FEATURE REQUEST- Table editing

[terrasigillata 2]

Evernote should improve the tables feature. I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to adjust table and row/column widths at will. Also, when we copy and paste cells from one table into another table, it should insert the data cell-by-cell, rather than as a new embedded table.

 

Also, I've noticed we can't resize images, which doesn't make sense to me.

[gazumped 11,664]

Hi - welcome to the forums.  Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

[Martin Packer 162]

I think this is an oft-repeated thread. Can we merge?

[terrasigillata 2]

Hi Gazumped,

 

I agree that evernote aspires to be a simple note-taking tool. It makes sense that too many options would make the program more difficult and complex to use. However, I really think resizing of tables and images is a nice feature that would improve our ability to organize our notes and make them more readable.

[bljarv 3]

Hi Gazumped,

 

I agree that evernote aspires to be a simple note-taking tool. It makes sense that too many options would make the program more difficult and complex to use. However, I really think resizing of tables and images is a nice feature that would improve our ability to organize our notes and make them more readable.

 

AMEN! Tables have had almost zero development from the very first release of Evernote and the fact that I can't reduce the size of a photo by dragging the corner of the photo has always seemed like an oversight. I have been a premium subscriber for a couple of years and use Evernote every day...but every time I have to insert an image or a table into a note, I hear cursing in my head.  

[dachshund 0]

I recently decided to use EN much more in organizing my life. Having lived through every other system that syncs devices and "clouds", my first worry is the company folding. Second worry is EN getting bought by a company that ruins the product. Finally, there's EN destroying the product by adding too much junk.

If the developers think this is unnecessary or complicated, then I say leave it out. And I use tables heavily in Word, but I can edit in Word and copy to EN. That's my opinion.

[larkin2sf 14]

I recently decided to use EN much more in organizing my life. Having lived through every other system that syncs devices and "clouds", my first worry is the company folding. Second worry is EN getting bought by a company that ruins the product. Finally, there's EN destroying the product by adding too much junk.

If the developers think this is unnecessary or complicated, then I say leave it out. And I use tables heavily in Word, but I can edit in Word and copy to EN. That's my opinion.

 

"edit in Word and copy to EN" = great suggestion and works for me!

 

Thanks,

-julia

[wu158 0]

Hi - welcome to the forums.  Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

 

Hi - welcome to the forums.  Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

注：非工作需要，本人向来只用中文，看不懂中文的自己使用google翻译吧！

 

我非常理解evernote的定位，既然您不想成为一个文字处理器或者排版其排版工具，那么您也该考虑是否给予需要排版或者文字处理的用户的一些方便，或说是用户需求；就比如我自己来说，我们是做ic、电子元器件的，我们团队的产品现货库存目录就达到80000条；每一个产品在不同的时间都还需记录不同的客户的询价、采购入库的报价、技术支持文档（PDF）、销售记录、采购入库记录，甚至同事的协作任务等等；看了下论坛里的关于表格的解决方法，不过如下：

1、用excel编辑保存为evernote笔记附件：问题是-当临时在iPhone下读取表格附件并进行编辑时，其他共享用户并不能得到excel文件的实时更新！

2、直接使用evernote在笔记中建立表格：问题是-表格功能太过简单，没有快速表格内容查找筛选、排序等功能，搜索起来也很慢，特别是-当复制网页表格中多个单元格内容，需要粘贴到evernote表格的多个单元格时，通常只能出现把所有内容都粘贴到一个单元格内？

3、抛弃表格记录，直接使用标签+笔记+ 笔记本的形式：那么我需要怎么建立体系；时间，产品型号，封装类型，生产厂商，当前市场价格，客户询价，采购（供应商）报价，替代产品，技术支持；客户资料，销售单，采购单。。。。这样一来我们的团队得建立多少个笔记本，多少个标签，多少页笔记，成千上万！其效率如何呢？

所以我还是提议：

1、要么evernote自己提供或有第三方提供一款关于电子表格的编辑工具，让它能独立完成类似excel的简单功能，编辑后自动保到到evernote笔记中并显示出来（非附件格式）；可以提供快速的表格制作，插入数据，快速查找、替换，筛选、排序，简单的数据运算就足够了！这种模式本身就是evernote的强项，像“Skitch”；“"Penultimate"等不都非常成功吗?

2、给予其他office兼容的机会，让excel和笔记表格双向同步：可以自动批量导入excel、Word、ppt等office文件，并自动将导入的文件转化为evernot笔记现有表格格式；且在evernote中修改后也会自动修改excel文件内的数据；例如：自动导入一个文件夹内多个excel后，excel的表格就自动转换为evernot笔记现有格式的表格！你们对于pdf文件的支持不就是的吗？

 

关于Phil Libin说："我们要建一家百年公司，中国一定要在计划中..."!我只能句中国古话来共勉evernote：海纳百川，有容乃大！（若是这八个汉字您实在是无法理解其含义，就请联系xkddz@outlook.com，请记住我们是Xinkeda Electronic Co., Ltd.深圳分部的国内”WU团队“！）

[holmestc4 1]

TABLES?  There's a Tables feature??  I was going to complain and ask for a feature that simply allowed the Tab key to create columnar text.  I can't even figure out how to do that.  I'm entering columns of decimal data into notes using the spacebar.

[gazumped 11,664]

TABLES?  There's a Tables feature??  I was going to complain and ask for a feature that simply allowed the Tab key to create columnar text.  I can't even figure out how to do that.  I'm entering columns of decimal data into notes using the spacebar.

 

Like the man said "edit in Word and copy to EN"...

[Secundo Ego 0]

...or, if you've already created a table in EN: copy from EN to Word. Now table is resizable. Copy back from Word to EN. Table is still resizable in EN.

 

Still, I agree: resizable tables should be a feature of EN.

[George Kaler 0]

From what I can see "lurking" in the forums, Evernote has had editing tables in Android noted as a "future improvement" since at leas September 2011 - that's 2 years ago!  I can edit the contents of cells in a table on my ASUS tablet, but not blank cells, and I can't insert of delete rows or columns.  So, I have to use Evernote for Windows to "finish" editing a note with a table, if it requires any changes to the table, or adding any text to a blank cell.  This is frustrating.  Seems like it ought to be simple enough to add.  Please . . .

[hjbrent 0]

Hi - welcome to the forums.  Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

I understand that "Evernote does not aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool," but the table feature should be enhanced to allow those who take notes using tables as graphic organizers.  I am currently required to take field observations in a public location but I need to include rows as I continue taking field notes but don't know how to add rows to a current table.  In a word processor, to add a new row I just press the tab key....

[bw. 0]

Thank you Secundo Ego! 

Creating the table in MS Word, getting the column widths the way you want them, and then copy-pasting the table into Everynote does the trick.

In Evernote you can then insert more rows using the right-click menu (the column widths will not be changed). 

[Martin Packer 162]

I've been looking into TinyMCE over the past few days. This is the editor component in Evernote Web. A couple of things transpire:

• The version of TinyMCE that Evernote Web is using is 3 and the latest is 4.
• There is at least one table editing plugin available for TinyMCE.

It's a shame Evernote Web doesn't use the capabilities that are available with TinyMCE.

 

Now, if someone from Evernote can tell me it'd be tough to up the TinyMCE game I'd accept that. Until then I have to believe Evernote Web could readily do better.

 

(Yes, I know Evernote Web isn't the only place among the Evernote clients where people want to be able to do more with table editing but it's a place (I think) every Evernote user has access to.)

[gazumped 11,664]

I've been looking into TinyMCE over the past few days. This is the editor component in Evernote Web. A couple of things transpire:

• The version of TinyMCE that Evernote Web is using is 3 and the latest is 4.
• There is at least one table editing plugin available for TinyMCE.

It's a shame Evernote Web doesn't use the capabilities that are available with TinyMCE.

 

Now, if someone from Evernote can tell me it'd be tough to up the TinyMCE game I'd accept that. Until then I have to believe Evernote Web could readily do better.

 

(Yes, I know Evernote Web isn't the only place among the Evernote clients where people want to be able to do more with table editing but it's a place (I think) every Evernote user has access to.)

 

But you can kind've bet that if Evernote introduce a feature solely for the Web interface the next push will be "Why can't I do this in the Android client..."  (Or WIndows / Mac / iOS etc...)

[mynon 6]

If it's unlikely they will make adjustments to tables could there be the option for columns?  I could use columns just as easily as a table.

[Martin Packer 162]

@gazumped Agreed. But...

 

• Asymmetry of feature set has never stopped them before.
• Web is the Lowest Common Denominator interface as everyone has it. Am I right in this, BTW?

Anyhow have rolled my own low friction table editing functions with GreaseMonkey. I don't think I can share it outside of my employer - at least not until I've spoken to their lawyers. Sorry. But it shows it can be done.

[Zefvdz 2]

Capturing notes within tables (for action tracking, projects follow-up, pros/cons recap, daily/weekly log...) is indeed one of the best ways (if not the best one!) for efficient real-time note-taking and/or re-processing after meetings / events / investigations...

So I cannot support more this feature request!

 

Until then, I personally have no other choice than to use an alternative/competing note-taking tool, as I just cannot consider using one not having a smooth & flexible table management. 

And I'm pretty sure I mustn't be the only one on earth.

I'd be curious to know which other new features are expected by EN to make them win more new end-users than this one, to understand their improvement implementation strategy...

[Super Glue 2]

...Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

 

This is why I wish that there were no tools such as Evernote.  No separate tools.

 

Rather, I wish that tools such as Evernote used a web or cloud filesystem such as Google Drive or Dropbox to store the content.

 

Notes and notebooks and stacks, etc., would be files and folders in the filesystem.

 

Compound documents would be archive files - .zip or .tar.gz

 

Indexing - yes, Evernote does okay indexing, but so do some of the web filesystems.

 

Handwriting recognition and OCR...

 

The main value added of Evernote is user interface.  Screen and tab and window organization, and mouse and keyboard and menu optimization, all in the hope of making it easier to capture and organize notes.   Heaven knows, the web and cloud filesystems have lousy UIs.  Integration, so that the several dfferent types of data people want to keep in their notebooks can be looked at together.

 

But companies like Evernote reinvent the wheel.   Partly out of necessity - it is hard to maintain the integrity of crosslinked documents in a filesystem, without "filesystem hooks" to invoke code when something is moved or deleted.  And partly out of business model - if Evernote stores the data, they can mine it, and supposedly grab the profits that would otherwise be distributed across several vendors.

 

This would not be so bad, except that companies like Evernote often reinvent the wheel partially and poorly.  Like, a table editor that is much more primitive than can be found in other tools - like Google docs.

 

The annoying thing is that this puts the user in the position of making tradeoffs: I like Evernote, but its table editor sucks.   So perhaps I should use Microsoft OneNote, which is very comparable to EverNote, but has a better table editor.  If I don't like OneNote, perhaps I should use Google Drive or Google docs - but then I lose the EverNote/OneNote UI goodness.

 

This sort of proliferation of overlapping tools in the desktop PC software market is what eventually led to Microsoft's success: Microsoft Office was by no means the best in all areas, but it was good enough in most of the areas that people needed.  Microsoft is web.challenged, but I would *love* somebody  whether Google, or EverNote, or somebody TBD  to provide a "good enough" integrated system for note taking and personal information management, based on a eb/cloud filesystem as described above.

 

---

 

Longtime watcher/user/coder of personal infomaion managemen systems   Occasiona EverNote user for several years - e.g. I tried today, but am giving up on EverNote (again) because of lousy tables, inter alia.  Longtime OneNote user.  Longtime Google drive/docs Dropbox user. Longtime wiki and hypertext. Medium time org-mode user. Still looking for an integrated solution.

[Physics1 0]

I just want to add some weight to this thread.

 

The only table editing feature I am asking for is to be able to add rows/columns to existing tables - 

not other more complicated stuff that yields a philosophical debate.

 

In fact, I would make this my only feature request just to demonstrate how

important this would be for me.

[gazumped 11,664]

Hi - what OS are you using?  I believe the Windows editor is being looked at,  so you might have some good news at some point.  Not sure of the situation in other areas...

[jefito 5,589]

The only table editing feature I am asking for is to be able to add rows/columns to existing tables - 

not other more complicated stuff that yields a philosophical debate.

The Evernote client for Windows already has this capability. Perhaps you meant some other Evernote client?

[Physics1 0]

I don't see it or not sure how to do it on Evernote Mac or on Evernote online.

[jefito 5,589]

I don't see it or not sure how to do it on Evernote Mac or on Evernote online.

The web client doesn't appear to have that capability. I can't speak to the Mac client.

On the other hand, if you are conversant with HTML, the 3rd-party ENMLEdit app/site could be used to do this: http://enml-editor.ping13.net/

[Martin Packer 162]

@Physics1 Not in the Mac and not Online (the Web Client). I need both, too.

[IncrediMetaBeta 22]

 

...Evernote doesn't aspire to be a word-processor or any kind of text layout tool,  and while the editor could do with improvement,  I don't know how far they'll go towards that.  Tables and picture editing involve quite complex choices that would complicate menus (and software) quite a bit.  Don't know how much development we'll see on these lines,  but no doubt it will come in due course...

 

This is why I wish that there were no tools such as Evernote.  No separate tools.

 

Rather, I wish that tools such as Evernote used a web or cloud filesystem such as Google Drive or Dropbox to store the content.

 

Notes and notebooks and stacks, etc., would be files and folders in the filesystem.

 

Compound documents would be archive files - .zip or .tar.gz

 

Indexing - yes, Evernote does okay indexing, but so do some of the web filesystems.

 

Handwriting recognition and OCR...

 

The main value added of Evernote is user interface.  Screen and tab and window organization, and mouse and keyboard and menu optimization, all in the hope of making it easier to capture and organize notes.   Heaven knows, the web and cloud filesystems have lousy UIs.  Integration, so that the several dfferent types of data people want to keep in their notebooks can be looked at together.

 

But companies like Evernote reinvent the wheel.   Partly out of necessity - it is hard to maintain the integrity of crosslinked documents in a filesystem, without "filesystem hooks" to invoke code when something is moved or deleted.  And partly out of business model - if Evernote stores the data, they can mine it, and supposedly grab the profits that would otherwise be distributed across several vendors.

 

This would not be so bad, except that companies like Evernote often reinvent the wheel partially and poorly.  Like, a table editor that is much more primitive than can be found in other tools - like Google docs.

 

The annoying thing is that this puts the user in the position of making tradeoffs: I like Evernote, but its table editor sucks.   So perhaps I should use Microsoft OneNote, which is very comparable to EverNote, but has a better table editor.  If I don't like OneNote, perhaps I should use Google Drive or Google docs - but then I lose the EverNote/OneNote UI goodness.

 

This sort of proliferation of overlapping tools in the desktop PC software market is what eventually led to Microsoft's success: Microsoft Office was by no means the best in all areas, but it was good enough in most of the areas that people needed.  Microsoft is web.challenged, but I would *love* somebody  whether Google, or EverNote, or somebody TBD  to provide a "good enough" integrated system for note taking and personal information management, based on a eb/cloud filesystem as described above.

 

---

 

Longtime watcher/user/coder of personal infomaion managemen systems   Occasiona EverNote user for several years - e.g. I tried today, but am giving up on EverNote (again) because of lousy tables, inter alia.  Longtime OneNote user.  Longtime Google drive/docs Dropbox user. Longtime wiki and hypertext. Medium time org-mode user. Still looking for an integrated solution.

 

This broader discussion about the pros and cons of additional features brought up something bigger for me. I think that Super Glue touches on an important theme that we'd all benefit from pondering.  It's not, how we use Evernote, it's why we use it.  

 

Not everyone has the same objective.  Not every has the same vision of what it might be valuable for.  But are there some commonalities why people use Evernote.

 

Whether all the functionality we seek is entirely in Evernote (current version or some future one) or whether we need complementary functionality elsewhere, either way, let's be clear why we seek integration.

 

Simply put, I think that we want to take various "data" we discover, collate its significance via our own active imagination, and make it into knowledge that's useful!

 

But wait!  There's more.  

 

I think that Evernote is a key technology for communicating with your unconscious...  

 

Say what?!  I suspect why we are drawn to Evernote has to do with what we experience when we read a web page.  Something in that page strikes us as "significant", ie., to us, that is!  

 

But naturally, we don't  have time fully to ponder it at that point.  Reality beckons.  We have schedules, responsibilities to attend to and, fer hevvin's sake, we can't spend all day on the computer...  

 

• Thus, we use Evernote, NOT ONLY because we want to preserve that page, or a portion, for future reference.  

 

• What we ALSO somehow hope to "capture," to retain, when we use Evernote, what we experienced reading that page, the thoughts, the feelings elicited, stimulated from our initial reading.

 

• In other words, we want to retain both the contents and, on returning to read it in Evernote later, to be able to pick up where we left off, whether that is recalling our reaction, resuming our thinking about the significance, or collating the item with other pertinent page "captures", or going on to take some action.

 

That's a lot.

 

My personal belief is that Evernote...

 

• is tool that helps forge a path to the unconscious.  Why we sense a page is significant and worth retaining is because its contents elicit our tacit knowledge, it brings to conscious awareness realizations we may have had for a long time, things of which we have not been very conscious, or perhaps only fleetingly, things we may have not previously been able to articulate yet things, once we see them, that we "know in our bones" are important, significant, to us!  

 

• is tool for meaning-making.  I see such "meaning-making" as aspect of professional development.  That is, what we discover often online, are truths that what we have long, semi-consciously believed; sometimes things that we want to articulate.   Seeing other's pertinent information or ideas stimulates us in no small part, because we regard it as validating something important that, heretofore, we thought that only we recognized and appreciated.  Finding words to express those thoughts helps us clarify what we believe, profess.  Being able to articulate what we believe, what we profess, can help us to distinguish our potential for making a unique contribution. 

 

• The more we employ, with Evernote, selected functionality from other applications, the harder things may become, though of course not necessarily since, until one actually experiments with some instance of integration, you may be unsure whether it's harder or easier.

 

• Like those who seek an "integrated solution" (to just "what problem or need" will, of course, vary), many people toggle in a Sisyphean manner between explore and exploit.  That is, they explore integrating other apps with Evernote.  Their exploration helps them to spot opportunities.  They exploit such integration for a while, until they run up against some repeated aggravation.  They then return to explore mode.   

While what we seek is functional integration, why we do so is because we want like computers to keep up with our speed of thought, to help us frictionlessly scale our epiphanies.   Metaphorically, it's not just "Tables" (borrowing from the concern others mentioned about editing in Evernote) but chairs and lamps, lions, tigers and bears, too!  

 

I guess that's my story for now, and I'm sticking to it.  By which I merely mean that it's my passionate opinion, though loosely held.  I would appreciate hearing other ideas, perspectives.

 

What do you think?

[Adjusting 276]

The only table editing feature I am asking for is to be able to add rows/columns to existing tables - 

not other more complicated stuff that yields a philosophical debate.

 

 

@Physics1 Not in the Mac and not Online (the Web Client). I need both, too.

 

Actually, the Mac client already has this feature. Place your cursor in a cell of the table, and in the Format->Tables you should see the following menu items: ‘Insert Row Above’, ‘Insert Row Below’, ‘Insert Column to the Left’, and ‘Insert Column to the Right’.

The same menus are available via a context menu. 

[Martin Packer 162]

I stand corrected on Mac: My peeve is there aren't key combos to do this. And one at a time isn't grand.

[LeeHamm 1]

 

Actually, the Mac client already has this feature. Place your cursor in a cell of the table, and in the Format->Tables you should see the following menu items: ‘Insert Row Above’, ‘Insert Row Below’, ‘Insert Column to the Left’, and ‘Insert Column to the Right’.

The same menus are available via a context menu. 

 

Is this a premium feature? I see it; my partner doesn't and she is using the free version, on a Mac.

[Martin Packer 162]

Sorry, it's the keyboard acceleration and wholesale row addition functions I need.

[WClampett 5]

The problem I have is adding text in a new row in a table.

 

The tab key nicely adds a new row to the table, but there doesn't appear to be any way to add a new line (or go to the next line) in a blank cell.

 

I know I can use Word as an intermediary, but that shouldn't be necessary for basic functionality.

[CalS 5,280]

Tables work left to right.  You can use the left and right arrows to navigate but not the up and down.  Right arrow in the last cell takes you to the next line.  That or the mouse.

 

Hit enter if you want to add a line to a cell.

[WClampett 5]

Tables work left to right.  You can use the left and right arrows to navigate but not the up and down.  Right arrow in the last cell takes you to the next line.  That or the mouse.

 

Hit enter if you want to add a line to a cell.

 

Pressing Enter does nothing at all using the Windows desktop version.

[CalS 5,280]

If I am positioned in a cell in a table in EN and I press enter I get a new line in that cell in the table.  This does not happen for you?

[gazumped 11,664]

I'm with Cal - Windows version - hit return in the last cell to the bottom right,  and you get a slightly bigger cell - a new line.  Right click anywhere in the table for add or delete row/ column commands.

[WClampett 5]

If I am positioned in a cell in a table in EN and I press enter I get a new line in that cell in the table.  This does not happen for you?

 

 

I'm with Cal - Windows version - hit return in the last cell to the bottom right,  and you get a slightly bigger cell - a new line.  Right click anywhere in the table for add or delete row/ column commands.

 

Thank you both.

 

ENTER does nothing. I tab in the last row to create a new row and this works just fine, but pressing ENTER in the newly created cells (or any other cell for that matter) and nothing happens.

 

For the record, I am generally regarded as being an expert (for whatever that is worth), so I am confident in what I am describing.

 

My PC was recently rebuilt to quite a high spec, and I have recently installed Windows 10 (with no problems).

[CalS 5,280]

You are welcome, though not much help. 

 

Don't know what to tell you, I can add lines in any cell in a table by hitting enter.  I am on a Win7 laptop at the moment, but I will check on a Win10 laptop within the hour.

 

Out of interest, does it happen for every table that you have, newly created or older?

 

EDIT:  Win10 works that same as Win7 for me.

[WClampett 5]

I believe I have identified the problem.

 

Tables created in Word and then copied to Evernote, exhibit this aberrant behaviour (ENTER does not work as expected).

 

Tables created in Evernote work as expected, including tables created in Evernote, copied to Word and then copied back into Evernote.

 

For the record I am using Office 365 on Windows 10 Pro 64bit - not that I believe this makes any difference.

[CalS 5,280]

Thanks for the clarification.