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

exceles · July 6, 2015

Hello EN Team,

I am interested in knowing if this feature of selecting image of your choice will ever be available and if it will, when will it be.

I have read over the pages but there are many answers so I am a little confuse.

Thanks for your time in answering.

Leah MacVie · July 6, 2015

Hello EN Team,

I am interested in knowing if this feature of selecting image of your choice will ever be available and if it will, when will it be.

I have read over the pages but there are many answers so I am a little confuse.

Thanks for your time in answering.

It is a good question and one that has been evaded many times by support and techs handling our tickets. If you read in this forum, one of the techs responded that they were working on it a few years ago. However, since then, we keep receiving the message to 'put in a ticket'. So, that is the strategy we are following now. There is apparently an algorithm, as you have read, that appears to work for some people but not for others. I have a ticket in now because the algorithm does NOT work for me on the Web version, in every major browser, on PC and Mac. I have a ticket in and the tech team was going to take a look at my account specifically. However, this is a bandaid on the original issue. If evernote just gave us the option to choose a thumbnail, I don't think an 'algorithm' or 'algorithm troubleshooting' would be needed. Right?

MikhailV · July 12, 2015

I've already Liked and/or responded with very brief agreement to / elaboration on a couple of previous posts to this topic.

Now, I have a few observations to add. I hope they represent (at least mostly) new/augmented info that is both relevant to this topic and will refine -- at least a bit -- the understanding of the parameters of EN's current behavior in connection with it. I have copied the entire contents of this topic from my browser to (you guessed it) an EN note, and performed a few text-within-Note searches for obvious precedents. Naturally, one of the positive byproducts of a future and effective response by EN (the company) to this concern would be avoiding the need to review (what is now) over 260k characters in over 47k words across 16 pages comprising 300+ discrete posts to see what specific info pertaining to this topic has already been discussed. I apologize in advance for any inadvertent repetition that any forum browsers find counterproductive.

For EN note contexts (e.g., subjects, authors/promulgators,...) where I've decided that the value of visual identifiers via EN thumbnails warrants finding/scaling/cropping relevant images (e.g., EN icon/logo), I've recently developed a standardized approach based on a 300x300 pixel size and confinement of key image content to a central horizontal range. I add such visually-identifying thumbnails to the beginnings of applicable notes as a de facto visual note header. I adopted these practices after seeing how many pixels EN devoted to thumbnail display within (Windows) desktop, Web, and iOS apps, based on my hardware and configurations...and on how EN seemed to alter thumbnail display behavior based on the aspect ratio of the image within the note it selects as a thumbnail and on the nature of the other contents of the subject notes. (At this time, I don't intend to elaborate further -- I don't want to spend more time and lengthen this post even further without good reason.) It appears to me that I experience no EN thumbnail display context where pixel dimensions exceeding 300 could provide value in terms of additional visual information actually displayed in the thumbnail. Furthermore, I'm unwilling to expand thumbnail-candidate image dimensions to pixel counts potentially orders of magnitude beyond their maximum thumbnail display size simply to contort even further my workflow to EN's thumbnail selection limitations. I don't believe such additional image expansion would be in the interests of EN and its users either, since it would consume further space on EN's servers with data that represent "empty calories" useful only to compensate for EN's thumbnail-selection shortcomings. Based on my current note contents and note-creation patterns, EN desktop selects such inserted images as the thumbnail most of the time -- often enough for this practice to be worthwhile for me based on EN's current shortcomings in this department.

FYI, my current iOS hardware consists of an iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2. I tend to use "Snippet" view across all platforms.

1) My first observation seems to relate to a post from "icebox" on 09 Dec 2014 - 01:15 AM. I will start by discussing it in the context of the EN desktop app running on Windows. My recent EN usage patterns have included a subset of Web content selections for copying into EN that included extensive avatar imagery. In my case, such selections have more often resulted in a thumbnail display of an actual photo rather than the "'unknown' face" icebox refers to, but I believe the principle is the same. EN selects a thumbnail that has no relationship to the previously-discussed "largest smallest" algorithm in the context of the size of the images as displayed on the browser's native Web page view or in the corresponding content within an EN note. I'm not a programmer, but I'll speculate on what the EN program is doing -- perhaps it is evaluating image size based on underlying code (HTML? XML?) that (at least in some cases) reflects something other than the actual display size of the images on the source Web page and EN note body...or, in icebox's case, whether the image is displayed at all in the EN note body. Perhaps the source info EN responds to in connection with thumbnail selection is "original" image size as coded in the subject Web page or the linked URL, rather than to display size within the context relevant to the EN user.

When images representing photos of actual people are involved, this behavior by EN does more than obscure relevant visual identifying info; it results in the "misleading" that "JMichael" refers to in his/her post from 10 June 2014 - 01:41 AM. I'm confident that many of us are faced with the decision of whether or to what extent to invest time and energy to re-conform at least some of our notes -- and perhaps also sacrifice some secondary goals for their content -- in order to try to compel EN to perform the thumbnail selection we desire. For me, preliminary visual cues to note content/context are important, so I'm one of those people. In my experience with pages such as those that cause this problem, there can be compelling reasons to retain the images, related links, and/or surrounding content (relying on the avatars for visual context) that causes inappropriate behavior by EN's thumbnail selection algorithm. My approach with such cases thus far has generally been to see if EN will select -- as the thumbnail -- the image I inserted that conforms to my current, aforementioned "note header" standard. If not, I'm usually not willing to waste my time trying to minimize collateral damage by systematically but "blindly" deleting secondary avatar images one-by-one in hopes that EN will eventually choose a thumbnail that doesn't constitute patently misleading information. (Such an approach would appear to be comparable to what "Evernote Support" recommended a user apply as documented in the post string attributed to "Lawlitta", "Evernote Employee", "Posted 25 June 2015 - 09:40 AM".) Instead, I'll either tolerate the misleading thumbnail or wipe out all the secondary avatar images in one fell swoop.

2) EN's thumbnail-selection shortcomings further confound my productivity due to the inconsistency I've observed in their application (or at least resultant behavior) across platforms. For the types of content I introduced in "1)', above, I've observed multiple instances where my addition of an image conforming to my aforementioned "note header" standard has caused EN desktop to choose it as a thumbnail, while the same note -- synced to my iOS devices -- has continued to select a misleading image that should not "trump" my header image based on EN's purported algorithm. As I mentioned above, I'm not a programmer; I don't know to what extent this behavior relates to programming code differences between the versions of EN I have installed on different platforms, and to what extent it relates to some difference in the way the note data itself is constituted on each of these different platforms. Either way, it exacerbates the negative impact of EN's thumbnail-selection shortcomings on my EN experience. Strangely, in these particular instances, I've observed the (inappropriate) thumbnail images on my iOS devices to be displayed with a vertically-biased aspect ratio ("portrait shape") and corresponding symmetrical vertical crop; on the desktop, I've become accustomed to circumstances in which EN will crop square images in note bodies when applying them as thumbnails, but only via a horizontally-biased aspect ratio ("landscape shape") and corresponding symmetrical horizontal crop.

Like countless other posters to this topic, I acknowledge and appreciate EN's value to me, both in words here and through my continued patronage as a Premium subscriber. Thanks to EN -- the company and its representatives, both past and current -- for developing and supporting this product/service. Like many other posters (I suspect), I continue to use EN despite its weakness regarding thumbnail selection. However, I also preemptively assert that the information I've provided above does not constitute a solution to this problem, not even a partial one, not even an acceptable workaround. Any official EN representatives reviewing this information should not construe it as such. (I doubt any users not officially representing EN who review this post will deem it as such.) It should only be construed as yet another elaboration on / clarification of the problem; like many other posters, I can only hope the cumulative weight of posts to this topic will ultimately convince EN to substantially improve thumbnail selection, and to do so across all of the platforms/interfaces it supports. This is not just an issue of absence of explicit user choice regarding thumbnail selection, although I agree with the numerous other posters who believe this absence substantially reduces EN's effectiveness for their workflows. EN's avoidance of a substantive response to this issue over the past four (4) years has also resulted in a continuation of app behavior relating to thumbnail selection and display that is -- on the whole, and across supported platforms -- much less consistent and simple to infer/predict than the post from "emerick" timestamped 01 July 2011 - 02:42 PM seems to suggest.

Even a solution as simple as applying the fist image in the note body as the thumbnail (perhaps subject to minimum constraints in pixel dimensions) -- either optionally (as the default selection or otherwise) or compulsorily -- would vastly improve my EN experience. This is substantively identical to or at least generally consistent with input from JMichael (Posted 16 July 2011 - 10:48 PM & 01 July 2012 - 05:41 AM), radiantlf (Posted 30 October 2011 - 12:51 AM), Designology (Posted 07 December 2011 - 12:32 AM), Gimpster (Posted 11 January 2012 - 10:56 PM), Richard Beddard (Posted 21 February 2012 - 11:38 AM), Mike Wood (Posted 30 June 2012 - 10:45 PM), chriszygmont (Posted 18 October 2012 - 02:44 AM), 2vet (Posted 26 December 2012 - 08:38 AM), siamesekitten (Posted 03 March 2013 - 10:53 PM), gdw35 (Posted 02 April 2013 - 01:17 PM), Jared (Posted 02 May 2013 - 04:12, 04:15 & 04:18 PM), StephenF (Posted 27 May 2013 - 02:17 AM), Kip Ingram (Posted 08 June 2013 - 04:41 PM), ideaprison (Posted 29 October 2013 - 09:41 AM), csjDK (Posted 16 June 2014 - 01:29 PM), Esben Sæderup (Posted 21 June 2014 - 01:35 PM), Spectrablue (Posted 13 October 2014 - 01:37 PM), mptpro (Posted 28 November 2014 - 01:15 AM), and TotheMoonAlice (Posted 23 June 2015 - 01:18 PM).

Pilot Bob · July 28, 2015

Ticket# 1173855 - Choosing note thumbnail

OMG! Why can't I SELECT the image for the note's thumbnail. Pleeeeeeeeeze.

How about a rt-click on the image and then on the menu "Make this the thumbnail"

Please please please

JMichaelTX · July 28, 2015

@MikhailV:

I really appreciate your enthusiasm and detail, but to be honest, your post is overwhelming to me. It makes my eyes glaze over.

And I'm a great supporter/requester of this feature.

I'm trying to help here. Who is your audience? If it's Evernote, I suspect (but I don't really know) that they won't read all of a lengthly post that has no category headers.

I encourage to you to be more succinct, use section headers in bold to denote major points, and provide links to support your arguments rather than embed them.

Thanks for your input. My apologies if you find my post offensive. It's not intended to be. I really am just trying to help.

Feel free to ignore if you don't find it helpful.

shadylane · July 31, 2015

"Repetition is good" - so here's another me-too-post:

I'm pretty sure I stumbled upon this very discussion about two years ago when I first tried to find out why Evernote's Mac client wouldn't let me choose a thumbnail image. As a long time user of iPhoto (RIP), I was used to right-clicking on a photo and choosing "make key photo" (or simply hitting the space bar while browsing in preview mode). It hadn't even occurred to me that this feature might not be available in Evernote - this had to be a stupid oversight, right? RIGHT?

Well, it's two years later (4 years since the OP started this discussion) and this feature still hasn't been implemented - the lack of options to control how the thumbnail image is chosen is really starting to bother me. I'm definitely not going to try to "trick" the almighty algorithm... rescaling pictures until the correct one is chosen is not something I'm willing to do multiple times a day.

Forgive me if I've missed some clear explanation from staff as to why this feature hasn't been implemented yet (I simply don't have the time to read through this whole thread right now), but it boggles my mind why Evernote seems to not be interested at all in solving this problem. The company surely has some of the smartest developers available to them, they do great stuff and fantastic features have been added to the clients since I first started using Evernote. I can't think of a single reason why a feature like that, a feature that iPhoto has had as long as I can remember, wouldn't be high up on the "To Do" list. Making a note instantly recognizable by its (chosen) thumbnail would make Evernote easier to use, it would be visually appealing and it would make Evernote a more useful product - at least for me.

PS: I would be quite happy if - as others have said before - the first image would be chosen as the thumbnail image, no matter what. That would allow me to have some form of control over the process without having to perform convoluted scaling operations... don't even get me started on the "largest smallest"-thing. *grrrrrrrr*

Leah MacVie · July 31, 2015

Hello everyone,

Update on my ticket from June:

Francisco S. (Evernote Support)

Jul 31, 13:09

Leah,

Thank you for following up about this. Although the developers are still looking into this, I have asked for an update.

I will notify you as soon as I receive a response.

Thank you for your patience.

Cheers,
Francisco S.

nanphan · August 26, 2015

Thank you everyone for the spirited discussion on this topic. As you know we have a lot of feature ideas and requests that come in from all of our users. Unfortunately, this is not a feature that we are planning to add in the near future. The feature request, however, is heard loud and clear. We understand the need and see its value. We will continue to consider it in the list of potential features to add as we continue to improve the product. Thanks again for being active in the community and providing us feedback. We really appreciate it. We'll be sure to update this thread should this feature get implemented later down the line.

Nancy

JMichaelTX · August 27, 2015

Thank you everyone for the spirited discussion on this topic. As you know we have a lot of feature ideas and requests that come in from all of our users. Unfortunately, this is not a feature that we are planning to add in the near future.

Nancy, thanks for resetting our expectations. Not what I wanted to hear, but at least now I can quit butting my head against a brick wall that will never give.

You'll have to admit it is shocking to hear this, given that this request started at least 4 years ago, and has had 320 posts.

Perhaps there were 1 or 2, but I don't recall anyone being against the feature.

I do wonder one thing though. Can you name 3 features that have been added recently in response to user requests?

Please exclude the Web Beta from this, since it is just working its way back to restoring all of the features of the main Web client.

nanphan · August 27, 2015

Thank you everyone for the spirited discussion on this topic. As you know we have a lot of feature ideas and requests that come in from all of our users. Unfortunately, this is not a feature that we are planning to add in the near future.

Nancy, thanks for resetting our expectations. Not what I wanted to hear, but at least now I can quit butting my head against a brick wall that will never give.

You'll have to admit it is shocking to hear this, given that this request started at least 4 years ago, and has had 320 posts.

Perhaps there were 1 or 2, but I don't recall anyone being against the feature.

I do wonder one thing though. Can you name 3 features that have been added recently in response to user requests?

Please exclude the Web Beta from this, since it is just working its way back to restoring all of the features of the main Web client.

Thanks for understanding, JMichael. Unfortunately, with the limited resources we have on our side when building out the product, we have to make tough calls on which features to add to the product, which bugs to address, and cost out not only what is implementable in one client, but in all of our clients. Right now our focus is on improving the New Web Client. We've been addressing the feedback users have been giving us over the last year. Hopefully you've noticed that every release note in the last couple of months were design changes all based on user feedback that actually came from the discussion forums & our surveys. We still have a lot of work, but we try to address the biggest pain points first & hopefully through the future releases, we can trickle in more new feature requests. As for the length & date of this thread, unfortunately it predates me, so I can't speak to why it's been going on for so long. Either way, let's make sure we keep this type of feedback coming and I'll be sure to bring it back to the team.

Nancy

JMichaelTX · August 27, 2015

Thank you everyone for the spirited discussion on this topic. As you know we have a lot of feature ideas and requests that come in from all of our users. Unfortunately, this is not a feature that we are planning to add in the near future.

I do wonder one thing though. Can you name 3 features that have been added recently in response to user requests?

Please exclude the Web Beta from this, since it is just working its way back to restoring all of the features of the main Web client.

Right now our focus is on improving the New Web Client. We've been addressing the feedback users have been giving us over the last year.

Nancy, you just hit on one of my biggest concerns: Putting valuable resources on a product that really wasn't needed that much, at least by that many users, i.e. the new Web Client. There was really nothing wrong with the "old" web client. All of the feedback/requests have been for putting back into the new Web client the missing features that were already in the old web client.

Sorry, but you did not really answer my question, which I specifically requested that you exclude the Web beta.

I asked the question because I believe that you can't find 3 features (not related to the web client), that have been requested by users, that have been implemented recently (let's say the last year).

Go ahead. Prove me wrong, if you can.

Geoff Olynyk · August 27, 2015

Nancy, you just hit on one of my biggest concerns: Putting valuable resources on a product that really wasn't needed that much, at least by that many users, i.e. the new Web Client. There was really nothing wrong with the "old" web client. All of the feedback/requests have been for putting back into the new Web client the missing features that were already in the old web client.

Sorry, but you did not really answer my question, which I specifically requested that you exclude the Web beta.

I asked the question because I believe that you can't find 3 features (not related to the web client), that have been requested by users, that have been implemented recently (let's say the last year).

Go ahead. Prove me wrong, if you can.

No need to be rude about it... I get that it's frustrating but it's not her fault, these decisions are made at a higher level.

My suspicion is that Evernote is prioritizing features that lead to $$$$ coming in (things that corporations are asking for, or things that drive users to the Pro version), vs. some esoteric technical feature that is requested by a bunch of old-school users who are mostly on the free Basic version are asking for. At least, that's how I read between the lines of Nancy's response.

gbarry · August 27, 2015

Please avoid the unnecessary call outs--Nancy's providing additional info around how and why we may prioritize a feature over other forms of development, and is being transparent about our intensions around this particular feature. By only focusing on a few limited feature requests you're avoiding much of the other developmental priorities we have, including updates and improvements to existing features. Please check our PM development posts on these forums, and find a range of updates that are based on user feedback, often from our forum membership. Justin's Windows post is only the most recent example: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/87863-new-evernote-for-windows-590/which addresses a number of recurring themes, such as table functionality. There are explicit improvements across pretty much every single device we support, right here in these forums, many of which contain improvements, adjustments, or expansion to features.

We definitely need to do a better job at communicating back to customers when feedback is implemented, and we're working on ways to improve on that and close the loop.

Closing the thread for now. Thanks to everyone who has provided information and feedback behind this feature request.

jerry187 · September 21, 2015

I have been coming back every month waiting for evernote to fix this. i would much rather have a quick glance at a thumbnail to identify a note in the endless sea of notes i have amassed. I am a premium user which means i give you money for your service evernote. please address this issue hear my cry!. every update that comes out im there waiting hoping and praying. Put me out of my misery. Oh and i'm a mac user by the way.

JMichaelTX · September 22, 2015

The outcry for this feature is tremendous. Almost everyone who posts agrees it would be very helpful.

Yet, Evernote has recently stated that it is not one of their current priorities.

See:

Matt960 · November 5, 2015

Evernote! Is anybody listening??

This is the number one issue for me (has been since the card view was introduced). I've started using ember for mac for this one reason alone but maintaining both services is a pain. I'd love to just be able to use evernote.

For those of us who use evernote for primarily for images and screenshots, having half of the card covered with a title and text severely limits the user experience and effectiveness of the app.

Xavi · November 30, 2015

I'd like to add my vote to this (old) request. Please, add a "Set image as Thumbnail" feature to the client.

I can state my reasons, but I believe everything has already been said in this (and other similar) posts. It's basically a big convenience factor for people who use multiple images in the same post.

Cheers.

LynB · January 23, 2016

This is by no means ideal but I've found if you don't need the image shown at all, then delete this image from your note then Evernote may choose the image you want as a thumbnail.

Like so many others I'd would also like to add my vote to this request - let us choose our thumbnail image.

Mark. · February 9, 2016

Yes, +1 to this request, it's rather frustrating as a premium user not to be able to select which image in the note becomes the thumbnail. I note that the previous thread/suggestion discussing this feature is now closed, after 300+ comments, so no way to add my vote there.

Evernote - is this on the feature list?

Thanks.

rocketship · April 13, 2016

Hi,

New Evernote user this year. I agree, I want to be able to choose and edit thumbnail. JMichaelTX is right though - follow the link to upvote the request. I am only person number 8 to upvote, but it seems heaps of people want this?

Zecyor · May 17, 2016

I wanted to mention that Evernote selected an speaker icon for a thumbnail. There is audio in there but an icon for a representation of a note?I'm a little disappointed about this especially after spending $25 for this oversight. I wonder why the push back for user selected thumbnails? I'm glad I'm not totally invested in these notes because I'm going to cancel the account if there is no plan to change this.

jerry187 · May 20, 2016

hi im back agin from last year. evernote please give us the feature to be able to set our own thumbnails. im begging

Matt W. · May 23, 2016

Hello all,

Please be sure to up-vote now on this request.

JMichaelTX · May 24, 2016

6 hours ago, Matt W. said:

Please be sure to up-vote now on this request.

@Matt W., that's fine, but this is an ANDROID thread. We need to vote on thumbnail override for ALL Evernote apps. Where is that???

Matt W. · May 24, 2016

@JMichaelTX,

There currently isn't a way to cover all platforms for this feature request from the forums. This is something I will be bringing up in our next meeting. I will keep you posted.

For now you can create a feedback topic on the other platforms and up-vote from there. Having one central place to vote would be great to see. More coming soon.

mwerner2 · May 29, 2016

Wouldn't it make more sense for the "snippet" image to be defaulted to the "smallest, smallest" dimension? I get that adding code to allow the user to *choose* the image in the snippet would be a lot of extra work, but seeing a small part of a large photo isn't very helpful when looking down a list of notes.

Could the algorithm use a "sort descending" (choosing the last value) instead of a "sort ascending"? Then I could add a small dimension photo that would turn up in the snippet, while keeping my larger dimension photo's image quality.

gazumped · June 16, 2016

It's a good idea (for all platforms) - just added my vote to double the total cast here so far...

kaitui_kiwi · June 29, 2016

Adding my voice to the chorus requesting user chosen thumbnail selection across all devices. With the new plan changes (limiting my free account to 2 devices when I regularly use 3 but will get by with browser access on one of them) I am so, so very close to upgrading to Plus but I just can't justify the cost based on the way I use Evernote. The powerful text searching is great but I search visually as well. I have sewing patterns that display the envelope back rather than the front and recipes that show thumbnails of the clipped instructions rather than the money shot.

GaRK2 · September 21, 2016

Have users been granted control over which image is displayed as a thumbnail in the snippet note list view?

This would be MUCH appreciated (This has been a request by many of us paying Evernote users for a LONG time!)

Thanks for your consideration.

Dave-in-Decatur · September 21, 2016

Does the thumbnail view available in the current Windows version improve things at all? I don't have a lot of notes with multiple images, so I'm not really able to test much myself.

jefito · September 21, 2016

10 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Does the thumbnail view available in the current Windows version improve things at all? I don't have a lot of notes with multiple images, so I'm not really able to test much myself.

At a guess, it's using the same criterion for choosing a thumbnail image. I can't see why it would be different: a thumbnail is a thumbnail.Notes in snippet view are displayed with a thumbnail (if any exists) and a snippet of text content,

Dave-in-Decatur · September 21, 2016

3 minutes ago, jefito said:

At a guess, it's using the same criterion for choosing a thumbnail image. I can't see why it would be different: a thumbnail is a thumbnail.Notes in snippet view are displayed with a thumbnail (if any exists) and a snippet of text content,

Well, here are two screenshots. The first shows 5 notes in thumbnail view, the second the same 5 in snippet view. There are differences. I just don't know how helpful they would be for the needs expressed by @GaRK2 and @mwerner2.

jefito · September 21, 2016

@Dave-in-Decatur

Hmmm, interesting, and a little surprising (to me anyway). You'd need to get the skinny from a dev; that's where the old largest-smallest info came from. I think that the ability to select the thumbnail image would be a good feature, though. This should be in a Feedback forum; I'll move it and then vote for it.

mwerner2 · September 21, 2016

1 hour ago, jefito said:

@Dave-in-Decatur

Hmmm, interesting, and a little surprising (to me anyway). You'd need to get the skinny from a dev; that's where the old largest-smallest info came from. I think that the ability to select the thumbnail image would be a good feature, though. This should be in a Feedback forum; I'll move it and then vote for it.

1 hour ago, jefito said:

This should be in a Feedback forum; I'll move it and then vote for it.

Great idea! I didn't realize such an option was possible. Can any user vote for it?

Wouldn't it make more sense for the "snippet" image to be defaulted to the "smallest, smallest" dimension? I get that adding code to allow the user to *choose* the image in the snippet would be a lot of extra work, but seeing a small part of a large photo isn't very helpful when looking down a list of notes.

Could the algorithm use a "sort descending" (choosing the last value) instead of a "sort ascending"? Then I could add a small dimension photo that would turn up in the snippet, while keeping my larger dimension photo's image quality.

jefito · September 21, 2016

3 minutes ago, mwerner2 said:

Great idea! I didn't realize such an option was possible. Can any user vote for it?

I have a couple of special powers; being able to move posts to more appropriate locations is one of them. Any user may vote on feature requests (except for the original poster); the voting button is up at the top-left part of this page, next to the title. You may only vote up, not down, except to remove a prior up vote by you (a forum rule chosen by Evernote, I think). Vote away.

jefito · September 21, 2016

17 minutes ago, mwerner2 said:

Wouldn't it make more sense for the "snippet" image to be defaulted to the "smallest, smallest" dimension? I get that adding code to allow the user to *choose* the image in the snippet would be a lot of extra work, but seeing a small part of a large photo isn't very helpful when looking down a list of notes.

"Smallest-smallest" probably picks up small icon-y type things, the sort of things you *don't* want in a thumbnail: they're probably more like decoration than useful content. There's no real best algorithm, just thumbrules. You're always going to find bad cases with any heuristic. I voted this one up for explicit user choice.

mwerner2 · September 21, 2016

I agree! Giving me the option to choose which picture is used is the best option. I did figure out how to vote for this!

pitanje · November 17, 2016

I also really need this feature. I'm new to Evernote and couldn't just believe that there should not be an option to chose the thumbnail you want. Then I saw this has been discussed and requested for over 4 years or so and is still not implemented. What can we do? Is there another thread with more votes or so?

Rafael Ribeiro · November 18, 2016

Hey developer team!

Listen to me too. I will really appreciate choose a picture as thumbnail. Please add this feature ;-)

aqu · November 26, 2016

Either use the first image or give the user the opportunity to choose the thumbnail. This is very essential to me and many others. Thanks!

JoelArt · February 21, 2017

This feature to be able to choose thumbnail has been requested for many years now. Evernote team doesn't care.

iAmRenzo · February 26, 2017

I am looking for this, and the workaround sound like *****. Why not select the first images instead of the largest?

I use Evernote for recipe's and I have first a thumbnail of the dish, then the recipe. That's usualy a picture, which is obviously larger than the thumbnail... so Evernote f's up my snipped view with text instead of pictures of the dish.

Please let us choose the snippet thumbnail!

Mark. · May 7, 2017

+1 would be very useful - images are a very quick way for the brain to parse notes

iAmRenzo · May 7, 2017

The strange thing is that Evernote on my Mac does this diffrently than on my iPad. It's sad to see that Evernote is making itself very inpopular with this kind of annoying behavior.

magnoliasouth · June 12, 2017

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but this is bothering my OCD.

I have several images in a single note, or rather a lot of notes but that's not the point. In Note List View it somehow chooses which image it wants you to preview. I can't stand what it's showing me because it's not the main image of the note. Is there a way to customize which image it previews for you?

Oh and while I'm posting, because posting reminded me of it, is there a way to permanently turn on "Notify me of replies". I appreciate so much that Evernote doesn't want to inundate you with a ton of undesired messages but if I post something I always want to know about replies.

Many thanks for any help! I just love Evernote and believe it or not, I've been a paid subscriber for years now and just realized the many ways I can truly enjoy it. DUH! I'm so glad I have this!

jbenson2 · June 12, 2017

You are not going to like this answer, but it comes straight from Evernote several years ago. I have not seen any improvement in the positioning issue of the largest smallest dimension.

e

magnoliasouth · June 12, 2017

Ah. I searched and didn't find that because I wasn't looking for thumnail. Very interesting and you're right. My OCD says it doesn't like that answer. Oh well, it'll get over it.

Many thanks!

CalS · June 12, 2017

2 hours ago, magnoliasouth said:

Oh and while I'm posting, because posting reminded me of it, is there a way to permanently turn on "Notify me of replies". I appreciate so much that Evernote doesn't want to inundate you with a ton of undesired messages but if I post something I always want to know about replies.

Click the drop down next to your user name in the upper right, then Account Settings, then Notification Settings. The settings are there.

iAmRenzo · July 22, 2017

Why isn't Evernote responding on this? It has been years (!) and this request is still alive. The supposed workaround with the largest of smallest dimensions isn't working 'cause it has different outcomes on my Mac and iPad. If Evernote wants my premium membership they do have to listen to their customers...

How difficult can it be? Come on!

csbgarrett · August 11, 2017

In the Notes List, it would be great if we could indicate which of the photos in the note is the one displayed in the list. I do work for homeowners, and so I have 'before' and 'after' pictures. The note list always shows one of the 'before' pictures, and I'd like to show an 'after' picture once the project has completed. An option on each pic to say "Show as thumbnail" or something like that would be good to have.

mjaniec · August 12, 2017

Four years, and still no solution

Also, it is worth mentioning, the "largest smallest" dimension concerns ACTUAL pictures' dimensions

So a minimized in the note large picture can become the thumbnail. Crazy.

lllewelll · August 14, 2017

Nah, who would want to choose their OWN thumbnails, when they actually PAY for the note storage????

Let's leave it up to some heartless droney corporation that also takes our cash?

mikea144 · August 15, 2017

Hi,

I HATE the feature where a thumbnail of an image from the document is displayed in the snipit. I often have long titles that I want to see and when a thumbnail is displayed I loose so much of the title text that I often have to open a note just to see what the title is. It's particularly aggravating when the thumbnail is just the generic PDF icon. I can use other list views but none of them are as good as the snipit view. I'd like to see an option or other way to disable thumbnails in snipits.

Mike

Kristján · August 19, 2017

+1, As a visual person I would appreciate this feature alot.

adelaidavid@gmail.com · August 28, 2017

Me parece increíble que esta función no esté implementada en Evernote...

Kristján · August 31, 2017

Need this feature

Lorkla · September 14, 2017

To quote Roger Rabbit, "Pppppppplease!"

sbrick · September 16, 2017

Im going to reply to bring this topic back. It looks like its been ignored for years and hadn't been implemented. Why hasn't it been implemented?

gazumped · September 24, 2017

On 16/09/2017 at 3:17 PM, sbrick said:

Im going to reply to bring this topic back. It looks like its been ignored for years and hadn't been implemented. Why hasn't it been implemented?

Possibly because only 13 users (currently) out of 200M or so seem to find it an issue. We can request a feature, but Evernote are not obliged to deliver...

jefito · September 25, 2017

On 9/16/2017 at 10:17 AM, sbrick said:

Im going to reply to bring this topic back.

The topic never went away ("bumping" accomplishes nothing). Did you upvote it?

Pyrefox · September 30, 2017

Please let us select the thumbnail picture shown in the note previews.

I read the forum and I saw there is an annoying work around, but that's why I'm requesting this feature for real. Something like:

• right click the image and select "Use this as Preview image" (I believe this should be the easiest to implement)

• right click the note preview and select "Pick a thumbnail" that leads to a small selection of the images available inside that note

• right click the image and set a priority that overrides the current priority

These are just ideas, but any of those would be amazing so we have decent control over the thumbnail pic!

jefito · October 4, 2017

On 9/30/2017 at 3:53 PM, Pyrefox said:

Please let us select the thumbnail picture shown in the note previews.

This is already an existing request:

You should head there and add your vote.

Erik Bakstad · November 1, 2017

On 18.11.2016 at 1:18 PM, offringa said:

I would like to see following additions:

- Option to switch between 'automatic' (based on algorithm) en 'manual'

- Option 'set as thumbnail' for the image within the note

TX!

Agree!

I have a lot of files that I use pictures in.

One of my hobbies are RC car racing, and I save a lot of settings for electronics, car setup and so on.

An easy way to save info you find on the net is with pictures. But also to set up a picture to be the thumbnail pic or icon if you will.

This has worked ok till now, less than 2 weeks ago this worked by saving when you set just one picture in the file. Then save.

Then it was set as long the picture was in th file. And you could add other pictures without any issues.

But not anymore! What are Evernote really doing?

Another thing, I use the Android version a lot, and all of a sudden the function where you "Set to homescreen" shortcut on your phone (hope that is what it says in English). But it now fails to add a thumbnail picture to the file. It just don't do it anymore...

I have a strong feeling that Evernote has more or less have "monopoly rights" as they are the only one with so much functions compared to other.

So they don't care. At all

And yes, I have tried others or similar apps too. They don't have the capacity as Evernote. That's good for us, I guess. But at the same time many of us pay premium and should expect more from a giant as Evernote are. I pay premium, but for what?

So, if a kickstarter was started for a better nite app, and based on a total different coding structure I would definitely go for that!

Complaining to Evernote do not help at all.

Tried that...

I'm really debating with myself to cansel premium, as it do not give you anything than disappointment and grief...

Sorry for the long rant, while quoting you...

Edited November 1, 2017 by Erik Bakstad
Spelling errors

ToddinTX · November 10, 2017

Ok. Last straw. I'm officially looking for an app to replace Evernote. I have used the free version for years, for personal use. I also use the Premium version for collaboration with colleagues. I'll be canceling both, as soon as I find a replacement. I really like the app, but I HATE, hate, hate the fact that they aren't listening to the people that support them.

I'm tired of clipping articles only to have them in a jacked up format, no matter which clipping option I choose. To top that off, the app chooses the WORST image to use for the icon. Today's instance: I clipped a nicely-formatted webpage that has a pecan pie recipe. The article has a nice picture of a piece of pecan pie - the perfect image to help me when I go back later, searching for the recipe. But Evernote selects a black and white pic of a piece of foil being placed into a pie pan. What the heck does that have to do with helping me find my article.

KEveret · November 23, 2017

Just reactivated my Evernote account to keep records of my pottery - I was going to create one note per pot that would include images of the piece at different stages of production - and finding this bug when creating my very first note is enough of a dealbreaker that I'm going to use another app unless/until it's resolved. I need the thumbnails to be the reference images I choose, so that I can easily find the pieces I want.

amrovetto · November 26, 2017

Please add this feature! I use Evernote to organize things that require me to see a visual image in snippet view to recognize what the note is for. Sometimes the algorithm chooses the image I want to see, but most times it doesn't. It's ridiculous to expect the users to have to resize and annotate photos just to get the right thumbnail image to display. This is my ONLY issue with Evernote...and I see that this request has been out there for YEARS. No one has time to sit around resizing images just to be able to get the one they want into the thumbnail!

TK0047 · January 5, 2018

I would like this as well. I use a log of images in my notes to be easier on the eyes when I am skimming through a note quickly.

So I will use logos for example a Todoist logo if I had a link to an action. Then I will have a JPG file. Sometimes it will show the Todoist logo. Would be nice to pick which one to display.

Hopefully this will make it soon!

RickV · January 11, 2018

EVERNOTE WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!

YOU HAVE COMPLETELY IGNORED OUR REQUESTS TO SELF-DETERMINE OUR THUMBNAIL PICTURE!

texanative · January 14, 2018

Agree that this would be a great feature!!! Please implement.

plenipote · March 7, 2018

Seems like such a simple feature to implement, yet I am shocked at reading this thread that's it's been a few years and still no word on if they're even working on this?! Some feedback would be appreciated, at least let us know it will never happen, or maybe in five years, or we are currently working on this? At this point, it seems this forum is being completely ignored.

rdebell324 · March 11, 2018

I agree that we should be able to pick which image we want as the "preview" photo.

rdebell324 · March 11, 2018

I'm new. Can someone please explain why I can't see the 'work around' jbenson2 mentioned? I am a 'Plus' member... I thought that meant I could get 'help'. The error message states: Sorry, we can't show this content because you do not have permission to see it.

CalS · March 20, 2018

On 3/11/2018 at 3:50 PM, rdebell324 said:

I'm new. Can someone please explain why I can't see the 'work around' jbenson2 mentioned? I am a 'Plus' member... I thought that meant I could get 'help'. The error message states: Sorry, we can't show this content because you do not have permission to see it.

I can't see it either, and I don't think subscription status has anything to do with what you can see on the forums. There was some forum reorganization a few weeks back, perhaps the linked post was deleted or moved to the archives? Perhaps @jbenson2 can repost the link.

DTLow · March 20, 2018

On 2018-03-11 at 3:50 PM, rdebell324 said:

I'm new. Can someone please explain why I can't see the 'work around' jbenson2 mentioned? I am a 'Plus' member... I thought that meant I could get 'help'. The error message states: Sorry, we can't show this content because you do not have permission to see it.

Darn, I can't read the "largest smallest" explanation anymore.

Here's an alternate post

lllewelll · March 21, 2018

On 9/21/2016 at 5:20 AM, GaRK2 said:

Have users been granted control over which image is displayed as a thumbnail in the snippet note list view?

This would be MUCH appreciated (This has been a request by many of us paying Evernote users for a LONG time!)

Thanks for your consideration.

NO... Evernote is TOOOOO LAZY and just happy to TAKE OUR MONEY (I'm a paying user).... That's why they created this 'forum' - to get sincere and innovative customers off their back, so they can steadily rake in the money. PERIOD.

jbenson2 · March 21, 2018

21 hours ago, CalS said:

I can't see it either, and I don't think subscription status has anything to do with what you can see on the forums. There was some forum reorganization a few weeks back, perhaps the linked post was deleted or moved to the archives? Perhaps @jbenson2 can repost the link.

I can't see it either.

I would not consider this to be a workaround. It is too clunky, but here is what I saved in my Evernote account several years ago:

There is no easy solution if you have several photos in one note. I guess if someone really wanted to promote a specific image, they could use a photo editor to re-size the photo to create the "largest smallest dimension".
That's too much work for me. (comment: biggest smallest )

Dec 6, 2011

Evernote's explanation:

We select the image with the largest smallest dimension. There are some other rules, but that's the main one.

Examples:
75x100
100x400
200x300

The "smallest" dimensions are 75, 100, and 200, respectively. We're going to use the image with the largest of those "smallest" dimensions (i.e., 200).

There are probably better ways to describe that algorithm, but that's how we've been describing it internally.

cmk317 · March 25, 2018

Dear Evernote,

Please make this happen!

Thank you.

SparkWerx · April 13, 2018

I'd like to add my voice to the request for the ability to select the thumbnail image shown in any note.

Joe Loves Watercolors · April 27, 2018

Wow, this is remarkably frustrating. DOES IT REALLY TAKE MORE THAN 5 YEARS TO LISTEN TO YOUR USERS?

Let us select which picture to show in snippet view! How hard can that be? This is idiotic.

Eduardo Estefano · May 7, 2018

Em 09/01/2015 at 09:48, Frank.dg disse:

Hi @RightPaddock,

Yes and no. It has to do with the "largest smallest" dimension, explained here:

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

Yes... if you modify your images according to the above criteria. No... if you don't have the inclination to tinker with image resizing and trying to wrap your brain around meeting the requirements of the "largest smallest" dimension every time you want to select one image to be the image displayed in snippet/ card view from multiple images that come from multiple sources.

Take clipping web pages with multiple images, for example. Imagine trying to set a thumbnail image for each, other than the one which already matches the "largest smallest" dimension criteria. However, if this is critical to you, and in certain use cases you can establish a simple workflow that is repeatable and takes the above into account, then the "largest smallest" dimension is your guiding light. That is, until Evernote provides a way to manually select the desired image. Who know, it may be just around the corner :-)

The explanation discussion was removed. Anyone has a copy?

jefito · May 7, 2018

33 minutes ago, Eduardo Estefano said:

The explanation discussion was removed. Anyone has a copy?

I can't find the original, but this post is from an Evernote employee:

jbenson2 · May 7, 2018

I saved a few of the laughable posts about the largest smallest dimensions from 7 years ago. Here is one.

Posted 01 July 2011 - 07:42 AM

jbenson2 said:

The largest smallest dimension?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Evernote Response:

Yeah. For example, if you have 3 images with the following dimensions:

75x100

100x400

200x300

The "smallest" dimensions are 75, 100, and 200, respectively. We're going to use the image with the largest of those "smallest" dimensions (i.e., 200).

There are probably better ways to describe that algorithm, but that's how we've been describing it internally.

SparkWerx · May 7, 2018

Frankly, I think it's rather pathetic that Evernote has failed to provide this simple capability in 7+ years.

jbenson2 · May 7, 2018

Evernote does not permit me to view some of my past posts, but I saved some off-line in January 2012.

Here is a comment on the 75-pixel barrier used with the Largest Smallest discusion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Evernote User:

Subject: Evernote User Forum 75 pixels is the smalled dimension allowed in a thumbnail

The thumbnail in the Snippet view is a powerful way to quickly scan my notes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My comment:

I was able to duplicate the 75-pixel barrier.

136 x 75 pixels - yes - the image showed up

134 x 74 pixels - no - the image did not show up

By the way, I was surprised how well the 75-pixel thumbnail showed up in Evernote.

I am adding this to the Evernote rule about the " largest smallest" dimension.

s2sailor · May 7, 2018

1 hour ago, SparkWerx said:

Frankly, I think it's rather pathetic that Evernote has failed to provide this simple capability in 7+ years.

I'm not sure I would say pathetic but it is definitely puzzling. The algorithm is ok for picking a default image but they really should provide us a way to define a new one if needed. I use snippet view and many of the images selected do not match up to anything meaningful in the note.

Eduardo Estefano · May 7, 2018

2 horas atrás, jbenson2 disse:

Evernote does not permit me to view some of my past posts, but I saved some off-line in January 2012.

Here is a comment on the 75-pixel barrier used with the Largest Smallest discusion.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Evernote User:

Subject: Evernote User Forum 75 pixels is the smalled dimension allowed in a thumbnail

The thumbnail in the Snippet view is a powerful way to quickly scan my notes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My comment:

I was able to duplicate the 75-pixel barrier.

136 x 75 pixels - yes - the image showed up

134 x 74 pixels - no - the image did not show up

By the way, I was surprised how well the 75-pixel thumbnail showed up in Evernote.

I am adding this to the Evernote rule about the " largest smallest" dimension.

Thanks!

ctash · May 29, 2018

+1 on this idea!

ctash · May 30, 2018

+1 on this idea!

4 different requests... come on, Evernote!

ctash · May 30, 2018

This is a popular idea... 4 different requests... come on, Evernote!

jefito · May 31, 2018

4 hours ago, ctash said:

4 different requests... come on, Evernote!

Only four? You're gonna have to get in line behind such requests as nested notebooks, selective sync, Evernote for Linux, etc., etc....

jefito · May 31, 2018

4 hours ago, ctash said:

This is a popular idea... 4 different requests... come on, Evernote!

There's no need to repeat posts all over the forum. But do feel free to add your vote to any feature request you agree with. It's up at the top, top triangle to vote up...

kfreels · June 23, 2018

Stilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll waitinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

icoco_de · August 1, 2018

Please, dear folks at Evernote:

On 2/16/2018 at 12:41 PM, SashaS said:

Right click on image >> Set as thumbnail image.

This one cannot be overly complicated. And everybody here is waiting for years now to be able to chose their own snippet/thumbnail picture.

Steve Kowalski · August 7, 2018

I have been trying to figure Evernote our for several years and it has been driving me nuts. I’m so glad that others are having the same problem. I made a family shared recipe folder and I just want to be able to pick my thumbnail, some of my recipes are scanned from old recipe cards and often Evernote wants to use the scanned recipe card as the thumbnail instead of the photo of the food. Is there a way to fix this?

jefito · August 7, 2018

13 hours ago, Steve Kowalski said:

Is there a way to fix this?

There is no way to choose which image is used, in any of the Evernote clients, at least at this time.

The only way is to have exactly one image in your note (which "wins" by default), or make sure that the image you want

You can also try to arrange that your preferred image meets the "largest-smallest" criterion, described here: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25981-request-ability-to-select-image-to-display-in-card-view/#comment-388976. Tedious, I know...

Olsen23456 · August 9, 2018

Hi everyone

Shocking to realise that this possibility doesnt exist!

I am a new user and have been looking for the best tool to build my recipe collection with. I thought Evernote was it.

I have been looking for specifically a tool that would alow me a visual overlook of favorite recipees in different cateories. Thumbnails is so nice and easy to scan when you are lkooking for inspiration in your own archives.

Can anyone recommend an alternative service where this is possible?

Joe Loves Watercolors · September 14, 2018

Wow. The tone deafness on this issue by Evernote is truly appalling. I'm going to cancel my subscription if I can't select which image to show. Anybody with me?

Joe Loves Watercolors · September 17, 2018

Interesting that all replies to my suggestion to drop Evernote seem to have been deleted. If people begin to cancel their subscriptions, I'm pretty sure Evernote will get the clue that they seem to have missed over the last half decade.

Kailo · October 8, 2018

Cmon guys. Just do it.

DTLow · October 15, 2018

1 minute ago, ptim said:

can't even remove a thumbnail when by deleting all images from a note

Create a new note.

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

Idea

marcelo 75

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