Is Evernote the most irritating product on earth or am I missing something

[popolll 4]

I struggle to use Evernote efficiently.

• The first problem I have is that there is no way to manually set the order of notes.
• Trawling the internet I see that people think that the way to go is with tags. Fine and dandy except there is no easy way to export a list of tags so you can look at them until you know them by heart. By chance I discovered you could expose a list on the left hand panel and drag them onto notes.
• I am attempting a big re-organisation (assignation of tags and removal of redundant notes). What do I find? You can only properly delete notes on the web version while you can only do multiple selections on the Windows version. Result is I have to have both open so I can delete notes one by one; and so I can assign tags to multiple notes. 

I just hope this is the right way to go. Certainly notebooks without the facility to manually order notes have proved a disaster for me.

 

Is there anyone else who is tearing their hair out because the program is so un-intuitive. I spent ages looking for a sync button on the web version. If it's there I still can't find it.

 

I just have to believe all you guys who say Evernote is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just can't get the wrapper off.

 

Paul

[CalS 5,280]

I struggle to use Evernote efficiently.

• The first problem I have is that there is no way to manually set the order of notes.
• Trawling the internet I see that people think that the way to go is with tags. Fine and dandy except there is no easy way to export a list of tags so you can look at them until you know them by heart. By chance I discovered you could expose a list on the left hand panel and drag them onto notes.
• I am attempting a big re-organisation (assignation of tags and removal of redundant notes). What do I find? You can only properly delete notes on the web version while you can only do multiple selections on the Windows version. Result is I have to have both open so I can delete notes one by one; and so I can assign tags to multiple notes. 

I just hope this is the right way to go. Certainly notebooks without the facility to manually order notes have proved a disaster for me.

 

Is there anyone else who is tearing their hair out because the program is so un-intuitive. I spent ages looking for a sync button on the web version. If it's there I still can't find it.

 

I just have to believe all you guys who say Evernote is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I just can't get the wrapper off.

 

Paul

• Correct, no easy way to manually order notes.  For a limited number of notes you can use reminders and the reminders drop down in Snippet view.  But this can be cumbersome at best.  Or try and use some temporary tagging strategy, also cumbersome.
• I think the key to tagging is to be minimalist with an eye on leveraging the search capability when looking for things.  Create tags that are intuitive to you.  For example if you get a statement from Chase, tag it Chase and Statement.  Not likely to forget those two.
• Don't know what properly delete means, but you can delete notes on desktop and web.  It is easier to perform any multiple note activity on the desktop including deleting and tagging, IMO.  Also updating on the web and the desktop at the same time can lead to note conflicts or lost updates.

I think it is safe to say it takes everyone a while to get the wrapper off, with EN or any software product.  Good luck!

[Frank.dg 1,385]

You can only properly delete notes on the web version while you can only do multiple selections on the Windows version. Result is I have to have both open so I can delete notes one by one; and so I can assign tags to multiple notes. 

 

I spent ages looking for a sync button on the web version. If it's there I still can't find it.

 

 

Hi Paul, 

 

Could you run us through some use cases where you might want to have your notes manually/ arbitrarily ordered. Many users might have some suggestions for you.

 

Why can't you "properly" delete notes on the desktop (Windows) client? Have you tried to delete/ tag notes in bulk on Windows desktop?

 

The Web client does not have a sync button, because everything you enter into a note is synced automatically. If you find that what you've added to/ deleted from the desktop client does not show up on the web client... it is because you have not synced your desktop changes through yet and refreshed your web client. 

[popolll 4]

Thanks for your help. 

 

An example of wanting to order notes manually. I have a Car Notebook in which I store items relevant to my car use. These include receipts for service purchase of tyres etc. etc. But I also store vehicle registration, copy of drivers licence, insurance certificate etc. I would like these important documents to appear at the top so I don't have to wade through junk to find them. . Similarly I have lots of health problems and I get doctors' letters some of which are far more important than others. Again I would like to keep these "on top" so they are there as soon as I open the notebook.

 

Deleting notes was yet another example of the un-intuitive nature of Evernote. I looked everywhere for a bin icon like you have on the web version. It was only after much frustration that I found the delete not instruction buried deep inside the right click. Why use a universal icon that everyone knows and has cope to expect on one version of the software and not on the other.

 

An icon in the web client which indicates that syncing is happening would be a reassurance. I just wish the developers would imagine that they are a user who does not know what to expect and provide that extra bit of hand holding.

[CalS 5,280]

 

Thanks for your help. 

 

An example of wanting to order notes manually. I have a Car Notebook in which I store items relevant to my car use. These include receipts for service purchase of tyres etc. etc. But I also store vehicle registration, copy of drivers licence, insurance certificate etc. I would like these important documents to appear at the top so I don't have to wade through junk to find them. . Similarly I have lots of health problems and I get doctors' letters some of which are far more important than others. Again I would like to keep these "on top" so they are there as soon as I open the notebook.

 

Deleting notes was yet another example of the un-intuitive nature of Evernote. I looked everywhere for a bin icon like you have on the web version. It was only after much frustration that I found the delete not instruction buried deep inside the right click. Why use a universal icon that everyone knows and has cope to expect on one version of the software and not on the other.

 

An icon in the web client which indicates that syncing is happening would be a reassurance. I just wish the developers would imagine that they are a user who does not know what to expect and provide that extra bit of hand holding.

 

Thanks for the examples.  One workaround to get those notes to the top of the list could be to create a tag !Top.  If you sort by tags ascending !Top notes will be on the top of the list, as long as there isn't another ! tag with a letter before T.  So one more click after you open the notebook and you should see those important notes.

 

You can customize the overall toolbar and the note toolbar and add a trash can icon for deletes.  Just right click in the top toolbar area or the area to the right in the note header area, near the information icon, little i with a circle around it, and click customize.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

One can also click on a note or select a series of notes and hit the delete key on your keyboard. Including the above advice, there are at least 3 ways to delete a note on the desktop client.

To pin notes to the top of any list and order them in any way manually, you can also add a reminder to them. They will be pinned to the top of the note list. If they are of very high importance, you can drag them to the shortcut list.

The web clients - both old and beta - have a sync indicator to show that a note edited/ created on the web client is being synced. It takes a second or 2. In the Beta, you'll find that real-time sync indicator at the bottom right of an open note... In the old version you'll see it in the note toolbar.

If you're talking about some sort of a sync indicator to see what is being synced from desktop to the web... I don't know why that would be necessary. You can see the sync in progress on your desktop client. If you want to see the sync progress on the desktop client, you need to go list view (toggle by hitting F5). There you can see which of your notes still need to be synced. Now.... Once all of your notes show as synced on desktop, the web client will show all of those notes automatically (maybe after refreshing your browser tab). The web client is a mirror of what you have on the Evenote servers. It does not need to be, nor can it be manually synced. It always syncs automatically if you are working from the web client and have an Internet connection.

My advice: work on desktop for the heavy lifting (bulk editing). Of course, you need to sync your desktop client for any changes to be sent through to the Evernote servers. Once synced, everything is automatically available on the web client.

[popolll 4]

Thanks for that. I will soldier on.

[cleverusername 20]

After nearly four years of using Evernote like a Windows Explorer directory, I have found two things that are very effective:

 

1) Tags - as others have mentioned, tagging is a great organizational tool. For me, many of my notes fit into more than one notebook, but I don't want two instances of the same note. A tag takes care of that.

 

2) Shortcuts - you can create a shortcut to a note, notebook, notebook stack, or tag. Shortcuts are versatile and powerful. Additionally, shortcuts can be ordered any way you wish; just drag the shortcut to where you want it to appear in the list.

 

Using tags and shortcuts, you can make it easy to access your most important notes. For example, you could tag your most important car notes as Car Critical. Then, add the Car Critical tag to the Shortcuts list. You could do the same with health or any other area. While this does not solve your need to order notes within notebooks, it may help. Additionally, csihilling mentioned search. I have 4,000+ notes. I didn't start tagging until recently. Without search skills Evernote is like the DVD dump bins at WalMart. You can prefix your search with tag: or intitle:. Intitle: is especially powerful as long I have accurately titled my notes.

 

With Evernote I am creating a massive body of information and personal history. I fully expect to create tens of thousands of notes in my lifetime. Creation is never the challenge; finding the info is the hard part. Tags, shortcuts, searches, and solid note titles will give me a database for life.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I struggle to use Evernote efficiently.

• The first problem I have is that there is no way to manually set the order of notes.

 

First, in answer to your title question "Is Evernote the most irritating product on earth":

No.  That would be iTunes. 

Well, I don't know about the "on earth" part, but in spite of Apple's generally good UI design, iTunes has been a UI disaster recognized by many for many years.

 

But I digress...

 

You might find this helpful:

• Use Reminders (without a date) to identify your key Notes that you want to often see/review
  • This works, in effect, like pinning your key notes to the top.
• You can use shortcut keys to quick filter to a Notebook and/or Tags.
  • In both EN Mac and EN Win, see the View menu for "Jump to ..." Notebook and Tags
  • The shortcut keys should be shown.
• When you set these filters the Reminders will be only for those Notes that meet the filter criteria

Reminders are shown at the top of the Note list.  You can expand/collapse them as you like.

 

I make extensive use of this, and it works like a charm.

In particular, the combination of a Notebook filter AND a Tag(s) filter to show the key Notes (Reminders) is very powerful.

 

Hope this help.  Let us know if you have any questions.

[Analyst444 182]

Paul, I am sorry to hear that you have found EN to be frustrating. I think once you nail down some more of the basic steps for working with EN (as described above) you will find that its benefits far out-weigh its costs.

 

I offer two other approaches to manually sorting Notes. (I only skimmed the other replies above. I don't think they've already been mentioned.)

 

For those Notes that you want to have at the top of a list of Notes:

• Give them an artificially low "Created" Date (or an "Updated" date) and then sort the Notes on that date.
• Start the Title with values like "AAA", "AAB", "AAC", etc. or "001", "002", "003", etc. and then sort the Notes by Title.

Each of these ideas require some manual set-up, but they will do the trick. 

[Wordsgood 526]

Hi Popolll,

Welcome to the Forum!

Many of us can relate to your confusion, and I agree that when first starting out it can be a daunting task to wrap your head around a non-hierarchical system. Most of tend to come to Evernote after years of in working with Windows Office style software where hierarchy reigns supreme. I know I certainly was!

[popolll 4]

Many, many thanks to everyone who has posted in response to my request. All your tips are helping with my slow climb up the learning curve. I am many years retired now and things take a while to sink inside my noggin.

 

I shall be storing your advice inside Evernote tagged as "education" and "evernote". And I am using another tip I picked up - I forward the emails copies I receive with your replies directly to my account.So you see I am getting there.

 

I think I may give up notebooks and stick to tags. Is that wise, do you think?

 

As for comments about iTunes - I tend to agree. For a long time now I have been buying ALL my music from Amazon because I hate the restrictions and traps that iTunes put in your way after you have paid them good money. I am still in the process of releasing stuff I bought years ago from the chains that poor old Steve Jobs shackled them with, I have broken free and I now use Media Monkey.

 

Thanks again guys. What a nice place you have here.

 

Paul

[C6REW 416]

Good morning Paul,

 

You have received some great advice. I will also add how I deal with your situation.

 

First of all every Note I create or send to Evernote from Outlook has a date code added before an explanation of what it is, for example your current insurance docs might go into a Note called the following if created today:

 

150502 - Insurance Docs - 2015 - 2016 - Bugatti Veyron

 

I would then add three Tags,

 

Vehicle, Bugatti, Insurance

 

The date code means the newest Notes are always at the top.

 

As suggested you could easily change the date code to put this Note at the top of your list in a Notebook all the time. But I wouldn't bother as it is simple to just search within the Notebook you keep these documents for the Tags, Bugatti, Insurance.

 

Once I get new insurance the old Note for last years documents goes into an Archive Notebook which is where I put all my 'old' Personal Notes. Being a Business User of Evernote, I have another Archive for Business Notes.

 

As long as you have a simple and easy to follow Tag list, this system works incredibly well and is easy to follow.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Best regards

 

 

Chris

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

As for comments about iTunes - I tend to agree. For a long time now I have been buying ALL my music from Amazon because I hate the restrictions and traps that iTunes put in your way after you have paid them good money. I am still in the process of releasing stuff I bought years ago from the chains that poor old Steve Jobs shackled them with, I have broken free and I now use Media Monkey.

 

My comments were about the iTunes UI -- not about the service.

 

I suppose that if you buy your music from iTunes then you are somewhat locked into using Apple devices to play the music, although there is an iTunes app for Windows and for Android.  I really got started with iTunes when Apple offered the iTunes Match for music you already owned.  Upload just a small segment of your music (like from CDs) and Apple provides the full CD quality music to all of your devices.

 

I have a number of Apple devices including Apple TV which allows me to play all of my CD-quality songs through my high end A/V receiver.  So I no longer have a need for expensive CD/DVD carousels and I have many playlists to organize my music.  As soon as I have a new song on iTunes, I have it on all of my devices.  I have a iPhone 6+ which automatically connects to my car's stereo system via bluetooth and starts playing my selected playlist as soon as I start my engine.  Frankly, I don't think it gets any better than this.

 

I apologize for the off-topic post.

[CalS 5,280]

I think I may give up notebooks and stick to tags. Is that wise, do you think?

 

Paul

If you search the forum you will find many threads on tags vs notebooks or no tags at all.  My personal preference is minimal notebooks and intuitive to you tags, that being ones you can readily remember.  You can always rely upon the power of the pure search to find something.  Tags help you limit the search context and eliminate the noise.  So a yes from me.    

[popolll 4]

 

I think I may give up notebooks and stick to tags. Is that wise, do you think?

 

Paul

If you search the forum you will find many threads on tags vs notebooks or no tags at all.  My personal preference is minimal notebooks and intuitive to you tags, that being ones you can readily remember.  You can always rely upon the power of the pure search to find something.  Tags help you limit the search context and eliminate the noise.  So a yes from me.  

 

I think that's the way I'll go. Thanks P

[CalS 5,280]

You are welcome.

[patnpm 30]

We all have our own workarounds / kludges for evernote. I have the same problem as you with ordering notes. I get round it 2 ways.

 

adding a number to the top of a note and then sorting by name. So '01 very important note' will always appear at the top of the list. The only problem with that is that evernote Mac and evernote ios sort titles dfferently.

 

create a master note eg 'my big car note' and then drag your other car notes onto it. They appear as links which you can order any way you want. You end up with your own kind of wiki this way. 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

create a master note eg 'my big car note' and then drag your other car notes onto it. They appear as links which you can order any way you want. You end up with your own kind of wiki this way. 

 

@patnpm,

 

Are you on Mac? I've just now tried to do as you suggested on Windows... it's a no go. I'm in snippet view... if one tries to drag any other note into one you are currently viewing in the Note Panel, it flips to that one (because you've clicked on it). I know one can achieve similar with a TOC note... but I was wanting to tinker with your suggestion...