(Archived) Heading for the wysiwyg

[kipper3d 2]

Hello,

I have been using evernote for past year or so and it has proved invaluable!

Im also a premium user.

However, I REALLY need formatting feature for creating headings. For example Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3. I use evernote like a word processor to create my notes and to organize things I need a way to create headings instead of selecting, select larger size and bold.

Thanks!

nevermind WYSIWYG - not what I meant - what i want is paragraph styles for easier organizing my content.

-John

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I may not be helping you JM, but perhaps someone else will find it useful

Why not use the formatting?

It's not about how many clicks it takes for me. In my case, I still regularly come across funky formatting in my notes. I backspace and a line jumps above another one, or I press enter and two line breaks appear instead of one (today on the Mac client). I have to strip the formatting to get rid of whatever it is that is causing the problem, but in doing so, I completely ruin all of the formatting I spent so much time doing. If I pretend I am working in plain text (even though I am not really), my notes are legible without worrying about rich text formatting. And, as an added bonus, everything is easily transferrable to other apps (hopefully) without bringing along troublesome formatting issues.

What I would really like to see someday is a way to export our notes as plain text. For me, that is priority #1. I understand if Evernote doesn't feel that way, but it would mean a lot if they could make this happen. Obviously, given my attitude toward formatting in evernote, and my longing for data portability, paragraph styling is the last thing I am concerned about

[Cito 1]

Here is another important use case for paragraph styles in EN. Many EN users are geeks, and many geeks are computer administrators, software developers or the like, who use EN to collect and share their "howtos" and notes, which usually all include shell commands or code snippets. They really need to be able to easily switch from a "prose" style (using a readable proportional font) to a code "style" (using a monospaced font), and be able to quickly mark passages of a note as code. Of course it would be possible to enter everything a plaint monospaced text, but that looks so ugly, and you can't immediately see what is code and what is description, or what is a command that has to be typed in and what is just explanation. Such styles, just like headings, are not only used because they look nice, but also because of their semantics. It's the single most-wanted feature in EN that I am missing for many years. Currently, if I want to mark a passage as code, I need to select a font from a long list, and often also need to adapt the size of the font. That takes so much time, while it could be a single click. I can imagine many other use cases for paragraph styles. I think a note taking worth its name must really support paragraph styles, and headings and code should be predefined styles.

[gordonpeterson 0]

maybe i'm oversimplifying this, but here is what i do for both consistent styling and lack there of:

1 - more styling:

• when taking notes in evernote i just copy and paste different formatting styles. i think this is almost as quick as clicking on a button.
  
• i also have different blank notes that contain different formatting styles. like i have one for taking programming notes that contains different fonts, colors etc. i just copy and paste that default format into a blank note and go to town. this works out good because as my need for formatting grows i just update one file that handles that type of format.
  
• it seems like if you want to do a bunch of formatting and use different fonts, colors, styles, etc you could just draft your document in a program like pages. that is what that program is made for and you can do a lot more than just formatting headers. the bitchen thing about evernote is that i knows how to handle all of that formatting! my dad always told me to, "use the right tool for the job". he was talking about tools like hammers and screwdrivers, but the same thing applies here.
  
• i also do what was mentioned earlier and use images a lot. evernote, when uploaded to the server, can actually search text inside the image. that coupled with using skitch gives me all of the formatting options i think i would ever need.
  

2 - less styling:

• cmd+shift+v. ...huh?
  
• maybe i'm missing something. but i've never had a problem stripping pre-formatted content to do what i need with it. unless you're talking about lists, but that's not a formatting issue that is a content issue.
  
• i actually will write code inside of evernote on my iPhone/iPad, go to evernote, and copy and paste-without-formatting. i then have a couple apple scripts i use to parse my text. it's pretty rad.
  

i would love to find out if people are really having problems getting this to work the way it should, or they just want one program to do everything they want. if the latter you should check out another really awesome mac tool called keyboard maestro. this is a great little utility for making programs work exactly how you would want them to and requires very little technical know how.

oh, and i actually wrote this whole post in evernote, and it looks like the formatting stayed. pretty rad!

[axehandle 3]

I want paragraph styles/headings because I don't want a rich text mess. Having thousands of font and size combinations doesn't provide structure or meaning, but styles and headings do.

I appreciate the capturing a page's "look", but most important is capturing content's value, which is often in the text and media. And, if value lies completely in appearance, Evernote has a (great) screenshot tool. Content value is tied closely to structure and organization, and that is what headings make possible.

I remain perplexed by Evernote listing every useless font in my system while still not providing an interface for a basic hypertext standard like headings. It even affects potential income, if one assumes my office is not unique. Using styling with semantic meaning is a must for accessibility, and Evernote's lack of headings has actually been a block to its adoption in the state University at which I work.

[anjoschu 67]

i appreciate your appreciating me, but i get the feeling you are shushing me.

to your point about me posting in the wrong forum, as i said, my formatting issues occur on the mac client (ipad, iphone, and ipad as well).

i also did not even comment on whether en ought to do this. i am agnostic (this year-it looks like i was even less enthusiastic last year). i offered a workaround that has helped me in the hopes that it might help someone else and perhaps alleviate the poster's frustration.

I'm going to stay out of this one...

That's the post you chose to comment on? Really?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Plain text definitely has its place. One way to implement this is with a "Plain Text" style, which would work like the "code" blocks in some HTML editors, where it uses a monospace font and preserves all spaces.

[pgdahl 133]

I am a proponent of the possibility of writing notes in plain text too. I stress ability, because - admittely - even though I frown at rich text email and rich text wotsit, sometimes rich text does serve a purpose even in Evernote. And to that end, a few simple paragraph styles (the like of those in the iOS clients) would be extremely useful.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

i appreciate your appreciating me, but i get the feeling you are shushing me.

to your point about me posting in the wrong forum, as i said, my formatting issues occur on the mac client (ipad, iphone, and ipad as well).

i also did not even comment on whether en ought to do this. i am agnostic (this year-it looks like i was even less enthusiastic last year). i offered a workaround that has helped me in the hopes that it might help someone else and perhaps alleviate the poster's frustration.

Of course I'm NOT trying to "shush" you. Don't think I could even if I tried.

As always, you can post whatever you like.

All I was trying to do is to point out that the OP's original request concerned "paragraph styles", which is a rich-text enhancement.

If you think the OP would change from rich-text to plain text, then I'm sure he/she will find your plain text suggestions helpful.

Sorry to hear you have formatting problems using EN Mac. For the most part it works well for me. Occasionally I have problems trying to edit a web clipping.

[dlu 628]

i appreciate your appreciating me, but i get the feeling you are shushing me.

to your point about me posting in the wrong forum, as i said, my formatting issues occur on the mac client (ipad, iphone, and ipad as well).

i also did not even comment on whether en ought to do this. i am agnostic (this year-it looks like i was even less enthusiastic last year). i offered a workaround that has helped me in the hopes that it might help someone else and perhaps alleviate the poster's frustration.

I'm going to stay out of this one...

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

i appreciate your appreciating me, but i get the feeling you are shushing me.

to your point about me posting in the wrong forum, as i said, my formatting issues occur on the mac client (ipad, iphone, and ipad as well).

i also did not even comment on whether en ought to do this. i am agnostic (this year-it looks like i was even less enthusiastic last year). i offered a workaround that has helped me in the hopes that it might help someone else and perhaps alleviate the poster's frustration.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

@GM: I know you have a lot of problems formatting text on the EN iPad client, but this topic was posted in the EN Mac forum.

I create and format lots of Notes using EN Mac without any problem.

I appreciate your desire to use only plain text, and I think EN should be able to support that.

But a lot of us prefer rich-text. The OP has asked about "paragraph styles" as an aid to make rich-text formatting easier/faster.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I WANT PARAGRAPH STYLES! argg... I am sick of trying to organize my content in evernote by making titles bold and increasing the font size!!!

until your wish is fulfilled, you might want to consider alternative formatting approaches. here are some ideas from us plain text diehards.

GM, I know you're trying to help, but I've been there done that. Plain text "formatting" just doesn't come close to rich-text formatting.

We can do rich-text formatting today. It takes 6 clicks to set font, size, and color. The Style would reduce that to 2 clicks, and ensure it is always the same.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I WANT PARAGRAPH STYLES! argg... I am sick of trying to organize my content in evernote by making titles bold and increasing the font size!!!

until your wish is fulfilled, you might want to consider alternative formatting approaches. here are some ideas from us plain text diehards.

TITLE - YYMMDD

*** TITLE ***

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

Section break coming

***

*** TITLE ***

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

=======================================================

TITLE

=======================================================

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

Section break coming

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

=======================================================

TITLE

=======================================================

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

TITLE - YYMMDD

- Outline

-- Second level of outline

- Outline

————————————————————————————

TITLE

————————————————————————————

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

Esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur

sint occae cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui

officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

————————————————————————————

TITLE

————————————————————————————

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,

sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore

magna aliqua. Ut en ad minim veniam, quis nostrud

exercitation ullamco laboris nisi u aliquip ex ea commodo

consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in

voluptate velit.

Esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur

sint occae cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui

officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Section break coming

- - - - - - - - - - - -

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

This looks like the same request as this thread:

[kipper3d 2]

I WANT PARAGRAPH STYLES! argg... I am sick of trying to organize my content in evernote by making titles bold and increasing the font size!!!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

that is my biggest frustration with en right now. my notes get mangled in evernote, and become difficult to use elsewhere.

for example, i wrote up my notes in en for a presentation i am giving next week, but when i copy and paste them ino keynote and pages down theroad, at the very least, all of the line breaks will get stripped out. who knows what else.

if only evernote had some way to make a note into simple text (clearly possible, since other developers provide such options), it would have avoided three months and counting of mangled notes. many of the intense rage on these forums is connected with it.

i think i understand why they are so intent on providing rich text support. i just don't understand why i am forced to make my notes into rih text.

[gtuckerkellogg 33]

i'm the opposite. simple text please. i wish evernote didn't have any formatting functions at all.

I'm almost with you. I just wish that "Simplify Formatting" actually simplified formatting. All the way to plain text.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

i'm the opposite. simple text please. i wish evernote didn't have any formatting functions at all.

[peterfmartin 221]

John: You're not alone in wanting Evernote to have many more word processing features. Unfortunately for you/us, Evernote is probably not going to move in this direction anytime soon. Here's one recent discussion on the specific feature you want: http://discussion.ev...__hl__headings.

[jefito 5,589]

You do know that 'wysiwyg' means, literally, What You See Is What You Get, right? Evernote has that already, but what it doesn't have is formatting styles, which is a feature that's requested on occasion. That'd probably be pretty handy, too. Evernote isn't yet at the stage where I would call it a word processor -- I mean, I'd never use it for heavy duty document creation. I think that it -- meaning the Windows client, which I use -- works well as a light note-taking program, but it's not yet up to the standards of, say, Microsoft Word. Anyways, no idea if they're on the roadmap; Evernote doesn't typically pre-announce their release features.