Suggestion: Multiple windows on desktop

[FredrickOhta 9]

A suggestion that would be a huge boon to my worklow: allow multiple main windows on the desktop.

My main use for this would be in processing my 'inbox': Window #1 would have my 'inbox' query; all the notes pending actions and tagging. Then Window #2 is for searching among my other notes to find actionable information and things. Since some of my notes are simple things like 'add item X to list Y', this would speed me up greatly (currently I have to switch views to find note Y, then go back to inbox search).

Also would be useful for seeing two sets of notes side by side (as compared to searching 'any' of two tags, which interleaves the two sets of notes in the search results).

This could be a "new window" command under the "view" menu, or just allowing two instances of the app at the same time (i.e. middle-clicking the EN icon on the taskbar would open another one).

[Fussimist 0]

While I, too, like the option to have many notes open, I agree that being able to open two program windows would be useful.  For the concurrency issue, may I suggest that you make one window live and one window locked?  This way, the locked window could be searched, read, notes copied from, etc. but no changes could be made to cause conflict.  The other window would work as normal.  This would solve my issue - I like to have multiple windows open to be able to do a search in one window, then look up my resources in another.  As an example: I am working on my thesis.  I have my quotes stored as notes, with tags for multiple references.  I now want to work on my text, and have different notes for different sections of text (intro, study design, objectives, etc.). If I could open one window with the writing and one with the references (the references being locked). I could then copy quotes from the references to my text.  Using multiple open windows in the instance won't work - I have over 60 quotes (so far) and will have about 30 sections of text.  As it is, I am going to use Evernote for the references, and do the writing in Word.  It is not nearly as flexible, but there you go.  Thanks,

[LarryEN 0]

It's certainly not valuable to me; I just don't need it, nor do I have a need for an alternative. I do use the current multiple note functionality a lot, but I've never needed access to multiple note lists at a time. Obviously some other users would consider it valuable, but I don't see this as particularly hotly-requested functionality, based on my reading of these forums (pretty extensive), though not of any other avenues through which Evernote gets requests; certainly nowhere near the desire for, say, arbitrarily nestable notebooks.

 

That's interesting...thanks.

[bw. 0]

+1 

 

I would also find it very useful to be able to open multiple main windows on Mac. 

Also, it's strange that people use "many people don't need this" as an argument against implementing this. Whoever doesn't need this feature can continue using one main window or the single-note windows.

[gazumped 12,031]

+1 

 

I would also find it very useful to be able to open multiple main windows on Mac. 

Also, it's strange that people use "many people don't need this" as an argument against implementing this. Whoever doesn't need this feature can continue using one main window or the single-note windows.

 

If it doesn't add significantly to the appeal of the software to new users,  why would Evernote spend resources on changing it?

[adkisson 14]

 

+1 

 

I would also find it very useful to be able to open multiple main windows on Mac. 

Also, it's strange that people use "many people don't need this" as an argument against implementing this. Whoever doesn't need this feature can continue using one main window or the single-note windows.

 

If it doesn't add significantly to the appeal of the software to new users,  why would Evernote spend resources on changing it?

 

 

Mac has supported multiple main Evernote Windows for a while now. One of my favorite features. Command-Option-N is the shortcut.

 

Now if they would only give us wiki capabilities (follow link to create new note), that would be AWESOME.

[subopt 0]

 

Mac has supported multiple main Evernote Windows for a while now. One of my favorite features. Command-Option-N is the shortcut.

 

Now if they would only give us wiki capabilities (follow link to create new note), that would be AWESOME.

 

 

adkisson,

 

Didn't know this was implemented yet. Should've been reading the release notes, eh? Thanks a lot!

 

----

 

ADMIN,

 

How about closing this thread as 'resolved'?

 

 

thanks,

Subopt

[jefito 5,598]

Mac has supported multiple main Evernote Windows for a while now. One of my favorite features. Command-Option-N is the shortcut.

 

Now if they would only give us wiki capabilities (follow link to create new note), that would be AWESOME.

 

adkisson,

 

Didn't know this was implemented yet. Should've been reading the release notes, eh? Thanks a lot!

 

----

 

ADMIN,

 

How about closing this thread as 'resolved'?

 

 

thanks,

Subopt

You may have noticed that this topic is tagged as "Windows". So not resolved.

[Loster2 8]

+1 this

 

I would like this feature a lot. The essence being: multiple note LISTS open at one time.

 

We can have multiple notes open at a time, but have to always switch-switch-switch between notebooks or search. Two side by side (in my case, a to do list notebook on one side of screen, and one of my reference notebooks on the other) would be most helpful for productivity...

 

I'd keep my to do lists on one monitor all day, and only work off the second monitor...

[Fermin 2]

I understand your concern @gazumped - but many of us use evernote for task management not just as a note warehouse and searching many times is a recurrent issue. I am sure your team will come out with a solution for this. We really need this. Thanks.

[gazumped 12,031]

Duly noted - it's not 'my team' though - this is a user forum,  though we do get Evernote feedback from time to time.  They just lurk and look for ideas for the next version...

[pferenc 4]

long time passed since this topic started... and I'm still getting a fair daily dosage of annoyance due to the lack of this...

I want multiple search windows open in parallel.

 

[ReidGould 1]

+1

Multiple search windows or viewports would be very valuable to me.

[jefito 5,598]

I get the sense that you don't think this feature to have multiple main windows, is particularly valuable...and I'm interested to know if that's accurate, and if that's personal preference or you have a specific alternative work-flow suggestion.

It's certainly not valuable to me; I just don't need it, nor do I have a need for an alternative. I do use the current multiple note functionality a lot, but I've never needed access to multiple note lists at a time. Obviously some other users would consider it valuable, but I don't see this as particularly hotly-requested functionality, based on my reading of these forums (pretty extensive), though not of any other avenues through which Evernote gets requests; certainly nowhere near the desire for, say, arbitrarily nestable notebooks.

 

Oh, and my mention of editing on multiple devices is certainly very relevant to this topic.  The topic of multiple main windows raises the software topic of concurrency, and editing on multiple devices is a form of concurrency (or distributed systems, which is actually more complicated than multi-program systems, which is what multiple main windows is an example of).

Not sure I agree about the importance of the point, but as it happens, I dug a little and found that they actually do seem to use the service to synchronize notes being edited in different windows in the Windows client (I don't know what they do if there is no Internet connection available), so they are related.

[Jips 0]

I am very interested too. I'd prefer to have multiple instances to reorganize my work, and I regularly do.

Having the possiblity to have a synoptic view of multiple points in my tree of notebooks would save me clicks and brain trying to remember what is where. It would be a great boost in performance and simplicity for my weekly review.

This topic has received a lot of upvotes throughout its existence. It might not be the most commented but it has been opened for 4 years now, and similar topics exist elsewhere in the forum too. Oh and by the way, multiple instances of an app is now a recommended practice for developers under windows 10 and has existed since windows 7 ! There's even a system shortcut for the apps who allows it (shift+left click), so EN dev team may want to consider providing this feature in a near future ?

[IncrediMetaBeta 22]

So, now that this idea of multiple windows has been requested and commented on, when will it be implemented?

[jefito 5,598]

9 hours ago, IncrediMetaBeta said:

So, now that this idea of multiple windows has been requested and commented on, when will it be implemented?

From the forum header (I've boldfaced the salient part):

 

---

Our Product Feedback forums are places to suggest great ideas on improving Evernote. It could be a little idea or a very big idea. Like someone else's idea? Vote on the idea, or provide a comment of your own. One thing to remember: popularity does not mean implementation. Our forums are one component of the decisions we make, and while a bunch of ideas have merit, we need to be selective and always balancing priorities. 

 

In general, you can get a sense of what's coming down the pipeline if you follow the beta release postings; they tend not to pre-announce new features much earlier than that.

[ernani68 0]

hi there,

i am asking a permission to let me in post and follow to this topic of multiple windows, i am also waiting for evernote to have this kind of feature. A multinple window for Notebooks. Yes content of notebooks can be opened in many windows but it will be very good if notebook itself can be done in the same way.

thank you very much,

 

respectfully,

[juanjoarranz 0]

I ALSO  really would love the feature to get as many open evernote instances as wanted. It would really boost my productivity. There had been excellent business reasons in this forum to do it already. Why is Evernote so reluctant to listen to the customer needs? Why are there Evernote members always looking for reasons for not implementing it?. Please be simple and humble and recognize truly that many people want this feature.

I am pretty sure that this "4- years-of- Evernote-resistance-to-implement-it" is one of the reason-why many people consider other note manager alternatives as OneNote. Almost all windows desktop applications behave in a multi-instance manner. Why not Evernote?

I humbly would advice Evernote to listen to this eagerly wished feature. Everyone would win. And of couse Evernote would win since that would attract new customers for sure.

Thank you for listening us.

[gazumped 12,031]

18 hours ago, juanjoarranz said:

recognize truly that many people want this feature

Hi.  This feature request forum includes a voting option to allow people to express their support.  So far it has 5 votes only,  which is far short of other requests still outstanding.  And Evernote hasn't refused to provide this feature,  they simply haven't gotten around to providing it yet because they're working on other issues,  which other users seem to consider more important..  I'm sure Evernote will look at this feature again at some time - it just may not be soon.

[maartenvosselman 11]

Yes, this would be so useful in navigating through Evernote and would enhance productivity! 

Next to this (I am a Mac user and my colleagues use Windows) I would suggest the following feature:

cmd+J function on MacOs is THE best new feature. I can find all my notes within seconds. This option in windows is very very poor (crt-Q). My colleagues and I find navigating and search through Windows Evernote much more difficult. 

Regards,

Maarten

[jerrylee 0]

+1
I am also constantly finding I need ANOTHER evernote window open to do a similar thing.

This is a 5 year old post, can we please get this feature?!!

 

[gazumped 12,031]

6 hours ago, jerrylee said:

+1
I am also constantly finding I need ANOTHER evernote window open to do a similar thing.

This is a 5 year old post, can we please get this feature?!!

 

Hi.  Can you explain in more detail why you need another instance of the main window?  In several years of my usage I've never been aware that this was an issue.  We're at least up to 10 votes here,  though other requests (like a dark theme) are heading towards 100 so will be getting more priority still...

[gustavgi 311]

On ‎2017‎-‎06‎-‎03 at 7:25 AM, jerrylee said:

+1
I am also constantly finding I need ANOTHER evernote window open to do a similar thing.

This is a 5 year old post, can we please get this feature?!!

 

It was hinted at by an employee in another thread recently that this feature isn't possible to implement due to the code that was written in Evernote for Windows 8+ years ago. Therefore I wouldn't expect this kind of feature to be implemented until Evernote 8.0 at the earliest, if they decide to do some things from scratch.

I agree that this is would be a very nice feature to have. One of my user scenarios is that I am constantly going through a list of notes with a certain tag, and while I read I find something that I want to compare to notes with another tag. It's a hassle to first go to the second tag, and then go back to the first tag and find where in the note list the current note being read is located so that I can continue.

 

[bam237 0]

On 8/31/2013 at 9:21 AM, catbert said:

Here's a kind of kludgey method that might help a bit (Windows client):

• Do your first search for notes.
• Do a "select all" (control-A) to select all the relevant notes.
• Right-click on any of the selected notes and choose "Copy Note Links" (or from the menu Note -> Copy Note Links).
• Create a New Note.
• Paste all the note links into the new note (control-V). The new note will now have active links to all the notes which satisfy your original search.
• Open the new note in a new window (double-click on it).

Now, you have your original note search results available in a separate (Note) window, and you can keep it open while you reuse the main Evernote window for whatever browsing/searching you want to do.

 

Hope this helps :-)

This is a suitable workaround for this problem & the "Create Table of Contents Note" feature makes this much easier. 

As stated in the original post, an example of the workflow that drives this need is having an "Inbox" notebook where all new notes are compiled which need to be processed on a regular basis. This processing includes:

• Cutting and pasting new note content into an existing note to add to a ToDo list (or any other type of note) 
• Adding / Creating / Modifying tags as needed
• Creating new notebooks, and/or reorganizing notebooks 
• Etc

Since processing the new notes requires a heavy use of the main Evernote Client window for search, and modification, it is a pain in the butt to have to navigate back to the Inbox after each item is processed. This is why having 2 main Evernote Client windows open at the same time would be helpful 

The Table of Contents Note is workable, but I still +1 the originally requested feature 

[CalS 5,307]

4 hours ago, bam237 said:

As stated in the original post, an example of the workflow that drives this need is having an "Inbox" notebook where all new notes are compiled which need to be processed on a regular basis.

I think I posted this somewhere else today, but you could open your Inbox notebook in the web version of EN.  Not perfect but maybe faster than bouncing around within the one instance of EN.

[Stephen Morris 3]

I would also love to have a second Evernote window open.

 

A good work around is use the Evernote for Windows client and open a browser and log into the web client on multiple tabs.

[gazumped 12,031]

Hi Frederick - welcome to the Forums. Not sure how far this helps your suggestion, but have you tried double clicking a note so it opens separately on your desktop? You can have as many of these windows open as you need to, and you can use the desktop client and the window to see different views of the note content.

[FredrickOhta 9]

Thanks for the welcome!

...have you tried double clicking a note so it opens separately on your desktop?...

Yes, and this feature is quite helpful. What I would like to see is a search in its own window, so I can work on a set of notes while editing other notes.

[gazumped 12,031]

OK but you can be editing notes in any one of their separate windows while also searching in the client window. I still don't see exactly what you're asking for?

[gnilrets 5]

I second this request. I would love to be able to have multiple search windows open. Often, I've got a search up and am scanning through it and see a note that I know is related to another note and I want to see what's in that other note. But in order to do that, I need to do another search to find that note and then I've lost the original note.

Another search window would really help

[dlu 628]

Thanks for the suggestion

[daveway78 0]

+1

I use lots of different tags to sort my views.

I'd like to have a couple of windows open, 1 with a different tag selected, align the two windows on another monitor so I can just glance over and essentially be looking at two different lists.

This could only be done with a separate main window, because I'm not looking at a specific NOTE, but a list of notes filtered. And I want to look at multiple filtered lists at the same time.

[EvernoteSteve 0]

+1.

[ever111 24]

+1

[subopt 0]

+1

[pferenc 4]

+1

 

i'm having this scenario:

1. do a search,

2. find a list of notes (let's say 20 hits),

3. go through all of them,

4. while processing them search for other relevant notes

 

without multiple search windows this is difficult.

[daveway78 0]

you can already open a note into a new window, thereby having the note open in its own window and the main Evernote window.

editing the note in either place will update in the other pretty quickly.

so I don't think the argument of having multiple search results in two places is a big deal, because Evernote already handles that issue of a note in more than once place.

 

print screen isn't really a work around, it's just a print screen.  those of us requesting this would like work out of a real search window, and be able to navigate around in the notes presented from the search results.  a print screen wouldn't really help with that.

 

but thanks for the ideas.

[LarryEN 0]

Thus we agree that what I asked for (and is the main topic of this thread), multiple main windows, is different than the topic of your response, about multiple note windows.  (I think your response was on a related but parallel topic.)

 

Reading up, one can see earlier posts that said this feature wasn't being implemented because it was too difficult or too complex, and part of my post was to simply point out that isn't accurate.  (Sounds like we agree here as well.)

 

Of course the reason it isn't being done is because its not a priority, but by posting here, I am trying to contribute to raising the priority of this issue.

 

I get the sense that you don't think this feature to have multiple main windows, is particularly valuable...and I'm interested to know if that's accurate, and if that's personal preference or you have a specific alternative work-flow suggestion.

 

Oh, and my mention of editing on multiple devices is certainly very relevant to this topic.  The topic of multiple main windows raises the software topic of concurrency, and editing on multiple devices is a form of concurrency (or distributed systems, which is actually more complicated than multi-program systems, which is what multiple main windows is an example of).

 

Finally, I agree with you that current functionality may be (probably is) sufficient for many users.  Just hoping EN would be interested in generally expanding functionality over time.  Of course they have to make the "call" as to what is a good use of their resources...

[subopt 0]

Stephen,

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Will help a lot (when i have net access).

 

thx,

Eric

[catbert 36]

Here's a kind of kludgey method that might help a bit (Windows client):

• Do your first search for notes.
• Do a "select all" (control-A) to select all the relevant notes.
• Right-click on any of the selected notes and choose "Copy Note Links" (or from the menu Note -> Copy Note Links).
• Create a New Note.
• Paste all the note links into the new note (control-V). The new note will now have active links to all the notes which satisfy your original search.
• Open the new note in a new window (double-click on it).

Now, you have your original note search results available in a separate (Note) window, and you can keep it open while you reuse the main Evernote window for whatever browsing/searching you want to do.

 

Hope this helps :-)

[gazumped 12,031]

Here's a kind of kludgey method that might help a bit (Windows client):

• Do your first search for notes.
• Do a "select all" (control-A) to select all the relevant notes.
• Right-click on any of the selected notes and choose "Copy Note Links" (or from the menu Note -> Copy Note Links).
• Create a New Note.
• Paste all the note links into the new note (control-V). The new note will now have active links to all the notes which satisfy your original search.
• Open the new note in a new window (double-click on it).

Now, you have your original note search results available in a separate (Note) window, and you can keep it open while you reuse the main Evernote window for whatever browsing/searching you want to do.

 

Hope this helps :-)

 

Don't think that's kludgey at all - good suggestion for all sorts of uses..  On the same lines I recently signed up to EverAction tags which looks interesting - in this case you could tag notes and have the app create a table of contents note from the selected individual items.  In fact you don't need an app - search,  tag all the notes in the window with 'search 1' or something relevant,  (or save the search to the task bar) and you can jump back to those results any time...

[harrysurf 1]

+1

[Kevin Cabrera 5]

+1 Multiple Evernote instances would be an excellent feature. I'm often working with several desktops at once and I need different filters for each.

[gazumped 12,031]

It would be nice to have that feature available,  but there are a lot of work-arounds and there's such a potential for conflicts,  not to mention the potential memory and CPU cost,  that I'd far rather the guys concentrate on making everything else work really well before they look at adding this.  Not objecting,  just saying...

[adkisson 14]

+1 This feature would be very valuable for comparing the contents of multiple notebooks.

[LarryEN 0]

Yes, I would like multiwindow (on desktop/MS Windows) as well.

My use case is to have one window be for Task/ToDo list management, and other open for general notes.

 

I don't buy into the "its too difficult" concern.  Modern software engineers (I suspect a few work at Evernote) can handle concurrent programming.  I'm sure they know about synchronization of independent processes, critical sections and so on.

EverNote already has the granularity required---make it so that a note can be only opened in one window...problem solved (?).

 

They need to be dealing with concurrency issues already anyway because we can use desktop and mobile apps "at the same time"...

 

 

Best,

Larry

 

[jefito 5,598]

Once again, you can have multiple note windows open on the desktop; it's very handy and I use the functionality a lot at work, and it's probably enough for many users (me for one). In that scenario, I use the main window to search for and open specific notes which I can arrange and edit as I like. This particular piece of functionality may not be as much a case of lacking expertise (you'll notice that no Evernote employee said anything about handling concurrency being the reason that this isn't implemented) as much as a cost/benefit issue for functionality not perceived as needed by enough users as to justify the expense of implementation. That'd be my guess at the reason, anyways.

 

The editing on different devices example is not really conclusive of anything, because the notes are, well, on different devices, with server syncing required, whereas you already can edit the same note on the Windows client in two different windows (one main window, the other in a separate window): the Windows client will prevent you from editing in one window until it syncs the edits over from the previous window once you switch focus. That could apply to the functionality desired here, but again, I'd guess that it's more probably an issue of prioritization than any other reason. 

[LarryEN 0]

I am specifically asking for multiple MAIN windows.  I realize multiple note windows can be open at one time.

My use case was very clear -- I want one main window to be running TSW or some task management...and another that I can be browsing through my notebooks with.

 

It seems to me you didn't understand my use case.

[jefito 5,598]

I am specifically asking for multiple MAIN windows.  I realize multiple note windows can be open at one time.

My use case was very clear -- I want one main window to be running TSW or some task management...and another that I can be browsing through my notebooks with.

 

It seems to me you didn't understand my use case.

Sure I did, even though you never actually mentioned that you were aware of the existing functionality. My point was that that functionality may be enough for many current users. Beyond that, there may be some reason that Evernote hasn't supplied what you requested, but I doubt very strongly that it's because "it's too difficult", for reasons stated.