Arpy 6 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Hi Just started using Evernote. I would like to be able to both browse and seach IN CONTEXT so as to be able to easily recreate the full flavor of a meeting or discussion or even random thoughts. That means I want to be able to browse sequentially, or search to a specific section. Am thinking of creating a 'running_log' note. Every day, enter the date. For 1-1 notes, enter the person. For meeting notes, enter the meeting. For product-specific notes, enter the product. For the day's planned actions, enter 'next actions'. Same for end of day, planning for next day. Add a colon after every 'tag' so that I don't get any 'false hits'. But, I could probably do this just as well in any old editor (just create one large running file with my personalized 'tags' inserted appropriately). Am I overlooking Evernote capabilities that I should use? (I am leery of dividing my notes into 'buckets', because then I have to remember which 'bucket' I put things in. On the other hand, maybe I could put 'support data' in buckets and point to them?) So I guess I could summarize this by saying that I believe hierarchy (buckets) is a great way to manage complexity. But, over time, an original set of buckets my no longer be appropriate. Additionally, this 'hierarchy' can INCREASE search time if not done thoughtfully. I want to minimize search time. Thanks for any tips you can provide. Regards,Arpy Link to comment
Level 5* gazumped 12,154 Posted March 20, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hi. As far as I understand your request, I'd have thought that your use case is mainly solved by Evernote, though not quite in the way that you envisage. A lot of short notes are infinitely better than one very long one, provided you rely on Evernote's search feature. For each note on or related to a given day forinstance, start the title with a date yyyymmdd (I have a text expander set up to give me that with one keypress) and add to the title the <content type> - so you have meeting / product / actions / event / letter / email / etc., followed by the name or title of that content, and any other details or keywords you think might be helpful. I find this setup short enough to be able to add titles quickly and consistently as I need them. Within the note to can copy / clip / type / record and generally add anything (including 'to do' checkboxes and reminders) relevant to that situation. When you later wish to find a list of relevant notes, use the search term "intitle:<variable>" to find all the notes you wrote last year, or in the last few days; everything related to David Smith; every discussion on Fire Extinguishers; all your notes from yesterday, or all the notes from this week with undone actions. If you need to share any of these notes with others, you can do so; if you need a finer grain 'find' for specific projects you can add temporary or permanent tags. The scope is limited only by your time and imagination, but each use case and individual user is different, and something which works well for me may not be at all suitable for you. The only way to test it out is to use Evernote in a practical situation alongside whatever solution you currently have. If it seems to work well, and have more scalability, then by all means switch. If not, then you have proven that this is not the solution you're looking for. You'll almost certainly find ways to make your own changes to improve the process - and it's easy and quick to do so in Evernote. The information is there, all you need to do is add different coloured flags. Link to comment
Wordsgood 526 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hi Arpy. Welcome to the Forum!Gazumped pretty much covered it. If you want to see examples of how others used Evernote, I suggest searching the forum using key words and phrases such as:* Tags or Tagging* Notebooks versus Tags* Organization or Organizing EvernoteYou could also try Google and YouTube searches. They'll both bring up a ton of hits.Good luck.HiJust started using Evernote.I would like to be able to both browse and seach IN CONTEXT so as to be able to easily recreate the full flavor of a meeting or discussion or even random thoughts. That means I want to be able to browse sequentially, or search to a specific section.Am thinking of creating a 'running_log' note. Every day, enter the date. For 1-1 notes, enter the person. For meeting notes, enter the meeting. For product-specific notes, enter the product. For the day's planned actions, enter 'next actions'. Same for end of day, planning for next day. Add a colon after every 'tag' so that I don't get any 'false hits'.But, I could probably do this just as well in any old editor (just create one large running file with my personalized 'tags' inserted appropriately). Am I overlooking Evernote capabilities that I should use? (I am leery of dividing my notes into 'buckets', because then I have to remember which 'bucket' I put things in. On the other hand, maybe I could put 'support data' in buckets and point to them?) So I guess I could summarize this by saying that I believe hierarchy (buckets) is a great way to manage complexity. But, over time, an original set of buckets my no longer be appropriate. Additionally, this 'hierarchy' can INCREASE search time if not done thoughtfully. I want to minimize search time.Thanks for any tips you can provide.Regards,Arpy Link to comment
Level 5* JMichaelTX 4,119 Posted March 20, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 20, 2015 Hi Just started using Evernote. I would like to be able to both browse and seach IN CONTEXT so as to be able to easily recreate the full flavor of a meeting or discussion or even random thoughts. That means I want to be able to browse sequentially, or search to a specific section.. . .Am thinking of creating a 'running_log' note. . . .So I guess I could summarize this by saying that I believe hierarchy (buckets) is a great way to manage complexity. But, over time, an original set of buckets my no longer be appropriate. Additionally, this 'hierarchy' can INCREASE search time if not done thoughtfully. I want to minimize search time. I recommend using a series of small notes, rather than one large Note that you frequently update, for these reasons:Many users have reported problems with updating large notes Each small note automatically records a Note creation and modification date Allows you to assign different Tags.Evernote offers only a very limited hierarchical organization of Notes:Stack > Notebooks > Notes Each Stack can contain ONLY Notebooks, and each Notebook can contain ONLY Notes. Equally important, Evernote limits you to 250 notebooks. To make one issue clear, the Search function works just as well within the limited hierarchy as it does with a flat Notebook layout. So, using the EN hierarchy has NO impact on Search time. But, the combination of Stacks, Notebooks, and Tags can be very powerful, and probably satisfy most (but NOT all) organization needs. One of the keys to this is that the EN Search can search either “Everything" (i.e. All Notes), or in Context of the current NB (EN Mac and Win) and Tag filters (EN Win only). I find this very powerful and easy to use. If I am working on tasks for a particular client, or project, I can select a Notebook (NB) for that entity that filters the Note list to show only those notes for that entity. I can now use the Tag filter to further filter the Note list. For example, I can choose “Contacts” or “Vendors”, and see ONLY those contacts or vendors associated with that client/project. OTOH, if I need to find a Note or Notes that have nothing to do with that client/project, I can do a Search and click on the “Everything” choice for Context (slightly different UI for Win and Mac). So if I needed to quickly find some Note not related to the client/project, I can search for it, get the Note and copy the info I need (or open the Note in an external window), and then clear the search that returns me to the client/project filter/list I was working on. In conclusion, use of Notebooks for some uses, like for clients or projects, makes very good sense, and does NOT necessarily cause any restrictions or performance penalties, while at the same time offer some great benefits. Link to comment
semobill 16 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 GazWould you expand on using a text expander? If this is too OT please address in a new topic. Hints like these are solid gold. Thanks.Bill Link to comment
Level 5* gazumped 12,154 Posted March 22, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 22, 2015 Hi Bill It isn't (as they say) rocket science, but it is a way to speed up many standard operations, not least my ability to misspell words in multiple apps. I use Phrase Express - http://www.phraseexpress.com - which describes itself as a 'Text Expander' and offers a variety of features: it canOrganize frequently used text snippets.Expand abbreviations in any program.Automate repetitive tasks.Auto-complete phrases.Quick access to the Windows Clipboard History.Correct spelling mistakes in any application.Available for Windows and Android!Free for personal use (learn more)PE does exactly what it says on the can - use '#en' as a shortcode, and get Evernote's full address and contact details typed out every time you use it. Or set "Ctrl+`" as a hotkey and generate the current date & time in yyyymmdd hhmmss (or any other) format you may require. There are other text expanders around - search for the current options. All you need to do is get familiar with the language, and you may never have to type your phone number, address or any current dates ever again... The paid-for options include having a network version so everyone can share the same boilerplate library - I know standard texts are frowned upon, but sometimes you're obliged to use legal words and phrases that everyone must get right, and this is the way to do it. Link to comment
Frank.dg 1,385 Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 @Gaz... you and @JMichael may have just started my journey into the world of AHK and "Text Expander". From what I understand, is it correct to say that both AHK and Text Expander have the overlapping functionality of creating Hotkeys... or are we dealing with 2 different kettle of fish here? Link to comment
Level 5* gazumped 12,154 Posted March 23, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 23, 2015 @Frank - I've used both AHK and Phrase Express though I'm far from expert in either. It's true you can do a great deal with both, and some -maybe a lot- of that overlaps. It just happened with me that Phrase Express appeared to have more tools to manage standard pastes of dates and text, and had a built in (and customiseable) spell checker. Link to comment
DutchPete 247 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 @Gaz... you and @JMichael may have just started my journey into the world of AHK and "Text Expander". From what I understand, is it correct to say that both AHK and Text Expander have the overlapping functionality of creating Hotkeys... or are we dealing with 2 different kettle of fish here? It also depends on your use case. If you write a lot & needs lots of features PE is probably best. If you don't write a lot or a simple repeatable phrases AHK is probably sufficient. I use AHK & am quite happy with it. Link to comment
semobill 16 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Thanks so much. I had almost forgotten about recording macros to automate operations. I can see I am in for a new learning curve. What fun! Link to comment
Level 5* CalS 5,311 Posted March 23, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 23, 2015 @frank Re PhaseExpress, all @gaz said and from my personal perspective the macro capability in Phase Express. It lets you create just about any string of characters and control characters. I didn't bother looking elsewhere once I tested PE and saw what it could do. It is what I use for all my reminder searches in EN. There could be better out there, but it works well for me, and if it ain't broke.... Link to comment
DutchPete 247 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 @frank Re PhaseExpress, all @gaz said and from my personal perspective the macro capability in Phase Express. It lets you create just about any string of characters and control characters. I didn't bother looking elsewhere once I tested PE and saw what it could do. It is what I use for all my reminder searches in EN. There could be better out there, but it works well for me, and if it ain't broke.... Absolutely. But what works for 1 does not necessarily work for others. As with using note-taking, EN is great for many of us, but there are those who hate it & use other apps. Bottom line: it's horses for courses Link to comment
Frank.dg 1,385 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 @frank Re PhaseExpress, all @gaz said and from my personal perspective the macro capability in Phase Express. It lets you create just about any string of characters and control characters. I didn't bother looking elsewhere once I tested PE and saw what it could do. It is what I use for all my reminder searches in EN. There could be better out there, but it works well for me, and if it ain't broke.... Absolutely. But what works for 1 does not necessarily work for others. As with using note-taking, EN is great for many of us, but there are those who hate it & use other apps. Bottom line: it's horses for courses @DutchPete, what floats your boat when it comes to a text expander? BTW, I hate onions . Link to comment
DutchPete 247 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 @DutchPete, what floats your boat when it comes to a text expander? BTW, I hate onions . If you hate onions, don't eat them. Link to comment
Frank.dg 1,385 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 @DutchPete, what floats your boat when it comes to a text expander? BTW, I hate onions . If you hate onions, don't eat them. I was hoping to get some alternatives... for both text expanders and onions @frank Re PhaseExpress, all @gaz said and from my personal perspective the macro capability in Phase Express. It lets you create just about any string of characters and control characters. I didn't bother looking elsewhere once I tested PE and saw what it could do. It is what I use for all my reminder searches in EN. There could be better out there, but it works well for me, and if it ain't broke.... Absolutely. But what works for 1 does not necessarily work for others. As with using note-taking, EN is great for many of us, but there are those who hate it & use other apps. Bottom line: it's horses for courses Link to comment
Level 5* JMichaelTX 4,119 Posted March 23, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 23, 2015 I was hoping to get some alternatives... for both text expanders and onions @Frank: Have you ever tried any Texas sweet yellow onions? Really good. Even better if you grill them (caramelize them) with your fajitas. Link to comment
Frank.dg 1,385 Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I was hoping to get some alternatives... for both text expanders and onions @Frank: Have you ever tried any Texas sweet yellow onions? Really good. Even better if you grill them (caramelize them) with your fajitas. I suspect Texas sweet yellow onions, like PhraseExpress, might grow on me Time to *emh *expand my horizons Link to comment
Level 5* CalS 5,311 Posted March 23, 2015 Level 5* Share Posted March 23, 2015 @frank Re PhaseExpress, all @gaz said and from my personal perspective the macro capability in Phase Express. It lets you create just about any string of characters and control characters. I didn't bother looking elsewhere once I tested PE and saw what it could do. It is what I use for all my reminder searches in EN. There could be better out there, but it works well for me, and if it ain't broke.... Absolutely. But what works for 1 does not necessarily work for others. As with using note-taking, EN is great for many of us, but there are those who hate it & use other apps. Bottom line: it's horses for courses True indeed. Though it might be more a case if courses for horses as opposed to horses for courses. Link to comment
Arpy 6 Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Thanks for all the suggestions -- I will try creating small granular notes -- at least one new one for each day -- and will dig deeper into Search. I might also put in a word for Phrase Express -- if I remember right, it can be used to invoke tools from wherever you are -- very handy if you often switch back and forth between applications. Thanks again,Arpy Link to comment
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