Feature Request: Crossing out Words and Better Versioning of Notes

[basilweibel 1]

Hi everybody,

we're using evernote as a kind of team wiki collecting all kinds of manuals in our research team. Personally, I also use it to create "To Do" notes. In both cases, I would love to have an option to cross words out.

 

In the case of the manuals, the regularly get updated because the first version might contain errors. Sometimes it would be nice to highlight, that an intuitive solution that comes quickly to mind is wrong. In such a case, crossed out words are nice.

 

In the case of the To Do list I personally prefer crossing out the stuff I have done vs. usage of check boxes.

 

One other thing, that is not very thought through (but I am sure your usability guys might find a user friendly solution; or come to the conclusion that it is not worth it):

I just saw, that in your premium version you can see the history of a note. However, it would be nice, if this versioning would be improved so that one can see let's say a version number. Maybe the version number is in an automatically generated tag? And the tag has one of these little drop down triangles (you use them next to the Name of a Notebook) that lets you select the version?

Or a key combination opens kind of a console which gives power users access to an integrated version of git, that works directly on notes (in particluar git status, git add, git commit, git log, git diff (with external diff tool such as DiffMerge)?

 

So please consider a discussion about these features. That would be great.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

For striking through and highlighting, this is already possible with cmd-ctrl-k. Highlight too is cmd-ctrl-h. These are less convenient on mobile interfaces unfortunately. 

 

As for versioning, I'm absolutely in favour of better versioning, perhaps as an expansion of the already existing note history for premium users. I don't have much vision as to how this could/should be done, although even something simple like Dropbox's implementation of a revisions history would be a huge improvement over the every-8-hour approach currently available. My concern over something more sophisticated like a git-system, while offering much more robust versioning might be that it would be difficult for many users to learn or understand, or implement in a user-friendly way. I've got no problems with using git myself, but I know a lot of my colleagues can't even wrap their heads around Dropbox's very simple versioning system (basically a list of every time you saved a document and you can view/restore any of them to any location you like....). Even this system is hard for some people to digest and as such I'd be concerned about something more complex yet. 

[basilweibel 1]

Thanks for the quick help with the shortcut on crossing words out.

 

I absolutely agree on the concerns regarding usability and versioning. Such a powerful and technical thing like git should never be noted by the average user. However, such a command window could eventually be opened with a special key combination. Compare it to "Got to Anything" and "Command Palette" integrated in sublime text 2. Users who don't feel well with it, will never see it and get a very clean and simple text editor. However, those who want to, have very powerful tools at hand.

 

Something like dropbox versioning is certainly nice for most users. Don't see how you can make things simpler... What about a (time machine style) slider somewhere, and you can see the note changing live between versions by moving the slider?

 

But I think, the two things don't have to be a contradiction. They might even run on the same backend system on the evernote servers. After all, the dropbox style is nothing more than an "auto commit" triggered by a save command.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I agree, it doesn't get much simpler than Dropbox's system (of course, simple comes with tradeoffs in terms of power and features.....), I think once you get down to that level of simplicity the onus lies with the user to do the rest of the legwork (which isn't much, but it is amazing at the resistance some people have at putting any effort into learning how to use new stuff properly). 

 

We'll see what/if evernote does in this regard. Honestly I'd be happy with ANY improvement over the current system! If it happens to be a robust git-like system, yippee. If it is a dropbox-like system, then still yippee! 

[timoc 11]

I have created a feature request thread to address backups and restoration using git. This would make it easer to detect changes between versions. Search for git backup if you think this is a reasonable approach, and give some feedback.