(Archived) Evernote for Mac Public Beta is Here

[Jackolicious 808]

Hey Evernoters!

The new Evernote 5 for Mac Beta is here! Packed with tons of new features and a beautiful, new, and customizable UI.

Learn more here: http://blog.evernote.com/2012/11/01/evernote-5-for-mac-beta-is-here/

Let me know if you have any questions!

[Jackolicious 808]

mrgoerend, what do you mean?

[mrgoerend 89]

mrgoerend, what do you mean?

See this: http://www.danrodney.com/mac/

Holding option and hitting an arrow key moves the cursor from word to word (instead of character to character).

[curious rabbit 0]

Just moved from 3.x to 5.0beta2. Following have been noted right away:

✽ Notebook names sort differently. Previously notebooks starting with ~ sorted to end of list. Now they sort to the beginning. Could be a bug or not, depending on perspective.

✽ Trunk navigation will allow me to look at a list of all apps in one category, then choose and app to find out more detail. But then I cannot go back to the list of all apps in the category. I have to start from apps home again.

[ursula 42]

Spotlight is no longer indexing my Evernote folder since I downloaded the beta. Anyone else?

[loumi02 1]

Hey!

So I just installed the beta version and I just wanted to say congrats, the UI is great and the shortcuts system is awesome. However, I have a couple of few things I'd like to point out about this new version:

- the toolbar: it's been said before, but i guess the more people request it the better: please, please enable toolbar customization again

- the trash: my preferred method of deleting anything was to just drag it to the trash icon and now it's gone. Of course it's not a huge deal, but if you could enable dragging it to the shortcuts, that would be great!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Spotlight is no longer indexing my Evernote folder since I downloaded the beta. Anyone else?

Definitely being indexed for me. You might want to try reindexing your drive.

[CEB 4]

Grumpy-

You say

"It is still in beta, so there is that."

The message that pops up to inform users that a new version of Evernote is available does NOT use the word "Beta". It does not warn users that there is no documentation for how the new version works. Yet another flaw in the new version. "Everyone wins"? Nice try. I wasted the better part of a day. Did you think of that when you made your claim of everybody winning? Perhaps you meant to say "everybody at evernote wins when we can trick our users into doing our work for us"

[Jackolicious 808]

CEB, we just released the public version this morning. The release notes for all prior versions said beta.

[Phil Dean 150]

@CEB we produced a very nice video explaining What's New in Evernote 5 - here is the link http://evernote.com/evernote/whats_new/mac/

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Grumpy-

You say

"It is still in beta, so there is that."

The message that pops up to inform users that a new version of Evernote is available does NOT use the word "Beta". It does not warn users that there is no documentation for how the new version works. Yet another flaw in the new version. "Everyone wins"? Nice try. I wasted the better part of a day. Did you think of that when you made your claim of everybody winning? Perhaps you meant to say "everybody at evernote wins when we can trick our users into doing our work for us"

I don't think you get the message unless you have opted into the beta (a checkbox you have to manually check). The release notes say it is a beta. There is a video on the Evernote site (http://evernote.com/.../whats_new/mac/) that should have cover most of the highlights. There is a blog post as well (http://blog.evernote.com/2012/11/15/evernote-5-for-mac-is-here-packed-with-over-100-new-features/). And, there was another post back when the beta came out (http://blog.evernote.com/2012/11/01/evernote-5-for-mac-beta-is-here/). The app essentially works as it did in the past, with a few new features. Could you tell us specifically what aspect of the app wasted the better part of your day? Maybe that will help Evernote improve the experience next time.

[ EDIT: Ugh. I got sniped by two Evernote employees within five minutes. Now that is some fast service! ]

[goldfilm 19]

GREAT JOB GUYS! Evernote far far away the best free app (after Caffeine )

Questions:

1) Is there any way to customize the toolbar to add back/forward/print/etc?

2) Where did "Files" go? I usually search for attachments and loved that feature

3) I have a Mac Air 11" and I'd like to have a three-column card view but it takes too much of the screen. Any way to customize the size of the cards?

Feedback:

. CMD 1-9 is one of the best new features

. View Notebooks in the sidebar, it would be nice to expand/collapse?

. Icons in the toolbar for new camera/audio note

. Definitely All Notes icon in the toolbar

. I think for such a complete app it's time to expand and improve the "Preferences"

Great job again, thanks!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Grumpy-

You say

"It is still in beta, so there is that."

The message that pops up to inform users that a new version of Evernote is available does NOT use the word "Beta". It does not warn users that there is no documentation for how the new version works. Yet another flaw in the new version. "Everyone wins"? Nice try. I wasted the better part of a day. Did you think of that when you made your claim of everybody winning? Perhaps you meant to say "everybody at evernote wins when we can trick our users into doing our work for us"

It looks like this explanatory page has also gone live, so you can read about using it there as well http://evernote.com/evernote/guide/mac/.

[tboley 5]

Back and back forward buttons are urgently needed. I use Evernote like a kind of wiki. Without the back and forward buttons is Evernote useless for ner 60 Percent of my work.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Back and back forward buttons are urgently needed. I use Evernote like a kind of wiki. Without the back and forward buttons is Evernote useless for ner 60 Percent of my work.

This pretty much put an end to my personal wiki system as well. Note linkes used to be a big part of my organizational system (http://www.princeton...ganization.html), and I still consider those tiny navigational buttons to be critical for productivity (http://discussion.ev...or-all-clients/). During the beta phase I started going through the notes and putting in navigation links (a "home" note, etc.) in order to salvage it, but after a while, I abandoned the note links. I suppose that is one less thing for me to worry about

[mcdonna 7]

...

One thing i really like about the new version is the edit window of the notes but most everything else seems to be more focussed on looking nice than actually being functional. Most stuff seems to be a step backwards. The notebook icons are HUGE and waste an insane amount of screen space, the atlas function seems to have been a complete waste of resources to develop, the large thumbnail display of notes is another example of something that wastes insane amounts of screen space without providing any benefit,

I just obeyed the upgrade recommendation and am SICK about the changes. I have notebooks for each of my clients and instead of the compact list I now have huge chunky icons. It slows my operation. Can I back out of this?

[mcdonna 7]

@CEB we produced a very nice video explaining What's New in Evernote 5 - here is the link http://evernote.com/.../whats_new/mac/

I don't have time to watch videos! Why didn't you warn me before I upgraded?

[Jackolicious 808]

mcdonna, we sent out our largest email blast ever warning users of the change. Hope the what's new page helps!

[goldfilm 19]

Is there any way to see the count for how many notes in each notebook?, on the sidebar, like before? I liked to see the amount of total notes...

[CEB 4]

mcdonna-

yes there is a relatively easy way to "downgrade" back to to the stable version you were using. At least that is what I was able to do and did. Evernote should have an easy to find link to the instructions but I don't think they do. I had to get the instructions from the technical support. ONe caution thought is that they do not give you a choke of WHICH version of evernote you download after you delete the flawed version 5.0.0. At any time they could probably change it so you cannot go back. I don't think Evernote developers appreciate how much of an investment a user makes in getting to know how to use their software. Perhaps unfair to single out Evernote. Apple, Microsoft and others are guilty of the same thing. For an unimportant bit of software that you don't use much it does not matter. But Evernote has managed to create a piece of software that has become "mission critical" for many of its users. Along with that comes an obligation to respect how users come to depend on it. Evernote treats each each revision as automatically all better. But they also have REMOVED key features in version 5 without telling users. There was a feature whereby you could be notified of beta versions. I said ok to that because at the time I had not seen Evernote abuse its users by putting out clearly bad software. Now I know better and will try to change that setting. It reminds me of my recent experience in the northeast with power outages (out 9 days). When Tommy Edison and his buddies introduced electricity it was a nice new optional feature. And putting the power lines above ground where the trees could fall on them was a neat idea because it was cheaper and faster. Fast forward a century or so and it looks like a big mistake. Now electricity is pretty much a necessity. Con-Ed gets a lot of grief for acting like it is just a nice extra new thing. Such is Evernote's situation. If you are going to get a monopoly-style position providing customers with a mission-critical service, you are asking for a massive blow back when anything goes wrong.

[CEB 4]

@grumpy monkey:

" Could you tell us specifically what aspect of the app wasted the better part of your day? Maybe that will help Evernote improve the experience next time."

Sure. It is different. And the months of my learning how to use it, while not entirely wasted, have been rendered wasted until I spend yet more time to get back to where I was in proficiency.