(Archived) QUESTION: How is imported formatted text treated by Evernote?

[mkraft77 7]

Does imported text that contains formatting that isn't supported in native Evernote notes (i.e., notes composed entirely within Evernote) get stripped down?

If so, are there any 'rules' for how such text gets reformatted by Evernote?

Thanks.

[mkraft77 7]

Lots of views, no replies . . . Whose toes have I tripped over?

I'll try to be proactive and answer my own question . . . with a guess:

• Documents with formatting that requires features not available in Evernote's own note editor can't be imported into or edited in Evernote.
  
• A copy of the document can be saved to Evernote by printing it to a PDF and then uploading the PDF to Evernote, but any further work on the document itself has to occur outside of Evernote.
  

Am I at least close?

[jefito 5,589]

Uh, you haven't tripped over anyone's toes. This forum is made up of users, just like you, with the occasional cameos by Evernote staff. Questions are answered based on knowledge and time allowed by the other users here.

Since you asked, here is what Evernote uses to encode its notes: http://dev.evernote.com/documentation/cloud/chapters/ENML.php. You will notices that Evernote handles document formats as attachments, not natively, so if you want to edit a PDF, a speadsheet, a mind map, or most anything else, you'll need to have an external program available.

[mkraft77 7]

Since you asked, here is what Evernote uses to encode its notes: http://dev.evernote....apters/ENML.php. You will notices that Evernote handles document formats as attachments, not natively, so if you want to edit a PDF, a speadsheet, a mind map, or most anything else, you'll need to have an external program available.

Thanks. Developers' notes are over my head. Is the information about Evernote handling "document formats as attachments, not natively" explained here somewhere?

[AndyDent 97]

As a longtime Evernote user and a professional developer, translating for you with a lot of guessing from observation and thinking how I'd do it ...

1) ENML is like a cut-down HTML with all the active or form elements removed. Basically, it's a presentation format. It includes some CSS styling which means it can theoretically render some very fancy effects.

2) Notes are generally displayed in a web view control - the jarring switch you get sometimes when you switch to the editor is because there really are two worlds in a client - the web view and the editor. The editor does a best-guess to approximate how things are rendered in the web client.

When people start using CSS effects it can trigger weird rendering artefacts, note the warning:

ENML does not define or enforce a set of supported styles. Most Evernote client applications display note content within embedded browser controls (e.g. WebView) and thus support almost all standard CSS properties. However, because notes can be viewed in both desktop and mobile apps, note authors should use caution when styling notes.

How stuff goes in when you copy and paste it depends a lot on how the original put it on the clipboard - does the clipboard contain HTML, rich text or just plain text. My experience is, when in doubt, paste into a plain text editor to strip all formatting and then copy from there and paste the text into Evernote.

That comment from jefito about document formats is not so much from the API as an implication of how evernote works. It's a bit like sending email - you can attach any kind of document you like (with a Premium account) but Evernote doesn't necessarily know what to do with it. If it's a Word doc, you'd edit the attachment in Word.

For some attachment types, like PDF, Evernote does know how to display them but not edit them.

Hope that helped

[mkraft77 7]

How stuff goes in when you copy and paste it depends a lot on how the original put it on the clipboard - does the clipboard contain HTML, rich text or just plain text. My experience is, when in doubt, paste into a plain text editor to strip all formatting and then copy from there and paste the text into Evernote.

That comment from jefito about document formats is not so much from the API as an implication of how evernote works. It's a bit like sending email - you can attach any kind of document you like (with a Premium account) but Evernote doesn't necessarily know what to do with it. If it's a Word doc, you'd edit the attachment in Word.

Thanks a lot. I think I get the gist (somewhat). For docs of any complexity, EN appears to be primarily a 'storage' facility. Any actual work on them generally requires the application they were created in. So they'll always be moving back and forth between the application and EN.

I'm not having much luck searching the Help pages here -- e.g., "email attachments" and "storage" turn up zero results. Is there an Evernote manual that covers EN comprehensively? I'd like to read up to better understand the "email attachments" concept -- at the moment I don't know if it's a literal method for importing complex documents into EN for storage purposes or a metaphor for another proprietary method that EN employs to import them.

Pasting in as 'plain text' works well for many things and I do it every day. But I make extensive use of tables and it doesn't work at all for those. So it looks like I'll either have to use EN as a note-creating 'app' when I only need tables of the most basic kind, or for notes that don't require anything more than 'plain' or lightly-formatted text.

[peterfmartin 221]

Is there an Evernote manual that covers EN comprehensively?

Sadly, nothing even close.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I've always felt that Evernote is for capturing simple notes, if I need more complex word processing or spreadsheet or coding capability then I get to the correct tool for that job.

Here's some more info on Evernote and email - https://support.evernote.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=547&hitOffset=428+417+404+347+312+270+252+239+230+226+211+193+174+141+136+125+97+88+81+68+54+44+24+14+6&docID=23766