Text Collapse [Outlining]

[ajschmidt 141]

Feature Request: Add Outlining Capabilities to Evernote

Evernote is great, but it's dying for the ability to create Notes that contain Outlines which are easily collapsed and expanded during creation and in use.

One way to implement it would be a switchable editing mode, between standard formatting or outline mode.

In outline mode, pressing the Enter key creates a new outline item, and pressing the Tab key changes the current item into a sub-item.

Clicking on an item's action icon causes its sub-items to collapse out of, or expand into view. That's the way the Ecco Pro PIM did it, and something simple like that would be a good start for Evernote.

The name Evernote implies a product that takes notes -and collapsible/expandable outlines are a huge part of note taking.

[Edgar Isai 1]

Regarding the outlining capabilities/collapsing text. That would definitely be a game changer, at the moment I use evernote mainly when I need to save some quick notes but I don't really use it for more meticulous things like taking notes for a topic that I'm learning, since active recall is my way to go, I use it a lot to hide the answers/details about the topic to make myself try to remember before taking a look at the info. Implementing this on evernote would be a huge improvement

[aukirk 256]

While this idea has been pending for more than 9 years, I am really hoping that this feature will make it into the new common editor.  While using the new Mac Beta, I realized how perfectly this could be implemented in a manner very similar to the "Code Block".

A "Collapsable Text" option could be added to the "+Insert" menu, so that you can add a new area, or highlight existing text and then select that option to turn it into one of the new blocks of content that can be collapsed or expanded, similar to attachments.  Ideally the collapsable area could be given a title/name, or at least display the first line of text in the collapsed section.

This would be a great feature addition!

[s2sailor 1,040]

9 minutes ago, aukirk said:

While this idea has been pending for more than 9 years, I am really hoping that this feature will make it into the new common editor.  While using the new Mac Beta, I realized how perfectly this could be implemented in a manner very similar to the "Code Block".

A "Collapsable Text" option could be added to the "+Insert" menu, so that you can add a new area, or highlight existing text and then select that option to turn it into one of the new blocks of content that can be collapsed or expanded, similar to attachments.  Ideally the collapsable area could be given a title/name, or at least display the first line of text in the collapsed section.

This would be a great feature addition!

and these collapsable text blocks could be link points for intranote linking, another long wished for feature.

[aukirk 256]

Fingers crossed that this is one of the long requested features hinted at in the new blog post announcing the new iOS app!

Quote

Looking beyond the basics, we’ve been working to prioritize, design, and develop several new features we hope to ship over the coming months. Some of these features address long-standing requests from our community; others are fresh ideas that reflect what we’ve seen and heard about the ways many of you use Evernote. Together, these features will keep moving us—and you—forward. 

https://evernote.com/blog/unlocking-evernotes-future/

[gazumped 8,004]

11 hours ago, Bill C said:

This is a feature I've wanted for years, and one of the main things I missed when I switched from being a OneNote user (10+ years) to an Evernote user (about 10 years now).

While I'd accept it being inserted like a code block as suggested, I would prefer to see this implemented a bit more naturally as it is in OneNote. Make it so that if you double-click on a bullet, all of the subsection bullets and text indented under that will bullet disappear.  There then needs to be an indicator that there is something hidden, but double-clicking on it again, will unhide that text. 

I found this really helpful when I had longer notes with specific sections such as a list of tasks that each had step-by-step directions for something. I could keep the directions collapsed/hidden to not clutter the note but I could still easily see an overview of everything in a note. I tried (and have somewhat) reproduced this in Evernote by using multiple notes, but that is often unnecessary, extra work. 

This feature request has an impressive level of support,  but (AFAIK) hasn't been satisfied with the new editor released as part of the iOS app update in the last few days.  However Evernote's CEO has been at pains to point out that the new editor has cleared the decks for more upgrades and updates in the future. The company is still working on updates for all the other OS's - Windows / Android / MacOS - so likely won't be considering this anytime soon,  but they now have more freedom to include this and other features in the future.

Meantime I use Workflowy,  and will probably continue to do so even after Evernote add collapsible headings to their layout options.  An add-in can never be as flexible as a stand-alone specialist app,  and I'm very happy with Workflowy and its surprisingly effective options.

[PinkElephant 1,745]

This thread is about an outlining capability.

In the new editor (web and now EN iOS 10) 3 levels of headers were introduced. Not outlining, because this would mean to be able to deselect all „text“ part of the note, leaving just the headers behind. But a first step, maybe to be followed by more.

Regarding dark mode: It is available in most platforms now. The Windows client (being a 32bit Aaplication) needs to be completely rebuilt to allow dark mode to be used. This will probably happen when the new framework is rolled out to Windows as well. These facts are in other threads in the forum, and an answer related to dark mode should be posted there, not here.

[PinkElephant 1,745]

Without the header levels now introduced in the  ver-10-releases it would have no chance to work. You need the headers to find the starting lines if each paragraph. I hope when the rel-10-mess is eventually sorted out, outlining will be added by a „header only“ view of a note.

[Drexler Mathias 16]

I see your point but would prefer a separate "insert section function", because sections and headlines is not the same. I might have a document with two main sections from different dates / topic streams and still need differenct headlines inside.

[Renesh.Dutta 1]

To the Evernote Team.

Please add the 'toggle' feature in Evernote which can hide tons of information. I know this feature would not come really quick but at least add this to your to-do list because this is the feature we all want ! 

[scriptummobile 2]

For me the concept of outlining is a really important for a basic text editor. I store written concept  ideas and code snippets. So mainly pure text. But this can become a big amount of lines. So an overview like a table of content or toggle lists would help me a lot. I don´t want to use a 'middle man' like a word processor because i constantly switch between MacOS,Windows and iOS.

Another great way to use this concept is by reflection study stuff or preparing a meeting. Just write the topic or the question down and hide the answer. This is such an easy and useful method to remember stuff.

There are many more examples, but I just want to point out, that this not a basic feature, it's concept of organizing information and I hope that Evernote will implement this possibility.

Just my 2 cents.

Stay healthy!

[dalposenrico 1]

As a premium user, I would love this 100%. This is the only reason that sometimes makes me use tools like notion or roamresearch. Personally, this would be a game changer! For me as a student is very useful to be able quickly organize notes in toggles. Hope you can implement this soon!

[Didgeridoo 5]

Count me in, it's practically the only feature that makes me remember Onenote once in a while. It would make a huge difference in regard to clear readability inside a note.

(that being said, I also sincerely hope the new 10 version soon gets at the level of 6.25 though, because as it is now, it's a downgrade more than an upgrade)

[rob24hrs 37]

2 hours ago, Didgeridoo said:

Count me in, it's practically the only feature that makes me remember Onenote once in a while. It would make a huge difference in regard to clear readability inside a note.

This feature was request 9 years ago. I am guessing EN have no intention of implementing it.

[Didgeridoo 5]

9 minutes ago, rob24hrs said:

This feature was request 9 years ago. I am guessing EN have no intention of implementing it.

It's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil...

[gazumped 8,004]

19 minutes ago, rob24hrs said:

This feature was request 9 years ago. I am guessing EN have no intention of implementing it.

Up to this point I'm guessing Evernote did not have the ability to implement it across several different operating systems.  Now they have unified the editor it's more of a possibility - but lets wait until they get the rest of the previous features working properly before adding more work to the pile, shall we?

[aukirk 256]

48 minutes ago, gazumped said:

As I mentioned - they weren't capable of doing this for everyone until a month ago,  and there's more than enough of the old apps still missing from v10 that most of us (I'm guessing here) would like Evernote to finish updating the old stuff before they add too many new ideas. 

I may be wrong, but assume that they still are not capable of doing this until they retire the legacy versions.  I remain hopeful that the migration to v10 will allow features like this to be added, but I would imagine that means all versions of the app are using the new editor so that they do not have to code this feature into the legacy versions.

On the other hand, I suppose it could work out that any collapsed sections show as expanded in Legacy apps, similar to how the new Checklists still show.

Either way, as @gazumped states... we have managed to wait this long...

[Tazzz 15]

Absolutely need this to happen. Most important feature that I need.

[McSherry17 0]

+1

Really feel this should be a feature. Would change the experience.

Expandable by indent. As my brain only works in hierarchys 8)

[gazumped 8,004]

Anyone tried Workflowy?  https://workflowy.com/s/example-stub/7eEN3KzuV67vG1qg

[s2sailor 1,040]

15 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Anyone tried Workflowy?  https://workflowy.com/s/example-stub/7eEN3KzuV67vG1qg

Sure, Workflowy is quite nice but personally I don't want to use another app to pick up one function that really should be integrated in a note taking app, IMO.

[gazumped 8,004]

11 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

I don't want to use another app

OK - but don't you use a browser / mail client / spreadsheet for their own specialist features?  I reckon I use about 20 different apps on a regular basis,  though either the output file usually winds up in Evernote,  or I link to a file or resource stored somewhere else.

14 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

one function that really should be integrated in a note taking app

Why not image-editing / full audio recording and playback / mind maps / a dozen other separate actions ?

I'm in the KISS camp - not excess osculation,  but keeping things simple so as not to clutter the (already complicated) menus!

[s2sailor 1,040]

36 minutes ago, gazumped said:

OK - but don't you use a browser / mail client / spreadsheet for their own specialist features?  I reckon I use about 20 different apps on a regular basis,

The comparisons you are providing, are, to me, apples and oranges. Those apps have different purposes with some overlapping function.  I think Evernote and Workflowy are essentially different implementations of a note taking app.  Evernote does have added function.  For my usage, Workflowy provides one advantage over Evernote, and that is text collapsing. I won’t store notes in another application for only that feature.  I’ll continue to do without. We all have different definitions of what basic functions Evernote should have.  IMO this is one of them.

[s2sailor 1,040]

52 minutes ago, gazumped said:

but keeping things simple so as not to clutter the (already complicated) menus!

V10 barely has any menus.  Nothing complicated there.

[tavor 655]

On 12/4/2020 at 2:27 PM, Jeff A Bailey said:

If EN didn't bake a plugin feature into their new product they are done.

This could have been easily solved if EN could be extended like so many other software tools can.

I'm about ready to move to another tool. Nine years and counting to deliver a feature that would be INCREDIBLY useful to people, seriously?!

Maybe with v10, they will add plugins? Some of the competition is doing this, for example, Standard Notes, which allows for the creation of extensions, similar to Chrome extensions. It certainly provides a pathway to much quicker development of high demand features. If relying on the core app developer, we could easily have situations like the one this thread highlights - users waiting 9yrs and counting for a broadly useful feature.

[brank87 1]

+1 for collapsible content❗ Evernote extensions make so much sense @tavor! 

[right_to_rage 0]

This would make life a lot easier! +1 for this feature. I don't know what framework they're using for their UI or if they are using one, but Material UI has the accordion component: https://material-ui.com/components/accordion/. I'm sure there's ready made stuff out there that could be brought in or adapted to the markdown structure.

[Isaiah MacDonald 2]

Just to add to this. I recently tried switching back to OneNote purely for the text collapsing, but came back to EN given it functions better and is a way nicer user experience. 

Why doesn't this feature exist? Seriously EN, you have created an app that is ingenious, and flows perfectly, yet you can't collapse text? Jarring 

[AlbertR 40]

Before some days I started to maintain a list of missing features in EN-10. Therefore I decided to use collapsed text block - which are not available in EN so far. So I used Notion to build up https://www.notion.so/EN-10-was-mir-noch-fehlt-1fada86e316b4b6f9cc7bdab5f4cfdf7 - sorry for that.

I promise to translate this site "back" on EN immediately after EN offers this feature 😉 

[DTLow 5,181]

1 hour ago, AlbertR said:

which are not available in EN so far. So I used Notion to build up

As mentioned, not supported in the EN note contents   
I would use a different editor (like MS Word) and include the document as an EN note attachment

[Didgeridoo 5]

22 hours ago, DTLow said:

As mentioned, not supported in the EN note contents   
I would use a different editor (like MS Word) and include the document as an EN note attachment

Have been thorougly looking for a decent external editor or mindmapping software that collapses lists. The only one doing a decent job on this area is Onenote, but of course it would be ridiculous connecting a Onenote page to evernote. Actualy in my opinion there's a number of things that note taking software is obviously just supposed to handle on itself. One of those is the ability of collapsing lists.

[gazumped 8,004]

1 hour ago, Didgeridoo said:

a decent external editor or mindmapping software that collapses lists

?? Editor: Workflowy.  MindMaps: my choice - Freeplane (but basically any mindmap will collapse branches)

Personally: on including new features in Evernote - why reinvent wheels? And why add the additional complexity of another set of menus?  I get that collapse is quite popular (626 votes so far) but up to this year Evernote didn't have the tools to do this - they've been around for 12+ years and some of the base code got written before either text collapse or mind mapping was a thing. 

Now they've got the new engine - anything is possible;  but maybe lets let them get the basics working again first?

[tavor 655]

1 hour ago, gazumped said:

Personally: on including new features in Evernote - why reinvent wheels?

Prior to Evernote, we had MS Word and Notepad and search. Why reinvent the wheel and create Evernote?

1 hour ago, gazumped said:

And why add the additional complexity of another set of menus? 

Using a separate editor for a particular set of notes stored in Evernote is less complex than having a menu option in EN for outlines?

1 hour ago, gazumped said:

I get that collapse is quite popular (626 votes so far) but up to this year Evernote didn't have the tools to do this - they've been around for 12+ years and some of the base code got written before either text collapse or mind mapping was a thing. 

MS Word didn't have outlines 12 years ago?

[gazumped 8,004]

10 minutes ago, tavor said:

MS Word didn't have outlines 12 years ago?

I actually have no idea,  but the fact remains that for whatever reason Evernote set up their various structures in each OS without any allowance for collapse.  With billions of notes (a throwaway comment in a recent video that may or may not be true) and millions of active users,  it was a bit hard to make any changes.

[s2sailor 1,040]

On 12/25/2020 at 11:19 AM, gazumped said:

With Workflowy I can jump directly to the node I need through a link like this one - https://workflowy.com/s/example-stub/7eEN3KzuV67vG1qg - (except with my link I can add to or edit the content immediately).  I also link back to Evernote notes from there.

- That's the smallest of 50 or so nodes,  by the way,  some of them going down a long way to 10 or more sub levels.

I don't care whether Evernote add some sort of cut down collapse option to their app - with the extra menus, keyboard shortcuts and additional learning curve that will entail;

The issue that I’ve run into with this approach is that I now have content in two apps and need to search both to find what I need.  One can copy from workflowy into Evernote but that requires extra steps and only works for static notes.  I’ve been unable to make this work for me.

As far as adding extra clutter to the app, I see a collapse all and expand all needed in menus, that’s all.  Learning curve? Click the twisty on or off. Using a highlighter is more difficult.

[gazumped 8,004]

1 minute ago, s2sailor said:

now have content in two apps and need to search both to find what I need

I use Evernote as my main index with links to any dynamic nodes in Workflowy so I can jump fairly seamlessly to the correct place and see the up to date picture.  Likewise Workflowy has note links back to Evernote.  It works for me - which is (or should be) the guiding principle here.  I'm happy with this approach.  If you want a different one,  feel free to apply it,  or to ask Evernote for the feature.  As long as there's an 'off' and/ or a 'hide menu' option I'll be happy.

But now that this is at least possible,  please can we all wait until the paint is dry on v10 before arguing about priorities?

 

[s2sailor 1,040]

5 minutes ago, gazumped said:

But now that this is at least possible,  please can we all wait until the paint is dry on v10 before arguing about priorities?

This is a feature request thread asking for a collapsing text feature. I’m not arguing about priorities, only adding to the comments that I strongly believe it should be added to the editor.  There are other items that I think should be added first.

You have suggested a work around that I’m glad fits your workflow.  For me it still means content stored in two apps and unless I can keep track of what is where, I need to search in each app to find what is needed.

 As far as not being possible before v10, I’m happy to argue that point 🙂.

[gazumped 8,004]

1 minute ago, s2sailor said:

As far as not being possible before v10, I’m happy to argue that point

Heavens,  no - neither of us knows enough about what's going on to be able to quote facts and I am happy to leave you to your own opinions.  Enjoy the holidays!

[s2sailor 1,040]

9 minutes ago, gazumped said:

neither of us knows enough about what's going on to be able to quote facts

I’ll agree to that.  Happy Gŵyl San Steffan.  I hope I got that right.  Cheers.

[wealthychef 9]

15 hours ago, Didgeridoo said:

Have been thorougly looking for a decent external editor or mindmapping software that collapses lists. The only one doing a decent job on this area is Onenote, but of course it would be ridiculous connecting a Onenote page to evernote. Actualy in my opinion there's a number of things that note taking software is obviously just supposed to handle on itself. One of those is the ability of collapsing lists.

If you are looking at mindmapping software, all of them collapse lists that I've seen.  That's kind of a major deal with mindmaps and other heirarchies.  Why is this hard Evernote?  I'm surmising that the Evernote code base is a big fat mess of spaghetti code and adding a feature like this is a year long project of fixing bugs and patching bad code.  

[AlbertR 40]

THX for your comments - hope this leads to a little more attention on this at EN site 😉

Regarding the background of my statement from Friday: I'm using Notion to publish

• https://www.notion.so/EN-10-was-mir-noch-fehlt-1fada86e316b4b6f9cc7bdab5f4cfdf7

but I would prefere to do this in EN directly. I do not want embed foreign foreign tools and formats within my notes (except PDF, DOC, XLS and images)

My first try was

• https://www.evernote.com/l/AU0IN8tazwtFyojGOs9g7Yq6s47bq-9HP6E/

but I early failed to find a suitable compromise between effort to manage and readability of the result.

[Mike2024 0]

As example. It is so easy to read FAQ on homepages and expand if interested in more details. It gives you a great overview and depth if needed. That's what I would love for my Evernote lists. I am happy with Evernote, but I am considering to move to OneNote for this feature. Seems to be not so easy to implement since this thread is open since 2011.

[kavorka 0]

eagerly waiting for this one

collapsible bullets is what specifically I am looking for (ala workflowy.com), but the outlining will also work well

[gazumped 8,004]

11 hours ago, Mike2024 said:

Seems to be not so easy to implement since this thread is open since 2011.

See arguments above - until a couple of months ago,  Evernote (IMHO) did not have the technology to provide this feature - which has to work in 5 separate operating systems (and their variations) on a range of devices.  Now we have v10 which is its own self contained 'operating system' - so this is now possible.  With a number of features yet to be restored however I'm not sure where this will be in their priorities...

[ehrt74 109]

On 12/27/2020 at 4:22 AM, wealthychef said:

If you are looking at mindmapping software, all of them collapse lists that I've seen.  That's kind of a major deal with mindmaps and other heirarchies.  Why is this hard Evernote?  I'm surmising that the Evernote code base is a big fat mess of spaghetti code and adding a feature like this is a year long project of fixing bugs and patching bad code.  

I think evernote has the most modern code base of any organisational/note-taking app. It's progress in the last 2 years has been staggering. They've gone from broken architecture and 5 incompatible apps to a solid, modern architecture and one new unified app. Let's hope they can keep it up.

[VanDelfin 6]

+1 interest in having this feature added!

[avalentin 1]

+1

As a premium user, this feature is on the absolute top of my wishes for evernote to implement.

[LuisG 1]

Couldn't agree more, this would be an amazing update to have!!

Onenote can do it. 

[Stefan617 2]

I was googling as I couldn't believe such a seemingly mature product lacks this collapse/expand feature. Not having this important feature is kind of annoying.

This feature helps a lot to stay focused and not get distracted by scrolling around while searching for stuff.

[treborio 1]

I agree 10000%

I spent a couple hours today looking for alternatives.

I am moving over to Dropbox Paper.  It has jump links + anchor links + collapsible text sections....and it's FREE!

[davidesp 1]

YES, DEFINITELY. 

Love being able to collapse paragraphs, sections and images.  Also good for "hidden answer" training.

It's the main reason why I am currently writing all my new tech-log notes in Notion.

[saschwafel 0]

This is one huge advantage that Notion has over Evernote right now. I'm not sure about the technical difficulty to implement, but I think it's a must-have feature to compete. 

 

+1 

[VanDelfin 6]

I've had a good run with Evernote but Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) checks many more boxes for my needs and it's free. Of course it has collapsible sections and bullets.

[Matty K 4]

+ 1 for having this feature implemented.

[wealthychef 9]

On 1/25/2021 at 11:45 PM, VanDelfin said:

I've had a good run with Evernote but Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) checks many more boxes for my needs and it's free. Of course it has collapsible sections and bullets.

Thanks for sharing that!  Now that I just realized Evernote stopped supporting links to files on my hard drive, I'm pissed and moving off this heap of *****.  Obsidian looks amazing, and being based on markdown, you can have your own data and Evernote cannot break it.  Like they just broke my data.  I had to downgrade to version 7.  And yes I really want those collapsible bullets and other features of obsidian.  I hope it works!  

Is there an export from Evernote to Obsidian?  

[eisberg 2]

On 1/7/2021 at 12:12 PM, avalentin said:

+1

As a premium user, this feature is on the absolute top of my wishes for evernote to implement.

Please bring this feature, it's so essential. Can't belive that we are waiting and beging for year now, to get his little feature. Very dissapointed..... 

[metriXc 0]

New Evernote user here. I recently purchased premium and love the app so far. The toggle feature that notion gives us would be a game changer for me. It would make my notes so much more clean and organized. I hope this feature will be added soon.

[gazumped 8,004]

7 hours ago, stevetdunn said:

I can't believe this question was asked 10 years ago!

Until October last year Evernote's (12+ year-old) coding didn't even allow for the possibility. It's likely in the pipeline now,  given the number of votes here - but Evernote don't generally share whether or when new features will launch.  Meantime I'm "struggling" along as a heavyweight (in several senses) Evernote user with added Workflowy: which does shareable backlinks / mirrors / images / files / kanban... oh,  and bullets.

https://workflowy.com/s/help/4KzavO0VGYdhp7RS

[Yedya 2]

+1

[sebastianadams 0]

+1

[PinkElephant 1,745]

It is a pretty weak argument that something is a MUST when an app is around for more than a decade without this feature. Maybe better to say „Please“ than using strong but hollow arguments.

They introduced the 3 header levels with the new editor. This even works with some markdown-like annotation, ever tried with an # / ## / ### at the beginning of a new line ?

I would not be surprised when they build an outliner around this one day.

[Inner Prop 1]

I didn't realize this is really what I was looking for until I saw WorkFlowy and Dynalist. I vote to add this because I don't want to add another app just for a feature or two.

I agree that they should stop making flashy changes like 10 with the note pad (did  lot of people ask for that because I certainly didn't).

I agree with the @gazumped though (I my usual policy is to not argue with a gorilla) in most of what gazumped said. I'm going to try to use Dynalist and stick a link in the note that refers to it to see how that goes. but I still would like this as a feature in EverNote, not a work-around.

[gazumped 8,004]

24 minutes ago, Inner Prop said:

I'm going to try to use Dynalist and stick a link in the note that refers to it to see how that goes.

😊 Don't wish to add more intimidation here,  but I use (as I may have mentioned before) links to jump between Workflowy (in my case) and Evernote,  and back again. 

It's pretty seamless to use the two together;  leveraging WF's ability to create and find list items really quickly,  and Evernote's storage and display capacity for files and their content. 

I really don't mind whether or not Evernote adds Workflowy's abilities - I'm probably too invested in my current process to want to change.  Others are welcome to use them when (and if) they're available.  We're unlikely to get any reassurance from Evernote one way or the other until the feature is available.

Meantime if you really REALLY need text collapse,  there are alternatives out there.  If you can wait until Evernote develops and releases the feature (and in fairness it may already be in the pipeline somewhere),  then please stick around. 

BUT comments about the desirability of this feature in the meantime are just going to be random noise - Evernote will do this (or not) when it fits in with their schedule - if their various user focus groups agree with the need for it. 

Just sayin.

[thezaeron 2]

Collapsible subheadings would make for an incredibly powerful feature. The stack-notebook-note organisation structure is fantastic for efficient and logical cataloguing of information, and revolutionised my workflow, especially with the ever-improving search function. However, information within a note, such as bullet point lists, create for unwieldy scroll times in situations where that note would become less effective if split into multiple notes connected by a contents page. Adding the ability to collapse parts of a note would make information access massively more efficient for me, and I hope this feature gets attention!

[Fujur 3]

How is this not a feature yet? Requested 10 years ago and pretty basic. I used to use Lotus Notes in the 90s at the company I worked and collapsible text segments were mind-blowingly useful. +1 request from me.

[autogenix 1]

A big +1 from me.