Chinese and International Evernote Co-Existing on MacBook Pro

[vr2nr 2]

I spend a lot of time in China, and therefore have two Evernote accounts, one international and one Chinese. The main reason for the second account is that Evernote International is generally unreliable for sharing Evernote International note links into China. 

 

While it is too bad that I cannot switch between the Chinese and International accounts using a single client, I can imagine that different requirements from various governments might make that technically messy. The good news is that I can run the two Mac OS X applications concurrently.

 

There is an issue, however.

 

If I choose to update the Evernote Chinese OS X client to a beta release (or maybe even the next commercial release), the initial restarting of that app has my INTERNATIONAL profile loaded, with all of it's notes. It seems that if I log out, I cannot then log back into the international profile, only the Chinese one.

 

One concern is that this type of scenario might create some sort of inadvertent security or legal issue (e.g., International profile and notes into Chinese Client; Chinese profile and notes into International Client).  At a minimum, the upgrade mechanism appears not to be working correctly for either the Chinese version, International version, or both when the two versions are coexisting on the same computer.

 

I don't mind running the two separate applications, but it will be a house keeping nightmare if every time one of the clients is upgraded, that I need to once again sort out the profile mess.

[vr2nr 2]

Update: This is more convoluted than I first thought.  At this point, I am simply looking for guidance on how to configure my computer to run a Chinese Beta of the EN client and a International beta version at the same time on the same Macbook Pro. Is there, in fact, a real Chinese beta version that is available?

[Adjusting 276]

This is probably much easier than you think.

There is no such thing as a Chinese version of the client.

If your language is set to Chinese or your region is set to China, you should see a link at the bottom of the login window allowing you to switch between the Chinese and International services.

[vr2nr 2]

OK, I think I understand a bit better about the mechanics of this.

 

Based on my experimentation, it seems to me that it makes a lot of sense to have two separate applications, a different version of Evernote for China and a different one for International.

 

This approach I believe is very useful as it allows both versions of Chinese and International to be run simultaneously, and removes confusion with regard to which version is logged in. Furthermore, the current iterations of the beta actually use a small amount of memory, so running two simultaneous sessions should be not overly taxing on computers possessing reasonable amounts of RAM (a configuration that I do not believe is possible with a "universal binary"). 

 

Below are some of the results of the experimentation that have lead me to the above conclusion.

 

Using UI to Switch Accounts

One thing I found a bit confusing is is the current method Evernote uses to tell a person whether they are signing into to their Chinese account or their International account. I find the current way the client is configured to be unintuitive. Specifically, the link that says "For Users of Evernote International" with a very small arrow in front of it. I finally figured out that it meant "press here to log in as an international Account Holder".  I get the idea of keeping the interface clean, but the current method I believe leaves room for improvement. Perhaps a more clear way would be to utilise a drop-down that states "Select your Service" with China or International as the two choices. And the drop-down choices should be presented in Chinese and English language as well (side by side).  I figure that just about any International Account user that deals seriously with China can benefit from at least a free Chinese account. But many will not have the ability to read Chinese, and will still wish to post information that will be available to Chinese Internet users.

 

Utilising One vs. Two Evernote Binaries

Another thing I have noticed is that if the the same binary release number is being called (e.g., beta 5.6.0.7), the following occurs: 

• There is no way to log into the Chinese service without completely logging out of the International service, even tough I am an Evernote Premium Account Holder. 
  
• Even if I duplicate a binary and give it a different name, it still starts up in the same account as the currently running instance of the binary.
  

If different binaries are being used (e.g., YinXiang 5.5.2 (402634 Direct) and Beta 5.6.0.7 (450667 Direct)):

• I can open separate simultaneous instances of the binaries by simply clicking on the respective icons. This kind of capability I find very useful. It allows me to get information from my main Evernote account and build a page in the Chinese Account.
  
• Memory utilisation when running both binaries at the same time appears to be minimal.
  

 

Location and Language 

I found that, once the client was downloaded, it makes no difference whether the computer language is set to English or Chinese, or whether the region was set to U.S. or China. The account that is selected (Chinese or International) in is simply dependent on the login link below the sign-in entry fields that states "For Users of Evernote International".