(Archived) REQUEST: Enhanced to-do functionality

[RajatAgarwal 0]

Evernote Team - I am a heavy user of Evernote and absolutely love the software. I have an amazing idea that can really benefit all Evernote users. I tried my best in finding a suitable developer through the Developer Forums. I would now like to share my idea with someone directly at Evernote and they can consider it in their next update. Kindly let me know how to go about it.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Post it here in the user forum

[RajatAgarwal 0]

If I am unable to find a developer in a week's time, I sure will.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

If I am unable to find a developer in a week's time, I sure will.

Looking forward to it. I hope this idea involves cake

[helix 10]

Rajat,

- Go to the support page at http://evernote.com/contact/support/.

- Fill in the form under "Submit a Ticket" and submit it.

- You should get back a mail with another form (the ticket) for writing your request

- Unless this option is for premium users only (!?) somebody in Evernote will read it.

- ... and the rest is history...

Good luck anyway.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Rajat,

- Go to the support page at http://evernote.com/contact/support/.

- Fill in the form under "Submit a Ticket" and submit it.

- You should get back a mail with another form (the ticket) for writing your request

- Unless this option is for premium users only (!?) somebody in Evernote will read it.

- ... and the rest is history...

Good luck anyway.

Good idea. The support page is for all users (I think people are often confused about this, and it could be presented more clearly). The only difference (I know of) between Premium and Free user support is the time it takes to get a response. Premium will come within a day, and Free might take longer. Premium also has the ability to chat with support via the website.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

And keep in mind, if you think the idea is "an amazing idea that can really benefit all Evernote users" that doesn't mean EN will agree. Or they may agree but put it low on the priority list. It's always really easy to think an idea that we (as users) think is great will benefit the company...but that "ain't necessarily so."

[megsaint 441]

Looking forward to it. I hope this idea involves cake

There's going to be cake?!?!?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Looking forward to it. I hope this idea involves cake

The band or the food? If both, I'm down with that.

[May 268]

Why be so secretive? Wouldn't it make more sense to share the idea right away

[RajatAgarwal 0]

Really appreciate all the feedback and help.....will submit a ticket and see how things go, after which I will share the idea here

[RajatAgarwal 0]

I am a heavy user of Evernote, maybe not in terms of the # of notebooks/notes, but in the level of support and value addition it provides.

Problem 1 - Even though there is a feature of searching all/true/false todo's - it just displays all the notes which have todos in them making it difficult to read through all the todos on one screen or see it collectively or copy/past it, share, send it collectively

Problem 2 - Most of my notes are MOMs, in which a few points are todos. Formatting them in the current option provided, does not appeal to the eye, as in the middle of a cleanly document MOM, there appears some bullet points, with large check-boxes

Solution - Step-by Step:

1. User has the option of highlighting any sentence, picture, video etc as a to-do, be selecting the text/pic/video and then hitting a to-do button

2. Once the button is hit, the text could either be highlighted by a light background, or maybe a small check-box, something more appealing than the current manner

3. A note should exist by default in the default notebook, which shows all such to-do's created across multiple documents in one screen for easy review/action/sharing

4. The to-do's in this note should of-course be in sync with the original to-do's in various notebooks

5. To-do's in the auto note can only be edited/deleted/checked for completion. There should be no option of creating to-do's here or this option could be considered as well

I recently got back from a week-long business trip and had several MOMs and some of the points, within each were todos. I had to use the todo search feature and click on each note individually and copy and paste it onto a word document.

I am sure building this feature will add tremendous value to all Evernote users.

[peterfmartin 221]

I think it's unlikely Evernote will do these things, or otherwise significantly move toward being a better task manager. It may add some minor tweaks, but what you're suggesting seems to be a substantial change, and unlike anything currently does, so I doubt it will be implemented.

Have you tried Workflowy?

[jefito 5,589]

Yeah, I'd put this into 3rd-party developer territory. Feels too complicated to be 'Evernote-ish', but would probably be useful to some segment of their users.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Todo apps are a dime a dozen, and some of them are beautifully implemted, so I wonder what Evernote would gain from putting in the effort to design something that other dedicated apps do better. There are a few changes that will reap huge rewards for time invested. I see some of those coming, but beyond that, my nose detects the faint whiff of feature bloat.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On Apr 12, 2012 in the Community Chat, CEO Phil Libin said this:

We're putting in a lot of work on reminders / due dates / to-do lists. Aiming for a release this year, but don't have the specifics nailed down yet

So it looks like Evernote may have something in the works to enhance to-do lists.

[RajatAgarwal 0]

Appreciate all the feedback. I use *reminders* on the iOS, which is my to-do of choice. However, the problem that I would like Evernote to address, as mentioned above, it to wade through the clutter of notes and find the appropriate to-dos

[Metrodon 2,184]

It seems to me that users come to Evernote hoping that it is going to be a tool that they can use to replace a myriad of others. Congrats to the marketing department.

But the reality I think that it is a very good tool for the general collection of data, but it is not a good tool for carrying out anything other than quite basic tasks.

This isn't to diminish it's usefulness and from my point of view I have little interest in it being anything else, but it's a big jump from the "external brain" nonsense to reality.

So, in Rajat's case, Evernote provides some useful (but very basic to-do functionality), I think the attempt is to provide a simple and generalised solution that meets the requirements of a large segment of their user population - which makes perfect sense. There are hundreds or even thousands of to do apps out there that support a multitude of workflows that are more complex than Evernote could ever hope or wish to support. Surely it makes sense to try and use one of these dedicated apps rather than limit yourself to what Evernote can provide. Just as a reference I use a combination of workflowy and reminders for most things.

[jefito 5,589]

It seems to me that users come to Evernote hoping that it is going to be a tool that they can use to replace a myriad of others. Congrats to the marketing department.

Heh, no need to credit the marketing department for something that's more likely accomplished via wishful thinking and not-too-careful reading...

[jbenson2 2,147]

It seems to me that users come to Evernote hoping that it is going to be a tool that they can use to replace a myriad of others. Congrats to the marketing department.

Really? I haven't seen much in the way of advertising by Evernote, but they certainly have developed a strong user-base who have been spreading the word.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Really? I haven't seen much in the way of advertising by Evernote, but they certainly have developed a strong user-base who have been spreading the word.

It's hidden in plain sight:

• The many interviews, speeches, etc given by CEO Phil Libin
  
• Their whole "Ambassador" program
  
• Their many blogs, which get picked up by the "internet media" folks
  

I have a Google alert on "Evernote", and every day there are a number of articles, blogs, etc.

A lot of the Evernote blogs seem (to me) to imply a more full-featured collaboration capability than what is actually available via the Note and NB sharing.

[Metrodon 2,184]

It seems to me that users come to Evernote hoping that it is going to be a tool that they can use to replace a myriad of others. Congrats to the marketing department.

Really? I haven't seen much in the way of advertising by Evernote, but they certainly have developed a strong user-base who have been spreading the word.

They don't advertise in the traditional buying billboard space type way, but as JM says they use the web to market very hard.

[peterfmartin 221]

And from what I've seen I totally agree with JMichael that they "imply a more full-featured collaboration capability than what is actually available via the Note and NB sharing."

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

And from what I've seen I totally agree with JMichael that they "imply a more full-featured collaboration capability than what is actually available via the Note and NB sharing."

I disagree with this. I think the blogs, websites, and so forth are pretty straight-forward about what Evernote can do. My own impression is that people bring certain expectations to it based on their experience with other products and their search for an uber app to rule them all. Maybe the wording could be better, or the limitations could be spelled out more clearly. Do you have any specific examples?

[jefito 5,589]

Like GM (I think), customers can sometimes read into what they see and make the leap that adding specialized functionality isn't all that difficult, or something that benefits a lot of users.

Like Metrodon (I also think), Evernote's best role would be to provide some set of easily used basics, and some good building blocks for 3rd-party developers work with, who can then build more specialized workflows.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I disagree with this. I think the blogs, websites, and so forth are pretty straight-forward about what Evernote can do. My own impression is that people bring certain expectations to it based on their experience with other products and their search for an uber app to rule them all.

I definitely agree with this. Especially the part about the uber app. Combine that with the fact that some (many?) people seem to think if you have to use any workarounds or there are "missing features" that "should be basic to Evernote", that that translates to Evernote totally sucks. IMO, EN is still pretty much of a niche product. Sure, there are some similar. But IMO, nothing that really is a true competitor. (At least that I've seen.) After migrating my notes (that originally could only contain text, back in the day) from Sharp Wizard to Handspring to Palm to now, EN (and often having to upgrade the desktop software, too - and that stuff wasn't free and often not inexpensive!), I'm glad that I found Evernote. Yeah, there are some things that are minor annoyances to me about EN. But in the grand scheme of things, they are hardly worth griping about.

JMO. YMMV.