Time for an Evernote Personal Edition

[dan7000 26]

Presence?

Work Chat?

Shared Notes?

Evernote business?

Context?

 

Why is my simple, personal note-taking solution getting bloated with all of these features that are totally irrelevant to me?  I started using EN in 2007 to keep my notes and web research on multiple machines, synced through the cloud, and I have never wanted to use it any differently.  I can't imagine ever using it with another person, let alone as yet one more chat platform!  How many chat platforms do we need?

 

Worse, I pay the same as someone using all those features!  In fact I probably pay more than a single seat in an EN business license.  

 

It's time for an Evernote Personal Edition; for me and everyone else who wants a personal notetaking solution that syncs to the cloud.  If EN doesn't do it, then they are a prime target for a disruptive solution that sweeps in with simpler software to take all of EN's non-business users, like me.

 

Ironic: EN started as a somewhat disruptive solution because MS Word was too bloated to start up fast and take notes.  And now EN is the slow bloated solution ripe for disruption.  I hope they bring on the Personal Edition soon.

[Metrodon 2,184]

The thing is you don't have to use any one of those things if you don't want to and unless they are actually getting in the way of the things you want to do then I'm not sure what the issue is.

 

Business users cost more than Premium by the way.

[dan7000 26]

I stand corrected on Business pricing.

 

As to why I care, 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/66103-power-user-discontent-best-alternatives-to-en/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/64464-evernote-for-windows-desktop-is-sooo-so-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/55684-windows-client-getting-slower/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/59784-evernote-is-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/64973-evernote-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/32541-regular-screen-freezes-not-responding/page-3

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/61178-evernote-keeps-freezing/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/63435-freezes-briefly-when-i-type-search-term/

 

I need a notetaking solution that I can launch immediately when I get a call, and start taking notes.  Not something that freezes or fails to launch until the call is over.  I need a solution that allows me to take notes in a meeting and doesn't suddenly freeze or pop up some ridiculous popups in the middle of my typing so I miss half of what is said.  And I need a solution that I can search on the fly - fast - so I can produce an answer to a question while talking to people, rather than 20 minutes later.

 

Evernote used to be that system.  Now it is some kind of chat app.

[Krunoslav 197]

I stand corrected on Business pricing.

 

As to why I care, 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/66103-power-user-discontent-best-alternatives-to-en/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/64464-evernote-for-windows-desktop-is-sooo-so-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/55684-windows-client-getting-slower/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/59784-evernote-is-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/64973-evernote-slow/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/32541-regular-screen-freezes-not-responding/page-3

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/61178-evernote-keeps-freezing/

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/63435-freezes-briefly-when-i-type-search-term/

 

I need a notetaking solution that I can launch immediately when I get a call, and start taking notes.  Not something that freezes or fails to launch until the call is over.  I need a solution that allows me to take notes in a meeting and doesn't suddenly freeze or pop up some ridiculous popups in the middle of my typing so I miss half of what is said.  And I need a solution that I can search on the fly - fast - so I can produce an answer to a question while talking to people, rather than 20 minutes later.

 

Evernote used to be that system.  Now it is some kind of chat app.

I agree. The essence that made Evernote so great is being lost. It should be the best not taking application, not mediocre everything app.

 

[gazumped 11,664]

Ironic that one section of users wants reminders / mindmaps / calendars / to-do systems / sorting / page layout / multiple sharing / sound recording / picture libraries etc. etc.... and with every new feature Evernote gets constant criticism for not having delivered something else,  while others are happy with what they have (or had) and don't want to see unnecessary bells and whistles.  Evernote just can't win...

 

(I'm with the "keep it simple,  make it faster" crew by the way)  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

it's an interesting idea. i don't need evernote to be a workspace, at least not in the way they envision it. but, realistically speaking, where is the incentive for evernote to do this? individuals pay less than business users, sometimes nothing at all, and lack of features generally doesn't attract folks. it's not likely to be a worthwhile source of revenue.

the solution is actually rather simple, it seems. a third party developer uses the same api as evernote, so all they have to do is make the simple interface and plug it into evernote.the problem, of course, is that there probably isn't much money in what would essentially be the evernote web version. why would a third party developer be any more interested than evernote in wasting time on this?

for speed, on the phone there is fastever and nothing beats houdahspot on the mac for searching. the quicknote evernote function on the mac has always seemed fast to me. i think there are plenty of very simple workarounds for any lag in the main app.

[CalS 5,280]

If we are theorizing here, another simple solution could be a personal edition that wasn't freeware.  What would the price point be that would attract customers?  At $10/year if you attracted half the existing 100MM users would create a $500MM business without much change in overhead structure, unless you wanted to crush the existing quality issues, which would be a necessity if everyone was paying.  

 

Though I doubt the 100MM users are all active and 50% is probably a high retention rate.  Fun to play with numbers though.

[Debi_C 0]

I agree with Dan7000 that for those of us who only use Evernote as a personal app would prefer to not have to deal with the collaboration stuff but I'm ok with it remaining for those who do. What needs to happen is that we need to be able to turn off those options we're not using or when the popup, Mastering Evernote, happens with the windows app then when we close it, it stays closed. I don't need to constantly see it asking me to share a notebook if the app is only for my OWN use. I don't use it for work, so Work Chat also needs to stay turned off. Simple.

[gazumped 11,664]

The latest iOS version now allows you to hide Work Chat,  so I suspect that will be coming to an Evernote client near you at the next update. 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

The latest iOS version now allows you to hide Work Chat,  so I suspect that will be coming to an Evernote client near you at the next update. 

 

There are many differences between the EN iOS client and the desktop clients, so I wouldn't be counting any chickens just yet. 

They just released a new Beta for EN Mac, and no Work Chat changes were mentioned in the release notes.

[akihiro_w 1]

I do agree with Dan7000.  All I want to do using Evernote is posting, editing and searching.

Evernote these days has been too complicated and heavy.

I want the lightness like version 3.

Even if Evernote is durable enough as a company, I'm afraid I couldn't keep using the software more than a few years because of its heaviness.

[jefito 5,589]

I think that gaz is on the right track -- what is the set of features that you would remove from the existing Evernote that would make all of the users of the referenced posts happy without torquing other people who want at least one of those features? GM's points also resonate -- I really don't see the business case for Evernote to do this.

 

Part two is the first thing actually: since startup/performance appears to be an issue, you'd really want to know how much each of the listed features actually contributes to overhead in those areas. Is it those features, or something else?

 

For someone who wants to take notes fast and sync to the cloud, what's wrong with Notepad++ (or Notepad, for that matter) + Dropbox?

[Krunoslav 197]

For me the lack of trust and respect to its user base is what I dislike about Evernote as a company the most. i mean Evernote the notetaking service that prides its self on the vision for a 100 year company is that it can't share its planes about features and updates with its users more than a week advance. For a company that started as two things, note taking service and a place where you are safe to store all the most personal information, they certainly like to keep things top secret and unpredictable where the future of the company is.

Forums users such as ourselves have been asking for more transparency, consistency and stability for years now. And while certain people responsible for fixing thing are hiding behind the wall of silence, we can only keep complaining. But I remember  Evernote CEO Phil Libin penned a response to my post re: the product’s bagginess, and its plans to improve in 2014: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2014/01/04/on-software-quality/ (do you guys remember that?) when he ignored everyone for years and than made a press release bascially when someone with influence actually did the same thing, ignoring us little guys who made evernote possible.

And than before the year was over 2014 Evernote Conference - Phil Libin's Thursday keynote address http://tinyurl.com/ooluws7

 

talks about new direction with no regard about his promise and still ignoring its users base, ignoring many stability issues and still favoring one platform over another while charging the same price for all platforms. Except this time we are treated with Work Chat, actually more like showed down our collective troughs and again new direction for the company.

When you see "Comments are disabled for this video." on youtube videos from a company its a red flag, one of many by Evernote.

P.S.
I don't mind the new features, I don't mind paying for services, I don't mind even being late in waiting for the same features on another platform I can forgive all that but what I can't forgive is a company that cares more about its investors than its customers. For crying out loud it took them 18 days to gives me a generic answer for a customer support ticket, the problem was a bug in their Win version of Evernote that would not sync. 18 days for a copy/paste response. I am a premium user BTW. Its frustrating to say the least but this is not a way to run I company that should stay on top for a 100 years Mr. Phil. Competition will exploit the weakness much sooner.


So yes, Time for an Evernote Personal Edition I agree.
 

[dan7000 26]

If we are theorizing here, another simple solution could be a personal edition that wasn't freeware.  What would the price point be that would attract customers?  At $10/year if you attracted half the existing 100MM users would create a $500MM business without much change in overhead structure, unless you wanted to crush the existing quality issues, which would be a necessity if everyone was paying.  

 

Though I doubt the 100MM users are all active and 50% is probably a high retention rate.  Fun to play with numbers though.

I have happliy paid $50 a year for purely personal features and would continue to do so.  Everhelper's EN clone, Nimbus Notes, is $4.99 a month and I would jump to in in an instant if I could be sure it would still be around in a couple years.  It appears to much faster on all platforms and appears to have what I need.  Caveat: I haven't used it heavily for any period of time so I can't speak to its performance in real-world use conditions.

[dan7000 26]

I think that gaz is on the right track -- what is the set of features that you would remove from the existing Evernote that would make all of the users of the referenced posts happy without torquing other people who want at least one of those features? GM's points also resonate -- I really don't see the business case for Evernote to do this.

 

Part two is the first thing actually: since startup/performance appears to be an issue, you'd really want to know how much each of the listed features actually contributes to overhead in those areas. Is it those features, or something else?

 

For someone who wants to take notes fast and sync to the cloud, what's wrong with Notepad++ (or Notepad, for that matter) + Dropbox?

 

As far as the "right" set of features: this is why you have different editions.  One for one set of people one for another.  Also, successful software companies don't deliver features because users ask for them -- they test features to see which ones users will acutally like and use and will pay for, which is often different than what users think they want.  I'm sure that's what EN does.

 

But there is clearly a business case for personal.  They touted a million paid users of EN 3 or maybe 4 a few years back, at $50 per year each.  For a product that basically didn't need more development - just pay for the servers.  That sounds like a business to me.

 

Finally, notepad doesn't work because I need ios too.  But there are alternatives, like Nimbus and even workflowy.  I'm weighing my options but it would be a lot nicer and easier if EN would just take my suggestion

[jefito 5,589]

As far as the "right" set of features: this is why you have different editions.  One for one set of people one for another.

And with 100 million+ users, how many combinations of desired vs undesired features are there, leading to X editions (solve for X)? If you're trying to keep things sane for the developers *and* the users, you don't give users a pick one from column A, one from column B, up through column Z. You limit the number of editions to a very small number, and let users use what they want (and hopefully give them the ability to hide things they don't want to see, obviously a sore point for some users with Evernote and Context and/or Work Chat and/or Presentations etc). Is there an MS Word Edition for Tech Writers, one for function writers, and so on? I don't think so.

\Sure, you can go the plug-in route, but now you've multiplied your problem set by quite a lot. "Hey, plugin A only works with versions 12.4 through 15.5". Ugh. Just ugh.

 

 

Also, successful software companies don't deliver features because users ask for them -- they test features to see which ones users will acutally like and use and will pay for, which is often different than what users think they want.  I'm sure that's what EN does.

There are lots of paths to success. My company is small, but doing reasonably well. We indeed *do* try really hard to deliver the features that actual users ask for; we're not specialists in all of the fields that our users are, and when we get requests like that, we confer with the customers, and try to learn from them and figure out how what they're asking for fits with what we have now and what we're trying to do, and try to fit the new request in, in a way that makes sense.

Sure, users don't always know exactly what they're asking for (though sometimes they do, as the feature they want already exists in a competing product), but by actually talking to them, you can hopefully zero in on what's required).

Evernote actually has a different plan and make features that they want, and hope that users will see the value in Evernote's choices. Hasn't Work Chat, Context and so on been prime examples of that? Those are Evernote-driven designs -- not wholly produced in a vacuum, but with Evernote's own spin on things.

 

But there is clearly a business case for personal.  They touted a million paid users of EN 3 or maybe 4 a few years back, at $50 per year each.  For a product that basically didn't need more development - just pay for the servers.  That sounds like a business to me.

As far as I'm concerned, the current product is already a personal edition; I find that it's pretty well suited for personal use, because that's most of my use case (I do some notebook sharing between my work and personal accounts, but that's mainly for convenience -- there's nothing stopping me from having my work account resident on my home computer as well).

So sure, there's a case to be made, but how persuasive is it really, to the folks who do the math on development direction and goals. I'm betting that they see the current Evernote as a personal product, too, despite their recent emphasis on business use.

 

Finally, notepad doesn't work because I need ios too.  But there are alternatives, like Nimbus and even workflowy.  I'm weighing my options but it would be a lot nicer and easier if EN would just take my suggestion

If iOS doesn't have a text editor that can operate on cloud drives, that would be extremely surprising to me...

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

hi. i think a customizable toolbar would go a long ways towards removing the friction between business and personal use cases.

i will repeat my warning here about nimbus notes, but this time i'll draw attention to the concerns about its longevity. this is precisely the issue at stake: evernote has always done a great job of demonstrating that they have a business model that works, and they have a commitment to sticking around, which is something that any service aiming to hold onto important data needs. i assume that evernote's decisions are motivated quite abit by concern over maintaining and developing revenue streams (despite the rhetoric about customer experience first), and ultimately everyone benefits from this. a personal version that cuts us off from this stuff might look nice, but doesn't seem like a terribly appealing investment for the company, and it is nothing a customizable interface couldn't fix anyhow.

i don't get the sense evernote is into customizability, but we have had it inthe past, so there is at least precedent for it, and perhaps we could eventually convince them. evernote has never offered different versions of its service, and this seems very unlikely considering their core design philosophies.

[dan7000 26]

 

As far as the "right" set of features: this is why you have different editions.  One for one set of people one for another.

And with 100 million+ users, how many combinations of desired vs undesired features are there, leading to X editions (solve for X)? If you're trying to keep things sane for the developers *and* the users, you don't give users a pick one from column A, one from column B, up through column Z. You limit the number of editions to a very small number, and let users use what they want (and hopefully give them the ability to hide things they don't want to see, obviously a sore point for some users with Evernote and Context and/or Work Chat and/or Presentations etc). Is there an MS Word Edition for Tech Writers, one for function writers, and so on? I don't think so.

 

 

There are already 3 versions.  I'm asking for 1 more that doesn't come with the baggage of the business sharing features. 

 

But there is clearly a business case for personal.  They touted a million paid users of EN 3 or maybe 4 a few years back, at $50 per year each.  For a product that basically didn't need more development - just pay for the servers.  That sounds like a business to me.

As far as I'm concerned, the current product is already a personal edition; I find that it's pretty well suited for personal use, because that's most of my use case (I do some notebook sharing between my work and personal accounts, but that's mainly for convenience -- there's nothing stopping me from having my work account resident on my home computer as well).

So sure, there's a case to be made, but how persuasive is it really, to the folks who do the math on development direction and goals. I'm betting that they see the current Evernote as a personal product, too, despite their recent emphasis on business use.

\

I'm betting that: (a) most users agree with you (and me): they only want EN to be a personal, cloud-syncing, multi-OS notetaking solution; and ( EN leadership is extremely dissatisfied with that vision.  They are flush with cash and investors and they have to prove they are a lot more than a $100 mil / year subscription service.  They want to prove they can be Oracle or Salesforce, and that's the market they are gunning for.  As personal users, we are being left behind as attested to by the many posts I cited above.

 

So I disagree that EN shares the vision of EN as a personal notetaking solution.  That's why I truly think it would be useful for them to create a separate product with a very small group of developers dedicated to perfecting or at least preserving EN for personal users. 

[dan7000 26]

hi. i think a customizable toolbar would go a long ways towards removing the friction between business and personal use cases.

 

 

But if the product contains all the code for the business features -- even if they are hidden -- then performance will suffer (as it does) for no reason.  I don't need EN checking in the background to see if someone wants to chat with me.  I don't need it checking my notebooks to see if they are shared with others.  All of those things degrade performance, and it shows.

 

Also, and more importantly, the focus on these business features carries the risk that nobody at EN is thinking about the user experience of us personal notetaker users.  That's why I like the idea of a separate edition - to create and maintain that focus.

[gazumped 11,664]

Doesn't seem to me to be in any way a viable business proposition.  I'm assuming that a lot of people will be willing to pay a 'premium' price for the personal notetaker version,  because Evernote is going to have to take it's full-fat, bells and whistles, singing and dancing version and gut it down to a mom and pop standard - no doubt excluding a lot of things some folks would have liked to keep on the way.  They have to test it,  and maintain it to work on all the different platforms,  and then deal with all the requests to add back reminders,  or MS Office compatibility - and the complaints every time the old product line gets updated with something new that isn't in the personal version...

[jefito 5,589]

hi. i think a customizable toolbar would go a long ways towards removing the friction between business and personal use cases.

But if the product contains all the code for the business features -- even if they are hidden -- then performance will suffer (as it does) for no reason.  I don't need EN checking in the background to see if someone wants to chat with me.  I don't need it checking my notebooks to see if they are shared with others.  All of those things degrade performance, and it shows.

It's very possible that application code that is never executed is never actually loaded into RAM, and therefore there's no performance loss there, if that's the case. Aside from that, I'd be curious to know how you found out that the "business" portions of Evernote are causing performance degradation, and what the scale of it is relative to other parts of Evernote that are more "personal-y".

BTW, there are really at most 2 versions of the Evernote Windows client; it's one executable with different behaviors depending on whether the current user is free or premium (I'm not as sure about the Evernote for Business case). You don't download separate installations for free or premium; all of the bits are still there for both usages.

 

Also, and more importantly, the focus on these business features carries the risk that nobody at EN is thinking about the user experience of us personal notetaker users.  That's why I like the idea of a separate edition - to create and maintain that focus.

II wouldn't lose sleep over this. If they don't meet certain minimum usability requirements, then it won't be fit for personal *or* for business usage. The basics are going to stay, in some form or another.

[culmore 3]

On 20,January 2015 at 1:42 AM, dan7000 said:

Presence?

Work Chat?

Shared Notes?

Evernote business?

Context?

 

Why is my simple, personal note-taking solution getting bloated with all of these features that are totally irrelevant to me?  I started using EN in 2007 to keep my notes and web research on multiple machines, synced through the cloud, and I have never wanted to use it any differently.  I can't imagine ever using it with another person, let alone as yet one more chat platform!  How many chat platforms do we need?

 

Worse, I pay the same as someone using all those features!  In fact I probably pay more than a single seat in an EN business license.  

 

It's time for an Evernote Personal Edition; for me and everyone else who wants a personal notetaking solution that syncs to the cloud.  If EN doesn't do it, then they are a prime target for a disruptive solution that sweeps in with simpler software to take all of EN's non-business users, like me.

 

Ironic: EN started as a somewhat disruptive solution because MS Word was too bloated to start up fast and take notes.  And now EN is the slow bloated solution ripe for disruption.  I hope they bring on the Personal Edition soon.

 

 

SOO SOO TRUE

 

I used to love Evernote. Now I'm fed up with it , I bought into the idea that EN would be my digital brain put everything in there I thought (silly me)

o to many sync issues

o if I email someone a note they typically will not be able to read that note

o to many new features that I don't need or want or want to see on my screen, chat for example

o tag don't replace a nested directory structure, I need BOTH, if EN wants to be my digital brain

o I like the mac app I don't like the iOS app

o EN is not a good repository for important documents, receipts , etc. They belong on the file system in say DropBox or iCloud

 

EN is great as a Web clipper and a research tool. But if the information is important then put it in a convention file system not EN.

 

There is a software engineering principal "do one thing and do it well". EN has not obeyed that principal and is going pay the price with this user. 

[DTLow 5,736]

20 minutes ago, culmore said:

o EN is not a good repository for important documents, receipts , etc. They belong on the file system in say DropBox or iCloud

Can you give some more details on this

>>tag don't replace a nested directory structure, I need BOTH, if EN wants to be my digital brain

Also details on this.  Us Mac users have gotten use to no directory structure.  

[culmore 3]

I like EN tagging and I like evernote searching abilities both are very good. But I also like a nested directories for storing files. For example consider a simple company might require something like

 

"Company directory"

      "Annual Account"

      "Legal documents"

      "receipts"

                "2014"

                 "2015"

                 "2016"

       "time sheets"

                 "2014"

                 "2015"

                 "2016"

 

I can achieve the above structure by creating 8 tags and one notebook in EN. Or I can have a nested directory structure as above in say Dropbox with one top level directories, four directories below that and then two of those sub directories having three additional sub directories for each years.  I would save the individual files in pdf in Dropbox. So now both EN and Dropbox "work" but ....

•   I have over two thousand notes  and my notebook are becoming so full that the only way I can find my stuff is through tags and searches. So basically I can no longer navigate as I would with windows explorer or MAC finder.
• Saving them in PDF is easier for sending to other people and copying to USD drives etc. I can copy all my 2014 receipts in a few seconds and given to the accountant.  
• Why bother with EN? all these particular documents require is to be put a directory structure and left there. I know exactly where they need to be put when I create them and I know exactly where they are when I need to look at them again.

What is I ask myself is the advantage of the EN system? Answer in this simple case for important company documents NONE and it just clutters EN with more notes and I have put my valuable data in a proprietary format  . For many files EN is NOT the right place . The notion that EN is my digital brain and all I have to do is put everything in there is failing for me.

 

EN needs to be better that the standard file system and for many documents it is NOT. For some stuff yes  it is. 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

13 minutes ago, culmore said:

the only way I can find my stuff is through tags and searches. So basically I can no longer navigate as I would with windows explorer or MAC finder.

That's true, but why do you consider tags and searches a negative?

>>Saving them in PDF is easier for sending to other people and copying to USD drives etc

Many of my documents are PDFs; for example receipts and such.  I can easily pull them.

 

 

[culmore 3]

Tags and searches are not a negative  they are positive. But so is a directory structure a positive and searches are available in directory structures also. 

[gazumped 11,664]

Some receipts are expenses.  In a folder structure do I put them under Personal / Car / Fuel,  or Business / Expense / Personal?

I (mostly) gave up on tags in favor of searches - it occurred to me that every agency and company I deal with as a person or as a business gives me a customer reference number,  or quotes my name and address as well as theirs.  Since I file my stuff with a standard title including the "yyyymmdd" of the document - I'm too lazy to get every document scanned on the same day I receive it - a search with <reference> and intitle:"yyyymm*" will get me all my bills and correspondence with one company for a given date or,  with a little extra typing, a period.

Similar things apply to random purchases - I found a receipt for something we broke by searching for its model number.  (It was out of warranty and not insured ).

Tags happen to notes that I can't find easily,  or stuff that's included in a specific report or proposal,  so I know how to put it together again if I have to.

Given a chance the search feature is really very flexible and can cope with most needs,  but it does take a bit of getting used to...  since tags can be nested to infinite levels (within the overall limit for tags) you can 'shadow' a nested folder system in tags if you wish.

[DTLow 5,736]

7 hours ago, gazumped said:

In a folder structure do I put them under Personal / Car / Fuel,  or Business / Expense / Personal?

Are you overlooking that on the desktop we can have a tag hierarchy.
I can tag my notes as Personal > Car / Fuel,  or Business > Expense > Personal

I don't use a structure like that.  It prevents me from locking a note to a specific place (notebook/folder)
I would use multiple tags, as in Personal. Car, Fuel

I prefer the preciseness of tags over searches.  If I'm looking for words in the note I have to worry about spelling or phrasing,

[CalS 5,280]

@DTLow

Tag hierarchies are good for organizing, but without inheritance of the children, not so much help for searching.  I'm with you relative to tagging; I prefer a tag to shrink the pool of notes followed by a text search if needed.  Though, sometimes an all notes text search fits the bill.

[DTLow 5,736]

38 minutes ago, csihilling said:

@DTLow

Tag hierarchies are good for organizing, but without inheritance of the children, not so much help for searching.  

The inheritance feature is sometimes a plus and sometimes a negative.

For example, I have !Car > !Insurance

I tag some notes with the high level Car and of course car insurance notes get tagged with !Car Insurance. I can look at my high level Car notes or lower level Car Insurance notes, or both.

Its not a great example because in actual use I would not use a hierarchy.  I'd have completely independent !Car and !Insurance tags.  All insurance (house, car, boat etc) would be flagged with !Insurance.

 

[CalS 5,280]

Yup.  As you say, I have a tag for insurance, a tag for each car, a tag for the house, etc.  So a tag:insurance search yields all insurance notes, a compound tag search yields insurance notes for that item.  As far as tag hierarchy, all of these tags are under a parent tag Household (which is not used on any notes).  Just a place to put tags that are "household" related as opposed to TSW or whatever related.

[jbenson2 2,147]

For insurance matters, I use the following Parent / Child tag structure.

Insurance

Ins-Car

Ins-Dental

Ins-House

Ins-Life

Ins-Medical

To find all the notes that pertain to car insurance on my Ford, I would search for: 

tag:Ins-Car Ford

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I don't use tags that are concatenated keywords, because it makes for too many tags when you go through all the combinations of keywords.

So, my tags that are keywords just have one keyword per tag.

I would have Insurance, Car, Dental, House, Life, Medical, as well as other cross categories like Legal, Financial, etc, and then just assign multiple tags to a Note as needed, like:

• Car, Insurance
• House, Legal
• House, Insurance
• etc.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

16 hours ago, culmore said:

For many files EN is NOT the right place . The notion that EN is my digital brain and all I have to do is put everything in there is failing for me.

I agree.  Evernote is not a very good file manager.  Dropbox is much better for file management.  

EDIT:  Sorry, I overlooked that the OP was for the Windows platform.  The below remarks apply mostly to the Mac, but maybe to Windows for the searching of DropBox folders.

One thing you can do is to use the Mac Spotlight search, which will search titles and content in both Evernote Notes and Dropbox files.  OR, if you know you are looking for company documents, just search the DropBox folders on your Mac using the Finder.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, jbenson2 said:

For insurance matters, I use the following Parent / Child tag structure.
Insurance
    Ins-Car

My problem is that i'd have some notes tagged as Ins-Car and some tagged as Car-Ins
My preference is for single purpose tags

[jbenson2 2,147]

1 hour ago, DTLow said:

My problem is that i'd have some notes tagged as Ins-Car and some tagged as Car-Ins
My preference is for single purpose tags

It is easy and quick to correct tag assignments.

1.) Add Ins-Car to all notes that are tagged Car-Ins.This will result with the notes having both tags.

2.) Delete the tag Car-Ins

or vice versa