Employees are not discovering notebooks on their own, and other problems

[Everfan4now 4]

I'm the admin for my company's EB account. We have about 20 users right now. Here are some of the problems we're having:

 

1) Poor discoverability of company-shared notebooks

 

I started with a couple basic company shared notebooks. One for HR-related content, one for fun photos taken around the office. Neither of them has attracted any users to join without my prompting them. When I've asked, most folks, even heavy EN users, had no idea the notebooks existed. Is there a way to make company-wide notebooks easier to discover?

 

2) Can't rename notebooks globally

 

This has already been covered elsewhere on the Forum, but just wanted to point out this has been a pain point for us.

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/34123-anyone-know-how-to-rename-a-business-notebook-for-everyone/

 

3) Which notebooks are shared and with whom?

 

The left-hand sidebar list of notebooks doesn't indicate which notebooks are shared. Right now I can still memorize which are which, but I see this becoming a problem soon. I've tried to solve this by creating stacks called things like "Shared w individuals" and "Shared globally", but that feels like a hack instead of a solution.

 

4) Accidental note creation in shared notebooks is happening!

 

Our CEO accidentally created a private note in his company-shared notebook. Luckily, discoverability is so low, I was the only one that noticed. He was horrified to find out and deleted his shared notebook. It's happened to me as well, especially when scanning something to Evernote, with notes flowing to whichever notebook I have open, instead of to a default notebook.

 

5) Activity alerts are often frustrating

 

People love the Activity alerts that say someone added something or edited a note they care about, but are frustrated that they can't tell what exactly was changed. 

 

6) Skitch default notebook can't be changed to an EB notebook

 

I use Skitch a lot at work. I like to quickly take a screenshot, make some markups, and share a URL with others via email or otherwise. The problem is that the Skitch doesn't allow changing the default notebook to be Business instead of Personal. And since moving a note from personal to business destroys the shared links, I have to remember to move the Skitch before sharing, or leave the Skitch in Personal - neither of which is convenient. 

 

7) The Mac notebook view is a mess

 

I mainly use a PC, but occasionally a Mac. What's great about the PC EN is that the sidebar separates Personal and Business notebooks. No such convenience with Mac. It's one long list. Ugly, stressful and confusing. 

 

That's my list of gripes about EB. I love EN and sincerely hope they keep improving their product like they have over time. I just wanted to share some thoughts from a real EB user trying to make it work for my team.

[gazumped 11,652]

Thanks for the feedback!

[Everfan4now 4]

Another thing has come up recently, I wanted to add..

 

8) The Business Home shows me too much of my own content

 

Since I use business notebooks for all my business-related notes, they all appear in the Business Home. that's about 25 notebooks by me in the Business Home, most of which are not shared at all. So, if I'm trying to find notebooks by others, most of what I see our my own notebooks. 

 

The Business Home would be much more useful if it only contained other people's notebooks and the notebooks that I share with others. Notebooks that I don't share just create too much clutter. Makes it very hard to discover my colleagues' work.