Reading on Evernote - Suggested Improvements

[KMG 2]

The Evernote community should ring in on features that could improve the reading experience for articles, reports, and other long reads.

 

I use Evernote to save articles, especially long articles, that I want to read later. So when I am in transit, going to bed, or just in the mood for a good read, I can find the articles that I saved for later reading. The offline notebooks included in the Premium account was one of the main features that convinced me to subscribe. I usually use Clearly or Web Clipper to save articles to my "Unread" notebook, and then I switch them to "Read" or another notebook after I've finished reading.

 

There are a few small changes that I would suggest to improve the reading experience, especially on mobile devices:

 

• Night Mode: I'd love the opportunity to switch to reading on a dark background.
   
• Bookmarks: It's often difficult for me to pick up where I left off. I would use a quick bookmark feature a lot.
   
• Read/Unread?: Using notebooks for read and unread has worked well for me. One could also use tags. Is there another way to flag a note as read/unread? Should there be?

 

That's all. I'd love to hear from other people about how they use Evernote for reading and also give suggestions for improvements.

 

* Thank you to the developers for the great work that you all do. I love love love Evernote.

[Wordsgood 526]

Hi KMG!

Another bibliophile, yay! I'm always happy to meet another die hard reader!

[KMG 2]

Hey Worksgood,

 

Great to hear from you! These are good ideas to chew on.

 

Both [night mode and bookmarks] have been requested many times before, but I've yet to hear of anything in the works for them.

 

True. On a quick search I found night-mode requests from 2010, 2011, and 2013-2014, plus a 2010 post requesting integration with Kindle reading app, which has a night mode. It may be a lost cause. Yet the presentation feature has a night mode, so...

 

Bookmarks have been requested fewer times in the forums, but the requests are there from at least 2012-2014 and 2013.

 

 

For bookmarks on long articles, you could just highlight the first word or two of the last line you read - or the first line of where to pick up reading it later.

 

This is a good suggestion. I've done this on my Android phone, but I find it a bit clunky to click edit, highlight the word or sentence, then save.

 

 

Where I've found Evernote really handy in all this is that I can create linked and tagged notes about author and publishing vital stats to help me remember which volumes I already own, and to identify those that I don't when I'm out and come across any new or used books by them.

 

That is pretty cool! And you are quite a bibliophile. I'm not as systematic about my reading and tracking of authors, but your work/reading flow gives me some ideas. Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Most [new and upcoming features] seem to be focused on business users and the push to sell EN's new virtual "workstations" set-up.

 

I use Evernote for business and research a lot. However, the news that's been coming out suggests a singular focus on making Evernote perfect for business. I thought a general topic on how people use Evernote for reading would add voice to this concern.

 

Bonus: People in businesses read stuff. Sometimes long complicated stuff that is best suited for integration with Evernote, reading at night, and bookmarking.

 

Thanks for chiming in!

[Wordsgood 526]

You're welcome!