Related notes

[DutchPete 247]

In principle this sounds like a great feature. In practice I find that the related note shown is just the last one I created & therefore more often than not has no relation to the contents. I have the Windows version.

Do I have to change something in the settings?

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I've heard the same thing time and time again. Here are my thoughts on the matter...

I only started paying attention to related notes when I had quite a substantial database. In other words, for me at least, there is a big enough pool from which this feature gets to draw from, and the results are pretty good. That also goes for the Google "Simultaneous Search" feature via the Web Clipper, etc. I do notice on occasion that if I'm viewing a singular or unique note, or googling something for which I know I do not have similar material archived in my account, the "related notes" are not at all related. It seems to me that Evernote, as a rule, will select the notes with the highest match of keywords, starting with Note titles and then content... and that it will always show you results, no matter how few notes you have in your account. So it may be drawing connections that are not the connections we want... or are not useful ones at all.

If you know for sure that there is very obvious material that is not bubbling up, then disregard my explanation.

Personally, when the related notes are way off, I take it as a sign that I need to/ could do a bit more bolstering up in that particular area. I say this because for me, at least, I rely on the related notes feature mainly to help stimulate ideas and connections with my creative work and writing. One of the easiest ways to do this is to clip related web pages.

If it's your own created material you're looking for, a search query would be more effective in pinpointing specific key words or phrases.

Hope that helps!

[DutchPete 247]

I've heard the same thing time and time again. Here are my thoughts on the matter...

I only started paying attention to related notes when I had quite a substantial database. In other words, for me at least, there is a big enough pool from which this feature gets to draw from, and the results are pretty good. That also goes for the Google "Simultaneous Search" feature via the Web Clipper, etc. I do notice on occasion that if I'm viewing a singular or unique note, or googling something for which I know I do not have similar material archived in my account, the "related notes" are not at all related. It seems to me that Evernote, as a rule, will select the notes with the highest match of keywords, starting with Note titles and then content... and that it will always show you results, no matter how few notes you have in your account. So it may be drawing connections that are not the connections we want... or are not useful ones at all.

If you know for sure that there is very obvious material that is not bubbling up, then disregard my explanation.

Personally, when the related notes are way off, I take it as a sign that I need to/ could do a bit more bolstering up in that particular area. I say this because for me, at least, I rely on the related notes feature mainly to help stimulate ideas and connections with my creative work and writing. One of the easiest ways to do this is to clip related web pages.

If it's your own created material you're looking for, a search query would be more effective in pinpointing specific key words or phrases.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for your comments Frank. I don't know what is a large enough database, but in any case I find this feature, as it currently is, misleading. I don't want to have to do workarounds: either it works or it does not.

I know about doing searches, I am aware of that possibility but it is not what I am after. I want to get more out of my notes with correlations and that is what I really expect from Evernote. There are apps that do that, and EN pretends it can do the same but once again that is a fallacy. Now I realise I am unlikely to get it.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I hear what you are saying. Haha... If I had read some of your previous posts on different topics previous to my post here, I wouldn't have given that long-winded explanation. I see that you pretty much know your way around EN. I was taking this from the perspective of a sort of newbie asking a newbie question. And now I know you are not after seeing some of your other posts just moments ago (don't see post counts under profile photos on my cell phone).

Anyways, the question in my mind (if we don't have much related material to a note we are currently viewing) is how Evernote would know where to draw the line and not show any related notes at all - if there are no clear winners. That would be ideal... but I take it to be like the over eager kid that mentions everything he can related to anything whatsoever he/ she hears... Making arbitrary and random connections, no matter how insignificant - in the case of there not being a clear stand-out connection or correlation.

I find it useful when it's useful, if that makes sense. In other words, I pay attention to this feature more at certain times than at others... It depends what I'm looking for. Having said that, it's hard to not notice related notes... But in the instances that there are clear connections, it becomes all the more apparent and attention-grabbing. At other times I simply brush it off. To illustrate with my own real-life examples, and for the sake of brevity, take a look at a post I made on the topic a short while ago... (Not my intention to promote myself here):

http://www.productivitymashup.com/blog/2014/08/11/chuck-vs-the-evernote

Look at points 1b to 1d, half way through the post more or less. You'll see some screen shots of related notes, simultaneous search and Web Clipper related notes.

For me, at least, time and again, there are clear-cut and precise connections. Dunno... Maybe it just fits my own use case pretty well, since I do a lot of web clipping, as I mentioned earlier... Also, my archive of related material on any particular topic doesn't have to be that extensive... just at least one or two other clearly related notes. But either way, I totally get what you're saying, especially if you're a power user and there are irrelevant related notes that keep vying for your attention more often than not.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Just to clarify on my first response... What I meant to say was not that one should have a big enough database for the related notes feature to work for one specific note/topic... But more specifically, that if one has a big enough and varied database, it seems to me that this feature works more consistently accross the board with most notes. In my experience, just one clearly related note (which I clarified in the 2nd post) is sufficient to do the job. By the way, I get the same results whether I'm on iOS or Windows desktop. The platform doesn't seem to change things.

[Wordsgood 526]

Frank...very nicely done! Both your post here *and* your link!

You did an excellent job of showing just how handy related notes can be, particularly for new users.

[DutchPete 247]

@Frank123; Many thanks for an interesting reply with a very interesting link to the article in Productivitymashup. What you are showing in the examples there is exactly what I am looking for, except it does not work at my end.

In fact, what I am really looking for is this:

I would like to have software that categorizes and links notes and other objects of knowledge (addresses, appointments, graphics, documents) and comes up with surprising combinations, reminders of past activity and glimpses of information and helps me correlate ideas by keyword analysis. This amounts to real knowledge management, rather than just collecting notes without anything further ado.

I guess that is not what Evernote can give, and like I have pointed out numerous times myself on this forum, people should not try to use Evernote for something it was not designed for because that only leads to frustration. So I do not expect to get something like this out of Evernote, but I was hoping the 2related notes" feature delivers what it says it does, which is not the case with me and not with many others either, judging by what I gather from your 1st reply above.

By the way, I notice that you live in Fortaleza, very nice. Went there 2x on business in the late 80s .