Control Which Image Shown in a Note's Thumbnail/Snippet View

marcelo · July 1, 2011

I do like the new layout with larger thumbnails, except for one thing: Evernote seems to choose as thumbnail the largest image within a note. But it is rather annoying, for it seldom coincides with the image which would enable me to recognize a note at once. Can I somehow force Evernote to use a specific image as thumbail?

Marcelo

StephenF · May 27, 2013

Oh, so frustrating. I just went through this myself. I'm trying to save a number of houses that we are interested in, and the address in the text and the image of the house are the most important parts. When saving the realtor listing and photos, I'll get all sorts of thumbnails from the realtors logos, pictures of a shed, a back yard, garage interior, or just about anything other then the front of the house. Fooling around with the images trying to get the right one to display is a useless exercise. Far too much work when other apps just let me select which image I feel best represents the content. If Evernote won't let us choose, and can't read our minds, please, just make the first image the thumbnail. At least then we can control it very easily. But delete, see what it selects, undo, try it again, and again, until it finally gets it, wow, what a disaster!

This is basic, very much needed, I can't believe Evernote is as mature as it is and still doesn't have some of the basics done.

Please, please, please, listen to your users on the basic stuff first, then introduce the more advanced stuff.

richschmidt · May 28, 2013

+1 or ditto or "Me, too!" or whatever I need to say...

I'd love to be able to choose the thumbnail image for a note. Whether the note has multiple images taken with my phone, or multiple random images because I clipped a whole webpage, the thumbnail chosen is almost never the one I want. Which means the thumbnails are usually a distraction, not a help. If I could choose them, they would be an enormous help.

Are any developers still reading this? Or is there another avenue for making feature requests? Google found me this thread.

richschmidt · May 28, 2013

I'm adding my two cents to this one, too. I would LOVE to be able to choose the thumbnail. As it stands, Evernote almost never chooses the thumbnail I would choose. Which means the thumbnails are a DISTRACTION to finding the note I want, not a HELP.

If I could choose the thumbnail, when needed, it would be a HUGE HELP.

(I'm also a Premium subscriber, if that matters.)

jefito · May 29, 2013

+1 or ditto or "Me, too!" or whatever I need to say...

I'd love to be able to choose the thumbnail image for a note. Whether the note has multiple images taken with my phone, or multiple random images because I clipped a whole webpage, the thumbnail chosen is almost never the one I want. Which means the thumbnails are usually a distraction, not a help. If I could choose them, they would be an enormous help.

Are any developers still reading this? Or is there another avenue for making feature requests? Google found me this thread.

The developers are well aware of this feature request, and all posts are read by Evernote staff. The forums are a fine place to post feature requests; you can also open a support request, if you feel that you really need to.

siamesekitten · May 29, 2013

I've previously posted about this, and am glad to hear that developers are aware of the need to be able to choose thumbnails for a note.

In addition to this feature, another sorely needed one (unless I've missed it somehow) is the ability to TURN OFF OCR for photos!!! Most of my notes are photo-centric, as I use Evernote for an image database of large collections. Now when I search for a keyword, I get as many spurious results (where Evernote has somehow "found" the word in a tree or article of clothing...) as real ones. This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program, and if I weren't so invested already, I would switch to something else today. I may even switch anyway, if these two issues aren't fixed. They are really driving me crazy...

While it would be best to be able to turn off scanning for any particular image, we should at least be able to choose that only PDFs are OCR scanned, rather than JPEG photos, which rarely contain searchable text. Note that I'm not talking about metadata in JPEGs, which is fine to scan, but the actual image.

OneHeWasRubix · May 29, 2013

This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program

I haven't used Evernote much lately. Why? Because these features are crucial to what I'm using evernote for and frankly if it cant show me the appropriate image, and allow me to choose both the thumbnail, or OCR settings for images, I have no time for this product. Sadly we're using a business account, so I'm holding out.

Nyanta · May 29, 2013

I've previously posted about this, and am glad to hear that developers are aware of the need to be able to choose thumbnails for a note.

This thread is almost two years old so although they are aware of it, that doesn't necessarily mean they will do anything about it. It's a shame really as it's probably not a big deal to implement and would be a massive improvement on the current situation.

GrumpyMonkey · May 29, 2013

This is HUGELY impacting my ability to use the program

I haven't used Evernote much lately. Why? Because these features are crucial to what I'm using evernote for and frankly if it cant show me the appropriate image, and allow me to choose both the thumbnail, or OCR settings for images, I have no time for this product. Sadly we're using a business account, so I'm holding out.

What OCR settings would you like? Are you talking about language settings? If so, you can change them.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=85

siamesekitten · May 29, 2013

Hi GrumpyMonkey. What we are looking for is the ability to turn OCR OFF for JPEG images, since most photos do not contain any usable text, yet Evernote "finds" words all over each image, then shows them in search results. For example, I just searched for the word "vera" in my database, and of the 22 resulting notes, fully 6 of them were spurious results where "vera" was found in a tree or something. I don't want to have to deal with all the random words Evernote finds in photos, and neither do the many other posters above. I want OCR for PDFs ONLY, or the ability to designate which images get OCR applied. Or just the ability to turn it off altogether.

GrumpyMonkey · May 29, 2013

I see. That makes sense.

dominikkalvelage · May 29, 2013

I have a similar problem like siamesekitten.

Although I (and I think also many other users) have images containing text that should be searchable/findable. For example snapshots of signs/documents/flipcharts.

I always prefer a solution, where a user can choose according to his preferences. Unfortunately this is more effort to implement.

A default setting could be OCR ON for PDFs and OCR OFF for images. Then the user could turn OCR ON for images, that should be searchable.

Is there a separate thread for this topic?

Kip Ingram · June 8, 2013

The way the system works now is completely non-intuitive. A larger image does not mean a better representation of what the note is about. I could make a strong argument that the first image in the note (above a certain size threshold) would be the most representative of the note. For example, I took a clipping of a product page. I want to capture the primary product but also the "related products". However, the images of the related products happen to be larger than the primary product so now I have a note about one product with images for a different one shown as the thumbnail. I have similar frustration for other scenarios as well. I agree, the image for the thumbnail on the note should be user-selectable. It's fine to have a default, but I should be able to override it if I wish. Right-click the image --> Set as thumbnail. Simple. Even if that is a desktop-only feature, that's fine. The product already has certain features that only exist in certain implementations of the product, so that's nothing new.

No, no, NO - please don't encourage the devs to think it's ok for something to be desktop-only any more than they already do. I hate how the emphasis is on the Windows client. I use the Android and web interface clients almost exclusively - I go to my Windows machine only to scan, and I'm trying to find a way to avoid that.

Yes - choosing the thumbnail would be best, and having it be the first image in the note would be second best. Choosing it in any other way sucks eggs beyond belief.

Also, if they're not going to let us see pdf file content inline in the web and android clients, then they really need to let us make the thumbnails big enough to read.

curious rabbit · June 26, 2013

If there is more than one image to choose from, and there not a viable engineering task to offer the user the choice, then DO NOT show a thumbnail. That would be better than what I experience now.

Joey4u · July 9, 2013

I'm a software developer using Evernote very often.

However there is some missing basic feature:

When Evernote allows pictures in the Note and it also offers thumbnails of a picture, it absolutely _basic_ to select _which_ picture is shown as thumbnail.

The quote of BurgersNFries: "You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is." and of jefito answer to ThePixelated (analogously) "You dn't know what a basic feature is." are extremely impertinent.

When such a basic feature is missing, I expect an answer like: "Oh, you are rigtht. It will be implemenet it in one of the next release."

And what I expect also, that this would be implemented on every device.

megsaint · July 9, 2013

When such a basic feature is missing, I expect an answer like: "Oh, you are rigtht. It will be implemeneted in one of the next release."
And what I expect also, that this would be implemented on every device.

Neither BnF nor jefito work for Evernote. They can't say what Evernote is planning. And what Evernote says is "We don't make our roadmap public".

BurgersNFries · July 9, 2013

I don't know what being a software dev has to do with this. 95% of people here have been, are or claim to be devs. (shrug)

I'm a software developer using Evernote very often.

However there is some missing basic feature:
When Evernote allows pictures in the Note and it also offers thumbnails of a picture, it absolutely _basic_ to select _which_ picture is shown as thumbnail.

The quote of BurgersNFries: "You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is." and of jefito answer to ThePixelated (analogously) "You dn't know what a basic feature is." are extremely impertinent.

When such a basic feature is missing, I expect an answer like: "Oh, you are rigtht. It will be implemeneted in one of the next release."
And what I expect also, that this would be implemented on every device.

My comment? Impertinent? Perhaps. Accurate? Absolutely.

If this is Jeff's comment you're referring to...

Why isn't this a feature yet??? It's basic...

I urge you to take some time to peruse these forums for items that users think are "basic", count them up, and then reconsider your question...

It's also accurate. What you consider to be a "basic" feature does not always coincide with what others consider a "basic" feature. WRT the answer you "wanted"...:

It may be surpassed by tasks of a higher priority
it may not even be on EN's to do list
EN does not publish their roadmap or ETAs

So yeah...you may not like it (does that sound better?) but that's the way it is.

Joey4u · July 9, 2013

Sorry, you are right, BurgersNFries. You are not working for evernote. But your answers in this topic just sounds like you are on their payroll.

jefito · July 9, 2013

The quote of BurgersNFries: "You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is." and of jefito answer to ThePixelated (analogously) "You dn't know what a basic feature is." are extremely impertinent.

Please don't misquote me. What I said is -- analagously -- that if you read the forums for any length of time, you'd see that there are a lot of features around that different users regard as "basic". So, a) different people can differ over what they think is basic, and

if Evernote were to set out to implement all of these "basic" features, they would probably need a long time to do it. I'm not really sure where the "impertinence" comes in.

For the record, neither BurgersNFries or I are "on the payroll"; we just see things differently than you do. You might pause to consider why that might be. Are we just mindless, robotic "fanbois/fangurlz", or maybe do we have some experience in the field that differs from yours?

Jeff_2A · July 9, 2013

Ok. So it may not be a BASIC feature, probably a little more advanced programming-wise, but if you put several images into a note don't you think you should be able to set which image is displayed in window of all notes?

We that want this feature just need to let he Evernote devs know what we would like to see in this great app!

megsaint · July 9, 2013

We that want this feature just need to let he Evernote devs know what we would like to see in this great app!

Evernote staff reads these posts, even if they don't always respond.

Jeff_2A · July 9, 2013

We that want this feature just need to let the Evernote devs know what we would like to see in this great app!

Evernote staff reads these posts, even if they don't always respond.

I'm sure they do. Would love to see this in Evernote. Would make things a little more convenient.

RyLawson · July 10, 2013

it's basic i think....

kmito · July 17, 2013

I'd go premium if they add this feature. Until then I'll stay with Springpad which has the feature.

MarkDavies10 · July 31, 2013

+1 to adding a feature to enable the user to change the thumbnail image.

I find it incredible this simple feature is not available given how good the rest of Evernote is.

tdsacilowski · August 1, 2013

+1 to adding the ability to choose custom thumbnail images.

What's the point of having visual cues for notes if they don't always properly represent the content you're trying to save? I understand that the "algorithm" may work for most people and that's great... but what would be even better would be a way to override with a custom thumbnail. Facebook lets you do this when you share links.

Some people work visually, some focus on text. But if the developers are trying to focus on useability and a visually expressive way to view notes (Card View), it would necessitate being able to have some control of the thumbnails provided.

Evernote is a great product... let's help make it even better!

hedberg · August 8, 2013

PLEASE PLEASE EVER NOTE FIX THIS

We want to choose ourselves, to be more organised and make EN more useful. The randomness is not working for my research at all.

It's a mess

I've probably recommended using EN to 50 people. Please respond at least

Besides this, amazing product

User in London

David Kolečkář · August 9, 2013

Dear Evernote Team,

Is there any chance that this will ever be implemented?

We're waiting for YEARS for such basic thing.

You all do a great work and tons of little improvements every few months, bit this is realy essential thing and is still missing.

Please, think about it.

JKDT · August 12, 2013

I just started using Evernote (Premium) and too late, discovered that this photo thumbnail issue makes it somewhat useless for me. I want to add a photo of a sewing pattern cover (thumbnail), then a second photo of back of envelope with the details. Evernote is randomly selecting the details picture for the thumbnail. Pftt.

gazumped · August 12, 2013

I just started using Evernote (Premium) and too late, discovered that this photo thumbnail issue makes it somewhat useless for me. I want to add a photo of a sewing pattern cover (thumbnail), then a second photo of back of envelope with the details. Evernote is randomly selecting the details picture for the thumbnail. Pftt.

It's not random unless you take two photos of exactly the same size - if you crop one even slightly, you should be able to force Evernote to choose your preferred picture.

Sombre Sleep · August 29, 2013

+1 to adding the ability to choose custom thumbnail images.

This is just frustrating.

mechanesthesia · September 9, 2013

And this is why I prefer Springpad over Evernote.
Completely oblivious when it comes to having a visual UI. Just now I was testing out both of the platforms. I was trying to clip a page with a video in it. With Springpad, I can select the image which represents the thumbnail of the video. But with Evernote, it randomly chooses a thumbnail of a related video.

BurgersNFries · September 9, 2013

And this is why I prefer Springpad over Evernote.
Completely oblivious when it comes to having a visual UI. Just now I was testing out both of the platforms. I was trying to clip a page with a video in it. With Springpad, I can select the image which represents the thumbnail of the video. But with Evernote, it randomly chooses a thumbnail of a related video.

It's great that Springpad works well for you. OTOH, for some (like say, me) the features that EN has that Springpad does not far outweigh being able to select a thumbnail. That's why there's chocolate & vanilla.

Japh · September 12, 2013

Just want to add my voice to the chorus of "Please make it possible to override the default thumbnail". I came across this issue using the Google Chrome Web Clipper. I clipped a blog post including comments, and an image of a random commenter is used in the thumbnail and as the pin on the Atlas. I couldn't work out why, because it wasn't the most frequent commenter, or the author of the post (which would be what I'd like to set it to). I guess his avatar must have had the largest smallest dimension.

Please add an option to right-click an image within a note and make that the one used for the thumbnail!

tassiecelt · September 15, 2013

What I find sad is that I had a question that relates to the topic of this thread, ie how to set thumbnails as I choose. My question was directed to tech support, their answer was a link to this thread, which took ages to read through only to find, as you all seem to have found, that in this very important matter of storing information in the way we choose - Evernote is found wanting.

No other product support I know of would be so dismissive to a client or user of the product.

This is another example of Evernote boasting as often as it does about its product, while it clearly has a lot of growing to be done in order to be as usable and useful as it claims to be.

alanlarsen · September 24, 2013

Regarding the ability to choose the default image: Springpad has it. Its simple, but it one feature that I love. So when I need quick notes I use evernote. When I need more formatting/packaging options, I use springpad. Would love to see evernote adopt such things too.

I'm not complaining though - I love that evernote has provided such a cool and useful tool. THANK YOU!!

ELeeMill · September 27, 2013

Resizing the images doesn't seems to work either. :/

JKDT · September 28, 2013

I tried resizing and it didn't work for me. And that would be a poor workaround anyway. It needs to simply be the user's choice.

8thesandbox · September 28, 2013

If I get rid of all other pictures in my newly created note, why doesn't the note default then to the remaining picture? It seems to keep the old picture. Would I have to clean up a saved website before I upload to avoid this? Kind of a bizarre if so...

RobertD · October 3, 2013

The inability to be able to change a note thumbnail seems to this user to be pretty high on the radar of many of us. I recently upgraded to a premium account thinking that the extra $ might have gotten at least such a basic feature as this. Algorithm, Schmalgorithm, Evernote should start listening to its endusers. This thread had been around a very, very long time for having been ignored for so long. We who raise our voices on this forum have to be but a fraction of those who suffer with this abysmal inability to simply change a thumbnail image. For many of us and for how we use the program, the feature is crucial !

keodark · October 13, 2013

I, also, would like to have the ability to choose the thumbnail for each note. The current algorithm is awesome in 95% of cases, and works great as a default, but my OCD (and apparently the same is true of dozens of other posters above, not to mention the hundreds (thousands?) who are bothered by this but don't post) gnaws at me when the algorithm sometimes chooses the wrong thumbnail. I'd even be fine with this "override thumbnail" feature being exclusive to the desktop version(s) of Evernote, instead of the web one. Just add SOME way to change it. Please! Thank you.

ideaprison · October 29, 2013

I'm using Evernote to store recipes and it picking horrible thumbnails for each entry.

My first photos are of how the food's going to look and I wish it would just pick that.

Please add this feature!

vve · November 7, 2013

I also would like an option for manually selecting the thumbnail!!

I use Evernote for inventory and it's should show the picture of the item; not the receipt or manual that I also scanned and added to the note.

PLEASE!

:)

icoco_de · November 7, 2013

Funny story to read about "largest smallest dimensions". But why not simply let the user choose if he wants a certain, different picture to represent a certain note? In my case - and obviously many others, too - the algorithm almost perfectly finds and uses the wrong illustration.

OneHeWasRubix · November 7, 2013

This feature has been ignored, and frankly I find it unacceptable. Evernote has failed to implement a feature which, from the looks of it, has enough demand to warrant implementation.

We've since moved away from Evernote, and Evernote Business, and have sought after alternatives to this product. Evernote's lack of collaboration tools and features has left us with no choice. Clunky administration, usability failures, and lack of attention to user/client feedback, leaves us no choice but to leave this product and service behind.

As a business platform, it completely misses the mark.

OneHeWasRubix · November 7, 2013

I do like the new layout with larger thumbnails, except for one thing: Evernote seems to choose as thumbnail the largest image within a note. But it is rather annoying, for it seldom coincides with the image which would enable me to recognize a note at once. Can I somehow force Evernote to use a specific image as thumbail?
Marcelo

No.

This about sums up their response to our user requests.

allieferr · November 10, 2013

I've switched from Delicious to Evernote Web Clipper for my bookmarking, and I'm very happy with it so far.

However, I wish I could select which image from the web page to use as the Bookmark thumbnail. For instance, when I clipped http://tutorialzine.com/2013/10/12-awesome-css3-features-you-can-finally-use , I got this:

To me the author's face wasn't a relevant thumbnail for an article about CSS. The web page actually looks like this:

It would have been great if I could have chosen one of the other graphics from the web page that are more relevant to the content.

calmriver · November 19, 2013

+1 ! please add thumbnail image choice !!!!!!

leealex · November 22, 2013

This problem was mention at russian support forum 2 years (TWO YEARS!) ago (06.09.2011) and it still not solved

I doubt developers care about evernote users.

jbignert · November 22, 2013

We've noted the request and plan to build it in a not too distant future.

leealex · November 23, 2013

We've noted the request and plan to build it in a not too distant future.

Good to hear, hopefully that is true.

mprewitt · November 23, 2013

+1. Giving users the ability to choose a thumbnail should be high on Evernote's priority list. The view that shows thumbnails is the default view; browsing notes by title, thumbnail, and snippet is the default behavior. For those reasons alone, being able to choose the thumbnail should be super important.

The current algorithm works sometimes, especially when there is only one or a couple images in a note. But in other situations (for example, when clipping online tutorials which have illustrations of all the steps), the preselected images are nearly worthless.

I have noticed that in certain situations Evernote will pick a different image each time you edit/save the same note. But it doesn't always work to let you choose the image that you prefer. And when it works, it's just another hack to do something that should be as easy as right-click, "Make this my thumbnail".

BurgersNFries · November 23, 2013

This feature has been ignored, and frankly I find it unacceptable. Evernote has failed to implement a feature which, from the looks of it, has enough demand to warrant implementation.

We've since moved away from Evernote, and Evernote Business, and have sought after alternatives to this product. Evernote's lack of collaboration tools and features has left us with no choice. Clunky administration, usability failures, and lack of attention to user/client feedback, leaves us no choice but to leave this product and service behind.

As a business platform, it completely misses the mark.

I'm sure the feature request has not been ignored. It may be that it's very low on the priority list or that they have decided to not implement it. Simply because a feature is requested does not mean Evernote (or any other software company) will implement it.

I do like the new layout with larger thumbnails, except for one thing: Evernote seems to choose as thumbnail the largest image within a note. But it is rather annoying, for it seldom coincides with the image which would enable me to recognize a note at once. Can I somehow force Evernote to use a specific image as thumbail?
Marcelo

No.

This about sums up their response to our user requests.

My reply was to marcelo's specific question that you emphasized - can I somehow force Evernote to use a specific image as a thumbnail?. As to whether or not the feature request will ever be implemented, there is no way for any of us to know, since Evernote does not publish their roadmap.

keodark · November 23, 2013

I'm sure the feature request has not been ignored. It may be that it's very low on the priority list or that they have decided to not implement it. Simply because a feature is requested does not mean Evernote (or any other software company) will implement it.

While this is, of course, true, it would be unwise for any software company to ignore [by which I mean set a request very low on the priority list] a vocal community of users. While there may be technological roadblocks to this feature that we are unaware of, a note from a Dev telling us this, and assuring us that they are working to meet our requests would go a long ways towards satisfying us. For example (and this is not vindictive, just a statement of fact), I currently tell my foodie friends not to use Evernote to digitize their cookbook collections, because I did so and it bothers me every day to see incorrectly-chosen thumbnails for all of my recipes. The only thing standing between me and moving my notes away from Evernote is time and motivation, but if this feature isn't implemented, I eventually will do so. I doubt I'm alone.

BurgersNFries · November 23, 2013

I'm sure the feature request has not been ignored. It may be that it's very low on the priority list or that they have decided to not implement it. Simply because a feature is requested does not mean Evernote (or any other software company) will implement it.

While this is, of course, true, it would be unwise for any software company to ignore [by which I mean set a request very low on the priority list] a vocal community of users. While there may be technological roadblocks to this feature that we are unaware of, a note from a Dev telling us this, and assuring us that they are working to meet our requests would go a long ways towards satisfying us. For example (and this is not vindictive, just a statement of fact), I currently tell my foodie friends not to use Evernote to digitize their cookbook collections, because I did so and it bothers me every day to see incorrectly-chosen thumbnails for all of my recipes. The only thing standing between me and moving my notes away from Evernote is time and motivation, but if this feature isn't implemented, I eventually will do so. I doubt I'm alone.

We all have to make choices based upon what works for us. There is no way any company (Evernote included) can satisfy all their users, no matter how vocal they (the users) are. Certainly those requesting nested notebooks are at least as vocal as the "choosing my own thumbnail" camp & probably even for a longer period of time. And yet, Evernote has no nested notebooks nor any indication that particular feature is in the pipeline. Again, it's not that they are "ignoring" their users. Choices & priorities must be made. This feature is something that is a high priority to you & some others. I could not care less. Someone else will have yet another feature/fix that is the highest priority for them. Such is life. The rule of thumb that has been posted here many times is to deal with Evernote as it works now, rather than anticipating any future features. If it does not work for you now & you cannot or will not adjust your workflow to make it so, then another app is probably better suited to you.

BTW, if I were one of your foodie friends, I would resent you telling me to not use EN Food simply b/c you're not happy with it. Especially since your decision is based on the thumbnail (per your post). I'm certainly capable of making my own decisions & knowing what works best for me. So unless your friends are not capable of making their own decisions, you may simply want to express your dissatisfaction with Evernote to them & let them decide for themselves, rather than telling them not to use it.

keodark · November 23, 2013

There is no way any company (Evernote included) can satisfy all their users, no matter how vocal they (the users) are. Certainly those requesting nested notebooks are at least as vocal as the "choosing my own thumbnail" camp & probably even for a longer period of time. And yet, Evernote has no nested notebooks nor any indication that particular feature is in the pipeline. Again, it's not that they are "ignoring" their users. Choices & priorities must be made. This feature is something that is a high priority to you & some others. I could not care less. Someone else will have yet another feature/fix that is the highest priority for them. Such is life. The rule of thumb that has been posted here many times is to deal with Evernote as it works now, rather than anticipating any future features. If it does not work for you now & you cannot or will not adjust your workflow to make it so, then another app is probably better suited to you.

BTW, if I were one of your foodie friends, I would resent you telling me to not use EN Food. Especially since your decision is based on the thumbnail. I'm certainly capable of making my own decisions & knowing what works best for me. So unless your friends are not capable of making their own decisions, you may simply want to express your dissatisfaction with Evernote to them, rather than telling them not to use it.

Yes, so let us all curl up in a ball and keep our requests to ourselves, because not standing up and asking for things is how you get what you want in life. If Evernote is like every other software company in the world, then they have a list of feature requests, and the order that those requests get completed is directly correlated to how "vocal" the community is in asking for them. Evernote is not in business to do whatever the hell it wants, it's in business to make money by providing software that people want to use. People want thumbnail selection, and every voice that adds itself to this discussion is contributing to the demand for that feature. End. Of. Story.

Also I don't TELL people not to use Evernote, I simply share my experience with them, and suggest that the thumbnail feature is something that makes for an unsatisfactory digital cookbook. Most people are grateful for the advice.

BurgersNFries · November 23, 2013

Yes, so let us all curl up in a ball and keep our requests to ourselves, because not standing up and asking for things is how you get what you want in life. If Evernote is like every other software company in the world, then they have a list of feature requests, and the order that those requests get completed is directly correlated to how "vocal" the community is in asking for them. Evernote is not in business to do whatever the hell it wants, it's in business to make money by providing software that people want to use. People want thumbnail selection, and every voice that adds itself to this discussion is contributing to the demand for that feature. End. Of. Story.

Also I don't TELL people not to use Evernote, I simply share my experience with them, and suggest that the thumbnail feature is something that makes for an unsatisfactory digital cookbook. Most people are grateful for the advice.

Oh please. No one has said you shouldn't ask for a feature. But you seem to think b/c a feature has been asked for & not implemented that you are being ignored, which is simply not true. I've pretty much said all there is to say on this topic. You can learn from it or not.

BurgersNFries · November 23, 2013

Also I don't TELL people not to use Evernote,

Well, I guess I misunderstood this then..

I currently tell my foodie friends not to use Evernote to digitize their cookbook collections,

keodark · November 23, 2013

Also I don't TELL people not to use Evernote,
Well, I guess I misunderstood this then..
I currently tell my foodie friends not to use Evernote to digitize their cookbook collections,

I didn't realize my words would be picked apart and analyzed, frankly. I was using a pretty common shorthand, "tell", a verb used often to convey that a conversation took place. Forgive me, please, for using a slightly less-than-perfect word.

Yahenda · November 27, 2013

Every once in a while, I stop by this forum to see if any progress has been made in regards to this feature request over the last nearly two and a half years that I've been following it. It's the one missing feature that has kept me from adopting Evernote.

This time, I decided to try something... I used the Evernote web clipper to clip the first page from this discusison and add it to my notebook... I used 'Clip Whole Page' rather than 'Clip article' and when I went to my notebook using my browser... guess what the auto-selected thumbnail for the note was... the default blank member avatar.

I tried it again with the last page of the discussion thus far... just to see if it would be any different or anymore useful... this time, the mighty algorithm auto-selected... member mprewitt's avatar of a cube floating in blue space.

In my notebook's snippets view, the Evernote logo is nowhere to be seen and according to the algorithm, completely non-viable as a choice.

...Now, is there a cleverly written algorithm to select whether this is hilarious, ironic or just sad? (sorry, I just had to ;p )

Still ready to come back to Evernote the moment they impliment user selected thumbnails,

Yahenda

leticia · December 19, 2013

Just wanted to add to the list of people who really need this simple feature.

I really try to love Evernote, I think it's a very clever app with amazing potential, but unfortunately I go back and forth using it for a while and then giving up, because when seemingly small features like this are missing it's very hard to manage so much information in a productive way. They may seem small, but when you have a hundred small issues it can really render the app useless.

It's a shame.

Evernotester · December 25, 2013

Please add this feature. It is such a useful feature that it is unbelieveable it isn't there from first.

HuggyTheBear · December 28, 2013

I can't believe that the obvious feature to select your own thumbnail picture is still not implemented. It just shows that Evernote is not listening to its customers. It should be a piece of cake to add that feature...

BurgersNFries · December 28, 2013

I can't believe that the obvious feature to select your own thumbnail picture is still not implemented. It just shows that Evernote is not listening to its customers. It should be a piece of cake to add that feature...

Whether it's a piece of cake to implement is not something you can speak to unless you are intimate with Evernote under the hood & how it behaves on the various other platforms. Additionally, there are a lot of feature requests by the 60+ million users. The fact that *your* feature request has not been implemented is no indication that EN is not listening to their customers. Sometimes a feature is simply something EN has decided to not implement at all. Or perhaps it's a lower priority than a lot of other things.

HuggyTheBear · December 29, 2013

I can't believe that the obvious feature to select your own thumbnail picture is still not implemented. It just shows that Evernote is not listening to its customers. It should be a piece of cake to add that feature...

Whether it's a piece of cake to implement is not something you can speak to unless you are intimate with Evernote under the hood & how it behaves on the various other platforms. Additionally, there are a lot of feature requests by the 60+ million users. The fact that *your* feature request has not been implemented is no indication that EN is not listening to their customers. Sometimes a feature is simply something EN has decided to not implement at all. Or perhaps it's a lower priority than a lot of other things.

"Evangelapologist" seems to describe you very well, indeed!

Custom thumbnail selection would be one of the most important features to organize your notes and quickly find what you are looking for. After all, a picture says more than a thousand words.

If Evernote cannot implement something as basic as this, they should go out of business. End of story...

BurgersNFries · December 29, 2013

I can't believe that the obvious feature to select your own thumbnail picture is still not implemented. It just shows that Evernote is not listening to its customers. It should be a piece of cake to add that feature...

Whether it's a piece of cake to implement is not something you can speak to unless you are intimate with Evernote under the hood & how it behaves on the various other platforms. Additionally, there are a lot of feature requests by the 60+ million users. The fact that *your* feature request has not been implemented is no indication that EN is not listening to their customers. Sometimes a feature is simply something EN has decided to not implement at all. Or perhaps it's a lower priority than a lot of other things.

"Evangelapologist" seems to describe you very well, indeed!

Custom thumbnail selection would be one of the most important features to organize your notes and quickly find what you are looking for. After all, a picture says more than a thousand words.

If Evernote cannot implement something as basic as this, they should go out of business. End of story...

Thumbnail selection is certainly not the most important feature for many people, including me. End of story.

megsaint · December 29, 2013

Custom thumbnail selection would be one of the most important features to organize your notes and quickly find what you are looking for. After all, a picture says more than a thousand words.

It might be important to you but personally, I really don't care. Now, the ability to sort each notebook individually, now THAT'S important!

JMichaelTX · December 29, 2013

While it is true that it is hard for anyone who is not an Evernote developer to know exactly how hard it is to implement a specific feature, it is possible for a person who has substantial experience as a software developer to make a reasonable, educated guess concerning the relative difficulty of making a small change.

In this case the change is NOT about setting some internal field which tells the software which image to use as a thumbnail. That has already been done. And, in fact, the developers have already discussed in these forums the very complex logic which is used to select the image to be used. I, for one, believe that it is reasonable to assume that it does not take a huge amount of effort to add a menu option to the right-click (context) menu to allow the user to select the image to be used. I can say this because, as a develper, I have written code for this type of UI many times. It is also clear that the current complex code that is used to select the image does something to set the internal field. So, the only real change that is needed is that which allows the user to select the image. All off the remaining code that processes that result is already in place and should be able to be used with little effort.

But I digress. It seems to be of little value to raise objections to a user's request simply because the user thinks it may or may not be difficult to implement. That is not a question that we can settle here. So, IMO, the best course of action is to ignore the user's opinion of difficulty of implementation, and focus on the usefulness of the requested feature.

Frankly I can't imagine why anyone would object to this feature. Today's web pages contain 10's, if not 100's, of images, especially when you remember all the ads that are so commonplace. IMO it is highly unlikely that any algorithm could determine which one of these many images is most relevant to the user who captured the web page. So providing for a user selected image for the thumbnail is most logical.

HuggyTheBear · December 29, 2013

I have to laugh about the fanboys here...

Having a user defined option for the thumbnail is just another field that has to be added to the database. If it's populated, tell the software to use that field, if it's empty, use the standard field that is populated by the algorithm. Any IT developer worth his salt can add that feature in half a day. This is not some Google-type complex machine-learning stuff, this is just totally basic and it is ridiculous that it hasn't been an option from day one or implemented in the meantime.

This thread was started in July 2011 and we now have almost 2014. Has Evernote ever heard of agile software development??? Something smells here...

BurgersNFries · December 29, 2013

I have to laugh about the fanboys here...

Having a user defined option for the thumbnail is just another field that has to be added to the database. If it's populated, tell the software to use that field, if it's empty, use the standard field that is populated by the algorithm. Any IT developer worth his salt can add that feature in half a day. This is not some Google-type complex machine-learning stuff, this is just totally basic and it is ridiculous that it hasn't been an option from day one or implemented in the meantime.

This thread was started in July 2011 and we now have almost 2014. Has Evernote ever heard of agile software development??? Something smells here...

Yeah, I wondered how long it would be before you dug up the F word. That seems to be the go to word when someone can't accept that others have valid opinions that differ from theirs. If I don't agree with you, then I must be a fanboy. Sweet.

BTW, since it's clear you don't get it, that's why I have evangapologist in my tag line. It's called sarcasm.

And please re-read my earlier post, since you seem to have blinders on as to why this feature may not be implemented.

This really isn't worth debating, since the bottom line is that it really doesn't matter what you or I think. The issue has been presented to EN & they either will or will not implement it based upon *their* criteria. If it's a deal breaker for you & you have so little regard for the developers based upon the fact that your "go to" feature has not been implemented, then you should be disgusted & find an app that better suits your needs. Good luck.

BurgersNFries · December 29, 2013

Frankly I can't imagine why anyone would object to this feature.

Please point out where anyone has objected to this feature.

HuggyTheBear · December 29, 2013

BTW, since it's clear you don't get it, that's why I have evangapologist in my tag line. It's called sarcasm.

As an "Evangelapologist" you are an Evangelist and an Apologist. I don't like either.

Nuff said...

jefito · December 29, 2013

This thread was started in July 2011 and we now have almost 2014. Has Evernote ever heard of agile software development??? Something smells here...

At a guess, they have heard of agile software development, and I believe that they practice some form of it (I don't know that they are true religious adherents, but frequent, semi-regular updates do give evidence for some agilistic process). Just a reminder, though -- the agile methodology doesn't tell you to implement all features that are desired; it just offers a way to deliver desired improvements in a more timely and continuous fashion, but doesn't specify which of those improvements are chosen or how they're prioritized.

On another note: let's everybody bring this discussion back to a more civil and constructive place, please.

Geoff Olynyk · January 7, 2014

Just chiming in to add that I would also really, really like this feature. Been waiting for it for a year now. It would also be useful because sometimes when creating a note through the web interface on a slow connection, no thumbnail is created, and I would like to be able to create one manually later. Thanks!

knottychic · January 9, 2014

I'd also love to have this feature. Thanks!

Jackolicious · January 13, 2014

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

Geoff Olynyk · January 13, 2014

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

Thanks for the reply! I definitely appreciate the complexity of making these changes. Glad to know that it's on your list, at least!

keodark · January 13, 2014

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

Thanks, Jackolicious, for replying to this thread. Glad to know it's on the radar. I hope nobody is truly belittling the work necessary here, although I personally think the feature is important enough to justify the effort. As a software engineer working on a large-scale production environment, I understand the complexities involved. I'd like to think that this is primarily a user interface issue (since the thumbnail selection is already stored in the DB), and only the method of choosing (and changing) that thumbnail is what's being asked for. Nevertheless, I appreciate the work you guys do. Cheers!

nycbrown · January 14, 2014

+1

HuggyTheBear · January 15, 2014

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

Actually, it would be really interesting to read an in-depth explanation of why this is so complex. I understand that you have billions of notes on your servers, but you won't have to adjust all those notes, if you allow the user to override your algo-determined thumbnail. I would be all ears to understand that problem better...

jefito · January 15, 2014

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

Actually, it would be really interesting to read an in-depth explanation of why this is so complex. I understand that you have billions of notes on your servers, but you won't have to adjust all those notes, if you allow the user to override your algo-determined thumbnail. I would be all ears to understand that problem better...

You should probably take Jack up on his offer, and open a new topic.

a3chic9 · January 17, 2014

I'd like to add my +1 for this feature. I'd especially love it because those images are used in Evernote food.

linaz · January 22, 2014

I am new to Evernote and this was the first feature that I noticed was missing. It's a deal breaker for me at this point. I was thrilled to find something I could use across platforms that met all my other requirements. It looks like I'll be back when the "fix is in."

ramzez1974 · January 31, 2014

I found a a easy way to change the thumbnail in my iMac (sorry I don't use Evernote in Windows) I am using version 5.4.4 (402231)

Choose the image you want use as a thumbnail within Evernote by highlighting it (it becomes light blue).

Open with preview.

Resize the image and save the file.

In my experimenting I increased the image to150% of the original size.

But it does not affect how it is displayed in Evernote.

The thumbnail is immediately changed when the size fits the thumbnail algorithm described earlier in this thread.

I only tried this once. But I am sure this will solve this once and for all.

MacProCT · January 31, 2014

Evernote, please add the ability for me to specify the thumbnail for my notes. I don't like the way the "automatic" selection algorithm works and I wish to be in control of what I see. Thank you.

buffal0gal · February 4, 2014

YES please!!!. The largest smallest algorythm sucks for most of my notes. It's fine to leave that as the default, but allow me to change WHICH image in a note is the thumbnail. Even if that editing ability is only in the desktop version.

PLEASE!!!!

Stoic · February 13, 2014

Please implement something for this. Pretty please! (Made a form account just to say that...)

andyddd · February 24, 2014

FEATURE REQUEST:

Default Thumbnail Generation:

Position: (*) Largest-Smallest ( ) Whole Page
( ) Specific: [(*) Top ( ) Middle ( ) Bottom] [(*) Left ( ) Center ( ) Right]

Page: (*) First Page ( ) Last Page ( ) Specific Page: [ 1] (or last if page count too small)

[Apply to Future Notes Only] [Apply to All Notes Now^*]

^*Apply to All Notes Now may take a very long time.

JMichaelTX · February 24, 2014

I'd be happy if I could just right-click on an image in the Note, and select it as the thumbnail.

cbits · March 2, 2014

I have just been reading pages about this... quite unbelievable that Evernote should make such a mess up of something so simple as having a "Choose" featured image" - all Wordpress Blog posts have this it's very simple and if people don't choose one the program picks one, whether it uses some "largest, mines bigger than yours, tiniest" consideration I neither know nor care.

I suspect the quote "You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is. (shrug)" from one of your evangelists is a very good indication of the Evernote attitude to it's customers and their requirements.

BurgersNFries · March 2, 2014

I have just been reading pages about this... quite unbelievable that Evernote should make such a mess up of something so simple as having a "Choose" featured image" - all Wordpress Blog posts have this it's very simple and if people don't choose one the program picks one, whether it uses some "largest, mines bigger than yours, tiniest" consideration I neither know nor care.

I suspect the quote "You don't have to like it, but that's the way it is. (shrug)" from one of your evangelists is a very good indication of the Evernote attitude to it's customers and their requirements.

No, it's not simple. Clearly you overlooked this post (by a Evernote employee) in the thread....

The requests for this feature have definitely been noted and I appreciate the spirited discussion!

Just as a point of reference, describing the complexity of this task as "small" or assuming that it would "only take half a day" is grossly underestimating the level of effort involved in modifying a database structure supporting 80 million users (and billions of notes) in a production environment Happy to discuss this further with anyone in a separate thread!

mike77n · March 7, 2014

It would be very usable feature in my view. it's difficult to make a notebook visual now - main reason for I had to move some of my stuff to Springpad.

saintleighjess · April 26, 2014

REQUEST – It would be amazing to have a feature where an image can be selected, and when you right-click (ie, the same way you rotate it, etc.) there could also be an option to override the "largest smallest-dimension" algorithm and set that image as the note's thumbnail.

A little background ––

One thing I use EN for very heavily is as an artist database for my job. I really like having both a photo of the artist and an example of their artwork at the top of their card.

However, when I'm scrolling through snippet or card view, it would be really helpful to have the image of their artwork always be the one to show up. This usually happens but there are a few times where the photo of the artist is used instead.

I've read up on the algorithm that chooses the image with the "largest smallest-dimension" (PS, see what I did there with the hyphen? Way clearer that way.) and I am actually OCD enough to try to amend the file sizes to have the algorithm pick the right one. However, even this doesn't seem to work – it's probably me because I guess an algorithm can't lie, but even when I resize the images, it's still not choosing the right one.

So my question is – why would that be happening? Could it be that once EN's algorithm chooses an image, it always chooses that filename even when the size changes?

But what would be SO MUCH EASIER is my *request* – could there be an override option to the largest smallest-dimension algorithm (which I agree does work at least half of the time for me) to choose a thumbnail? I'm not talking some fancy thing in the settings where you tell EN how to pick your thumbnails – that sounds like way more work than it's worth. I just imagine, like I've said above, having the image you want to be the thumbnail highlighted/selected, then right click (in the same way that you can rotate an image, etc.) and have something like "set as note thumbnail."

Please??

Thank you!

saintleighjess · April 26, 2014

I've read some earlier posts about this problem, but I want to bring it up again and also offer another suggestion for a solution.

I want to reiterate that it's really frustrating to not be able to choose a thumbnail photo. One of the things I use EN very heavily for is as a database of artists for my job. Each artist has a card and I like to have a photo of them and an example of their artwork. Both images are important to me and to the database's function, but it would be hugely helpful if the thumbnail for each card in snippet view was the artist's artwork, not their photo – since when I'm scrolling in that view it's the style of artwork I'm scanning for.

I agree with the developers that the "largest smallest-dimension" algorithm does work a lot of the time, but it doesn't always, and it's a huge pain to try to resize images to get them in the correct ratio. I am super OCD about things like that and I've tried but actually have given up.

I'm not suggesting a fancy option in the settings that creates a rule for how EN chooses the thumbnail – that sounds like way too much development work and I totally appreciate that (1) the thumbnail doesn't matter that much in a lot of cases and (2) it would cause a lot of issues with webpage banners, etc.

My request is to create an option when the image is selected and right-clicked in desktop version (i.e. like how you rotate the image) that is something like "set image as thumbnail." I hope that this could be a good compromise solution to this issue that wouldn't pose the same difficulties as creating a series of complicated rules in settings, but would still allow users flexibility and control in selecting a thumbnail when it does actually matter a lot.

Thank you!

BurgersNFries · April 26, 2014

I've merged the two threads you started. Please do not start multiple threads on the same topic. Thank you.

saintleighjess · April 26, 2014

I've merged the two threads you started. Please do not start multiple threads on the same topic. Thank you.

Sorry that was an accident! I retyped for nothing, bummer. On a train and the wifi is really shoddy.

You can just delete the first one that lost all its formatting etc. – I can't figure out how to do it.

Doug C. · June 9, 2014

Well it's been three years and this still isn't implemented and Evernote continues to pick the wrong thumbnail. So is this going to be fixed any time soon? I can't even seem to cut/copy an image from Evernote and paste it into an image editing program, so perhaps that can be fixed too. Seems odd to have a native app that fails the basic rules for a native app.

HuggyTheBear · June 9, 2014

Well it's been three years and this still isn't implemented and Evernote continues to pick the wrong thumbnail. So is this going to be fixed any time soon? I can't even seem to cut/copy an image from Evernote and paste it into an image editing program, so perhaps that can be fixed too. Seems odd to have a native app that fails the basic rules for a native app.

I guess that is called "agile software development" ;-)

chronistin · June 9, 2014

Well it's been three years and this still isn't implemented and Evernote continues to pick the wrong thumbnail. So is this going to be fixed any time soon? I can't even seem to cut/copy an image from Evernote and paste it into an image editing program, so perhaps that can be fixed too. Seems odd to have a native app that fails the basic rules for a native app.

I don't know which client you are using, but in windows you can rightclick any image and select "open with..." to choose an image editing program to edit the pic.

Also, EN does not pick the "wrong" thumbnail, it picks the thumbnail it is designed to pick. I would also like to choose my own thumbnail, but words are important, too.

jefito · June 9, 2014

Well it's been three years and this still isn't implemented and Evernote continues to pick the wrong thumbnail. So is this going to be fixed any time soon? I can't even seem to cut/copy an image from Evernote and paste it into an image editing program, so perhaps that can be fixed too. Seems odd to have a native app that fails the basic rules for a native app.

I guess that is called "agile software development" ;-)

Cute, but agile software development doesn't mean that all requested features are delivered...

jbenson2 · June 9, 2014

Just a reminder:

Evernote's actual description of their head-scratching "Largest-Smallest" image selection algorithm:

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18482-choosing-a-thumbnail/page__view__findpost__p__92194

Control Which Image Shown in a Note's Thumbnail/Snippet View

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