How to view one note in multiple notebooks

[nickwreden 9]

I want also to put one note into multiple notebooks. I have reviewed previous discussion on this, and the general advice is to use tags. Getting beyond the multiple issues associated with tags (taxonomy gets really complicated with multiple tags over a period of time), having one note in multiple notebooks simplifies sharing, such as a public notebook and a private one.

Hope you can consider doing this, just as photo sharing sites allow one pix to be associated with multiple albums!!

Nick

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I want also to put one note into multiple notebooks. I have reviewed previous discussion on this, and the general advice is to use tags. Getting beyond the multiple issues associated with tags (taxonomy gets really complicated with multiple tags over a period of time), having one note in multiple notebooks simplifies sharing, such as a public notebook and a private one.

Hope you can consider doing this, just as photo sharing sites allow one pix to be associated with multiple albums!!

Nick

Yup, tags are the way to go. A note resides in only one notebook. Doubtful EN will change this any time soon, if ever, as I'd guess it's a major overhaul & (again) tags do pretty much the same thing with the exception of sharing, offline and/or local notebooks. And I'm guessing those exceptions are what they are because of the infrastructure of the database, so again, major overhaul.

You may find this thread helpful, if you've not read it before.

[BrooklynDan 2]

Just because you can't imagine a use case for a feature doesn't mean a valid use case doesn't exist. For instance:

 

I'm a Business User. My company has four employees: Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice. Each has his own shared notebook with me and me alone, because in most cases, they have their own responsibilities and don't want/need to share information with anyone else in the company. But sometimes I go through the web and I see pages that are applicable to Bob and Carol, but not Ted or Alice. Or Carol and Alice, but not Bob or Ted. I want to forward information to relevant people and not bug those who don't need to see it. In fact, I may want to share resumes with Bob, Carol, and Ted about who's going to replace Alice, because she's not responding well to user feedback and I need to fire her.

 

It's impractical and unreasonable to give each employee several notebooks that cover every sharing permutation case. With five people in the company, that quickly becomes unwieldy.

 

The elegant solution is to allow me to share a document with more than one person at a time in one than one notebook. Tags won't do this. If Evernote isn't engineered to do it, fine. Say so. Then fix it or say why it can't be fixed. But please don't tell me people don't need it. People do. I sure do.

 

 

 

[megsaint 441]

Please, ignore this request from people that don't understand Evernote. You're supposed to use tags.

One of the great things about Evernote is that it's very flexible. Some people really like tags. Some people don't. And everyone is free to make any (polite) suggestions they wish. In fact, suggestions and requests are encouraged.

[Jan Peeters 13]

The problem with using the Tags method is that you can't share a Tag. I share Notebooks with collegues and sometimes I want to share with them a note that I have written in one of my personal notebooks. I don't want to copy it because if I ever choose to add something I need to add that text to both notes. I also don't want to move it because then my nicely organized personal notebook devaluates.

 

I would say that you could introduce 'aliase-notes' quite normal in any operating system. Make the title a different colour of italic if you like.

[drambhia 3]

I also agree and think it would be wonderful to have the ability to be able to refer the same note in multiple notebooks. Tags are a great way to search for notes but when it comes to keeping track of information per notebook/project being able to refer the same information over different notebooks and contexts will definitely have more pros then cons.

[gazumped 12,050]

On 01/07/2016 at 8:05 PM, drambhia said:

I also agree and think it would be wonderful to have the ability to be able to refer the same note in multiple notebooks. Tags are a great way to search for notes but when it comes to keeping track of information per notebook/project being able to refer the same information over different notebooks and contexts will definitely have more pros then cons.

One of the basic requirements in database design is 'only enter things once' - because if the details in a copied page change,  there are now two places to update it.  The way to have a copy of the same note in two notebooks is to have a link to a single note instead.  MediaWiki has a feature called 'transclusion' - putting some or all of the content of one document into the text of another.  It's a great feature.  Evernote doesn't do it.

[DVM 19]

I'm sure this will appear as an overly simplistic answer but you could just "add" the same note to another Notebook. You don't have the ability to modify the original note and have it automatically appear in the latter but a little cutting & pasting would do the trick!

[jefito 5,598]

Duplicating a note as a general strategy doesn't scale too well. You can use note links to refer to a single note from multiple places, if you want. Unfortunately, note links need to be contained in a note in the Evernote system. Using tags, per BnF, is probably the best answer in the current Evernote.

[MrOuiOui 4]

+1000 on this feature request!!!

 

I know the difference about tags and notebooks but sometimes notes just belongs in several notebooks!

As mentioned copy and paste isn't a very good workflow. I want them to "link" to the same note and update everywhere as I change it.

Coming from a Springpad workflow this feature is just a necessity

[jefito 5,598]

Tags is the way to go in Evernote, or note links, as stated before.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

+1000 on this feature request!!!

I know the difference about tags and notebooks but sometimes notes just belongs in several notebooks!

As mentioned copy and paste isn't a very good workflow. I want them to "link" to the same note and update everywhere as I change it.

Coming from a Springpad workflow this feature is just a necessity

Evernote is not Springpad. Given that Springpad has died & EN has over 100 million users, it seems EN has gotten some things right. Evernote's philosophy is a note lives in just one notebook. It's doubtful this philosophy will change any time soon, if ever. As has been stated many times, tags are the way to be able to retrieve/organize notes. You can look at it this way, tags can replicate notebooks & by using tags, a note can appear to be in "Notebook A" (a tag) as well as "Notebook B" (a tag).

[mdk1 69]

Please, ignore this request from people that don't understand Evernote. You're supposed to use tags.

[C6REW 416]

If you have a need to see information in multiple Notes then you need to copy the Note and paste a link to it.

So for example if I have a Note about a customer enquiry and want to include a pdf of the product they are interested in, there are times it is easier to keep a link to the pdf in the same Note. - I have a lot of pdf's within Evernote of products I need to refer to wherever I am.

Or maybe I want to include a link to a Note on an enquiry from another customer who asked the same thing.

By right clicking the link you can then open the Note in a new window. If necessary you can work on it and the changes will be seen wherever you have a link to the Note.

I use this feature a lot as it saves me having to search for specific information.

Best regards

Chris

[DrWynn 0]

The point of having a single note show up in multiple notebooks (and not multiple tags) is that maybe each notebook is shared with 4 separate people. However, I don't want to have 4 copies of the same note. I'd rather have and update a single note to be replicated for each of the other four shared notebooks.

 

As far as I know, tags cannot do that.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

The point of having a single note show up in multiple notebooks (and not multiple tags) is that maybe each notebook is shared with 4 separate people. However, I don't want to have 4 copies of the same note. I'd rather have and update a single note to be replicated for each of the other four shared notebooks.

 

As far as I know, tags cannot do that.

Then you can use the alternate methods...clipping four times or making four copies. It's doubtful EN would ever allow the same note to reside in multiple notebooks & may even be impossible...just as you cannot store a file on your hard drive in multiple folders. You have to make copies.

[jefito 5,598]

Just because you can't imagine a use case for a feature doesn't mean a valid use case doesn't exist. For instance:

 

I'm a Business User. My company has four employees: Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice. Each has his own shared notebook with me and me alone, because in most cases, they have their own responsibilities and don't want/need to share information with anyone else in the company. But sometimes I go through the web and I see pages that are applicable to Bob and Carol, but not Ted or Alice. Or Carol and Alice, but not Bob or Ted. I want to forward information to relevant people and not bug those who don't need to see it. In fact, I may want to share resumes with Bob, Carol, and Ted about who's going to replace Alice, because she's not responding well to user feedback and I need to fire her.

 

It's impractical and unreasonable to give each employee several notebooks that cover every sharing permutation case. With five people in the company, that quickly becomes unwieldy.

The elegant solution is to allow me to share a document with more than one person at a time in one than one notebook. Tags won't do this. If Evernote isn't engineered to do it, fine. Say so. Then fix it or say why it can't be fixed. But please don't tell me people don't need it. People do. I sure do.

Evernote is engineered to share either on the basis of individual notes, or by notebook. I cannot fix this, and neither can any of the people posting here, as we are all users, just like you. As you are a Business customer, you might want to ask in the Business sub-forum down the hall; there may be a special Business capability that I am not aware of.

On the other hand, you might think about whether you really need to be so restrictive in such a small group (and maybe you already have, and I understand that it may be perfectly valid in your case; I'm just tossing this out there as I don't know any details about your work). In a small group like yours, though it shouldn't be too hard to ensure that people work only on stuff that applies to them, all things being equal (understanding that they rarely are). In my case, I work in a shared code base with about 10 other software developers; we all have access to the same code and bug database. But I have my stuff to work on, as does everyone else. I benefit from looking at the code other people are working on, and also from reading through the bug database. But I don't work on other people's tickets, though some times I can make suggestions to others about their tasks, or about priorities, or whatever.

I have to say that sharing via tag would be a powerful capability for Evernote; Evernote have not seen fit to offer that up to date, though.

[suzantn 0]

I was a springpad user and a lot of the features that spring pad had, Evernote does not have and one of them is being able to put a note in more than on folder. I really miss this feature and I don't care for tags.

I guess I have to live with evernote because I can't find another option. I would have gladly paid for springpad if they had offered that option, it was so much better than springpad.

[jefito 5,598]

I was a springpad user and a lot of the features that spring pad had, Evernote does not have and one of them is being able to put a note in more than on folder. I really miss this feature and I don't care for tags.

I guess I have to live with evernote because I can't find another option. I would have gladly paid for springpad if they had offered that option, it was so much better than springpad.

Is there a reason that you don't like tags?

[Lonnie VanZandt 0]

Tags and Links are useful but they are not sufficient.

 

If the Note Link was bidirectional, a Note Link would be an adequate way to reference a Note from multiple Notebooks. However, the current Note Link is unidirectional. Therefore, if the user "surfs" their graph of Notes and Note Links to explore content, they quickly cannot return to their original focus. Bidirectional linking would allow users to browse content and quickly return to their focus area.

 

(Also Note Links should revise their displayed title text when the referenced Note changes its Title. Currently, if the Note changes, the Links show only the text at the time the Note was linked.)

[jefito 5,598]

Last time I checked, the desktop clients give you the ability to return to previous notes, sort of like the browser history. The Windows client does, for sure.

 

Bidirectional links would be interesting; I suppose they'd need to emplace a backlink to any note that has a note link, such that if both notes A ad B had a link to note C, C would contain backlinks to both A and B, right?

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

Tags and Links are useful but they are not sufficient.

 

If the Note Link was bidirectional, a Note Link would be an adequate way to reference a Note from multiple Notebooks. However, the current Note Link is unidirectional. Therefore, if the user "surfs" their graph of Notes and Note Links to explore content, they quickly cannot return to their original focus. Bidirectional linking would allow users to browse content and quickly return to their focus area.

 

(Also Note Links should revise their displayed title text when the referenced Note changes its Title. Currently, if the Note changes, the Links show only the text at the time the Note was linked.)

 

Yep, it would be great if you could display all Notes that contain a link to the selected Note.

[Jordan Thompson 30]

I share multiple notebooks with different users and I need to be able to share one or more notes in those notebooks.  They only way I can make this happen in EN is by copying.  It's not hard for EN to introduce the concept of links(!)

[gazumped 12,050]

2 hours ago, Jordan Thompson said:

I share multiple notebooks with different users and I need to be able to share one or more notes in those notebooks.  They only way I can make this happen in EN is by copying.  It's not hard for EN to introduce the concept of links(!)

Or you could share notes or notebooks individually to user A,  different ones to B and to C,  and separately share one copy of the common notes or notebooks to all three.  If you then include note links on any note to the whole set the individual users should be able to see them all.

 

[Jordan Thompson 30]

Seems like a lot of hassle.  I have multiple notebooks that I share with multiple people.  I just found the "duplicate" option this morning and made a copy into the second notebook.  Unfortunately, any changes I make in one will not be reflected in the other.

[DTLow 5,744]

5 minutes ago, Jordan Thompson said:

Unfortunately, any changes I make in one will not be reflected in the other.

And that is why you should not copy your data into multiple notebooks
Sure, have duplicate notes - but link back to a single note that holds the content
If it's just yourself, use an internal link; if public, use a web url

[Jordan Thompson 30]

It is obvious, but there is no alternative that is easy to do.  It would be much better if EN just allowed notes to exist in multiple notebooks.

[jefito 5,598]

Moved to the Feature Requests subforum, so that users may vote on it.

[mattyf 4]

I think this is a HUGE missing feature for a number of reasons:

First, I'd argue that letting the same note live in multiple notebooks is a much better, less dangerous feature than "Copy to Notebook." I can't really imagine very many scenarios where one would actually want to carry duplicate notes that didn't update one another, with the exception of using a note as a template to start out a new yet unrelated note.

Second, some people's brains work more visually than others, and tags don't work for these people. I'm one of them. I need to see notes visually in notebooks for me to be able to comfortably and quickly wrap my brain around this information. I also suffer from "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome, so I find it very useful to "stumble" on information when I open a notebook. There's just no way to easily do this with tags.

Third, I believe Evernote is limiting its audience quite a bit by not including this feature. I certainly know this was true for me. For about 7 years I used the free tier of Evernote to log phone calls I made. Each company had its own notebook, and there was no overlap. But the complexity of setting up a good tagging system along with the fact my brain just didn't work well that way kept most everything else OUT of Evernote.

I only recently took the plunge just because I was driving myself nuts by spreading out over different services, then having trouble finding what I needed. Now that I have so much more info in Evernote, I need to organize it better. I tried tags one more time, same (lack) of result. I even purchased "Evernote Essentials" thinking it would help me set up a workable tagging system, only to find that in the most recent version of the course, the author himself had abandoned tagging as an organization method because it was simply taking too much time to tag all the notes he was generating, relative to the benefit those tags provided. He also didn't like how the tagging system only works when the user is fanatically strict about tag naming conventions. Again, the way my brain works, I know I would fall prey to this problem.

Fourth: Linking. This method would work for me, but the amount of effort it takes to name a new note that links back to the original is way too high. With "Copy to Notebook," you choose the option from a contextual menu, a search box opens where you can select the destination notebook, and you're done. With linking, you have to copy the link, manually go to the destination notebook, click create new note, paste in the link, then give it a meaningful title, which means manually typing in a title, or going back to the original for a copy/paste function.

That's my pitch. Please add this feature. It would fit so nicely under Move to Notebook and Copy to Notebook. I also believe that adding it would help stop the polar icecaps from melting, reduce gun violence, and begin to heal a so badly divided nation.

[DTLow 5,744]

13 minutes ago, mattyf said:

Second, some people's brains work more visually than others, and tags don't work for these people.

I don't know what this means.  

It can be called Tag or Notebook or Folder, it's all the same to me; just a way of organizing my  data.

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

4 hours ago, mattyf said:

I think this is a HUGE missing feature for a number of reasons:

First, I'd argue that letting the same note live in multiple notebooks is a much better, less dangerous feature than "Copy to Notebook."

First, please consider the Notebook analogy with the real world.  In a physical notebook, a note, a page in the notebook, can physically exist in ONLY one physical notebook.  If you want the note contents to appear elsewhere, then you have to copy it (or move it).

This is exactly how Evernote works.  An EN Notebook is a container of notes.  Each Note to belong to one, and only one Notebook.
I don't think that will ever change.  I don't know of any other apps that model notebooks or folders that allow a note (or file) to exist in more than one.

If  you want a note in multiple notebooks in order to categorize them in different ways, then you can assign different tags (as many as you like) to each Note.  This is the primary design feature of Tags, to allow us to categorize the same note in many different ways.

There is one way to associate the same note with more than one Notebook.  

1. Put the original Note in NB #1
2. Copy the Note Link to the clipboard.
3. In each other NB where you would like to reference this Note:
   1. Create a new Note in that NB (perhaps with the same or similar name; I would probably append it with "(copy)")
   2. In that Note, paste the Note Link to the original Note

I hope this helps your understanding of the fundamental difference between Evernote Notebooks and Tags.

[mattyf 4]

Thanks for the quick reply, but I think I may not have expressed myself very well:

While I understand the real world "notebook" analogy, I don't think a piece of software needs to limit its functionality just because the real world system upon which it is modeled has a shortcoming or limit. There are most definitely filing systems that allow the same file to be effectively "stored" in more than one place. Hard links, symbolic links, and aliases are examples. I was a big user of aliases... maybe that's why I'm wanting them here.

I explained at the end of my admittedly long first post that while I understood the Copy Note Link method, it requires a lot of steps. Ideally, I wanted  something that was as easy to execute as the "Copy to Notebook" command.

The thing about this request is that Evernote could implement it without affecting users that don't want to use it. And I believe it would disproportionately aid newbies like myself. People who have already trained themselves to use tagging (all power to them, I wish I could) would still be free to use it.

I suppose, in the end, I'll end up writing an Applescript/Keyboard Maestro combo to automate the "Copy Note Link" process, but I suspect that's going to have the side effect of cluttering up search results with duplicated hits.

Regardless, I wanted to chime in here because I was a little puzzled about the intensity of the pushback the OP got for what seems to me a perfectly valid and understandable feature request.

 

[DTLow 5,744]

4 minutes ago, mattyf said:

While I understand the real world "notebook" analogy, I don't think a piece of software needs to limit its functionality just because the real world system upon which it is modeled has a shortcoming or limit.

You are correct, Evernote could allow multiple notebooks for notes.  It's do-able, but would be a major upgrade to the database and UI.  

User's can add their vote to this request.  Voting buttons are in the top left corner of the discussion.  The current vote is 2

[jefito 5,598]

5 minutes ago, mattyf said:

While I understand the real world "notebook" analogy, I don't think a piece of software needs to limit its functionality just because the real world system upon which it is modeled has a shortcoming or limit. There are most definitely filing systems that allow the same file to be effectively "stored" in more than one place. Hard links, symbolic links, and aliases are examples. I was a big user of aliases... maybe that's why I'm wanting them here.

If you want this type of functionality, why not just use tags as your virtual notebooks? Tags already have the property that you want (namely, a note can "belong" to more than one tag). In addition, tags are hierarchical, which notebooks aren't. 

What you said earlier about your objection to tags (see the following quote) doesn't make sense to me in this context. Tags are as "visual" as notebooks, in every sense I can think of; click on a tag, you see the notes that have that tag. I don't see any salient difference.

6 hours ago, mattyf said:

Second, some people's brains work more visually than others, and tags don't work for these people. I'm one of them. I need to see notes visually in notebooks for me to be able to comfortably and quickly wrap my brain around this information. I also suffer from "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome, so I find it very useful to "stumble" on information when I open a notebook. There's just no way to easily do this with tags.

 

[mattyf 4]

6 hours ago, DTLow said:

I don't know what this means.  

It can be called Tag or Notebook or Folder, it's all the same to me; just a way of organizing my  data.

 

When I open a notebook stack, and see the notebooks contained in it, that actually helps me remember the process by which I am working on a project. For instance, I was working on a project where I was having to make legal filings for a Public Utilities Commission proceeding. I'm not a lawyer, and I had never made a legal document in my life. I kept stumbling though the mechanics of how to format pdf-a's, how to check the most current version of the service list, etc, having to re-look up the process each time. I was filing infrequently enough that I had completely forgotten that I had made evernote notes on how to do this. Yes, my memory is actually that bad.

However, I finally broke those notes out into a separate notebook called "CPUC How To" and put it in the same stack. So now when I opened that stack to do work on the proceeding, I saw my proceeding notebook, and right under it, my "CPUC How To" notebook, and was like, oh yeah, there it is when I need it.

I can't get that with tags. Tags only show me things when I type in the tag and search for it, and that would not have helped me in the above situation, because I would not have remembered I had a tag to type in in the first place.

[mattyf 4]

2 minutes ago, jefito said:

What you said earlier about your objection to tags (see the following quote) doesn't make sense to me in this context. Tags are as "visual" as notebooks, in every sense I can think of; click on a tag, you see the notes that have that tag. I don't see any salient difference.

 

 

Ok, this actually may have really helped me. I had not put together in my mind that I could use nested tags to replicate stacks of notebooks. Even better I could make sub-notebooks as well, right?

The only real thing I'd be missing would be the ability to make a new note by default with the tag I'm currently viewing. I could live without that... unless you had a clever workaround for that? 

[DTLow 5,744]

1 hour ago, mattyf said:

However, I finally broke those notes out into a separate notebook called "CPUC How To" and put it in the same stack. So now when I opened that stack to do work on the proceeding, I saw my proceeding notebook, and right under it, my "CPUC How To" notebook, and was like, oh yeah, there it is when I need it.

I can't get that with tags.

On my Mac, Tags can be organized in a hierarchy, for example

CPUC Project
     CPUC How To
     CPUC Filings
            CPUC Filings 1.01
            CPUC Filings 2.01

I realize this isn't as visual as Stacks and Notebooks

>>The only real thing I'd be missing would be the ability to make a new note by default with the tag I'm currently viewing.

Unfortunately, there's no "default tag feature"

Also, if you neglect to add a tag, you have "orphan notes"
This doesn't happen with notebooks; there always has to be a notebook

[mattyf 4]

One other question about that... when I click on a tag and get the list of matching notes, is there a way to see the text of the tag I clicked on at the top (instead of just the icon indicating "All Notes" have been filtered by tag)? 

[jefito 5,598]

12 hours ago, mattyf said:

Even better I could make sub-notebooks as well, right?

That's a different (and pretty popular) feature request; see 

It's a long thread. Note that the previous Evernote CTO (that's engberg, the first respondent) generally argues against providing nested notebooks in favor of using nested tag structures. It's possible that hat philosophy may change in the future, but I wouldn't bet my Evernote workflow on that being the case. If that were implemented, I *might* use them, but I kind of like how things work now with respect to notebooks, tags, and stacks. Just my opinion, though *shrug*

12 hours ago, mattyf said:

The only real thing I'd be missing would be the ability to make a new note by default with the tag I'm currently viewing. I could live without that... unless you had a clever workaround for that?

No workaround, clever or not, for that specific case The only workflow that I have for situations remotely like that is to pre-create note templates (which can include formatting, formatted text/tables, tags, etc.) for various note types that I use a lot (weekly journal and bug tickets, mainly) and use the Evernote for Windows' "Copy Note..." command to create a new instance of the note in its appropriate notebook.

[jefito 5,598]

12 hours ago, mattyf said:

One other question about that... when I click on a tag and get the list of matching notes, is there a way to see the text of the tag I clicked on at the top (instead of just the icon indicating "All Notes" have been filtered by tag)? 

Which Evernote client? The Evernote for Windows client shows things pretty nicely if you have the Search Information panel opened (View / Search Information).

[mattyf 4]

I have the Mac version, and can't seem to find that option in the View menu. Is it windows only?

[Dan N 3]

Yes. I realized I wanted to make the equivalent of a "smart notebook" that showed the notes that had a combination of tags... like "Client A" and "Project 1". I suppose I could do that with a saved search, but I like what Apple has done with its Smart Albums for photos, or Smart Playlist for iTunes. Seems like it wouldn't be incredibly difficult to built (says a guy who doesn't know all the intricacies of EN )

[DTLow 5,744]

25 minutes ago, Dan N said:

Yes. I realized I wanted to make the equivalent of a "smart notebook" that showed the notes that had a combination of tags... like "Client A" and "Project 1". I suppose I could do that with a saved search, but I like what Apple has done with its Smart Albums for photos, or Smart Playlist for iTunes. Seems like it wouldn't be incredibly difficult to built (says a guy who doesn't know all the intricacies of EN )

You might try relying on the Shortcuts section

The Shortcut entries are your "Smart Notebooks", and are quite flexible when pointing to a saved search

[gazumped 12,050]

Two things: 

1. This is a boost for something I suggested long ago.  I come from the Wiki school of organisation,  and there I was used to using somethng called 'transclusion' where one nugget of information,  which might have been a price list,  a phone number or an address could appear in several places.  A 'live link' could be embedded ("transcluded") into any other note,  and a copy of the original would be shown at that location.  If the original note were changed,  the new details would instantly show in all other locations.  Great for keeping things up to date.  It also observes the Golden Rule of data management.  If you have more than one copy of anything - they will always show different versions of the same information...  (Or it will be a pain to go around and make sure all the copies are up to date each time something changes.)
    
2. In addition to the Shortcuts suggestion above,  you could also try tables of contents.  As you build your 'project control note' for any given activity,  add links to relevant notes rather than trying to include the actual note in a specific notebook.  It's like running a search,  just a convenient way to see an index of available information immediately.

Just sayin' 

 

[moffa 5]

I have been requesting this feature for a couple of years, and have even gone as far as posting on Evernote's Twitter page which has also fallen on deaf ears.   This is such a simple request and concept to grasp - its analogous to creating an alias in a file structure where you have links to a Note in various Notebooks for ease of navigating and for organization purposes - no brainer!   At least for some of us... 

The moderator's (BurgersNFries) dismissive, paternalistic response back in 2014 in advising that users should use EV's useless Tags feature in lieu of users wanting something they don't really neeed is nonsense.   Obvioulsy, the only way to get their attention at this point is to bail in Evernote for alternatives such as listed here:   https://www.workzone.com/blog/evernote-alternatives/

 

[DTLow 5,744]

17 hours ago, moffa said:

This is such a simple request and concept to grasp - its analogous to creating an alias

For sure, Evernote does not have an "alias note" feature

Its an interesting concept.  You should post a feature request

>>EV's useless Tags feature

You're misusing the "Notebook" feature.  The Tag feature has been set up for multiple assignments to a note

[jefito 5,598]

18 hours ago, moffa said:

Obvioulsy, the only way to get their attention at this point is to bail in Evernote for alternatives such as listed here:   https://www.workzone.com/blog/evernote-alternatives/

It could also be a good way to get ignored. But we can let this be a test case. Wouldn't it be ironic if you bailed, and then they implemented this, though?

18 hours ago, moffa said:

The moderator's (BurgersNFries) dismissive, paternalistic response back in 2014 in advising that users should use EV's useless Tags feature in lieu of users wanting something they don't really neeed is nonsense.

Sorry, but in Evernote, tags are not useless at all. In fact, they're more expressive than notebooks, since they can be applied to multiple notes.  If you're not using them in Evernote, then you may indeed be better served  by using a different program. Hard to tell, since we don't know your use case. It is kinda funny you're using the "dammit, I bought this screwdriver and I'm so mad that it doesn't drive nails, I'm going to threaten to go on over to https://www.workzone.com/blog/screwdriver-alternatives/"  approach, though.

[CalS 5,307]

3 hours ago, jefito said:

I'm going to threaten to go on over to https://www.workzone.com/blog/screwdriver-alternatives/"  approach, though.

Or another alternative https://www.workzone.com/blog/surgeonscalpel-alternatives

[mattyf 4]

On 6/6/2014 at 8:23 PM, mdk1 said:

Please, ignore this request from people that don't understand Evernote. You're supposed to use tags.

Wow. That's not at ALL arrogant. It's funny how some people come here to help other users, and some people seem to come here just to tell other users how they're doing it all wrong. At any rate, one could make the argument that no user should ever click the "bold" button above the text editor. You're supposed to use CMD-B. Often times there is not a "right" or "wrong" way to organize something. It's a personal preference, and good software (I believe) gives people options to do things different ways depending on what just "feels" best to them.

I tried switching over to tags a while back, but I made a mistake in the way I went about doing it. I already had a structure of NOTEBOOKS and STACKS, and I think what I SHOULD have done was  tagged every single note I had with the notebook name, then placed them all into a single notebook and deleted all the old notebooks. Because I didn't do that, I tried to transition to tags in a kinda half *ssed way, which meant I was dealing with both tags AND notebooks as a filing mechanism, and it was just beyond confusing. I'm sure a bunch of people will jump on this and tell me how stupid I was for doing that. :/

I also could have SWORN that back when I first tried this, if you started typing a tag, and EN narrowed it down to one match, and you pressed return without fully typing the tag, then it created a new tag with just the letters you had typed. As I remember it, I was having to both type then point and click with the mouse. The software isn't doing that now, which would make tagging easier for me.

I suppose it's possible I'm crazy or misremembering and EN never did that with tags, in which case I'll just add, "Hey idiot... everyone should ignore you because you're a moron who can't type a simple tag." Fair enough.

 

 

 

[DTLow 5,744]

38 minutes ago, mattyf said:

Often times there is not a "right" or "wrong" way to organize something. It's a personal preference, and good software (I believe) gives people options to do things different ways depending on what just "feels" best to them.

It was arrogant to advise people to ignore the request.  
The purpose of this forum is to post requests and record user votes (voting buttons in the upper left corner of the discussion)

I'm not sure right/wrong way applies to assiging multiple labels to a note
In the current environment Evernote only allows two choices: Notebook or Tags
- a single entry for Notebooks
- multiple entry for Tags

>>I SHOULD have done was  tagged every single note I had with the notebook name, then placed them all into a single notebook 

That satisfiles the request (multiple entries) and also bumps the limit from 250 to 100,000 entries

I like the approach because it frees up the Notebook field for the Local/Sync, Shared, Offline feature

[CalS 5,307]

20 minutes ago, mattyf said:

I tried switching over to tags a while back, but I made a mistake in the way I went about doing it. I already had a structure of NOTEBOOKS and STACKS, and I think what I SHOULD have done was  tagged every single note I had with the notebook name, then placed them all into a single notebook and deleted all the old notebooks. Because I didn't do that, I tried to transition to tags in a kinda half *ssed way, which meant I was dealing with both tags AND notebooks as a filing mechanism, and it was just beyond confusing. I'm sure a bunch of people will jump on this and tell me how stupid I was for doing that. :/

I also could have SWORN that back when I first tried this, if you started typing a tag, and EN narrowed it down to one match, and you pressed return without fully typing the tag, then it created a new tag with just the letters you had typed. As I remember it, I was having to both type then point and click with the mouse. The software isn't doing that now, which would make tagging easier for me.

Relative to the first point, sometimes we just have to experiment before we get there.  

You were right.  if you are typing to add a tag and you hit backspace, it looks like the tag is selected, but if it isn't dark blue for the whole tag it isn't.  Windows anyway.  Example below.

20180129_170719.mp4

[jefito 5,598]

3 hours ago, mattyf said:

dealing with both tags AND notebooks as a filing mechanism

Both are valid, even at the same time. Evernote users just need to figure out what each mechanism is good at, and how to make it work for their use case. It can take a little time to sort it out and find what works best for you.

Anyways, since a note belongs to exactly one notebook in Evernote, notebooks partition your notes into discrete collections. Notebooks are also the way to share a collection of notes with someone else, or specify a set of notes that are held on a mobile device for offline use. On the other hand, you can apply multiple tags to a note, which makes them great for categorizing notes, either uniquely or into separate collections. Tags may also be organized into trees, so you can do some hierarchical organization of your notes if you want.

I use both tags and notebooks, but maintain relatively few of the latter, but more than one, since I need to share notes between two separate accounts, my personal account and my work account. It's pretty simple, but that may be more complicated than many people need. Ultimately, it all really depends on what you're trying to do with Evernote.

[Glynis 0]

On 2/4/2013 at 2:35 PM, DVM said:

I'm sure this will appear as an overly simplistic answer but you could just "add" the same note to another Notebook. You don't have the ability to modify the original note and have it automatically appear in the latter but a little cutting & pasting would do the trick!

That defeats the whole idea of being able to put a note in more than one notebook. 

[PinkElephant 8,754]

There is NO idea in Evernote to put a note in more than one notebook ! 

The organizational principle is that each note "belongs" to exactly one notebook. All other relations are created through tags. This avoids duplicates, which are typical for folder-type-structures found on many computers.

Duplicates are possible as well, by copying notes and putting them in several notebooks. However it is better to avoid this. Once you start duplicating, the duplicates will start to differ, drifting apart.

A workaround is a note containing a link to another note. For this, you create a note and put it into the notebook you want. Then you create a link in the target-note (via share), and paste it into the new note. You can place more than one link into that note, or even create a table of content build from links. By clicking on a link, you open the target note, and can modify it. No matter how many links lead to the target note, you will always work on the one original note.

 

[DTLow 5,744]

55 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

There is NO idea in Evernote to put a note in more than one notebook ! 

Expanding on this from a technical perspective.
In the Evernote database, the Note record contains one, and only one, notebook field.
Multiple tags are handled by using a separate Notes-Tag table

The multiple notebooks request is do-able but requires database and UI changes.

The request stated "taxonomy gets really complicated with multiple tags over a period of time".   
Not clear on how less complicated this will be with multiple notebooks.
Personally, I only require one multiple field and I don't care if it's called folder/notebook/tag

[gazumped 12,050]

...On the 'one note / many notebooks' thing - it's a really bad idea if the content of that note might ever need changing.  Best principles say notes should be unique so you that in the event of change you only have to visit the contents once,  and duplications / conflicts never arise.

[Glynis 0]

I was told about the work-around using shared links. That'll work for me. I just didn't want to lose track of some info. all because it was in a spec. notebook and not a general one too. You see, I have short-term memory loss problems so notes in several places is important for me.

[gazumped 12,050]

1 hour ago, Glynis said:

I have short-term memory loss problems so notes in several places is important for me.

Hi.  I'm just old,  but same result:  I need to be reminded of lots of things.  With Evernote though,  you don't need to duplicate notes.  The default view is 'all notes' and any tag,  title or search will find a note anywhere in any stack or notebook.  My only problem usually is that when I search for something I saved,  I never remember the right keywords to use...

[DTLow 5,744]

2 hours ago, Glynis said:

because it was in a spec. notebook and not a general one too.

I understand the "general" notebook.  
The majority of my 13k+ notes are stored in my Filing notebook.

What is the purpose of your "spec." notebook?  
I use other notebooks to identify notes as private/shared, private/local, offline 

As per @gazumped I access my notes in "All Notes" view.  I don't lose track of notes.

[Glynis 0]

11 hours ago, gazumped said:

Hi.  I'm just old,  but same result:  I need to be reminded of lots of things.  With Evernote though,  you don't need to duplicate notes.  The default view is 'all notes' and any tag,  title or search will find a note anywhere in any stack or notebook.  My only problem usually is that when I search for something I saved,  I never remember the right keywords to use...

I'm old too now. Will be 65 in September. However, I've had the memory problem since I was 17. Had an unexplainable stroke. Having multiple notes saying the same thing is a cognitive trick I learned in occupational therapy along with always putting things back where I got them from, and having a set routine.

[gazumped 12,050]

2 hours ago, Glynis said:

I'm old too now. Will be 65 in September.

Ha! You're only a youngster yet.  Still the memory thing is a concern.  I have a situation I created by complete accident - it's possible to sync reminder dates with calendars,  and some calendars sync with others;  so when I set up a reminder I tend to get several different alerts in various ways.  It's definitely difficult (for me) to forget anything important.  Even to the extent that people around me usually get reminded as well...

[PinkElephant 8,754]

If it serves you well, it is o.k.

You can always create copies of a note, and put them into as many notebooks as you wish. It just means that these copies have a life of their own, and from experience they will start to move apart. Content, title, tags etc. You will never remember or have the time to change all of the sibling notes when you update one of them.

So the best way is to have one note, that contains all the content and is the only one to receive updates, and linking it up through other notes that contain a link to this original one.

[Glynis 0]

I was thinking about maybe making a master list of links or just making sure that my "general" notebooks have the originals.

[gazumped 12,050]

1 hour ago, Glynis said:

a master list of links

I assume you know about Tables of Content,  and the fact that when you create a note it's possible to duplicate that note and copy it to another notebook?  You could create a note and copy it to several notebooks,  then search for the note title to get a list of the notes you created.  When you have the list (which includes links to each note) you could create the Table of Contents for that list.

How to create a table of contents with links to other notes

[PinkElephant 8,754]

The logic behind this defies me.

1. I create a note (= a container, what I really want is the information inside, and I want to be able to find it)
2. Now, to be safe I will really find it, I duplicate this note several times and stuff it into several notebooks (=places for containers that contain information)
3. Because it is hard to keep all this places in mind containing the note with identical information, I create another note that contains just the information about where all these duplicate notes are to be found.
4. And of course I need to create a place where to stuff all these content-table-notes, because I need to find these.

If I translate this into a personal paperbased archive, it is a room full of lockers. All lockers contain in total multiple copies of the same information elements, under the rule that never the same information is in one locker twice. And to find this information, there is a master locker containing the index.

Without all the copies, a cleverly organized cupboard would probably do the same job.

I have learned (long ago, informatics course at the university) that you hold each information (note) just once, and create access to it by keys (tags) or through indexing (search).  Because in a well organized database funded system, there is no need to duplicate information just to be able to find it. And it will not „loose“ Information, like you can loose a piece of paper. NO duplicates allowed !

But of course, a powerful and flexible engine like EN will allow to create and organize multiple copies of the same information. If one has the time and draws some fun out of it ...

[gazumped 12,050]

5 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

hold each information (note) just once, and create access to it by keys (tags) or through indexing (search).  Because in a well organized database funded system, there is no need to duplicate information just to be able to find it. And it will not „loose“ Information, like you can loose a piece of paper. NO duplicates allowed !

 

On 6/26/2019 at 10:12 PM, gazumped said:

Best principles say notes should be unique

Same hymn book I think.  🙂  Wasn't advocating this process as a general thing,  but @Glynis seems to favour it,  so I was just offering other Evernote features that might be relevant.  The usual line being "whatever works for you..." - it may not be good practice,  but if you want to do something in a particular way,  that's the 'best' way for your purposes!

[PinkElephant 8,754]

I agree that everybody may have his own approach.

So it is an interchange of ideas, not setting „the law“.

[Glynis 0]

22 hours ago, gazumped said:

When you have the list (which includes links to each note) you could create the Table of Contents for that list.

How to create a table of contents with links to other notes

One thing wrong with the way to create a table of contents... I cannot physically do it. I type with only one hand. The other hand doesn't work.

[gazumped 12,050]

48 minutes ago, Glynis said:

One thing wrong with the way to create a table of contents... I cannot physically do it. I type with only one hand. The other hand doesn't work.

Hmmn.  Not sure that would be a problem..  doing something ...slowly... doesn't mean it won't work,,,

[Glynis 0]

According to the page you sent as a link [How to create a table of contents with links to other notes], you have to have use of both hands.

Quote

1. Select multiple notes while holding down Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Windows).

I am not able to do this.

[eric99 1,077]

5 hours ago, Glynis said:

According to the page you sent as a link [How to create a table of contents with links to other notes], you have to have use of both hands.

I am not able to do this.

Maybe you can use the "sticky keys" feature https://www.accessibility.barclays.com/windows-10-using-your-keyboard-one-handed/

Maybe better, you can assign your mouse side buttons to shift, CTRL or whatever key combinations.

[FFrozTT 1]

Tags are meta-information, and the idea that EN shouldn't support notes in multiple notebooks because you can't do that in real life with paper is absurd. Real paper cannot be searched for meta-information either. Were dealing with a tool vastly more capable than a quill and parchment here.

All modern computer file-systems support symbolic links which is exactly what were asking for, and no, a note with a link in it is not the same thing because that's 3 clicks instead of 1.  Symbolic links are a perpetual mainstay because they are inherently useful. Just like notes in multiple notebooks would be.

[jefito 5,598]

On 10/14/2020 at 4:51 PM, FFrozTT said:

Tags are meta-information, and the idea that EN shouldn't support notes in multiple notebooks because you can't do that in real life with paper is absurd.

Understood, but real-world user metaphors can be useful in UI design due to user familiarity. Why else is the notebook/note/{tag/label/keyword} so popular? Because it's concrete and familiar.

On 10/14/2020 at 4:51 PM, FFrozTT said:

All modern computer file-systems support symbolic links which is exactly what were asking for, and no, a note with a link in it is not the same thing because that's 3 clicks instead of 1.  Symbolic links are a perpetual mainstay because they are inherently useful. Just like notes in multiple notebooks would be.

Sure, that's all fair, but think about the audience -- do most computer users use symbolic file system links in their everyday computer experience? I've been a developer for nearly 40 years and have some technical facility,  and I have never used them for my own stuff. I'm pretty sure that that's the situation for most other computer users, the vast majority of whom are not technical by nature. Sure, at my work we use them some, but not really all that much -- I'm happy to let the build folks handle that kind of setup if they need it -- it rarely affects me. In any application made for popular usage, you try to balance usability with power; I think that's the case here.

Anyways, in Evernote, if I want multi-parented notes, I just use multiple tags, which are roughly equivalent in concept (though not in underlying implementation).

[DTLow 5,744]

On 10/14/2020 at 1:51 PM, FFrozTT said:

Tags are meta-information, and the idea that EN shouldn't support notes in multiple notebooks

Tags and Notebooks are both meta-information; fields in the note record

>>symbolic links 

No, symbolic links are not the answer     
Evernote would have to implement a Note-Notebooks table, similar to the Note-Tags table     
Plus the necessary UI changes to handle multiple NotebookS