Stacks Problem

[Laurie 0]

Yesterday I created a stack for the first time by combining two notebooks and naming the stack "Genealogy". After creating the stack, I moved some of the notes from one notebook to the other. Today when I started to work with the stack, I found that there are actually three notebooks--the main one named Genealogy and the other two. I then found that the Genealogy notebook, which I thought was just the name of the stack, had all the notes in it. So I started deleting notes while making sure they were in one of the two "sub" notebooks. Then I discovered that I was deleting the notes from all the notebooks. So I had to undelete the notes and be sure they were in the correct notebook.

Please help me figure out how to manage this. I've searched the forum, as well as my Kindle version of "Evernote for Dummies" without finding an answer. Why are the notes in more than one notebook and how do I get rid of them in the Genealogy "notebook."

TIA.

Laurie

[jefito 5,589]

Why are the notes in more than one notebook and how do I get rid of them in the Genealogy "notebook."

1) Notes cannot reside in more than one notebook. Period.A note resides exactly one notebook.

2) A stack is not a notebook: a stack can only contain notebooks, not notes (and certainly not other stacks).

When you display a stack, you are viewing the notes that are in all of its constituent notebooks. Notes are not duplicated into the stack, since a stack cannot hold notes. If you delete a note from a list of notes created by displaying a stack, the note is actually deleted from the notebook in the stack that contains it.

[Laurie 0]

Thanks for explaining this, Jeff. I was really worried about how to deal with this.

[jefito 5,589]

Hope it made sense, and that you recovered all of your notes.

[lightsong 0]

But you can right-click on the note in the notelist or on the note's thumbnail and "copy to" another notebook.

[jefito 5,589]

But you can right-click on the note in the notelist or on the note's thumbnail and "copy to" another notebook.

Well yes, you can. And after that, the copy of the original note now lives in that other notebook, and is independent of the original.

[medebe 0]

I have inadvertently created a number of stacks by dragging notebooks on top of each other (thinking I was just re-ordering the notebook).  If I delete the stack itself, will it delete the notebooks within the stack or just the stack hierarchy?  I want to get rid of the stacks without affecting the notebooks that have been mistakenly put in them.  Otherwise, is there a way to move a notebook out of a stack so I can leave a stack empty and then delete it?  Thanks.

[jefito 5,589]

I have inadvertently created a number of stacks by dragging notebooks on top of each other (thinking I was just re-ordering the notebook).  If I delete the stack itself, will it delete the notebooks within the stack or just the stack hierarchy?  I want to get rid of the stacks without affecting the notebooks that have been mistakenly put in them.  Otherwise, is there a way to move a notebook out of a stack so I can leave a stack empty and then delete it?  Thanks.

May depend on the Evernote client that you are using. On the Windows client, it's very clear. You get a pop-up warning dialog which says "None of your notebooks or notes will be deleted. This operation cannot be undone."

I'm not sure about other clients.

[kshivner 1]

The only problem with using evernote is there is a 250 notebook limit syncing - and just for genealogy alone that will not work - add in your personal stuff and you hit a big brick wall - I did and I just started creating notebooks for genealogy no documents yet - so you have to go business do get that number raised but then there are still limitations - trying to understand them before I decide to dump evernote - real nice app but these limitations are a deal breaker

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

The only problem with using evernote is there is a 250 notebook limit syncing - and just for genealogy alone that will not work - add in your personal stuff and you hit a big brick wall - I did and I just started creating notebooks for genealogy no documents yet - so you have to go business do get that number raised but then there are still limitations - trying to understand them before I decide to dump evernote - real nice app but these limitations are a deal breaker

Those limits can be a bit of a hurdle. Normally people around here, myself included, recommend trying to offload some notebook needs onto tags, which has certainly worked for me to get my notebook count down significantly, and for others.  Genealogy is not something I have personal experience in, but have a basic understanding of it. I can understand how it might not be self-evident to effectively use tags in this context, but I'm sure it could work.... but it sounds like Evernote may not be the best tool for that job, at least not given the way you want to go about it, which is fine! 

 

If you have time to play around, you could try a different, tag-oriented strategy, but there may be some other tools that might better suit your needs.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The only problem with using evernote is there is a 250 notebook limit syncing - and just for genealogy alone that will not work - add in your personal stuff and you hit a big brick wall - I did and I just started creating notebooks for genealogy no documents yet - so you have to go business do get that number raised but then there are still limitations - trying to understand them before I decide to dump evernote - real nice app but these limitations are a deal breaker

As I mentioned in the other two threads where you posted this:

As has been stated many times, use more tags, descriptive titles & keywords & less notebooks. I've yet to see any example (and there have been many posted) where tags would not work.

Having said that, I would also say Evernote may not be the best tool for doing your family tree, just like it's not the best tool for balancing your bank account.

[Laurie 0]

"Having said that, I would also say Evernote may not be the best tool for doing your family tree, just like it's not the best tool for balancing your bank account."

 

#BurgersNFries - Sorry, but it's obvious you know nothing about genealogy. It's not used for doing a family tree; dedicated genealogy database programs are used for that. EN is used for parking the data you collect over the years, so you can then transfer the relevant data into your genealogy program. When you have huge amounts of census data, obituaries, birth, marriage, & death certificate images or data, etc. ad infinitum, it helps to keep it together. In the past I had my research data scattered. Genealogists are fortunate to have lots of options these days, & EN is one of them. I use several other programs in my genealogy research, including a text expander program that allows me to type 2-3 characters to input much longer words, dates, & sentences into my family tree program, emails, etc.

 

#kshivner - I gave up on Evernote a few months ago & have transferred all my genealogy data & most of my other data into another db program. The drawback for most people of doing this is that EN allows you to access your data from anywhere. The program I'm using is strictly on my desktop, which is the only place I need it. I don't have a smartphone & I haven't done any research away from home in years. Before I started using EN version 1, I had already collected a large amount of data in other db programs, document files, graphics files, and didn't want to move them into EN. (I've been researching since about 1988.) Fortunately when I realized EN wasn't working very well for me, I only had 15-20 genealogy notebooks & maybe 20-30 others. I'm retired so my needs are not as great as younger, employed people's needs. I used tags from the very beginning of the "new" Evernote program (which started at v. 4) & really liked them. Try them; you might like them, too. P.S. I was not a paid user. I didn't have enough data in EN to need to pay a monthly fee, which is lucky since I couldn't afford it.