(Archived) Use EN without notebooks or tags?

[aaaha 1]

Hi together,

 

I find myself spending a lot of time ordering notes into notebooks, searching in notebooks, setting tags, checking on which tags to use (for specific domains) etc. etc. Innumerable times I have tried to find a system working for me dealing with all my notes:

"Should I gather specific content in one specific note?", "Should I use a notebook for this?", "What tags should I use?", "Would audio recordings be suitable for this scenario?", "Should I distinguish between notes with pictures? Should notes contain pictures AND text?" and so on.

 

And as stupid as this may sound: Evernote has an enormous set of functions I think I find myself overwhelmed with. I use some of them and still feel as if my notes are somehow "not accessible". Making me think, I have to put more and more effort into the system to make them accessible.

 

For example I spend a lot of time sorting notes into my notebooks. But then I feel as if they are tucked away for ever. Like a note you put in to a jammed folder, putting that folder on to a shelf with a million other folders...

 

Although I'm a little disappointed about the lacky search function in Evernote - which at this point makes me hesitate deleting all my notebooks and tags - I think that saving all my notes in one big box and making them accessible only by good content and the search function, might get me out of this first world dilema

 

Have you ever worked with Evernote entirely without using tags and notebooks?

If so what was your experience? Did you switch back? What do you think of this idea?

 

I'd love to hear your insight!

 

Thanks :-)

 

 

[megsaint 441]

Well, you can't use Evernote entirely without notebooks as you will always have at least the default notebook. Many people here don't use very many notebooks but either rely on tags or searches, especially saved searches. I tend to be somewhere in the middle I tag but I also search.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying that your "disappointed about the lacky (sic) search function in Evernote". I've always found the search function to be fast and quite reliable. That's why I use it as much as I do. Perhaps if you explained more about what problems you're having with searching, someone could set you on the right path.

If GrumpyMonkey doesn't chime in here, look for his posts and check out the links in his sig. He uses, as I recall, very few notebooks or tags and has a system of titleing notes.

Best of luck.

[aaaha 1]

Thanks megsaint for your insight. I will search for GrumpyMonkey. Sounds exactly like that what I have in my mind!

I started a separate thread concerning my search issues here.

[jbenson2 2,149]

Here is a summary of GrumpyMonkey's minimalist approach.

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

and

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/minimalistorganization.html

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi together,

 

I find myself spending a lot of time ordering notes into notebooks, searching in notebooks, setting tags, checking on which tags to use (for specific domains) etc. etc. Innumerable times I have tried to find a system working for me dealing with all my notes:

"Should I gather specific content in one specific note?", "Should I use a notebook for this?", "What tags should I use?", "Would audio recordings be suitable for this scenario?", "Should I distinguish between notes with pictures? Should notes contain pictures AND text?" and so on.

 

And as stupid as this may sound: Evernote has an enormous set of functions I think I find myself overwhelmed with. I use some of them and still feel as if my notes are somehow "not accessible". Making me think, I have to put more and more effort into the system to make them accessible.

 

For example I spend a lot of time sorting notes into my notebooks. But then I feel as if they are tucked away for ever. Like a note you put in to a jammed folder, putting that folder on to a shelf with a million other folders...

 

Although I'm a little disappointed about the lacky search function in Evernote - which at this point makes me hesitate deleting all my notebooks and tags - I think that saving all my notes in one big box and making them accessible only by good content and the search function, might get me out of this first world dilema

 

Have you ever worked with Evernote entirely without using tags and notebooks?

If so what was your experience? Did you switch back? What do you think of this idea?

 

I'd love to hear your insight!

 

Thanks :-)

Hi. I think the links JB posted pretty much cover it.

As for the search, one great thing about Evernote on the Mac is that all of your notes are entirely accessible by Spotlight. You can use the advanced search features available in Evernote

http://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#/article/23245321

or, the ones in Spotlight

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

or even something like BBEdit

http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html?utm_source=thedeck&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=bbedit

to search your stuff. It's difficult to imagine too many more search options that you could possibly want. Could you be more specific about what you mean by "the lacky search function in Evernote"?

As far as notebooks and tags go, I get by fine without them, but they certainly have their uses, and they are worth considering, even if only used in a limited fashion. My advice would be to develop a system and test it out before taking the plunge. In my case, reference codes (the random character strings suggested by JB), and note titles help me easily navigate my account. You might want to give these a try (they work well in conjunction with tags and notebooks) to see if they would be sufficient for your needs.

[aaaha 1]

Thanks GrumpyMonkey for all your input.

 

Spotlight search function is not working for me since I'm using the app store version. I'll download the version directly from Evernote and let spotlight re-index later.

And before syncing with Evernotes cloud I will try my new system "offline" first.

 

 

My search issues in brief:

 

1. no concatenated string in search possible ("i remember some content of my doc")

2. pressing alt-cmd-f twice deactivates keyboard entry. mouse required. (V 5.1.4 on Mac 10.7.5)

3. can't leave search field. not even with escape. mouse required.

4. special characters are ignored during search (#, @, >, ...)