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(Archived) Your suggestions to newbie to avoid EN gotchas & learning basics


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Just getting started and find the official tutorials frustrating as many do NOT indicate that a feature is only available on a certain app, or that it works very differently in the desktop app vs mobile. Is there URL that lists features and which app has them? What suggestions do you have to newbie to avoid some of the frustration in learning the basics of EN? E.G. Reminders; copying image to a Note; shortcut keys seem to function differently depending on what app you are in.

 

Windows 7 64 bit with desktop app

Chrome extension

iPhone 4s EN app

web clipper app

 

I often end up being a moderately power user for software and usually have a pretty good strategy for learning, but EN seems to have a number of road blocks. Perhaps I should focus first on the desktop app and branch out, but much of the power of EN is sync across multiple environments.

 

Even posting this to forum where you must assign topic to one Category shows up the challenge in even posing the question.

 

Thanks for helping to cut my learning curve. I look forward to loving EN, but am frustrated with some of the gotchas that I am falling into early on.

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I agree. The road blocks caused by Evernote's multiple design groups are frustrating.

Your suggestion to concentrate on the desktop client with the clipper is a great idea.

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Thanks jbenson, any other suggestions on learning EN, or avoiding some of the pitfalls? I'm trying to stay positive/optimistic about EN but the company seems to be badly in need of learning about caring about customers. I did a web search and found what I had hoped might be a better basic tutorial and found the following done by Brett Kelley (EN employee tech guru) only to see that the screencast was no longer available so don't bother with this URL for "Learning Evernote"

http://mijingo.com/products/screencasts/learning-evernote/

 

Hopefully some EN moderator might actually read this thread and realize that EN is shooting itself in the foot by creating so many road blocks.

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I'd steer clear of Brett Kelly. He tried to make a killing by selling a skimpy 80 page Evernote e-book for $25.

The Evernote for Dummies book is much better value for your money.

 

But the best spot is free - it is this forum - for learning about Evernote - both the pros and the cons.

I capture some of the more informative forum posts into my Evernote and tag them with "Evernote" and "HowTo" for future reference.

 

Evernote is getting better with their help web sites. The knowledgebase has improved significantly. They have a regular podcast and are starting to release tutorial videos. And the Evernote Blog has some helpful information - for example
http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/06/27/did-you-know-how-to-use-the-evernote-search-box/

 

There is a user on this forum named GrumpyMonkey. He has developed a wealth of information on Evernote.

Here are some links he gathered for getting started.

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-links.html

 

And his detailed explanation on how to organize without organizing
http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

Jamie Todd Rubin on going paperless
http://www.jamierubin.net/2012/12/25/going-paperless-top-10-paperless-posts-of-2012/
 

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Jbenson, thanks so much. One of my key criteria in choosing software is a user forum with smart and helpful people. I already figured out that Brett Kelly seemed focused on greed. Will check your forum threads.  Tried a few uTube videos and they are of mixed quality. From reading articles and my own knowledge of database management, I have decided to have a minimum number (perhaps <10) of Notebooks and NOT use Notebook structure as primary way of organizing AND retrieving/searching for information. Plan to have a robust tagging system that will support effective searches. Do you agree with that approach?

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"minimum number (perhaps <10) of Notebooks and NOT use Notebook structure as primary way of organizing AND retrieving/searching for information. Plan to have a robust tagging system that will support effective searches"

 

In my opinion, you nailed it.

I'd add one more point - a consistent title format. The intitle: search command can be very powerful in finding the note(s) you need. Also starting the title with the relevant date (yyyymmdd) will help.

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I'd second all of the above and add my usual comment for newbies - learning how other people use (and misuse) Evernote is -as you already found- a long and thankless task.  If you persevere I'm sure you'll end up with some sort of a system based on several other models that pretty much works for you,  when you remember to follow all the steps.  Mostly.

 

I far prefer to start with the task I want to accomplish and find out how much of the process (and documentation) Evernote can integrate with.  My recommendation: pick a small set of the data you want to work with and start using Evernote now.  There's no substitute for hands on practical experience.  You may have to change your process several times,  so don't shred anything,  just plan / do / review a few times.  You'll make mistakes and hit walls - that's where the Forum comes in.

 

We're pretty much always here,  happy to help with any genuine queries - just try not to mind us if there's some less than subtle humour thrown in there too...

 

B)

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I'd steer clear of Brett Kelly. He tried to make a killing by selling a skimpy 80 page Evernote e-book for $25.

The Evernote for Dummies book is much better value for your money.

 

But the best spot is free - it is this forum - for learning about Evernote - both the pros and the cons.

I capture some of the more informative forum posts into my Evernote and tag them with "Evernote" and "HowTo" for future reference.

 

Evernote is getting better with their help web sites. The knowledgebase has improved significantly. They have a regular podcast and are starting to release tutorial videos. And the Evernote Blog has some helpful information - for example

http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/06/27/did-you-know-how-to-use-the-evernote-search-box/

 

There is a user on this forum named GrumpyMonkey. He has developed a wealth of information on Evernote.

Here are some links he gathered for getting started.

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-links.html

 

And his detailed explanation on how to organize without organizing

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

Jamie Todd Rubin on going paperless

http://www.jamierubin.net/2012/12/25/going-paperless-top-10-paperless-posts-of-2012/

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words JB. I'd also add my posts on Evernote from my blog (http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?cat=7), especially the one on known/unknown limits. 

 

@ OP

Welcome to Evernote! If there is anything we can do to help, let us know.

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Thank you all for the hints, quite helpful, and welcoming. For me, who tends to over-think things, the suggestion of taking a limited area and start using EN and my tentative EN system to get experience and see how it works is quite helpful, and then observe what works about that and revise approach as you expand into capturing more of one's life in EN. I already use a task management system that I expect I will continue to use alongside of EN. I use a modification of GTD.

 

My current suggestions to other newbies who intend to use EN for a lot of Notes and a lot of life management and productivity support ...

Knowing some of the software limitations of EN:

Only two levels of Notebooks (a parent with one child Notebook) is important

etc.

 

and some of the gotchas:

What happens to tags when you merge Notes

etc.

 

is vital in devising an approach that will actually function the way that you want it to.

 

For me the "issue" of how to use Notebooks and Tags for organizing and retrieving is a key and the article by the Italian woman in the GrumpyMonkey link above is very helpful; she also has a good article on merging notes. Worth getting through the somewhat awkward translation into English ... see here http://www.loriswave.altervista.org/?e=82&w=english for "Tag versus Notebook"  and here http://www.loriswave.altervista.org/?e=87&w=english#body-anchor for "Merge Note; Note Link, and Tag"    Even if one is not using Getting Things Done, I found numerous suggestions particularly about Tags and nesting Tags on "The Secret Weapon" to be quite helpful see here http://www.thesecretweapon.org/the-secret-weapon-manifesto/setting-up-the-secret-weapon and the principles they suggest would be relevant regardless of whether you are using "Getting Things Done" as your task management approach.

 

This GrumpyMonkey article on "How to Optimize Your Evernote Experience" I also found to be very helpful http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=127

 

EN seems to be powerful and quite flexible (like Toodledo which I use for task management), but understanding how it functions and its limitations is needed in order to utilize that flexibility. The learning curve is a bit tougher as the apps are being upgraded frequently and so often you must upgrade older articles and posts to the current EN functionality.

 

Too much of a newbie but thought this might help others who share some similarities with me and my goals for EN.

 

Most important, thanks to all the forum people who willing share their knowledge. 

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