(Archived) Subfolders vs. Tags - A suggestion for an easy compromise

[rgraylint 0]

First let me say I LOVE Evernote and use it every day. I know there has been lots of debate (sometimes heated) over subfolders (or sub-notebooks) vs. tags. I am personally in the camp of "I wish we had sub-folders" but I do understand the Tag argument. My problem is I have so many tags (in a global view) it is impossible for me to manage them. This happened when I imported my Delicious bookmarks of several years. You can make the argument that this is a mess of my own making and OK - I can live with that. I might even finally resort to deleting all my Delicious bookmarks and trying to figure out how to make the tags that came with them go away too. But none of that changes the fact that I beleive I'd be better off if I had the ability to group similar things in subfolders.

I don't want to start yet another debate thread on this issue so let me get on to my suggestion. As I use the product I typically open a notebook then search for a tag. The problem I have is sometimes I can't remember what Tag I'm looking for. If there were folders I would see an alphabetical list of them and could browse and pick. You can sort the list by the tags column but a note may contain multiple tags so that doesn't really work.

Then it occurred to me, what if you guys gave us a combobox in the toolbar (maybe under the Search field?) that lists all the tags alphabetically, one per line, in the current notebook? This would allow the sub-folder camp to easily categorize and select notes using a Tag system but with a managable folder-list like view. I should be able to type characters in the combobox to filter the list on any part of any tags in the combobox list. It should be an easy feature to add and would not require any major redesign - like adding sub-notebooks.

You currently have the expandable "Tags" section on the left pane. This is similar to my idea but the combobox I'm requesting would only include tags for the currently selected notebook. The existing Tags list contains way too many Tags (for me) for it to be useful. A critical part of making this plan work is to use the type ahead filter to shrink the list of displayed tags. The type ahead should not only work on the 1st letters, but any part of the tags. For example if I typed "tre" the tag list might filter to "Trebuchet" and "OakTree".

This might not completely do away with the requests or the need from many of your customers for sub-notebooks, but it might help people be more effective and less frustrated while they wait.

My suggestion. For what it is worth...

Thanks for a great product!

- Robert

[skeptic23 1]

Subfolders, sections, tags, keywords, the right-brain/left brain battle rages on.

My question is: WHY is this such an either-or world?

For the old fuddy-duddy in me that likes certain things in order, give me HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION. I want folders and subfolders that I can bury myself so deep in that I feel the safety of all those layers upon layers above me. The free spirit (or lazy bum, take your pick) in me wants tags. Lots of them. And I want folders and sub-folders for my tags. And I want tags for my folders and sub-folders. And I want folders and sub-folders for my notebooks and tags for those, too. I want Byzantinism. I want chaos. I want it all...

Hell, I just want to find my stuff WHEN I WANT AND HOW I WANT and NOBODY telling me what I can and can't!

We can do it all... Why DON'T we?

I know... Typical Western consumerist mentality. It's all Google's fault.