.

coda_interface.jpg

Note XML and page HTML could be opened up in a page like this in a new tab if people choose, from a button in the developer tools at the bottom. Adding the variety of different languages which Coda supports could be left to 3rd party developers. I also love the buttons at the top to switch between modes. In Evernote it could be web page, source code, outliner, markup.

About the last one - markup. This is something which I think Evernote lacks as a quick note tool. Some of the tools from Skitch should be implemented right into Evernote as well as more ability to manipulate images like resize them. Some simple mind mapping tools would also be very good.

A feature which has been asked for by many users before is tabs. This would become a must in a web and wiki program. My suggestion is using Opera style tabs which enable the sorting of tabs into groups which stack on top of each other then expand sideways when clicked. This could be done automatically in groups accordion to the notebooks that notes are sorted in and the web pages just as normal tabs (people can sort these into groups themselves as they browse).

image115.png

This image also demonstrates Opera's quick look feature.

I also like that feature in IE which lets you see a layout of all your open tabs in one window (but I won't open that can of worms)

One final, final feature which I suggest would be useful (even though i'm sure there are countless others) is the ability to grab a tab or page and drag it to a section on the screen to divide the page into two like your can do on the desktop on a windows computer. This would just make comparing, referring to and collecting data from things a lot simpler even on windows than resizing the whole screen.

I know the was a lot to take in, and I congratulate anyone who even read it all, but that is the way I think Evernote should progress in the future. You may have a conflicting vision or an idea to improve this one. If so, I would very much like to hear it.

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I strongly disagree with this and I have a hard time seeing the point.

There is already thousands of application for editing web content, and there is already hundreds of wikis available etc. There is no reason to have this available in Evernote - It seems like you have misunderstood what Evernote is about.

The internet is already available...on the internet - No reason to try to make a fusion of an editor, notes, outlining, webediting, browsing, booksmarks etc. The "do it all" programs ALWAYS ALWAYS fail to do anything decently.

You mention outlining - Evernote isn't a good outlining application... Not by any means - It's at best decent at it but there is a lot much better tools for that as well. The strength of Evernote is as an extended memory to keep notes, documents, snippets, and images in a searchable form.

Some good improvements on Evernote could be the ability to do actual outlining notes and to get rid of the HTML based note editor and replace it with something more layout robust and with the option to embed media types directly - Like OneNotes ability to draw directly in a note etc.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I agree with you. I think I was looking for something more like Firefox's scrapbook for data collection and having the internet right there. I agree that Evernote should not be overloaded with superfluous features and I think i was looking for features which I could have had by downloading another program, not just using Evernote. Anyway, i will still keep using Evernote. What would be better would be a scrapbook-like sidetab which can be brought up from the Evernote web browser extension which displays notebooks and files and has a little box to drop content and write text. It would add a bit more functionality than just the web clipping feature.

Good idea?

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Archived

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