REQUEST: Option to assign or delete tags without effecting edit date of notes

icoco_de · April 19, 2013

Sometimes we all think about our tagging behaviour and this sometimes results in editing, assigning or deleting tags from a number of existing notes. In such a case, the edit date of those notes will immediately be changed. This seems obvious, but it might get a bit cumbersome, e.g. when I delete a tag on 50 existing notes, I don't necessarily want to change the edit date of those notes, because this action has nothing to do with the note itself, but rather with my decision to re-consider my tagging behavior.

This is why I'd love to see an option to assign or delete tags from notes without this resulting in changed edit dates.

icoco_de · February 10, 2015

Hello Evernote? Someone reading this? Is there hope that we'll return to the previous mode soon, where tag modification won't change the time stamp?

I'm asking because I consider removing almost all tags from all of my notes, and I certainly wouldn't want to adjust date and time on 2.793 notes manually afterwards ...

Yipeedog · February 22, 2019

On 5/25/2015 at 4:43 AM, icoco_de said:

So it gets obvious that we have two different opinions of how tagging should affect note's dates. If that is the case, may I get back to the suggestion I made in February:

"I really do appreciate that Evernote wants to achieve the perfect balance between feature set and usability. But in the case of tagging behavior, I'd strongly suggest that Evernote should take this into account and let the user decide what he or she wants. Rather than changing the behavior back and forth, and without prior notice.

In this case give us a setting if we want to have tag modifications change the time stamp or not."

This is another great suggestion along the lines of what I am trying to get their attention on with this post, please consider upvoting

Yipeedog · February 22, 2019

On 3/14/2018 at 1:50 PM, Eduardo Estefano said:

Bringing this back up. "Tag Updated Date" would be a nice feature to have.

It could solve the accidental mass tag deletion problems. Just search for notes with "Tag Updated Date" in the past hour and fix the problem.

Just started a new post for this feature, please help by upvoting

CalS · March 15, 2018

6 hours ago, jefito said:

Should we then have "Reminder Updated Date"? "Notebook Updated Date"? These are metadata items that do not change the updated date? Perhaps "Metadata Updated Date"?

Or just the Updated date. Theoretical delineations, particularly to the user, always bring such joy!

Eduardo Estefano · March 15, 2018

On my workflows "metadata update date" would solve it, excluding of course "last synchronized date".

jefito · March 15, 2018

18 hours ago, Eduardo Estefano said:

Bringing this back up. "Tag Updated Date" would be a nice feature to have.

It could solve the accidental mass tag deletion problems. Just search for notes with "Tag Updated Date" in the past hour and fix the problem.

Should we then have "Reminder Updated Date"? "Notebook Updated Date"? These are metadata items that do not change the updated date? Perhaps "Metadata Updated Date"?

Eduardo Estefano · March 14, 2018

Bringing this back up. "Tag Updated Date" would be a nice feature to have.

It could solve the accidental mass tag deletion problems. Just search for notes with "Tag Updated Date" in the past hour and fix the problem.

icoco_de · May 25, 2015

So it gets obvious that we have two different opinions of how tagging should affect note's dates. If that is the case, may I get back to the suggestion I made in February:

"I really do appreciate that Evernote wants to achieve the perfect balance between feature set and usability. But in the case of tagging behavior, I'd strongly suggest that Evernote should take this into account and let the user decide what he or she wants. Rather than changing the behavior back and forth, and without prior notice.

In this case give us a setting if we want to have tag modifications change the time stamp or not."

JimmyBoy · May 24, 2015

Dima Stefantsov

I am reading this. And I am happy about changing tags changes timestamp. Because a tag is a part of a note. I added tag = I changed post. Please auto-update the "changed" date. Now this is logical.
I had to build my workflow around unlogical state as it was. I'll wait for few months to make sure Evernote are positive about this change, then I'll switch to good logical workflow.

I have to second this opinion. As part of the Framework I have constructed, I want to be able to see tasks that have been completed today. I assumed that adding the tag "Task Completed" would update the note (I have changed the note after all!), and I could then do a search for for Today's Tasks Completed, however this is not the case.

I understand that this may totally depend on how you use Evernote, and you may/may not want this functionality depending on your workflow. But a "One size fits all" approach does not necessarily work here. I can see two possible solutions, to try and keep both sides happy.

1) An option in your preferences / account settings such as "Changing tags on note updates date [Yes/No]"

2) An additional field is introduced "Tags Updated", so we can use this field for our needs, keeping it separated from the currently used "Updated" field.

I really hope some method can be implemented that keeps everyone happy.

Thanks.

JavierJJ · February 12, 2015

Tags should not affect the dates of notes. This is a bug. We're on it.

Yesss!! It's been really an issue having to workaround the "strange" behavior

As for the "discussion" on whether changing tags should change the note, I see tags as a "classification" system, NOT as part of the note... in that way they're similar to "where" the note is placed -- and I don't think anybody would want the notes timestamp changed when the note is changed to a different folder¿?

Jackolicious · February 10, 2015

Tags should not affect the dates of notes. This is a bug. We're on it.

icoco_de · February 10, 2015

I guess this illustrates perfectly that every user has his or her own workflow and preferences.

I really do appreciate that Evernote wants to achieve the perfect balance between feature set and usability. But in the case of tagging behavior, I'd strongly suggest that Evernote should take this into account and let the user decide what he or she wants. Rather than changing the behavior back and forth, and without prior notice.

In this case give us a setting if we want to have tag modifications change the time stamp or not.

Dima Stefantsov · February 10, 2015

I am reading this. And I am happy about changing tags changes timestamp. Because a tag is a part of a note. I added tag = I changed post. Please auto-update the "changed" date. Now this is logical.

I had to build my workflow around unlogical state as it was. I'll wait for few months to make sure Evernote are positive about this change, then I'll switch to good logical workflow.

icoco_de · February 5, 2015

And it *is* really annoying! Just had to change some 40 tags on notes and then I had to manually correct all of these note's date stamps one by one! Really not much fun, dear folks at Evernote!! This issue indeed makes me think again about Guy Kawasaki's famous sentence "Real men don't use tags".

... I don't even dare to think about what would happen should I decide to delete all tags on all my 3.000 notes one day ... *rolleyes*

icoco_de · January 24, 2015

@nickjong Same here. Adding or editing tags changes timestamp. This behavior seems to have been changed once more, indeed.

nickjong · January 24, 2015

Should changing metadata still preserve the Updated timestamp? With Evernote 6.0.5, adding tags to a note seems to change the date, making me reluctant to introduce tags (which I had not previously been using). I observe the same behavior in the iOS app and in the web client, so did the policy change back to what it was in early 2013?

Dima Stefantsov · October 23, 2014

Thanks for the reply Jeff.

If there's a chance user(me) can forget to take action that is relied upon to make system consistent, we can no longer rely on such system, it's worse than having no system at all.

If someone will google it, here is my solution so far:

I have switched from "done" tag to using text appendices to determine is task complete. Anywhere in Evernote interface (either in note text editor or in list of notes) I press Ctrl+Enter and task is marked as "Done" and hides itself.

I'm using search queries like

ENScript.exe showNotes /q "notebook:GTD -__Completed $W$"

and simple AutoHotkey script to implement Ctrl+Enter functionality

#IfWinactive, Evernote    ^Enter::        Send {Ctrl up}{Enter}{Backspace}        FormatTime, CurrentDateTime,, dd MMM yyyy, HH:mm        SendInput ^{End}{Enter}{Enter}__Completed on %CurrentDateTime%__{Esc}        Send {Ctrl up}        return#IfWinActive

jefito · October 23, 2014

The only way right now is to make an innocuous change to the note. I often just hit it with a timestamp, which is a single shortcut key in the Windows client.

Dima Stefantsov · October 23, 2014

I am using Evernote as my GTD system, and when I complete a task, I mark it with tag "done". Now I want to search for all tasks that I completed today, I naturally search for "tag:done updated:day" but can't find anything because changing tags doesn't update "updated" timestamp. Which in my case it definitely should: I changed a part of a note - it's tag. It is an update!

I understand there might be workflows where such otherwise logical common sense behavior would not be wanted. Can you please offer some solution, maybe a checkbox or settings.ini with "tags-change-updatetime=true"?

Jackolicious · June 6, 2013

That is correct. This is a new behavior for the Mac client and should be the expected behavior across all Evernote clients.

icoco_de · June 6, 2013

Yeah, that's what I said and why I created this thread. But is hasn't always been like this, right?

(Sorry, I am no native english speaker, so I just may not have gotten the right meaning of your comment.)

Jackolicious · June 5, 2013

Changing metadata should not change the updated date on notes going forward.

icoco_de · June 5, 2013

Just to be sure: Has this behaviour been changed with version 5.1.3? I have changed several items in the information panel of some notes - like adding tags or changing the URL - and as it seems, the dates are not effected any more ...

I don't find an option in the settings? So it seems as if the behaviour has just been changed?

Anyway: Awesome! I love Evernote!

Jackolicious · April 19, 2013

This is in the works. Thanks for posting!

REQUEST: Option to assign or delete tags without effecting edit date of notes

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