how to get notes organized like in a folder hierarchy?

[Y8ggIHLz 2]

it seems that a stack is the end of the  road for organizing files. Suppose you had 10 notes and put them in a notebook called chapter 1 then you put that notebook in a stack called Mystery Novel. What if you wanted to create a "folder" for Mystery Novel called Fiction? You can't do it because stacks don't go into anything.  Do you see what I mean, there seems to be a limited ability to nest documents or am I missing something?

thanks!

[Metrodon 2,188]

No, you've absolutely nailed it. This has been discussed a lot on the forum so if you want to find out more a quick search should give you what you need.

[Analyst444 182]

Y8ggIHLz, I acknowledge that Evernote doesn't explicitly offer a hierarchical structure feature. However, with some work-around and planning, I think you can get close to having Evernote operate the way you want to handle your notes.

First, the way you talk about your application, I sense that you are thinking about it from the bottom-up. That is, you first think of Notes, then Notebooks, and then Stacks. In general, I'd suggest that when you start off on a new application for Evernote you think top-down. It takes some pre-planning, design-type work, but, hopefully, this will help. 

 

Second, let me try to offer an approach with your application. I need to speculation somewhat to start, but I'm going to guess that if you want to create Notes about one novel (Mystery Novel), then the day will  probably come when you'll want to create Notes about some other novel. So, consider this plan for your Evernote Notebooks, Notes, and Tags:

• Create a Notebook named, "Books".
  
• Create a Notebook named, "Mystery Novel". Nest it inside the "Books" Notebook, thus creating a Stack.
  
• Now, create your Notes for "Mystery Novel" and assign them to that Notebook. You could have one Note for each chapter or any other criteria (or no criteria) for the Notes. (I'm assuming you would have multiple Notes for each book. Otherwise, this approach would not be effective.)
  
• I view "Fiction" (and "Non-Fiction") to be attributes / categories of books. Therefore, I'd make "Fiction" a Tag.
  
• Assign the Tag "Fiction" to each of your Notes. (This can be done in several ways. The easiest/fastest way would be to do a bunch or all of the Notes for the book as a batch.)
  
• Note Links are another Evernote feature that might be helpful. You may want to link a variety of Notes for given Book or across books. 
  
• When the time comes for another "Book", create a separate Notebook for it and follow the steps above again.
  

 I hope you decide this is helpful.

[xblade724 11]

 

Y8ggIHLz, I acknowledge that Evernote doesn't explicitly offer a hierarchical structure feature. However, with some work-around and planning, I think you can get close to having Evernote operate the way you want to handle your notes.

First, the way you talk about your application, I sense that you are thinking about it from the bottom-up. That is, you first think of Notes, then Notebooks, and then Stacks. In general, I'd suggest that when you start off on a new application for Evernote you think top-down. It takes some pre-planning, design-type work, but, hopefully, this will help. 

 

Second, let me try to offer an approach with your application. I need to speculation somewhat to start, but I'm going to guess that if you want to create Notes about one novel (Mystery Novel), then the day will  probably come when you'll want to create Notes about some other novel. So, consider this plan for your Evernote Notebooks, Notes, and Tags:

• Create a Notebook named, "Books".
• Create a Notebook named, "Mystery Novel". Nest it inside the "Books" Notebook, thus creating a Stack.
• Now, create your Notes for "Mystery Novel" and assign them to that Notebook. You could have one Note for each chapter or any other criteria (or no criteria) for the Notes. (I'm assuming you would have multiple Notes for each book. Otherwise, this approach would not be effective.)
• I view "Fiction" (and "Non-Fiction") to be attributes / categories of books. Therefore, I'd make "Fiction" a Tag.
• Assign the Tag "Fiction" to each of your Notes. (This can be done in several ways. The easiest/fastest way would be to do a bunch or all of the Notes for the book as a batch.)
• Note Links are another Evernote feature that might be helpful. You may want to link a variety of Notes for given Book or across books. 
• When the time comes for another "Book", create a separate Notebook for it and follow the steps above again.

 I hope you decide this is helpful.

 

 

Hate to say it, but the better suggestion is try ANY other note app out there on the top of Google and it will, 100% without a doubt, have subfolders available. This is such a basic feature that even Windows 3.1's Explorer had. Until they get this, if you want any form of organization if you have more than, say, 5 notes, go elsewhere.

 

No idea why this isn't implemented.... if it would confuse users, just add an option in settings to enable "advanced" features (cough).

 

I really can't believe this isn't a feature, yet.

[lykoz 147]

My post here will be somewhat confusing... But bear with me... I think I managed to explain what I mean

 

In Evernote tag's can be used as a subfolder categorisation structure.

 

If you Tag a note that is within a notebook...

 

you can utilise it as a subfolder. It provides a similar function. Especially when you search: tag:xxx within a notebook... It will bring up the "subfolder"-tags categorisations.... 

 

Personally I would like to see "subfolders or subnotebooks" playing a bigger role...

 

The way I would do it is to be able to put "emphasis" on certain tags... So that they can be colour coded... Maybe in Red... And visible at the top as a subdivisional feature... i.e. Carry more importance than other tags you may use.... I.e. instead of memorising your tags.. or viewing all the tags in your notebook.. You can have 3 at the top/in red (preselected through an extra feature)... Who are visible and 'earmarked' to make it seem like a hierarchial organisation structure for easier reference within your "notebook" section.....

 

In it's current state you really need to know your tagging system in each notebook very well and in memory... And sometimes use your tags more sparringly that you otherwise might have in order to avoid 'overtagging' and mainting order isntead of confusion.

 

Earmarking a couple of tags that subdivides a notebook in it's completeness... i,e, you could tag each note in that notebook with one of 3 "red tags"... And those red tags are seen in your notebooks next to the specific notebook...

[xblade724 11]

I understand what you mean about tags but it's not very intuitive. Sometimes I forget the tag names and want to just visually see the hierarchy. I shouldn't have to use this method. Tags is for searching, not hierarchy.

[CalS 5,310]

I don't personally use compound tags, not my cup of tea, nor tags per notebook.  I try to keep tags independent of notebooks.  But that's me and my use case.  But in the OPs example, a tags like !Mystery.Book1.Chapter1 , etc. and a sort by tag would be a workaround.  

 

Though there may be better applications to accomplish this than EN based upon similar threads in the forum.

[PeteCress 0]

I know this is an old thread but have to add my 2 cents.

Heirarchical lists are a really basic function and EverNote's lack of implementation is a deal breaker for me..... and I have trouble even imagining how or why such functionality would be left out of such a product as this.

OTOH, I would spend significant bucks to get such functionality - which, except for a rudimentary implementation in Google Tasks, is missing from the Android world.

I had hopes for EverNote - based mainly on the autosynch-across-devices aspect - but the lack of an explicit heirachical option dashed them and I guess I am stuck with Google Tasks.

If anybody wants to see the way it should be done, look at the IOS app "Carbon Fin Outliner"....