Feature request: declutter notifications / activity button

[Lenitas 2]

I have just started working with evernote; I use it together with my partner, sharing notebooks (and getting notifications) is a crucial feature for us both.

 

I suggest the following changes:

 

• The activity button notification list should only show changes that collaborators made in shared notebooks.

 

Right now, I am looking at 50+ notifications, but it's mostly changes I made myself. (Why would I need this information?) It makes it really difficult to find the 2-3 changes my partner made by going through the list and scanning all entries for his username. 

 

• The activity button notification list should only show the most recent change per note.

 

This one is probably debatable (I don't know how everybody else uses this feature) but I have edited my own to do list extensively yesterday and ran into the same problem: I see 50+ entries for changes to one single note, and have to manually go through the long list and "hunt" for the information which other notes were edited.

 

I feel the notifications would be ten times more useful if they were streamlined, or at least made configurable. If such an option exists, I haven't found it. I'm happy to hear how other people work with the notifications (or how the notifications work for you), or any other hints, insights, or suggestions.

[gazumped 11,663]

At present notifications in the free version show only the changes made in shared notebooks;  premium users get the full spread.  What you may be look for is the 'updated date' which will show which notes are changed,  but not,  of course,  which detail in that note.  Evernote doesn't have a facility like word to show changed text as strikethrough or differently coloured characters,  but you could agree a standard to use in a small group - I recently edited something quite extensively and 1) used blue text to show my edits alongside the original black text where I didn't change the structure,  and 2) then copied the whole note so I could delete black text and reorder the content so the recipient could compare it with the amended original.

 

(Evangelist style comment here) - Evernote is designed to be a Swiss Army Knife,  not a farrier's hammer - if you need something more specialised than a tool for digging a bit of grit out of a horse's hoof,  you may have to look for a different app...

 

Still collaboration means that one user needs to be able to tell what someone else wrote - maybe the devs can come up with something for a future update...

 

These posts are read by Evernote developers,  so your suggestion is already made - you could reinforce it by using the feedback and support link (see below) if you wish.

[Lenitas 2]

I'm not looking to get a notification about what exactly was changed, just who made the change to the note...

 

The notes list view + last update timestamp would be a workaround... but unfortunately, it only supports "author", and not "last update by". 

 

So the problem remains: between the many, many edits I make myself, it is pretty impossible for me to see when something's edited by my boyfriend - so that renders the notification feature pretty useless to me right now.

 

(Why am I even notified of changes I made myself? In case I forget? )

 

If the notification list was decluttered in one or both of the ways I mentioned above, that would be very, very helpful (and also consistent with other tools' notifications).

[gazumped 11,663]

All I can suggest (unless and until Evernote make any changes) is that you politely but firmly inform the bf that he's working in blue characters from now on...  

[Lenitas 2]

You misunderstood me.

 

I'm not looking to see MORE information. I'm hoping to see LESS information in the notification feed so that I can see the changes that other people make in shared notebooks, and don't drown in my own.

 

Highlighting somebody else's changes inside a specific note is a completely separate issue - but in order for that to be useful, I would first have to notice that the note was changed in the first place, which I currently can't because the notification feed is a cluttered mess.

[gazumped 11,663]

OK - up to the devs anyway...