MAC: Find and Replace?

[keenerguy 16]

It would be great if you added a find and replace function within notes on Evernote. This would prevent me from having to use another program.

[cameronreilly 16]

18 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

Would you mind pointing us to the exact steps to use this?

Thanks.

CMD-A the text of the note you want to edit.

Right Click inside the note then Services ▹ New TextEdit Window Containing Selection".  

Then in TextEdit "Edit ▹ Find ▹ Find & Replace".  

Then copy all and paste back over selection in Evernote.  

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

OK, thanks @cameronreilly.  It is a bit laborious, but at least it provides a means of F&R.

[DTLow 5,744]

3 hours ago, cameronreilly said:

Then copy all and paste back over selection in Evernote.  

I’d be concerned  this cutting/pasting might mess with the content?

I’d prefer a direct edit of the content.enml file; I use a script to identify the folder

My preferred process is to be working in a document attached to the note, for example a Word document.  My actual notes tend to be short and simple.

 

[emmjayess 12]

3 hours ago, cameronreilly said:

CMD-A the text of the note you want to edit.

Right Click inside the note then Services ▹ New TextEdit Window Containing Selection".  

Then in TextEdit "Edit ▹ Find ▹ Find & Replace".  

Then copy all and paste back over selection in Evernote.  

Thank you! This should prove handy until the Evernote team gets off their collective a**!!

[carlomacchiavello 0]

Hi Guys, i use evernote like replacement of most of note and text editing, and i miss a simple but very useful function : find and replace.
every editor, also a simple text editor, have find and replace function.
I would like to have search and replace on single note, on a specific notebook, on note with a specific tag or general all notes.

[Robert Boström 1]

It's an absolute must have function and it's really hard to understand that it's not included in the Mac version

[FreeBrain 9]

I think Evernote has basically run out of money and cannot afford to continue much more product development. This request was first posted in this thread more than 5 years ago and Evernote has not even bothered to comment on this thread. It's an easy feature to add and that is clearly desired by the community. If they had enough money they would do it. They've raised $205 million in investment capital, but their last round ($20 million) came in 2013. Source: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/evernote/funding-rounds

[DTLow 5,744]

Just now, FreeBrain said:

I think Evernote has basically run out of money and cannot afford to continue much more product development.

My impression is that Evernote is that in 2016 Evernote moved on from being a Venture funded company

There is no more funding from  “raising investment capital”

Funding is from revenue, i.e. user subscription fees.  And the majority of users are unwilling to pay for the service or product development

[stocky2605 402]

On 14.9.2017 at 4:38 AM, DTLow said:

I’d be concerned  this cutting/pasting might mess with the content?

I’d prefer a direct edit of the content.enml file; I use a script to identify the folder

My preferred process is to be working in a document attached to the note, for example a Word document.  My actual notes tend to be short and simple.

 

good point - but not working on mobile devices. unfortunately. (attachments are „opened in“ -> duplicated, at least on iOS).

And I‘m working on iOS about 50% of my time...

[DTLow 5,744]

8 minutes ago, stocky2605 said:

good point - but not working on mobile devices. unfortunately. (attachments are „opened in“ -> duplicated, at least on iOS).

And I‘m working on iOS about 50% of my time...

Agreed.  Mac/Win handle attachments so well; IOS sucks so badly

It's an Apple thing.  It works better if I store the document in an iCloud folder and include a link in the note

[stacybird 0]

Curious if there is a bug tracker to request and/or submit features?  I am missing find/replace on osx as well.  If this were open source I'd contrib a patch.  

[Rogov Dmitry 0]

I am truly SHOCKED that so basic features are missing.  

Very sad.  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

17 minutes ago, Rogov Dmitry said:

I am truly SHOCKED that so basic features are missing.  

Very sad.  

Hi. Welcome to the forums. I don’t know if the feature is basic or not. There are other powerful notetaking / database on apps without a global search/replace, for example. But, I do agree that find/replace would be a really nice feature to at least have in single notes. And, if possible, a global search/replace would also be nice. This has been requested before, but it never hurts to add your voice. Thanks! Hopefully the Evernote engineers will consider adding it.

[justPaulo 1]

That's why I stopped using Evernote years ago... don't tell the Engineering team (find/replace feature is peanuts for them), let financial/marketing team know...

[Rogov Dmitry 0]

@justPaulo I am considering switching to Bear. I am so disappointed on feature cycle and product priorities. Although I was using Evernote for years.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

1 hour ago, Rogov Dmitry said:

@justPaulo I am considering switching to Bear. I am so disappointed on feature cycle and product priorities. Although I was using Evernote for years.

I recommend accepting Evernote as it is (warts and all) rather than waiting for it to be what you want it to be — as long as they are delivering good performance on the features they’ve promised (prompt bug solutions, etc.), they’re doing a good job, in my opinion. They could be doing better! Hoping and requesting is fine, but expecting them to go beyond what they’ve currently got in the app  is bound to generate frustration.

If this is a critical feature for you, I’d consider other apps. There are several nice ones on the mac. For example, if you are working with text, bbedit is amazing, and you can keep your notes in dropbox for access on any device.

 

[DTLow 5,744]

5 minutes ago, Duane said:

But a global find/replace engine?  To be able to run find/replace

And attachments?

My notes are mostly short summaries; anything lengthy would be an attachment, usually Word or PDF

[Duane 21]

On 2/24/2018 at 10:27 AM, DTLow said:

And attachments?

My notes are mostly short summaries; anything lengthy would be an attachment, usually Word or PDF

Hmm...interesting question!

I'd probably not want attachments to be editable within Evernote. I think I'd rather edit some document closer to its original source, and just update a copy to Evernote if need be. But, that's just me.

 

[kiddo 2]

On 9/13/2017 at 5:48 AM, HRudy said:

 

 

Thanks. I was quite frustrated beyond comprehension. I don't care anymore whether EN will ever implement this feature anymore. But I check on this thread from time to time just to satisfy my curiosity if they ever will make the implementation. But I wouldn't hold my breath. It's 2018, and we are very close to curing AIDS, colonizing Mars is on the horizon, true artificial intelligence and quantum computing are transforming our world as we speak, I'd say it's more likely that EverNote bankrupts or I have been long dead before this gets implemented.

Even in my death, I would still have this undying curiosity towards the true reason behind this mystery. There was another mystery, I wondered if this forum was made just to divert people like us off their backs. I've realized by now the answer to this one.

[DTLow 5,744]

2 hours ago, kiddo said:

I wondered if this forum was made just to divert people like us off their backs. I've realized by now the answer to this one.

What does this mean; divert people?

These forums were made by Evernote for user discussions; this specific forum is for product feedback and feature requests (Mac)

Where would I be posting if not here?
There is a reddit forum at https://www.reddit.com/r/Evernote/

[michaelbierman 0]

Like everyone else, I am baffled by the lack of search and replace in Evernote. Both search and replace in a single note and across notes make a lot of sense. 

Anyone know if this is possible via AppleScript since Evernote seems not to care about users? 

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2018-03-13 at 1:12 PM, michaelbierman said:

Anyone know if this is possible via AppleScript

Yes, search and replace would be do-able  in Applescript.  

You can also do a direct edit of the note's .enml file. 

General Evernote Applescript documentation at

 

[michaelbierman 0]

9 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Yes, search and replace would be do-able  in Applescript.  It would require a direct edit of the note's .enml file

Any resources or code samples you could point me to so I can figure out how to do this? 

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2018-03-13 at 1:53 PM, michaelbierman said:

Any resources or code samples you could point me to so I can figure out how to do this? 

With my solution, you're editing file <some folder>/content.enml using your favourite editor.  I use Textastic

The script I use to identify <some folder> is documented here 

 

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

4 hours ago, DTLow said:

You're editing file <some folder>/content.enml using your favourite editor.  I use Textastic

The script I use to identify <some folder> is below
Evernote_Note_Folder.scpt
Note, the database folder is hardcoded; update this for your own installation

Thanks for sharing.

To All:   Caution:  This leads you to directly accessing the Evernote SQLite database, and to directly editing the file containing the Note's contents.

• Proceed carefully -- this could result in loss of data, even your entire Evernote database.
• BEFORE you proceed, I recommend that you make backup copies of these files:
  • the SQLite database (LocalNoteStore.sqlite)
  • the Note Contents (content.enml)

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

4 hours ago, DTLow said:

The script I use to identify <some folder> is below
Evernote_Note_Folder.scpt
Note, the database folder is hardcoded; update this for your own installation

Also, for my account, running Evernote 6.11.1 (455059) on macOS 10.12.6, the SQLite DB is NOT in a folder as indicated in your script:
set databaseFile to databaseFolder & "localNoteStore/LocalNoteStore.sqlite"

So I had to change this to:
set databaseFile to databaseFolder & "LocalNoteStore.sqlite"

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2018-03-13 at 7:58 PM, JMichaelTX said:

BEFORE you proceed, I recommend that you make backup copies of these files:

Backups are always a good idea.  As well as Mac TimeMachine, I also run personal backups using Evernote's export feature;  daily incremental and weekly full.

Also the master version of my data is maintained on the Evernote servers.  I can use this to rebuild my local copy of the database.  Evernote also maintains a Note History backup that can be used to restore versions of notes.

[michaelbierman 0]

On 3/13/2018 at 3:32 PM, DTLow said:

Thanks this is really helpful. However, I don't have anything under ~/Library/Application Support/ like "com.evernote.Evernote/..."

 

You're editing file <some folder>/content.enml using your favourite editor.  I use Textastic

The script I use to identify <some folder> is below
Evernote_Note_Folder.scpt
Note, the database folder is hardcoded; update this for your own installation; edit I'm using EN  v7.1 Beta 1 (456297 Direct)

The data you're accessing is a copy of the master version maintained on the Evernote servers.  After verifying my update, l make a dummy change (like adding a space in the note).  This ensures the update gets registered and sync'd to the server

 

 

[DTLow 5,744]

1 hour ago, michaelbierman said:

I don't have anything under ~/Library/Application Support/ like "com.evernote.Evernote/..."

To use this script, you have to identify the location for your database

As noted I'm using Evernote version v7.1 Beta 1 (456297 Direct).  I suspect you're using the App Store version; I don't know if the app store version works with Applescript

To identify my database location I use
Option Key Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder

 

[michaelbierman 0]

13 hours ago, DTLow said:

You are correct, I'm using the production version which also doesn't have the troubleshooting menu you mention.

Quote

 

To use this script, you have to identify the location for your database

As noted I'm using Evernote version v7.1 Beta 1 (456297 Direct).  I suspect you're using the App Store version; I don't know if the app store version works with Applescript

To identify my database location I use
Option Key Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder

 

 

 

[DTLow 5,744]

6 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

You are correct, I'm using the production version which also doesn't have the troubleshooting menu you mention. 

Hold down the option key while selecting the Help menu

[michaelbierman 0]

1 minute ago, DTLow said:

Did you hold down the option key while selecting the Help menu

AH! I did not know that trick. Thank you! 

1 minute ago, DTLow said:

Did you hold down the option key while selecting the Help menu

 

[michaelbierman 0]

10 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

AH! I did not know that trick. Thank you! 

 

So I found the path and tried the script but get this error. 

 

 

[michaelbierman 0]

19 minutes ago, DTLow said:

In his post above, @JMichaelTX included an image of his database folder.  If you post a similar image I will verify the location of your database.

I'm quite sure I have the right location. 

But I do notice that the script is calling ZenNote. I'm not sure what the last two lines are trying to do but I don't have ZenNote installed. 

Edited March 15, 2018 by michaelbierman
Added a second image

[DTLow 5,744]

17 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

I'm quite sure I have the right location. 

But I do notice that the script is calling ZenNote. I'm not sure what the last two lines are trying to do but I don't have ZenNote installed. 

A completely different location, but I think thats caused by the App Store version vs the Direct Download.  You're missing a / at the end of set databasefolder

ZENNote is the table name in the database

[michaelbierman 0]

4 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Looks good so far.  A completely different location, but I think thats caused by the App Store version vs the Direct Download
I see you have a localNoteStore folder, just confirm the database name is localNoteStore/LocalNoteStore.sqlite

ZENNote is the table name in the database

 

Yes, I added a picture above that shows the directory path and what is under localNoteStore.

And thanks. I thought ZenNote was a texteditor or something. 

[michaelbierman 0]

Ok I figured out the problem. I didn't have the trailing slash on my path! 

Many thanks

[michaelbierman 0]

8 minutes ago, DTLow said:

You're missing a / at the end of set databasefolder

So Now I get the open directory... do I want to edit snippet.txt ? When I do,  I don't see any change in the note in Evernote. 

[michaelbierman 0]

26 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

So Now I get the open directory... do I want to edit snippet.txt ? When I do,  I don't see any change in the note in Evernote. 

So attached is my work in progress. I found the right file to edit and it seems to work pretty well! I'm sure it could be improved but this is a nice start. 

I notice the changes aren't reflected in Evernote until you close and reopen that note. Is there a way to refresh without doing that? 

Evernote_Note_Folder.scpt

[DTLow 5,744]

30 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

So Now I get the open directory... do I want to edit snippet.txt ? When I do,  I don't see any change in the note in Evernote. 

The file is content.enml

9 minutes ago, michaelbierman said:

So attached is my work in progress. I found the right file to edit and it seems to work pretty well! I'm sure it could be improved but this is a nice start. 

I notice the changes aren't reflected in Evernote until you close and reopen that note. Is there a way to refresh without doing that? 

I haven't taken it further than that.  You could add to the script, launching the text editor, even doing the find/replace within the script.

Also note (pun), after verifying your update, make a dummy change (like adding a space)

This is required so the note gets uploaded to the server where the master data version is stored.

[michaelbierman 0]

https://gist.github.com/mbierman/1ef3f255ce1ca50bb2fffbf99d715704

 

here is an AppleScript that does a Find and Replace in EVERNOTE! Thank you, DTLOW !

Note you do have to change the path for databaseFolder. to do that,

1. Go to Evernote. 
2. Hold OPTION key while going to "Help > Troubleshooting > Open Database Folder"
3. Copy that path and include a trailing "/"

 

[DTLow 5,744]

2 hours ago, michaelbierman said:

Here is an AppleScript that does a Find and Replace in EVERNOTE!

Further on the subject of editing the content.enml file

From another discussion this is a solution to changing the highlight colour

[DTLow 5,744]

20 hours ago, michaelbierman said:

here is an AppleScript that does a Find and Replace in EVERNOTE!

For the storage and access of Applescripts. see 

 

[michaelbierman 0]

8 hours ago, DTLow said:

For the storage and access of Applescripts. see 

 

Yup. Another option is to go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Services and you can set a keyboard shortcut of your own choosing. I made some minor improvements yesterday and uploaded them to github. 

[t_varion 2]

Please Implement Find And Replace

[DTLow 5,744]

You might be interested in this other feature request discussion, and the implementation  of Find&Replace  using scripting.

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/52260-mac-find-and-replace/?do=findComment&comment=497788

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2018-03-21 at 3:46 AM, Evernope said:

My personal workround is to scoop out content into TextWrangler, edit it  ... Find and Replace on multiple notes would be a godsend on the occasions it's needed (in my case not often, but this is one of those times just now). If Dreamweaver can do it, surely EN can. 

 

10 hours ago, michaelbierman said:

Meanwhile, see my AppleScript which provides a workaround. 
https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/52260-mac-find-and-replace/?do=findComment&comment=497803

The script's bottom line uses an external editor (TextEdit) for features not offered by Evernote's editor.
This works for me; it gets the job done.
The script could be modified to work on multiple notes instead of just item 1.

I like the TextWrangler app; it's scriptable.
For example   tell application "TextWrangler" to replace "[FIND TEXT]" using "[REPLACE TEXT]" ...

[A.D. Midland 1]

So Broke. They've got our thoughts and lives in their hands and couldn't care less. Herd the sheep good dogs! Make them rain golden wool about our Sonoma mansions!
How long will it be till corporations learn that ethics pay off in the long run? It's also called investment.
The best post I saw was about how the very first computers had this feature. Ridiculous. I'll say it again. RIDICULOUS. There is no other word. That I couldn't find and replace. This is C++ level stuff so... What The Hell?

[joenapp 0]

I cannot believe they don't have FIND/REPLACE,

[bp2u 0]

This is staggering.

[Calion 26]

9 minutes ago, Amystoneus said:

At last—a solution: https://bear.app

After all the fixes and improvements rolled out with the latest version, 7.5.1, it's clear Evernote doesn't give a ***** about basic functionality and appeasing their users who actually WRITE.

At least for me, Bear is proving to be what Evernote long, long ago promised to be: a simple and easy writing app that maintains consistency across all devices and syncs instantly. Moreover, the process of importing my 700+ notes in Evernote was nearly seamless. Tags and formatting came in brilliantly, with the only effort being the need to modify the tags for nesting purposes.

For $15/yr, instead of the bloated $49.99 for Evernote, it's worth the try. Plus you get a 1-month free trial—and the ability to FIND AND REPLACE!

Does Bear allow sharing live notes with others? Because if not for that feature, I would have just stuck with MacJournal.

[emmjayess 12]

9 minutes ago, Amystoneus said:

At last—a solution: https://bear.app

After all the fixes and improvements rolled out with the latest version, 7.5.1, it's clear Evernote doesn't give a ***** about basic functionality and appeasing their users who actually WRITE.

At least for me, Bear is proving to be what Evernote long, long ago promised to be: a simple and easy writing app that maintains consistency across all devices and syncs instantly. Moreover, the process of importing my 700+ notes in Evernote was nearly seamless. Tags and formatting came in brilliantly, with the only effort being the need to modify the tags for nesting purposes.

For $15/yr, instead of the bloated $49.99 for Evernote, it's worth the try. Plus you get a 1-month free trial—and the ability to FIND AND REPLACE!

Hello Amystoneus,

I have wished for a Evernote substitute that would import all my notebooks and notes for a long time. I do not, however, want to lose all my work in EN regarding organization and tags etc.

Would you mind saying a little more about how the migration occurs? Can we really duplicate what we have in EN? What does "the only effort being the need to modify the tags for nesting purposes" mean, exactly? Also, does Bear have a way to easily capture and simplify web articles the way the EN Web Clipper does?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm a little skeptical my dream has come true and paranoid about losing years of work etc.

Thank you!

[DTLow 5,744]

14 minutes ago, Calion said:

Does Bear allow sharing live notes with others?

live notes?  
Is this like the Evernote public share url's

[Calion 26]

16 minutes ago, DTLow said:

live notes?  
Is this like the Evernote public share url's

That’s one example. Any app will allow you to share the static text of a note. Evernote is the only one I know of that allows you to share notebooks, so that someone else can see what you’ve written, and even to edit existing notes.

[michaelbierman 0]

4 hours ago, Calion said:

Does Bear allow sharing live notes with others? Because if not for that feature, I would have just stuck with MacJournal.

Bear looks like an interesting alternative. It seems to do a much better job with thinks like nested lists which have always annoyed me in Evernote. Evernote just gets in my way when note taking or writing. 

But... to be fair: 

1. The actual cost is much higher than what Bear charges. If you want equivalent functionality you will need to buy iCloud storage
   50GB: $0.99/month (USD)
   200GB: $2.99/month (USD)
   2TB: $9.99/month (USD)
   The total may not save you money. However, if you are just tired of Evernote and it isn't about the money, then that's not an issue. 
2. The migration from Evernote to Bear seems to be very challenging if you have a lot of data stored in Evernote. I'm experimenting but it doesn't look easy.
3. It seems that the process of moving notes from Evernote to Bear loses formatting at a minimum. For some people that's not a big deal or at least acceptable but be aware that things won't move over perfectly.

[Amystoneus 21]

4 hours ago, emmjayess said:

Hello Amystoneus,

I have wished for a Evernote substitute that would import all my notebooks and notes for a long time. I do not, however, want to lose all my work in EN regarding organization and tags etc.

Would you mind saying a little more about how the migration occurs? Can we really duplicate what we have in EN? What does "the only effort being the need to modify the tags for nesting purposes" mean, exactly? Also, does Bear have a way to easily capture and simplify web articles the way the EN Web Clipper does?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm a little skeptical my dream has come true and paranoid about losing years of work etc.

Thank you!

I'll do my best to answer based on my own experience, which was predicated on the ability to not only maintain the tags I currently support in EN, but also the organization or my notes across 7 different notebooks, each containing anywhere from 2 to 20 nested notebooks. This was a big selling point for EN, so any alternative solution had to be comparable. That said...

Bear uses tags and nested tags to achieve the same organizational scheme. So for instance, let's say you currently have a notebook called STUFF, and within it you have two notebooks: MYSTUFF and WORKSTUFF. Each note may then have various tags associated with it: INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, SPECIFIC. Were you to select the primary notebook, STUFF, and export, only the tags—INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, SPECIFIC—would be imported. However, if you select all the notes in each individual notebook and assign them all a tag with that notebook name—i.e., MYSTUFF—and then export, MYSTUFF will come in as a tag when you import to Bear. This was the only cumbersome aspect to the import process: each tag has to be manually nested by adding the notebook tag name to it. So to get MYSTUFF and WORKSTUFF to nest beneath STUFF, you'll have to rename the two nested tags to STUFF/MYSTUFF and STUFF/WORKSTUFF. You'd likely also do the same with INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, and SPECIFIC. This will automatically update the notes' tags, so no need to change anything in the imported notes. What you'll wind up with is a left sidebar that looks like this:

Obviously, it's a different way to look at/handle the same type of hierarchies, but for my purposes, this is working. It just required a methodical approach to exporting my notebooks and then making sure on import that I was catching anything that may have slipped through the cracks without being properly tagged. It helped that there's a preassigned "Untagged" receptacle at the top of the Tags sidebar that catches all the tagless notes, which can then be dragged to their appropriate tags, singly or en masse, from the Notes column. 

No lie, for my 700+ notes across 40 notebooks it took a hefty chunk of the day. But now I'm up and running.

I don't think you need anything more than the Basic (Free) EN plan to take advantage of the Web Clipper extension. The only difference would be, I'm assuming, that the clip would have to be manually inserted into a Bear note. I've never taken advantage of this feature, so I'm afraid I'm no help here. I just write, and sometimes I import images and add links, all of which Bear does, with the addition of finding and replacing, taking dictation, highlighting, etc. 

I felt exactly the way you do: too many notes to risk on moving to a new environment. For easily a month, I was hesitant, holding onto EN out of habit and insecurity, even though I had Bear mostly set up and ready to go, and still I wasn't ready to pull the trigger. It was only when I saw the scrolling list of fixes and enhancements to the latest version—which didn't even address text replacement after this thread has just gotten longer and longer with each passing year, that I finally committed, and so far, I feel liberated and unencumbered, and the syncing across my devices feels immediate where EN often produced "Conflicting Changes" files due to my switching devices before the syncing service could catch up. 

My advice to you would be to give Bear a try with a single notebook, and go in with an open mind. You've got nothing to lose, since the download is free, and so is the first month if you sign up for a paid subscription. 

As I'm a new convert myself, I recommend checking out Bear's FAQ—https://bear.app/faq/—or even contacting them directly with any questions or concerns that might be lingering. I wrote twice and received the help I needed within 24 hours.

I really hope this helps. It's been a long and frustrating journey.

 

 

 

[emmjayess 12]

2 hours ago, Amystoneus said:

I'll do my best to answer based on my own experience, which was predicated on the ability to not only maintain the tags I currently support in EN, but also the organization or my notes across 7 different notebooks, each containing anywhere from 2 to 20 nested notebooks. This was a big selling point for EN, so any alternative solution had to be comparable. That said...

Bear uses tags and nested tags to achieve the same organizational scheme. So for instance, let's say you currently have a notebook called STUFF, and within it you have two notebooks: MYSTUFF and WORKSTUFF. Each note may then have various tags associated with it: INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, SPECIFIC. Were you to select the primary notebook, STUFF, and export, only the tags—INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, SPECIFIC—would be imported. However, if you select all the notes in each individual notebook and assign them all a tag with that notebook name—i.e., MYSTUFF—and then export, MYSTUFF will come in as a tag when you import to Bear. This was the only cumbersome aspect to the import process: each tag has to be manually nested by adding the notebook tag name to it. So to get MYSTUFF and WORKSTUFF to nest beneath STUFF, you'll have to rename the two nested tags to STUFF/MYSTUFF and STUFF/WORKSTUFF. You'd likely also do the same with INTERESTING, BORING, GENERAL, and SPECIFIC. This will automatically update the notes' tags, so no need to change anything in the imported notes. What you'll wind up with is a left sidebar that looks like this:

Obviously, it's a different way to look at/handle the same type of hierarchies, but for my purposes, this is working. It just required a methodical approach to exporting my notebooks and then making sure on import that I was catching anything that may have slipped through the cracks without being properly tagged. It helped that there's a preassigned "Untagged" receptacle at the top of the Tags sidebar that catches all the tagless notes, which can then be dragged to their appropriate tags, singly or en masse, from the Notes column. 

No lie, for my 700+ notes across 40 notebooks it took a hefty chunk of the day. But now I'm up and running.

I don't think you need anything more than the Basic (Free) EN plan to take advantage of the Web Clipper extension. The only difference would be, I'm assuming, that the clip would have to be manually inserted into a Bear note. I've never taken advantage of this feature, so I'm afraid I'm no help here. I just write, and sometimes I import images and add links, all of which Bear does, with the addition of finding and replacing, taking dictation, highlighting, etc. 

I felt exactly the way you do: too many notes to risk on moving to a new environment. For easily a month, I was hesitant, holding onto EN out of habit and insecurity, even though I had Bear mostly set up and ready to go, and still I wasn't ready to pull the trigger. It was only when I saw the scrolling list of fixes and enhancements to the latest version—which didn't even address text replacement after this thread has just gotten longer and longer with each passing year, that I finally committed, and so far, I feel liberated and unencumbered, and the syncing across my devices feels immediate where EN often produced "Conflicting Changes" files due to my switching devices before the syncing service could catch up. 

My advice to you would be to give Bear a try with a single notebook, and go in with an open mind. You've got nothing to lose, since the download is free, and so is the first month if you sign up for a paid subscription. 

As I'm a new convert myself, I recommend checking out Bear's FAQ—https://bear.app/faq/—or even contacting them directly with any questions or concerns that might be lingering. I wrote twice and received the help I needed within 24 hours.

I really hope this helps. It's been a long and frustrating journey.

 

 

 

Thanks for such a detailed response, but I'm still a little unclear on the concept. It seems confusing when you called "STUFF" a notebook when, based on your description of the process, STUFF would be a Stack in EN. Is that correct?

Anyway, it's true: I'll just have to give it a try with one of my smaller stacks and/or notebooks and play around with it until the migration dynamics become clear and I can determine if Bear is really going to work for me. (I have 3226 notes and almost 2000 tags, so I don't know...)

 

[Calion 26]

4 hours ago, michaelbierman said:

Bear looks like an interesting alternative. It seems to do a much better job with thinks like nested lists which have always annoyed me in Evernote. Evernote just gets in my way when note taking or writing. 

But... to be fair: 

1. The actual cost is much higher than what Bear charges. If you want equivalent functionality you will need to buy iCloud storage
   50GB: $0.99/month (USD)
   200GB: $2.99/month (USD)
   2TB: $9.99/month (USD)
   The total may not save you money. However, if you are just tired of Evernote and it isn't about the money, then that's not an issue. 
2. The migration from Evernote to Bear seems to be very challenging if you have a lot of data stored in Evernote. I'm experimenting but it doesn't look easy.
3. It seems that the process of moving notes from Evernote to Bear loses formatting at a minimum. For some people that's not a big deal or at least acceptable but be aware that things won't move over perfectly.

That…doesn’t answer my question.

[Amystoneus 21]

14 hours ago, emmjayess said:

Thanks for such a detailed response, but I'm still a little unclear on the concept. It seems confusing when you called "STUFF" a notebook when, based on your description of the process, STUFF would be a Stack in EN. Is that correct?

Anyway, it's true: I'll just have to give it a try with one of my smaller stacks and/or notebooks and play around with it until the migration dynamics become clear and I can determine if Bear is really going to work for me. (I have 3226 notes and almost 2000 tags, so I don't know...)

 

I thought they were all notebooks, but you're right: STUFF would be the stack that contains the notebooks. Nevertheless, based on your volume of notes and tags, what I'd suggest before migrating is selecting all the notes in a given notebook, which belong to a given stack, and add or modify your existing tags to Bear-friendly versions, so that when you import, you'll have the nesting tag structure you need and therefore won't have to append manually as I did.

I just did a small test just now to see if this would work by creating a note with the single tag AMYSTUFF/TESTSTUFF/MYSTUFF, and the tags came in properly nested on import. At least EN makes it easy to apply tags to all notes within a selected notebook or stack. 

I'd really like to believe that Bear is up to the task of maintaining your volume of content, and wish I could just say, c'mon, please give it a try and let me know, but I really do appreciate the time investment this will incur. You may want to contact Bear directly and ask if there are limits to how many notes and tags the app can maintain before embarking. Not all lessons need to be learned the hard way!

I hope you'll keep me/us posted on your findings!

[michaelbierman 0]

18 hours ago, Calion said:

That…doesn’t answer my question.

Sorry, I should have replied to Amystoneus. 

[Amystoneus 21]

On 9/27/2018 at 10:15 AM, Calion said:

Does Bear allow sharing live notes with others? Because if not for that feature, I would have just stuck with MacJournal.

I'm afraid it doesn't. Just the static share stuff. Sorry.

[René Cum 0]

Just to keep this alive, I definitely think that this is a must-have feature of every note taking app. 

Please Evernote team, spend some time on this. 

[Flo1984 1]

can't believe that there is no replace function. , I came from windows, and this this mac client should be enhanced as soon as possible! When I rode some posting here this seems to be an important feature for many customer. I love evernote, so please add this :-)...
 

[mantis108 0]

EverNote should be ASHAMED of themselves for omitting this critical feature for so long. Idiotic and like 5 mins of work. 

[siouxzieb 4]

ABSURD, ABSOLUTELY FREAKING ABSURD, THAT FIND AND RELACE HASN'T BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN EVERNOTE. DUMBFOUNDING. ENRAGING. 

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

4 minutes ago, siouxzieb said:

ABSURD, ABSOLUTELY FREAKING ABSURD, THAT FIND AND RELACE HASN'T BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN EVERNOTE. DUMBFOUNDING. ENRAGING.

Please don't use all caps.  That is the Internet equivalent of shouting.

Be patient a while longer.  The new CEO, Ian Small, is directing a complete rewrite of the core Evernote so that all platforms will have the same basic feature set.

[DTLow 5,744]

23 minutes ago, siouxzieb said:

DUMBFOUNDING. ENRAGING. 

In addition to your Boohoo posts, you can indicate your support for this feature request usint the voting buttons at the top left corner of the discussion

As @JMichaelTX mentioned, there's a common editor project in development

[siouxzieb 4]

4 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

Please don't use all caps.  That is the Internet equivalent of shouting.

Be patient a while longer.  The new CEO, Ian Small, is directing a complete rewrite of the core Evernote so that all platforms will have the same basic feature set.

Guess what? I AM SHOUTING! AND DON'T MAN 'SPLAIN ME ABOUT THE INTERNET, I'm fully aware of what my usage means. And if we're doling out typography advice, please don't insert 2 spaces between your sentences, that's a moldy leftover of mono-space typewriter days.

And I will believe that Evernote has any interest in anything about its users other than their subscription $$ when...well, based on past experience, pretty much never. This feature request thread is SEVEN YEARS OLD! Evernote was once one of my favorite tools, I've been using it pretty much from the start. Now it just pisses me off at least once every time I use it. This particular thing —NO FIND AND REPLACE— is, again, TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. 

[Terminal 23]

Alfred Workflow via AppleScript for find and replace. 

 

This works only when Evernote is the "Active" Application. It also handles multiple notes. All you have to do is select which notes you want the text to be replaced in and it will replace it in all those notes.

 

 

 

Evernote Find & Replace.alfredworkflow

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

30 minutes ago, Terminal said:

Alfred Workflow via AppleScript for find and replace. 

Could you please upload, or provide a link to, your Alfred workflow.  Looks very impressive.

[Terminal 23]

6 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

Could you please upload, or provide a link to, your Alfred workflow.  Looks very impressive.

Attached. It is very straight forward and easily modifiable. 

[DTLow 5,744]

2 hours ago, Terminal said:

Alfred Workflow via AppleScript for find and replace. 

That's cool; thanks for posting  
I can see the use of Applescript; Do we need Alfred?

>>You will need to modify the searchString and replaceString to get input from however you'd pass those values.

Right; a simple display dialog statement would do the job  
I like the concept of  updating the HTML content

[Terminal 23]

7 minutes ago, DTLow said:

That's cool   
I can see the use of Applescript; Do we need Alfred?

Perhaps this would work?

 

if checkEvernote() then
	tell application "Evernote"
		set getSearchString to display dialog "Find" default answer ""
		set searchString to text returned of getSearchString
		set getReplaceString to display dialog "Replace" default answer ""
		set replaceString to text returned of getReplaceString
		set searchLen to count of searchString
		
		set theNotes to selection
		repeat with theNote in theNotes
			set noteContent to HTML content of theNote
			set HTML content of theNote to my replace_text(noteContent, searchString, replaceString)
		end repeat
	end tell
end if

on replace_text(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
	set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
	set the item_list to every text item of this_text
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
	set this_text to the item_list as string
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
	return this_text
end replace_text

on checkEvernote()
	tell application "System Events"
		set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
		if "Evernote" is in activeApp then
			return true
		else
			return false
		end if
	end tell
end checkEvernote

 

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

9 minutes ago, Terminal said:

If you want, you can modify the AppleScript to use without Alfred.

Many thanks for posting.  This looks very interesting.  Will check out tomorrow.

[emmjayess 12]

10 hours ago, Terminal said:

Perhaps this would work?

 

if checkEvernote() then
	tell application "Evernote"
		set getSearchString to display dialog "Find" default answer ""
		set searchString to text returned of getSearchString
		set getReplaceString to display dialog "Replace" default answer ""
		set replaceString to text returned of getReplaceString
		set searchLen to count of searchString
		
		set theNotes to selection
		repeat with theNote in theNotes
			set noteContent to HTML content of theNote
			set HTML content of theNote to my replace_text(noteContent, searchString, replaceString)
		end repeat
	end tell
end if

on replace_text(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
	set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
	set the item_list to every text item of this_text
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
	set this_text to the item_list as string
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
	return this_text
end replace_text

on checkEvernote()
	tell application "System Events"
		set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
		if "Evernote" is in activeApp then
			return true
		else
			return false
		end if
	end tell
end checkEvernote

 

Hello Terminal,

I have a big project in Evernote where I need to find and replace a word in many notes in one of my notebooks. Would you be so kind as to write out the steps I would need to take on my Mac to implement your AppleScript solution? I'm not a developer and I've never used AppleScript (although I've used Terminal a few times) and I also do not use Alfred.

Thank you!

[Terminal 23]

21 minutes ago, emmjayess said:

Hello Terminal,

I have a big project in Evernote where I need to find and replace a word in many notes in one of my notebooks. Would you be so kind as to write out the steps I would need to take on my Mac to implement your AppleScript solution? I'm not a developer and I've never used AppleScript (although I've used Terminal a few times) and I also do not use Alfred.

Thank you!

Please see the video.

 

Make sure you set the keyboard shortcut. That is what allows you to call the workflow in evernote. As you see I used ctrl + option + cmd + F

Your OSX may ask that you for permission to work inside of Evernote. You need to allow this.

[emmjayess 12]

1 hour ago, Terminal said:

Please see the video.

 

Make sure you set the keyboard shortcut. That is what allows you to call the workflow in evernote. As you see I used ctrl + option + cmd + F

Your OSX may ask that you for permission to work inside of Evernote. You need to allow this.

 

WOW! That was slick!--worked like a charm!

Thank you so much! Been waiting YEARS for this!!

Do you have a web site where I can make a donation? Very happy to pay for your expert consultation!

[Terminal 23]

1 hour ago, emmjayess said:

WOW! That was slick!--worked like a charm!

Thank you so much! Been waiting YEARS for this!!

Do you have a web site where I can make a donation? Very happy to pay for your expert consultation!

Messaged. 

[awesomekel@icloud.com 0]

i locate the database files, then use sublime text to open the entire folder, find and replace it.

[DTLow 5,744]

1 hour ago, awesomekel@icloud.com said:

i locate the database files, then use sublime text to open the entire folder, find and replace it.

I use a script to locate the note folder in the database   
I also recommend this text replace script posted here 

 

[xtinnna 2]

This idea was posted in 2012. It is now 2020 and this simple function of find/replace has never been added. Very sad...

[xtinnna 2]

On 12/2/2019 at 6:23 AM, Terminal said:

Please see the video.

 

Make sure you set the keyboard shortcut. That is what allows you to call the workflow in evernote. As you see I used ctrl + option + cmd + F

Your OSX may ask that you for permission to work inside of Evernote. You need to allow this.

 

Wow Terminal, you are awesome thank you!

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

12 hours ago, xtinnna said:

This idea was posted in 2012. It is now 2020 and this simple function of find/replace has never been added. Very sad...

Yes, very sad that all of the previous Evernote CEOs have ignored this request, which will bring EN Mac up to par with EN Win.

Our hope now is that the new (last year) CEO @Ian Small will fix this, since he has already stated a goal of parity of features across all Evernote platforms.  It is such a basic feature across all Mac editor apps, that it is hard to imagine that it won't be fixed.

[G1234554321 0]

On 12/3/2019 at 12:04 AM, emmjayess said:

if checkEvernote() then tell application "Evernote" set getSearchString to display dialog "Find" default answer "" set searchString to text returned of getSearchString set getReplaceString to display dialog "Replace" default answer "" set replaceString to text returned of getReplaceString set searchLen to count of searchString set theNotes to selection repeat with theNote in theNotes set noteContent to HTML content of theNote set HTML content of theNote to my replace_text(noteContent, searchString, replaceString) end repeat end tell end if on replace_text(this_text, search_string, replacement_string) set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string set the item_list to every text item of this_text set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string set this_text to the item_list as string

 

On 12/3/2019 at 12:23 AM, Terminal said:

Please see the video.

 

Make sure you set the keyboard shortcut. That is what allows you to call the workflow in evernote. As you see I used ctrl + option + cmd + F

Your OSX may ask that you for permission to work inside of Evernote. You need to allow this.

 

I've had a MacBook for about four days, after 20+ years on Windows.  I just became a fanboy.  Thanks @Terminal!

[akobor 0]

I've created a simple Automator workflow, called RiP (Replace in Place), which is able to find and replace a text (or even regular expression) in Evernote. Check it out here: https://github.com/adamkobor/RiP

[michaelbierman 0]

On 5/19/2017 at 9:13 AM, DTLow said:

My opinion is that Evernote believes there are more important projects for the developers,
however if you really believed that Why are you interested in this product?

Well, I would love to know what has been more important for the many years that Evernote has been developed. As has been pointed out endless times, this is an extremely basic feature. Actually two: 

1. Find/replace within a note. 
2. Find/replace across notes. 

Both are useful. Though I would prioritize them as listed. As someone outside the company I don't like to speculate unless I can point at some evidence. So in my opinion it is just as likely that they: 

1. Have much more important things to do (that aren't evident). 
2. Don't listen to their customers. 
3. Are in maintenance mode and are just keeping the lights on for as long as possible. That means focus on "must haves" like platform updates, devops, etc. 

Unless Evernote staff comments we don't have any idea. Frankly I am going to spend some time with bear and see if it is a suitable replacement. If Evernote is in maintenance mode, it is time to move on. If they just don't listen to their customers, it is time to move on. 

[gazumped 12,066]

On 6/9/2020 at 9:07 AM, michaelbierman said:

If they just don't listen to their customers, it is time to move on.

Evernote are (they say) in process of completely re-coding all of their apps for all operating systems (See the Evernote Blog), so they may have already included some upgrades. But they don't preview details, so we'll probably have to wait until the new versions hit the streets to see what new features exist. 

(Strikes me that few users seem to be aware of this, so I'll boiler-plate this paragraph for inclusion with more answers...)

[DTLow 5,744]

On 6/9/2020 at 1:07 AM, michaelbierman said:

this is an extremely basic feature.Actually two: 

1. Find/replace within a note. 
2. Find/replace across notes. 

Both are useful.

I use the script described at 

 

[emmjayess 12]

 

On 6/10/2020 at 7:15 AM, gazumped said:

Evernote are (they say) in process of completely re-coding all of their apps for all operating systems (See the Evernote Blog), so they may have already included some upgrades. But they don't preview details, so we'll probably have to wait until the new versions hit the streets to see what new features exist. 

(Strikes me that few users seem to be aware of this, so I'll boiler-plate this paragraph for inclusion with more answers...)

FYI:: During a support conversation for an unrelated matter, I mentioned this issue and the rep stated the following just today: 

"I'm also happy to report that Find and Replace in on the road map of our new Evernote for Mac app, but I do not currently have an ETA."

So, perhaps the "Find & Replace" saga will finally come to an end--a happy ending?! Stay tuned....

[kiddo 2]

2 hours ago, emmjayess said:

 

FYI:: During a support conversation for an unrelated matter, I mentioned this issue and the rep stated the following just today: 

"I'm also happy to report that Find and Replace in on the road map of our new Evernote for Mac app, but I do not currently have an ETA."

So, perhaps the "Find & Replace" saga will finally come to an end--a happy ending?! Stay tuned....

I'm glad to hear it. But I am hardly impressed. God knows how long it will take until we actually see it. Even then, a feature that took over 8 years to arrive when it should have been included since day one, stretches the phrase "better late than never" really thin.

[AVchemE 0]

6 hours ago, DTLow said:

Find and Replace has been implemented in Version 10

Confirmed! I can hardly believe my eyes.

Also, my Evernote version was 7.14. When I checked for updates it said 7.14 was the latest version. Did they really go from 7 to 10? Or have my updates been stuck for that long?

[xtinnna 2]

Right now I am using version 7.14 and when I check for updates it says I'm using the newest available version. Is Version 10 only available to paid customers, or is this a separate product altogether? I see that it's available to download, but am confused why I can't just automatically to version 10 from my current version.

[AVchemE 0]

13 hours ago, xtinnna said:

Right now I am using version 7.14 and when I check for updates it says I'm using the newest available version. Is Version 10 only available to paid customers, or is this a separate product altogether? I see that it's available to download, but am confused why I can't just automatically to version 10 from my current version.

I had to download manually. 

https://evernote.com/download

[emmjayess 12]

Hooray! Find & Replace is here! 👏✌️

Just updated EN and the finally added it.

"And there was much rejoicing......" 🎉🎉 🎆

OK, so what's next on our list?! 🤔

[invu798 7]

On 10/20/2020 at 1:38 PM, DTLow said:

Find and Replace has been implemented in Version 10

 

Umm, how do you get this to work?

Mine shows the "Replace" and "Replace all" buttons deactivated.

(version: 10.21.5-mac-ddl-public (2931))

 

[DTLow 5,744]

5 hours ago, jaume said:

so we are going to get it any time soon, right?

Never say Never but Evernote has not indicated an interest in implementing this feature

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2017-03-18 at 2:32 PM, AyushSharma said:

Are you guys planning on doing something about this at all?

To date, Evernote has not indicated any plans to implement find/replace on the Mac platform

[DTLow 5,744]

3 minutes ago, PaoloAltobas said:

So many repeated requests and not even the courtesy of an explanation.

Don't let the facts get in the way of your ranting

 

[DTLow 5,744]

19 hours ago, Atrius said:

Could it be that they are not a viable business any more and in maintenance mode?

My opinion is that Evernote believes there are more important projects for the developers,
however if you really believed that Why are you interested in this product?

[DTLow 5,744]

On 2017-09-05 at 6:47 PM, godsoloved24 said:

I'm perfectly happy to find alternatives to your service

So far Evernote hasn't indicated this is a priority for development.  So good bye and good luck.

For myself, I'm still happy using Evernote as my digital file.   Find&Replace is not a feature I require for simple notes