Change default display order?

[nroseth 2]

Hello!

In a shared notebook, the default order for displaying notes is "Date Created (newest first)." I am creating a notebook with notes that need to be ordered in a specific order (by title). I am wondering if it is possible to change the default display order so that notes are displayed by title when the notebook is opened.

I realize the notes can be reordered simply by selecting "Title (ascending)," but some of the individuals accessing the notebook will be technologically-limited. As a matter of clarity and efficiency, it would be great if the notes could be displayed as I need them upon opening the notebook.

 

Thank you!

Nick

[jefito 5,589]

There is no way to do this in any Evernote client that I am aware of. This feature has been discussed/requested in the forums before.

[gazumped 11,663]

When I've set up shared notebooks in this way I set a created date so that one note will be at the top of the list and then use that note as an index by copying and pasting note links into it.  Doesn't then matter what order the notes are in.  (But remember to put a 'back' link into each note to jump to the index page again or users will get lost in the list.)

 

[jefito 5,589]

(except that I always sort by updated/reverse order )

[gazumped 11,663]

[spg SCOTT 736]

When I first created my shared notebook you could define an arbitrary sort order. Unfortunately this was removed and now it defaults to "Date Created (newest first)" as you have seen.

You are going to have to change the order by manipulating the dates on the notes.

[nroseth 2]

I obviously did not consider manually changing the "date created" in each note to alter the order of the notes. Not a perfect solution, but a HUGE step in the right direction! Thank you!

[Lthieriot 0]

Posted 16 September 2011 - 10:00 PM

Instead of having the option to Title, Date Creation etc, have an custom option whereby you can drag and drop the notes into the order you want them in. 

It seems it would be the obvious way to organize your personal files.

Just click them and move them around in the order that makes sense to you.

I noticed this was discussed at length on forums as far back as 2011. The Evernote "evangelist"

suggested that this was a feature they were working on. 

I want to upgrade to a Premium member, but am hesitant to do it unit some of the very basic user interface issues have been sorted and updated.

• iQuote
  
•  
  
• MultiQuote
  
   
  
  
  
•  
  

[GMart 1]

I obviously did not consider manually changing the "date created" in each note to alter the order of the notes. Not a perfect solution, but a HUGE step in the right direction! Thank you!

 

I do not see how the date created can be changed. I also cannot sort by date, title, or any other field. The notes are simply listed in the order they were created. Allowing us to drag and drop notes into the desired sequence is a pretty trivial piece of technology. Basecamp has been doing it for years. This is one thing that keeps me from frequently using Evernote - too cumbersome to work with.

[jefito 5,589]

 

I obviously did not consider manually changing the "date created" in each note to alter the order of the notes. Not a perfect solution, but a HUGE step in the right direction! Thank you!

 

I do not see how the date created can be changed. I also cannot sort by date, title, or any other field. The notes are simply listed in the order they were created. Allowing us to drag and drop notes into the desired sequence is a pretty trivial piece of technology. Basecamp has been doing it for years. This is one thing that keeps me from frequently using Evernote - too cumbersome to work with.

 

Which client are you using? It's easy to do with the Windows client, but it doesn't appear to be possible with the web or Android clients (don't know about the others). 

 

Re: manual ordering, trivial technology, etc.: Useful for some folks, I know. I can't testify as to how trivial this may or may not be (remember, in Evernote we can view notes across notebooks, so you would need to take that scenario into account as well. I can think of strategies as to how to approach that, too, but that gets messier, i.e., less "trivial"). Anyways, sure, Basecamp may do it, but GMail doesn't. Not sure that either of those examples proves all that much.

[GMart 1]

Which client are you using? It's easy to do with the Windows client, but it doesn't appear to be possible with the web or Android clients (don't know about the others). 

 

Re: manual ordering, trivial technology, etc.: Useful for some folks, I know. I can't testify as to how trivial this may or may not be (remember, in Evernote we can view notes across notebooks, so you would need to take that scenario into account as well. I can think of strategies as to how to approach that, too, but that gets messier, i.e., less "trivial"). Anyways, sure, Basecamp may do it, but GMail doesn't. Not sure that either of those examples proves all that much.

 

 

Thanks for your response. I only use the Web and iOS clients. How do you view notes across notebooks? Are you saying one note can be in multiple notebooks? I don't see how to do that. When I move a note to another notebook, it removes it from the original one.

[jefito 5,589]

Thanks for your response. I only use the Web and iOS clients. How do you view notes across notebooks? Are you saying one note can be in multiple notebooks? I don't see how to do that. When I move a note to another notebook, it removes it from the original one.

OK, so you are correct: a note exists in exactly one notebook at a time. What I mean by "viewing across notebooks" is this:

First, a search if just a filtering of all of your notes, and the result of a search / filtering is shown in the note list.

One common filter is by selecting a notebook in the notebook list: all of the notebook's notes are shown. So an obvious case (and a requested one) for user-selected note ordering is inside a notebook, perhaps for presentation or sharing with another user.

However, other searches can find notes in more than one notebook, for example a search on the text "the" (contrived, I know) would almost certainly turn up a lot of notes in multiple notebooks, and those notes would appear in the note list. Similarly a simple tag search.

So the thing about user ordering is where the ordering exists: is it inherent in each notebook (in which case you need to deal with the case where notes from multiple notebooks appear in the result of a search), or is there some account-global canonical ordering (in which case you might need to be careful to be in the correct context when you do your ordering).

So I'm not saying that this is insoluble, or technically infeasible (and again I generally shy away from assuming a lot about Evernote's internal implementation, though I might have some intuition, as I am an experienced developer myself), but it seems like it gets a little messy and maybe difficult for users to understand the note order they're seeing if they've set an order in one context, but are viewing those notes in a different context.

[Bobbobkk 1]

This is kind of shocking to me.  It's as if you went to a hospital and had a team of the best surgeons transplant a new heart, and on your way out the operating room, a cheerful tech chops off your head!

 

How can you have an organizing program that doesn't allow you to organize?

[Bobbobkk 1]

Okay, just saw this elsewhere in the forum.  Works easy as pie for Mac:

 

In either of the list views, all you have to do to change sort order is clicking on the appropriate column in the bar just below the title bar. If you want to sort notes according to title column, you can just click the title, and it'll sort the notes alphabetically, click again to sort them in reverse order as indicated by the arrows.

 

Otherwise you can click on the view switcher button and change the sort order in the bottom of the menu.

[jefito 5,589]

Okay, just saw this elsewhere in the forum.  Works easy as pie for Mac:

 

In either of the list views, all you have to do to change sort order is clicking on the appropriate column in the bar just below the title bar. If you want to sort notes according to title column, you can just click the title, and it'll sort the notes alphabetically, click again to sort them in reverse order as indicated by the arrows.

 

Otherwise you can click on the view switcher button and change the sort order in the bottom of the menu.

What's actually being requested here is arbitrary sort order, e.g. where a user controls sorting of individual items by dragging or moving them up or down, as opposed to the well-known order-by-key (soft by title, sort by date, etc) which you describe. Evernote does not support arbitrary sort order of notes in any client that I am aware of.

[Diego.CL 1]

This is kind of shocking to me.  It's as if you went to a hospital and had a team of the best surgeons transplant a new heart, and on your way out the operating room, a cheerful tech chops off your head!

 

How can you have an organizing program that doesn't allow you to organize?

I agree... hoping support people get their hands on this. Thanks!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

This is kind of shocking to me.  It's as if you went to a hospital and had a team of the best surgeons transplant a new heart, and on your way out the operating room, a cheerful tech chops off your head!

 

How can you have an organizing program that doesn't allow you to organize?

 

 

Not even a close comparison.  Evernote allows you to organize your notes based upon data about that note.  Date created, date updated, title,  tags, notebooks, stacks, descriptive titles & keywords.  If you need to organize your notes to your own (other) criteria, you can either use a workaround (IE prefacing the title with a number sequence so sorting by title puts the notes in the arbitrary  order you selected) or use an app that is more suitable to arbitrary organizing. 

[Ian Watson 1]

Sorry, but I can't agree with the Moderator's suggestion to use something else if you want manual sorting.  

 

Manual sorting is just as valid as sorting by metadata.

 

I upgraded to Premium because I like Evernote and I thought Presentation mode looked like a great, and simpler, alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Presentations.  

 

To work properly though, Presentation mode really has to allow you order your notes manually into the order you wish to present them. 

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Sorry, but I can't agree with the Moderator's suggestion to use something else if you want manual sorting.  

 

Manual sorting is just as valid as sorting by metadata.

 

I upgraded to Premium because I like Evernote and I thought Presentation mode looked like a great, and simpler, alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Presentations.  

 

To work properly though, Presentation mode really has to allow you order your notes manually into the order you wish to present them. 

Later this year we will see an update to the Evernote client with enhancements to Presentation mode:

 

 

Presentation Mode

Evernote is making meeting faster and more collaborative by eliminating the need for slides. Connect your computer, click on presentation mode, and the same note you’ve been working on is now beautifully displayed on the big screen. As you talk your team through your work, the note stays open on your computer allowing you to immediately take feedback and make changes. Of course, you may want to control how text and images flow on the screen, so we’re adding handy tools to define breaks so that just the right amount of words and images appear per screen. Presentation mode has already changed how meetings happen at thousands of companies, soon it will be even more powerful.

 

 

In the meantime, creating a table of contents note which serves as the first screen of your presentation, containing links to each note in your presentation, is one way to impose some degree of navigability and order to the otherwise automatically ordered notes. I've had luck with this. more details: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2014/05/14/meetings-done-right/     It also offers your audience a nice outline of what the presentation will entail. 

It's a bit of a workaround but you won't need it for long, as the refinements to presentation mode will appear in the next couple months or so, if Evernote meets its deadline. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Sorry, but I can't agree with the Moderator's suggestion to use something else if you want manual sorting.  

 

Manual sorting is just as valid as sorting by metadata.

 

I upgraded to Premium because I like Evernote and I thought Presentation mode looked like a great, and simpler, alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Presentations.  

 

To work properly though, Presentation mode really has to allow you order your notes manually into the order you wish to present them. 

 

 

It's fine to disagree.  But since we're dealing with a software app that neither you nor I have any control over, agreeing or disagreeing serves no purpose other than possibly being a discussion over a cup of coffee.  The fact of the matter is that Evernote does not allow manual sorting.  So...if you want to sort manually, you'll need to use another app.  It's as simple as that.  (shrug)

[Ian Watson 1]

Telling people to 'go try something else' isn't as helpful as suggesting improvements, which it seems Evernote have in hand, which is really good news.  So, sorry to disagree again, but we do have some control over

 

 

Sorry, but I can't agree with the Moderator's suggestion to use something else if you want manual sorting.  

 

Manual sorting is just as valid as sorting by metadata.

 

I upgraded to Premium because I like Evernote and I thought Presentation mode looked like a great, and simpler, alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Presentations.  

 

To work properly though, Presentation mode really has to allow you order your notes manually into the order you wish to present them. 

Later this year we will see an update to the Evernote client with enhancements to Presentation mode:

 

 

Presentation Mode
Evernote is making meeting faster and more collaborative by eliminating the need for slides. Connect your computer, click on presentation mode, and the same note you’ve been working on is now beautifully displayed on the big screen. As you talk your team through your work, the note stays open on your computer allowing you to immediately take feedback and make changes. Of course, you may want to control how text and images flow on the screen, so we’re adding handy tools to define breaks so that just the right amount of words and images appear per screen. Presentation mode has already changed how meetings happen at thousands of companies, soon it will be even more powerful.

 

 

In the meantime, creating a table of contents note which serves as the first screen of your presentation, containing links to each note in your presentation, is one way to impose some degree of navigability and order to the otherwise automatically ordered notes. I've had luck with this. more details: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2014/05/14/meetings-done-right/     It also offers your audience a nice outline of what the presentation will entail. 

It's a bit of a workaround but you won't need it for long, as the refinements to presentation mode will appear in the next couple months or so, if Evernote meets its deadline. 

 

Very helpful - thanks!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Telling people to 'go try something else' isn't as helpful as suggesting improvements, which it seems Evernote have in hand, which is really good news. So, sorry to disagree again, but we do have some control over

I have never told people they should not suggest features. But yes, if someone needs a feature, suggesting the right tool for the task is more helpful than telling them to wait & hope the feature request will be implemented...and hopefully in a timely fashion.  But hey, if you're willing to wait & hope, then far be it from me to stop you.  But others may not be as patient.

I'm not sure what makes you think the blog post indicates manual sort order is coming to Evernote.

"Of course, you may want to control how text and images flow on the screen, so we’re adding handy tools to define breaks so that just the right amount of words and images appear per screen."

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

BnF, I don't think that the changes to Presentation Mode will allow manual ordering of notes, but it will make ordering presentation content easier and might disconnect it to some extent from note order. 

[jefito 5,589]

BnF, I don't think that the changes to Presentation Mode will allow manual ordering of notes, but it will make ordering presentation content easier and might disconnect it to some extent from note order. 

But it's note order that is topical here; presentation content "beautification" would be a separate topic, unless it also includes ordering (does it?), in which case it becomes only marginally topical, as this is really about ordering notes in general.

[s2sailor 2,187]

 

Sorry, but I can't agree with the Moderator's suggestion to use something else if you want manual sorting.  

 

Manual sorting is just as valid as sorting by metadata.

 

I upgraded to Premium because I like Evernote and I thought Presentation mode looked like a great, and simpler, alternative to PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Presentations.  

 

To work properly though, Presentation mode really has to allow you order your notes manually into the order you wish to present them. 

Later this year we will see an update to the Evernote client with enhancements to Presentation mode:

 

 

Presentation Mode

Evernote is making meeting faster and more collaborative by eliminating the need for slides. Connect your computer, click on presentation mode, and the same note you’ve been working on is now beautifully displayed on the big screen. As you talk your team through your work, the note stays open on your computer allowing you to immediately take feedback and make changes. Of course, you may want to control how text and images flow on the screen, so we’re adding handy tools to define breaks so that just the right amount of words and images appear per screen. Presentation mode has already changed how meetings happen at thousands of companies, soon it will be even more powerful.

 

... but you won't need it for long, as the refinements to presentation mode will appear in the next couple months or so, if Evernote meets its deadline. 

 

Scott, have you seen any details posted on the enhancements coming for Presentation mode?  Could you provide a link if you have.  Thanks.

[bigdimmer 0]

I'm in total agreement that "arbitrary" (not arbitrary to the one sorting of course - they have a reason) sorting is important. I re-installed Evernote after uninstalling it last year only because I wanted to group my items/ideas. I was using Keep - which does have drag and drop sorting of items - but lacks any grouping that I'm aware of. 

 

I'll keep an eye on this topic but I suppose my search will continue.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

The only way to change the display order arbitrarily (by dragging and dropping) is through the Reminders list... but that would require one to add a reminder to each note... and then instruct the person(s) shared with to access the associated Reminders list for that shared notebook. 

 

• This would not work for public notebooks... only if one were to join a notebook . The embedded reminders would be included.
• This may unnecessarily clutter up the reminders list in "All notes" on mobile devices for others joining the notebook
  • Individual notebook sections can be collapsed on desktop in the Reminders list (In "All Notes"/ stack contexts)
• It's more intuitive to create and let others find a TOC note, as has been recommended by a few in this thread already
• Not recommended for shared notebooks... unless you are sharing task lists built up in the Reminders list

See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rAPn6EFqNI

[jefito 5,589]

One thing about reminders: they are not shown in List View on the Windows desktop.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

One thing about reminders: they are not shown in List View on the Windows desktop.

 

Oh yes... you're right... Thanks! Just in Snippet and Card View. I personally never use List View...

 

The thing that one would be after, if they used the Reminders list, is the setup/ layout of the Reminders list itself (Snippet, Card and List View are irrelevant here)... so one would need to not be in List View...

 

(Sorry... I edited this post... I thought you were talking about the Note List panel)