(Archived) Evernote - I love it, but I hate its inconsistencies.

[Agnatma 1]

Dear Evernote-Team and users,

as I am sitting here going through my course notes, updating them and preparing for my mid-term exams, I decided to take a break and voice my sentiments about Evernote; what I like about it, and what I do not. I apologise beforehand for the wordy post, but I feel it necessary to establish that I am not just complaining after 5 minutes of using it.

First a few words about myself, as an Evernote user:

• I do not consider myself a very intensive Evernote user (yet), but I do have a premium account. I mostly use text notes, some with attachments.
  
• As a university student, I mostly use it to take notes using my iPad 1(iOS 5.1.1) and to review notes from previous lectures as I travel to/from school. I also add PDFs and documents from web-pages as they relate to my courses.
  
• I occasionally use my iPhone 3GS (now iOS 6.0) to take notes on the fly, or to quickly look something up.
  
• When the need arises, I use my old convertible tablet-PC (Windows 7). This is far less convenient than the iPad.
  
• At home, I use a Windows 7 PC for note management, additional editing, note taking whilst doing homework, etc.
  

I have tried for some years now to create a largely paper-less workflow for myself, and as such have tried and used many different devices, software, and techniques to reduce the use of paper. Evernote is a great tool for me to achieve this, as I can keep my notes organised, have a clean and easy-to-use environment in which to work, and can sync notes and files across multiple devices and applications.

But why is Evernote so inconsistent in how I can edit and format the notes I take?

• Why can I create ink-notes in the Windows client, but on the iOS devices (where I have touch and pen input) I can not? I can view them on my iPad, and edit it on another PC, so all the information is being synced, or am I mistaken?
  
• Why can I define font family and size in Windows, but I can not do so in iOS?
  
• Why can I define paragraph styles (section, subsection, paragraph, blockquote) in the iOS client, but I can not do so in Windows?
  
• Why can I format paragraph styles (left-bound, right-bound, centred, justified) in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  
• Why can I insert a table in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  
• Why can I insert a horizontal line in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  

The majority of discrepancies are even more difficult to understand, considering Evernote obviously uses HTML/XML for its mark-up, and that most aspects display in all clients.

At this point there are two things I miss in Evernote.

1. The ability to quickly and easily add a drawing (non-editable) to a text-note in the iOS client (similar to what Awesome Note by BRID (http://www.bridworks.com/) allows).
   
2. The ability to archive/hide specific notebooks, or notebook stacks, and not have them display with the active notebooks.
   

Beyond this I am very happy with Evernote and will continue to use it, either directly or through a third-party client. I would prefer directly.

Keep up the good work and thank you for your time!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Dear Evernote-Team and users,

as I am sitting here going through my course notes, updating them and preparing for my mid-term exams, I decided to take a break and voice my sentiments about Evernote; what I like about it, and what I do not. I apologise beforehand for the wordy post, but I feel it necessary to establish that I am not just complaining after 5 minutes of using it.

First a few words about myself, as an Evernote user:

• I do not consider myself a very intensive Evernote user (yet), but I do have a premium account. I mostly use text notes, some with attachments.
  
• As a university student, I mostly use it to take notes using my iPad 1(iOS 5.1.1) and to review notes from previous lectures as I travel to/from school. I also add PDFs and documents from web-pages as they relate to my courses.
  
• I occasionally use my iPhone 3GS (now iOS 6.0) to take notes on the fly, or to quickly look something up.
  
• When the need arises, I use my old convertible tablet-PC (Windows 7). This is far less convenient than the iPad.
  
• At home, I use a Windows 7 PC for note management, additional editing, note taking whilst doing homework, etc.
  

I have tried for some years now to create a largely paper-less workflow for myself, and as such have tried and used many different devices, software, and techniques to reduce the use of paper. Evernote is a great tool for me to achieve this, as I can keep my notes organised, have a clean and easy-to-use environment in which to work, and can sync notes and files across multiple devices and applications.

But why is Evernote so inconsistent in how I can edit and format the notes I take?

• Why can I create ink-notes in the Windows client, but on the iOS devices (where I have touch and pen input) I can not? I can view them on my iPad, and edit it on another PC, so all the information is being synced, or am I mistaken?
  
• Why can I define font family and size in Windows, but I can not do so in iOS?
  
• Why can I define paragraph styles (section, subsection, paragraph, blockquote) in the iOS client, but I can not do so in Windows?
  
• Why can I format paragraph styles (left-bound, right-bound, centred, justified) in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  
• Why can I insert a table in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  
• Why can I insert a horizontal line in the Windows client, but not in iOS?
  

The majority of discrepancies are even more difficult to understand, considering Evernote obviously uses HTML/XML for its mark-up, and that most aspects display in all clients.

At this point there are two things I miss in Evernote.

1. The ability to quickly and easily add a drawing (non-editable) to a text-note in the iOS client (similar to what Awesome Note by BRID (http://www.bridworks.com/) allows).
   
2. The ability to archive/hide specific notebooks, or notebook stacks, and not have them display with the active notebooks.
   

Beyond this I am very happy with Evernote and will continue to use it, either directly or through a third-party client. I would prefer directly.

Keep up the good work and thank you for your time!

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

The inconsistencies are frustrating at times, but inevitable I think, because Evernote has chosen to tailor each client to its respective operating system, Evernote has the teams releasing products on different timelines, and there are different limitations / opportunities for different clients / devices. In my opinion, the two most impressive clients at the moment are the Windows and Android clients. This hasn't always been the case, though, and I think over time the teams leapfrog one another, but overall they are aiming for parity in terms of the main features.

Personally, my hope is that all of the clients will aim towards including the functionality found on Windows (some platforms can get closer to achieving this than others). It would be a nice Christmas present to see an Android-like interface on my iPad (list view!) and a Windows-like interface on my Mac (vertical list view and search explanations!).

Here is some of my speculation about what will happen with some of the features you mentioned. Ink does not seem to be a priority (I personally don't find it very useful) and it is unlikely any such capability will be integrated into the iOS Evernote app (I hope not, because that would potentially slow it down even more). I do think that Penultimate will have close integration with the iOS app, and it could potentially be a way to easily take handwritten notes, put them into Evernote, take them out and edit them, and put them back into the app. This would be fantastic (in my opinion).

I kind of doubt we will get to hide notebooks. I have seen people request this elsewhere, but it doesn't seem like a priority for Evernote, which is supposed to be your external brain, and not a publicly displayed thing (except, of course, for shared notebooks). On the other hand, I have long yearned for archiving (this would be a step beyond the online/offline toggle we have in iOS). I hope that will come someday, but to be honest, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. One thing you can do to move notes out of sight, and out of mind, is to tag them with something like "archive" and using saved searches with "-tag:archive" filter them out.

[Agnatma 1]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

Thank you!

Ink does not seem to be a priority (I personally don't find it very useful) and it is unlikely any such capability will be integrated into the iOS Evernote app (I hope not, because that would potentially slow it down even more). I do think that Penultimate will have close integration with the iOS app, and it could potentially be a way to easily take handwritten notes, put them into Evernote, take them out and edit them, and put them back into the app. This would be fantastic (in my opinion).

The problem at this point is the difficulty and time it takes to make a sketch and include it into Evernote. By the time I have made one sketch, copied it to the iOS camera roll and imported into Evernote, I have missed half the lecture. The only work-around I have found is using Penultimate or other drawing applications, saving it there, and to be sure I do not forget to reference the drawing. Or use Awesome Note, and end up with a slew of additional folders and formatting strings.

I kind of doubt we will get to hide notebooks. I have seen people request this elsewhere, but it doesn't seem like a priority for Evernote, which is supposed to be your external brain, and not a publicly displayed thing (except, of course, for shared notebooks). On the other hand, I have long yearned for archiving (this would be a step beyond the online/offline toggle we have in iOS). I hope that will come someday, but to be honest, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. One thing you can do to move notes out of sight, and out of mind, is to tag them with something like "archive" and using saved searches with "-tag:archive" filter them out.

Thank you. The saved search is indeed a nice trick. The only option I had found was to create a 'local notebook' on my PC, but I detest that option, since it does not make a backup sync of the notes.

[dlu 628]

Thanks for posting!

I think GM covered everything, but always happy to hear feedback

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Thanks for posting!

I think GM covered everything, but always happy to hear feedback

Yeah. I think it is great that Evernote has established this forum, users post their feedback here, and Evernote staff read it. The developers have all sorts of things to think about (that's why they get paid the big bucks), so they probably won't ever hit everything on our lists, but at least there is a dialogue here and you know they are listening.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

Thank you!

Ink does not seem to be a priority (I personally don't find it very useful) and it is unlikely any such capability will be integrated into the iOS Evernote app (I hope not, because that would potentially slow it down even more). I do think that Penultimate will have close integration with the iOS app, and it could potentially be a way to easily take handwritten notes, put them into Evernote, take them out and edit them, and put them back into the app. This would be fantastic (in my opinion).

The problem at this point is the difficulty and time it takes to make a sketch and include it into Evernote. By the time I have made one sketch, copied it to the iOS camera roll and imported into Evernote, I have missed half the lecture. The only work-around I have found is using Penultimate or other drawing applications, saving it there, and to be sure I do not forget to reference the drawing. Or use Awesome Note, and end up with a slew of additional folders and formatting strings.

I kind of doubt we will get to hide notebooks. I have seen people request this elsewhere, but it doesn't seem like a priority for Evernote, which is supposed to be your external brain, and not a publicly displayed thing (except, of course, for shared notebooks). On the other hand, I have long yearned for archiving (this would be a step beyond the online/offline toggle we have in iOS). I hope that will come someday, but to be honest, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. One thing you can do to move notes out of sight, and out of mind, is to tag them with something like "archive" and using saved searches with "-tag:archive" filter them out.

Thank you. The saved search is indeed a nice trick. The only option I had found was to create a 'local notebook' on my PC, but I detest that option, since it does not make a backup sync of the notes.

I haven't found handwriting to be a big deal on the iPad. I write my notes in GoodNotes, and when I am done, I open the PDF in Evernote. By the time I have finished (just a few taps of the stylus) the first students to leap out of their seats in a classroom haven't even reached the door. I am not sure why you would save anything to the camera roll... Why don't I use Penultimate? No zoom / writing feature. I need two things in a writing app: excellent recognition of the pen strokes (apps vary widely on how sensitive they are) and a zoom box (so that it doesn't look like a 3 year old wrote my notes).

[jbenson2 2,149]

My method of using Evernote avoids all inconsistencies. I use Evernote daily, actually closer to hourly.

I only use Evernote Windows on my desktop so I never see any inconsistencies.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

My method of using Evernote avoids all inconsistencies. I use Evernote daily, actually closer to hourly.

I only use Evernote Windows on my desktop so I never see any inconsistencies.

Wait until October 26

Actually, jb raises a good point. I actually don't encounter as many inconsistencies as most people, because my workflow is pretty minimalistic, and so avoids a lot of the stuff that causes trouble. For example, I use almost entirely plain text with my notes, so I don't sweat the lack of a highlighter on the Mac. I don't fiddle around with the metadata (created dates, etc.) so I don't sweat the lack of access to this on the iPad. And, I have almost no attachments (images, PDFs, etc.) so I don't get bent out of shape (anymore) about photos taken on the iPhone that are flipped around the wrong way on the Mac.

Ideally, of course, Evernote would "just work." It is getting better and better with each iteration, but perhaps the best solution for the moment is to restrict yourself to a single platform, modify your workflow to fit the lowest common denominator (usually the functionality available on your mobile platform of choice), or (if you work across Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS like me) keep it all as simple and straightforward as you can: plain text.

[Ian Daniel 10]

My method of using Evernote avoids all inconsistencies. I use Evernote daily, actually closer to hourly.

I only use Evernote Windows on my desktop so I never see any inconsistencies.

Wait until October 26

Actually, jb raises a good point. I actually don't encounter as many inconsistencies as most people, because my workflow is pretty minimalistic, and so avoids a lot of the stuff that causes trouble. For example, I use almost entirely plain text with my notes, so I don't sweat the lack of a highlighter on the Mac. I don't fiddle around with the metadata (created dates, etc.) so I don't sweat the lack of access to this on the iPad. And, I have almost no attachments (images, PDFs, etc.) so I don't get bent out of shape (anymore) about photos taken on the iPhone that are flipped around the wrong way on the Mac.

Ideally, of course, Evernote would "just work." It is getting better and better with each iteration, but perhaps the best solution for the moment is to restrict yourself to a single platform, modify your workflow to fit the lowest common denominator (usually the functionality available on your mobile platform of choice), or (if you work across Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS like me) keep it all as simple and straightforward as you can: plain text.

I couldn't have said it better myself! Like most technology, the more features, the more problems experienced. Fact!

[MJG 16]

We live in a multiplatform world.  I use a Windows desktop at my work.  An iMac at home.  An iPhone or iPad during the considerable parts of my day I am not sitting at my desk in  my office.  An MacBook Air when traveling.  If I could limit my worldview to a single platform (the way Evernote's development teams appear to do), I would. But I can't  

 

Evernote is my one constant.  It is what a Daytimer used to be before technology allowed us to move past pen to paper options.  I keep notes on specific topics as well as a daily log of phone conversations, emails, etc.  It is the foundation around which I organize and document my life. I need it constantly at my fingertips.  

 

Some variations from operating system to operating system are unavoidable.  Different keyboards... different screen configurations, etc.  

 

What I find maddening are the inconsistencies that are, to be blunt, the product of pure laziness or the failure of different Evernote development teams to think like their users and to communicate with each other.  

 

Take simple tasks like indenting in notes to set hierarchy to their content.  Or even the most basic font settings (for titles and headings).  I might be wrong, but I do not think there is ANY inherent operating system differences that REQUIRE these to be handled entirely conceptually differently in iOS or Windows.  But if I start a note in a meeting on my iPad, I have several pre-formated headings I can just select from a menu.  If I come back to the note on my desktop, I have to open up a fonts screen, select font size, format for bold, etc.  And that is just one example.  

 

So Evernote is a program I can't live without, that I am in and out of constantly, and yet every time I use it, my notetaking is hampered and I am distracted by the necessity to stop and think ... "now how do I get this heading in bold on this platform?"  The program gets in the way of its own functionality. 

 

One of Evenote's great strengths is that it works on every platform.  Instead of thinking like they worked for Microsoft or worked for Apple, Evernote teams ought to work together to try and maximize the transparency to the end user and consistency across platforms.