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(Archived) "New" Penultimate/Evernote sync - love it or hate it?


mbartner

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The syncing is brilliant and well-implemented, in my opinion, but I want more control over it: the ability to turn it off, the ability to have notes sync into my regular notebook, etc. This is a good first step, in my opinion.

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I hate it.  And for the very reasons that a couple of the above love it.  Penultimate, to me, is a SEPARATE app, for handwritten notes.  If I want to type a quick note etc then I just do it straight into Evernote.  Or even scribble on a bit of paper and take a pic of it using the iPhone or iPad camera straight into Evernote.

 

I was using PU as a quick scribble pad for diagrams to explain things to patients, for example.  And once done, with a mess of scribbles on the page, I would delete it.  So I would love to be able to select the occasional note to sync to Evernote (which wouldn't be many at all) or to turn off syncing completely.  Or to be able to sync a particular notebook (eg a project, ideas etc).

 

But currently, it's all or nothing.  And in fact, you can't have nothing.  It syncs.  Period.  Every scribble, no matter how temporary, is synced.  And we can't even select which notebook to sync it to.  And it's a two-way sync - so if I delete a PU note in Evernote - it disappears from PU as well.

 

So in summary - I like the idea of syncing, but the current implementation is a shocker IMHO.

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You might want to look at Noteshelf. It was my go to scribble a note app until Penultimate implemented the syncing. Noteshelf will allow you to selectively export to Evernote. In many ways, I still prefer it to Penultimate. 

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I've been using Notability since Penultimate got ruined by this syncing, as I couldn't find my old .IPA file to downgrade - it had been emptied with the trash!  And they're personalized with your Apple ID so I couldn't use somebody else's. 

 

Notability has been great, but since people (including students I teach) have been recommending Notes Plus, I've switched to that - and it is great.  It is WAY more powerful than Penultimate, and although there is no direct syncing with Evernote, there is email, and I just email the occasional note that I want to keep to my Evernote address.  Easy-peasy! 

 

As I said before - I really don't want to sync most of my Penultimate notes - it was a scribbling pad for me.  Anything I want in Evernote I just put straight into there anyway.

 

Notes Plus is actually quite an eye-opener - definitely worth checking out.  Direct, selective Evernote sync would make it perfect, especially with the ability to choose the target notebook, and also to put tags on the note before it is synced.

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I agree with Nightstalker ... When I found that I couldn't control the syncing I went back to Notability. I have to have the ability to sync it to my EN account then erase it from my iPad, or turn syncing off, or ...

I like Penultimate. Too bad.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Awful - in another thread, I made the point - I don't need to sync a notebook from Penultimate in Evernote. Evernote is the notebook / scrapbook into which I place notes from Penultimate. I can't figure out why Evernote doesn't get this approach.

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Awful - in another thread, I made the point - I don't need to sync a notebook from Penultimate in Evernote. Evernote is the notebook / scrapbook into which I place notes from Penultimate. I can't figure out why Evernote doesn't get this approach.

That may be your approach. However, it doesn't appear to be Evernote's approach. The fact that they have chosen to use a different approach than what you would prefer doesn't mean they don't "get" what you prefer. As noted, there are several other note taking apps that will allow you to export individual notes to Evernote. I'ven mentione NoteShelf, other folks have recommended Notability. You should defintely go with the tool that best suits your needs.

Best of luck.

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Absolutely LOATHE it. Why?

It automatically Synced all my notebooks to my Evernote account - where I don't keep my doodles and ever evolving diary and to do lists, but my research. I deleted them from Evernote- what the hell are these doing here? - and the next time I opened Penultimate to doodle, everything was gone! Cue crisis... Doodles are important too.

Found them eventually in Evernote trash folder, restored them to Evernote's 'penultimate' folder, but can't get them back on my iPad in Penultimate app.

I'm not happy.

I want a way to restore notebooks, and a way to selectively sync.

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and a way to selectively sync.

As stated above, until Evernote changes the behavior (which I hope they don't) there are other apps that will allow you to send notes selectively to Evernote. Two that have been mentioned are NoteShelf and Notability.

Best of luck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The short version: As has been said: "Selective synching would be fantastic." and I resolutely concur!

 

 

The longer version: (Because I noticed the majority of commenters held the same opinion...) 

It is a very useful features for notes I need access to on all devices. But it would be great if I could choose some notebooks to stay local so I don't chew up all of my Evernote bandwidth. Penultimate has the best writing feel in my opinion and sometimes I would like to sketch a quick diagram for a friend but don't need to keep it in Evernote. The default can still be to have the notebook synched, just give the option to disable it on certain notebooks? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Agree with most posts here, that the uncontrolled auto-sync is negatively effecting the user experience.

 

My issue is not with the fact it's syncing to EN (a concept I absolutely love), but the fact it's always auto-syncing at every given opportunity.  In Australia our 3G Networks are poor at the best of times and even worse in low coverage areas, many of those areas which I work in.

 

The constant attempts and subsequent failures to sync cause the app to glitch out and PU fails to recognise my stylus entries in my experience.  This renders the app useless unless you are in a strong coverage area or within a known WiFi network range and is rather embarrassing if you're sitting in front of a customer, madly trying to take notes on an app that's not responding.

 

I think a 'sync only over WiFi' option would get me back across from Noteshelf.

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Hi, I think a lot of "problems" would be solved by adding more control on workbooks instead of control of the entire penultimate app.

 

Synch options : Let you chose the synch method of a workbook with Evernote

Automatic | Manual | None

Evernote workbook where to synch.

 

Like this, we could have a not synched workbook to take notes on the fly while having another one synching to a work evernote workbook and another one synching to the personnal one.

 

Tagging would also be usefull but that's another topic.

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IMHO, the initial step in improving Penultimate's synching is to at least 'bring it up' to the same option as Skitch:

  • ability to designate notebook

optimally:

  • ability to assign tag(s)
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  • 2 weeks later...

Still getting issues with lag & PU not responding to stylus, leaving only a little dot at the exit point of the stroke - even with 'sync WIFI only' on. (which I was hoping would fix it)

Anyone else getting this?

 

I see this issue mentioned only occasionally on the forum, however it's my biggest gripe with the program and makes it un-useable as a result.  I was with a customer today and PU didn't accept a stylus stroke for 20+ attempts, then would accept one, then not for another 20. Had to switch to Noteshelf to complete the customer visit.

 

I know this isn't a stylus/screen cover issue as I do not get this unresponsiveness in any other note taking programs i've tested (Noteshelf, Goodnotes, Notability, 7notes)

 

After a week of struggling with Penultimate and doing my best to make it work for me, I must head back over to Noteshelf once again, disappointed.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The syncing is fast and dependable for me.  However, I would like a way to keep a notebook in Evernote as an archive but delete it from the Penultimate app.  I don't like the clutter of old notebooks in Penultimate that are not being actively used.  I usually use a notebook for a certain amount of time and then I don't need it to be active any longer.  Am I correct that it currently isn't possible to delete a notebook from Penultimate but keep a copy on Evernote?

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  • 4 months later...

Love the sync, not quite hate the app. I have always wanted Evernote to buy, then integrate, Penultimate in to Evernote. Open Evernote, choose New Drawing (or similar) and write your thoughts down. I hate that the one company has two apps that then have people discussing pros and cons about their communication. I love that Penultimate syncs anything I do up to Evernote. I don't have to think of what to send, or, when inside of Evernote, if I search or look, if my Penultimate notes are there, or did I forget to sync that one?

I enjoy hand writing a journal/diary, creating a new 'book' in Penultimate for each month. (can I put those 'books' into another folder, like Notes Plus does?) All of those books synced to Evernote is a comfort to me. The killer feature I think they have is that if I reopen and edit that note, it re-syncs that new version, so my Evernote record is always the latest. Other apps created new notes everytime you changed something. Yuk.

Perhaps a happy medium would be to leave syncing on, one of Evernote's specialty features, but selectively turn syncing OFF for a specific Notebook. Call it Temp or Scribbles, etc. Then that notebook wont clutter up your Evernote account. Considering I have over 1300 notes, a few more in a Penultimate folder doesn't bother me. I agree with others though, where I would like to move some notes to other folders, matching a topic or project.

Remember years ago when Evernote would let you make a New Note, and that could be text or pen. and you used the mouse to draw with?

If they re-introduced that, and it was in the iPad app, and we used a stylus, and you could zoom in, then Penultimate would have no reason to exist. They bought the handwriting technology inside the app, now just do it!

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  • 2 months later...

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