Need nesting for notes and notebooks. Not looking to discuss tags or stacks. Thank you.

[pixelrogue 4]

Need the ability to NEST notes and notebooks; started abandoning Everynote as a result.

 

 

Been using Evernote for a few years. Now using it heavily and tags aren't cutting it and wastes more time trying to organize and manage tags and stacks. 

 

Please do not respond explaining the benefits of tags, keywords, search, stacks. Keep the benefits of tags, keywords, search, stacks ~ just not at the expense of the nested hierarchy. No links to related articles, tutorials, demos, blogs on how to use tags and how to organize.
 

----

Keep the tags, but please allow nesting. Notebook and stacks, tags...aren't getting the job done. One can say it is mindset, need to change the mindset and adjust to a new way of organization. Spent obscene amount of time over the last 2 years trying to use and adjust to tags; reading blogs, best practices, research etc..even looking for 3rd party add ons, iOS apps etc. The more content added, the more content that gets lost... the larger volume of data the harder it is to find... must rely on memory for search terms, tags etc. Nesting allows an easy way to browse and find content. 

Also, you can train a group of people to work within hierarchy, but not tags. 
 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Read through that twice to make sure I was not contravening the list of "do-not's":

 

Try WorkFlowy, an outliner, for at least part of your workflow. You can nest lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists (within lists)... It is immensely helpful, and solves a number of use cases where I would ordinarily have wanted nested notebooks in Evernote. 

 

Below you'll soon find related comments of every flavor. You really did it with your first post. Welcome to the forums. 

 

#untilthecowscomehome

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Need the ability to NEST notes and notebooks; started abandoning Everynote as a result.

 

If you're trying to make a feature request, it will be so noted by the Evernote staff.

This is a very, very old request, going back at least 7 years, so the outlook is not promising.

 

If not having nested notes/notebooks is a deal-breaker for you, then you will need to look elsewhere.

But there are a lot of things that Evernote does well, and I use it on a daily basis.

 

At this point I probably violate your request to NOT discuss other things, so you can quit reading here if you really want to.  But it might just be worth a glance.

 

Having said that, let me share with you a post I recently made on a similar topic:

 

 

The thing I don't get is why people want to argue against hierarchical organization.  Sub-Folders/Sub-Notebooks and Tags are complimentary.  Tags, like in the Evernote implementation, are a flat organization of Notes, i.e., search of parent tags do NOT include any of it's child tags.  The Tag hierarchy in Evernote is for Tag organization ONLY, and has NO effect on Notes.

 

There are a number of organizational needs that really require a hierarchy.  The most obvious is:  Client --> Project --> Sub-Project --> Task.

Tags help identify issues, technologies, people etc that cut across Projects.

 

So, IMO, the optimum tool is one that supports both hierarchal organization and tags.

 

Now, having said that, I fully understand that Evernote does NOT really support hierarchical organization.

So, if you want to use Evernote, then you must be willing to accept the limitations, and make maximum use of tags.

 

I use Evernote for research and general note taking (like for meetings and conference calls), and other tools for Project management.

 

 

Perhaps a "good use of Tags" along with the other organization elements of Evernote would have been a better choice of words.

My main point is that if you want to use Evernote, then you must be willing to accept the limitations, and mostly use other techniques.

 

Of course, you can still use Stacks and Notebooks in a hierarchical manner.  For example, you could have a stack for each client, and then a Notebook for each project.  But this does have a limitation that you can have only 250 Notebooks, so if you are very successful you might soon run into that limitation.  A good problem to have, I suppose.       But then you already know my solution:  use something else for project management.  I have recently discovered, and really like, Apptivo.com.

 

[pixelrogue 4]

@Frank: Thank you....got a good chuckle. Checked out Workflowy and you are right, almost an endless ability to nest lists.  

 

@JMichael:  Came across those posts in other searches. The points are certainly logical and valid - want to use Evernote, accept the limitations - need the nesting, then Evernote isn't the tool. 

---
EN made the clear decision from the beginning to abandon the legacy concepts of hierarchy....onward to the new world of tags. The stance has been so anti-hierarchy that many within product leadership would likely perceive the mere consideration of nesting as betrayal to the corporate mission, founding fathers and selling their soul with the inevitable outcome of their product differentiation washed away as the EN brand steps down from its rightful thrown to join the myriad of note solutions.

Find Evernote best around for what it does, and life would be so much more enhanced if the application simply embraced nesting....even if the nesting were limited to just 4 levels. No expectation that my one voice added to the countless others over the years pleading for the ability to nest will make a difference.  

With a relatively high number of people looking for nesting, one would think a 3rd party developer (say mobile developer) would have created a tool to fill that void.

---
Just waiting now for EN staffer to come along w/the company line... lock the thread. 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

 

Need the ability to NEST notes and notebooks; started abandoning Everynote as a result.

 

If you're trying to make a feature request, it will be so noted by the Evernote staff.

This is a very, very old request, going back at least 7 years, so the outlook is not promising.

 

If not having nested notes/notebooks is a deal-breaker for you, then you will need to look elsewhere.

But there are a lot of things that Evernote does well, and I use it on a daily basis.

 

At this point I probably violate your request to NOT discuss other things, so you can quit reading here if you really want to.  But it might just be worth a glance.

 

Having said that, let me share with you a post I recently made on a similar topic:

 

 

The thing I don't get is why people want to argue against hierarchical organization.  Sub-Folders/Sub-Notebooks and Tags are complimentary.  Tags, like in the Evernote implementation, are a flat organization of Notes, i.e., search of parent tags do NOT include any of it's child tags.  The Tag hierarchy in Evernote is for Tag organization ONLY, and has NO effect on Notes.

 

There are a number of organizational needs that really require a hierarchy.  The most obvious is:  Client --> Project --> Sub-Project --> Task.

Tags help identify issues, technologies, people etc that cut across Projects.

 

So, IMO, the optimum tool is one that supports both hierarchal organization and tags.

 

Now, having said that, I fully understand that Evernote does NOT really support hierarchical organization.

So, if you want to use Evernote, then you must be willing to accept the limitations, and make maximum use of tags.

 

I use Evernote for research and general note taking (like for meetings and conference calls), and other tools for Project management.

 

 

Perhaps a "good use of Tags" along with the other organization elements of Evernote would have been a better choice of words.

My main point is that if you want to use Evernote, then you must be willing to accept the limitations, and mostly use other techniques.

 

Of course, you can still use Stacks and Notebooks in a hierarchical manner.  For example, you could have a stack for each client, and then a Notebook for each project.  But this does have a limitation that you can have only 250 Notebooks, so if you are very successful you might soon run into that limitation.  A good problem to have, I suppose.       But then you already know my solution:  use something else for project management.  I have recently discovered, and really like, Apptivo.com.

 

 

 

Quite right... Even if a 3rd-party app could work with, say, a list of our notebook shortcuts (or the notebooks themselves) and allow us to arrange them into nested hierarchies as we pleased, we would run into the 250-notebook limit before we knew it (unless one had a business account). 

[jefito 5,589]

Just waiting now for EN staffer to come along w/the company line... lock the thread. 

Oh, honestly. There are numerous topics that have been open for a very long time (one since 2008 - https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35420-nested-notebook-stacks/) discussing the desire for hierarchical storage, with participation from Evernote employees, including the CTO. There's another lengthy topic in this forum where users are currently discussing alternatives to Evernote (https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/66103-power-user-discontent-best-alternatives-to-en/). They really don't care that some users won't like their choices and don't mind if they want to discuss it here, within reason. You're not going to get shut down for a little bit of hand-wringing.

 

That being said, I'm not exactly clear what you're expecting here. You want nested notebooks, and don't want to hear about tags. You've already concluded that Evernote isn't the product for you. So.... ???

[Frank.dg 1,385]

 

Just waiting now for EN staffer to come along w/the company line... lock the thread. 

Oh, honestly. There are numerous topics that have been open for a very long time (one since 2008 - https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35420-nested-notebook-stacks/) discussing the desire for hierarchical storage, with participation from Evernote employees, including the CTO. There's another lengthy topic in this forum where users are currently discussing alternatives to Evernote (https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/66103-power-user-discontent-best-alternatives-to-en/). They really don't care that some users won't like their choices and don't mind if they want to discuss it here, within reason. You're not going to get shut down for a little bit of hand-wringing.

 

That being said, I'm not exactly clear what you're expecting here. You want nested notebooks, and don't want to hear about tags. You've already concluded that Evernote isn't the product for you. So.... ???

 

 

To be more precise, @pixelrogue has only "...started abandoning Evernote...". That comes with a lot of trepidation, soul searching, ultimatums... and arm twisting as (one of) the last resort(s). I suspect there's still some way to go to shut things down completely. It's always a messy and complicated affair with these separations. I mean, who gets custody of the notes?  

[pixelrogue 4]

@Jefito:  Yes, guess a few remained open... just noticed a few that were also closed. Expecting a merge, or close or something from admins.

 

There isn't a great alternative (and thank you for the link to the alternative thread).... The other benefits of EN are great.... just need the nesting. OneNote is promising but needs more growth and maturity. Have been keeping an eye on it (continue to check it out when updated) but will be some time before ON is a reasonable contender. 

 

Have moved some information management to other systems, where the EN strengths are not as necessary. But do not want to be maintaining more than one system for notes. 

[nazdash 0]

Sorry, if it not right place to sharing this.

Currently I'm working on software that helps easily organize notes using nice nested structure.

If someone interested please check it here - http://unit.ms/

[abffab 0]

For whatever its worth since I don't see Evernote moving on this - don't think we need too many more levels - and I can imagine you need to limit it for size issues perhaps and manageability..... but would one more level be too much to ask? Notes->Notebooks->Stacks->File Cabinets->Closets..... whatever you come up with, one or two levels more would help clear the clutter on the screen as volume increases. And map a well entrenched model of using file systems on PC's. Still love the product!

[Candid 167]

So why not just change what you call things? Tags can be nested and are close to unlimited. Why not just have one notebook and a highly nested tag structure? Evernote is already using a slightly different nomenclature with notes and notebooks versus files and folders.

[DTLow 5,736]

On March 24, 2016 at 6:34 AM, abffab said:

Notes->Notebooks->Stacks->File Cabinets->Closets.....

>>Nested Notebooks

Since this is not an Evernote notebook feature, there's nothing to stop you from duplicating the same with tags
For example, tag name   Cabinet xxx
You can even set up a hierarchy 

Closet xxx
       Cabinet xxxx
                 Stack xxxx
                             Notebook xxx 

Downside:
- tag hierarchy is currently only applied to the desktop platforms
  edited - Tag hierarchy does appear on the android platform.
- there is no parent-child inheritance
   edited - Current Windows Beta 6 includes inheritance.
- tags are not restricted to a single entry per note (this may be a plus)

 

[Candid 167]

5 hours ago, DTLow said:

Downside:
- tag hierarchy is currently only applied to the desktop platforms

Tag hierarchy does appear on the android platform. Would work in a  search, but is less functional in setting up new levels. 

 

6 hours ago, DTLow said:

- there is no parent-child inheritance

This is the flaw in my idea, but it could be overcome in one of two ways. In some situations there will be no duplication of tags. My own usage is like this. But if you for example  have multiple clients with multiple bills or projects then this is less helpful. You would need to do as other's suggests and include hierarchy in your tags:

• Client A-project
• Client A-billing
• Client A-meeting

OR

• Project-Clint A
• Project-Client B
• Projeclt-ClientC

[CalS 5,280]

Or you can create a parent tag for Clients and put ClientA, ClientB,..... under as children with tags for Project, Billing and Meeting.  Then a tag:ClientA tag:Billing search will return the notes you seek.  You end up with the number of clients plus 3 tags versus 3 times the number of clients tags.  But the method doesn't fit everyone's eye.

[CalS 5,280]

10 hours ago, DTLow said:

there is no parent-child inheritance

Current Windows Beta 6 includes inheritance.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On 3/17/2015 at 2:29 PM, pixelrogue said:

Please do not respond explaining the benefits of tags, keywords, search, stacks. Keep the benefits of tags, keywords, search, stacks ~ just not at the expense of the nested hierarchy. No links to related articles, tutorials, demos, blogs on how to use tags and how to organize.

Well, I was going to explain how my pseudo Notebook design can provide you with the nesting, hierarchy, and virtually unlimited number of pseudo Notebooks (which work virtually like real notebooks), but since my design requires the use of tags, I will refrain in deference to your request.

Good luck.