(Archived) Email functionality seems incredibly limited

[chris2519 0]

Am I missing something? I just switched from DevonThink (bloated, annoying interface) to Evernote and I'm thrilled -- except for the email functionality. I need to occassionally email PDFs in my Evernote database, but t seems the only option is to email from within the program. And then I can never tell if it is even sent unless I send a copy to myself, because there doesn't seem to be any record of mail sent from within Evernote. I've tried just dragging a PDF into an outgoing Mac OS Mail message but it won't let me do it. Why are we forced into using Evernote's internal email to send PDFs that are in our database? Why can't it just hook into Mac Mail? Love, love, love the program -- but hate, hate hate this liability. Is there a workaround? Something I'm not understanding?

[engberg 89]

You're correct that drag-and-drop doesn't work for PDFs in the Mac client. (This is a bug filed on the client.)

For now, you can right-click on the PDF to "Save As..."

[klas 2]

+ 1 for the OP. My usage is Evernote for storage/second brain, mail application for record of all communication (happens to be Mac's mail app). Would be great with a choice for this, cheers

[cinthia 1]

I'd also like to cast my vote to allow Mail.app to provide the mail function for the EN client. Easier to get to your address book and keep everything nice and tidily organized.

Kevin

I second (or third) that request. I have many receipts for software I've purchased over the years which I'd like to store in evernote. I tried forwarding them to my evernote email address but though they do show up in the database, the info is lost. The heading and subject are correct but the body of the email will not open and is labeled as "Unnamed File Attachment". I got a premium account, intending to use evernote as the ultimate document file cabinet. If manual copy and paste is the only solution, I guess I a free account is good enough because I'm definitely not going to be doing that for hundreds of emails. Isn't this what the evernote email address is for? (using Evernote for Mac 1.8.0 )

[kkingmd 0]

I'd also like to cast my vote to allow Mail.app to provide the mail function for the EN client. Easier to get to your address book and keep everything nice and tidily organized.

Kevin

[engberg 89]

The "File > Export" option will export the entire note, with title, annotations, etc. A note can also contain multiple parts ... e.g. two PDFs and a JPEG. File>Export will get all of these in a single export.

If you just want the PDF file, then right-click on just that one PDF document.

[merk850 0]

Ok Thanks. What is the differnce between "right click" and "open with" or "save as" compared to export pdf. I am most interested in information about the choices I have to get my pdf document back out of EN to my hard drive if I need to manipulate.

I used to export, but if you are saying"open with (application)" gives me access to the PDF directly is this the best way? If I alter it and "save" does the new app save changes to EN? or do I have to re-import.

Where in the help section is this info clearly delineated?

Thanks!

[engberg 89]

We plan to add drag-and-drop in the future, but for now you can right-click on the body of a PDF to Open it in a different application, or to Save As...

[merk850 0]

Dave,

I am new and want to get a better understanding before I take the time and effort to upload all these PDF's. Will the Mac client have the ability to drag and drop PDF's out of the client to the desktop? OR onto an email in GMAIL or even Mac Mail?

If I want to access a PDF from my Mac client on my local machine to manipulate it let's say in PDF Pen Pro what is the easiest way to get it on the desktop?

Thanks

[chris2519 0]

Okay, now it's gone from just inconvenient to really terrible. I try to email a document I've just scanned and it tells me that it can't do it right away, not until the next sync. Then I go to sync, and upon completion of the sync, I get "The operation couldn't be completed. (Evernote Email Error error 4." I'm sorry, but this is just not okay. I can't believe that with all the things this program does, it can't just let me send an email from my OWN email program, or drag a PDF out of the notebook and into an outgoing email message. Do I really have to go back to DevonThink (a program I find overly complicated) just to do something so SIMPLE? And on the rare occasion that the "email" function from within Evernote actually works, there is NO record that I can see as to whether it sends the email or not. This is BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. Beyond lame. I'm incredibly frustrated.

[chris2519 0]

Hmmm... not to belabor the point (but obviously I am!) but.... I don't know a single person that owns a Mac who doesn't use the Mac Mail app. (Again, I'm not even hell-bent on MacMail integration -- I wouldn't necessarily mind the "evernote has to email the document" part of it if i could have some kind of record showing it has been sent, or if there were just an easy/simple way to pull a copy of a PDF out of evernote so that I can email it myself directly. I don't see it as an export option. And I can't seem to drag any of the documents within evernote to my desktop. (even as copies.) Is there a way to do this? because what i've been doing is emailing it to myself via evernote, which gives me an incoming email with the pdf attached, and then i can do what i want with it. it just seems kind of tedious...

[engberg 89]

If you dig back through the archives, you'll see multiple threads from people who use one of the web-based mail systems (usually gmail) that don't mess with a local client and all of the IMAP/SMTP configuration. I know my wife doesn't use any mail client on her laptop, for example.

I personally use Thunderbird on my Mac and Windows systems for consistency, but obviously don't make product decisions around my use case.

[chris2519 0]

Dave -

Thanks for your reply. I respect your position "many people don't use Mac Mail at all" but I have to say I find it hard to believe. If you are on a Mac platform, doesn't it seem that most people on a Mac would use the email program that comes built into the Mac OS? And even assuming a lot of people use a web-based browser, it STILL would not be easy to track emails sent through Evernote, because I sure as hell can't find any of the ones I sent, nor do I get any obvious confirmation (either by the program or in any sort of "sent" folder or report by the software) that they were actually sent. Honestly, I don't much care about Evernote having ANY kind of email functionality, as I don't use it as an email program. What what I do want and NEED is to be able to send copies of PDFs (often forms, received mail, other important documents) to someone as attachments using an email client (or even a web based email) -- and I don't see a way to do that. (Unless I'm being an idiot and missing something, which is entirely possible.) Why can't I just drag a PDF out of evernote and into an outgoing email? I needed to send documents and receipts to my accountant yesterday and the only way I could figure out to do so was to use Evernote itself to send the mail, which I hate for the reasons mentioned above...

[1957GoldTop 0]

Totally agree with the OP and have posted elsewhere regarding this issue.

Also, it would be great if I could just highlight the text I want passed on to evernote without actually needing to copy it (like when you have text selected in a message and then hit reply, only the highlighted text is quoted in the new email)

This may not be an ideal solution - but you can highlight your text and then hit Cmd-C (copy to buffer) followed by Ctrl-Cmd-V (global Paste to Evernote command). Two keystrokes and you're done. I use this frequently in lieu of an "Evernote Capture" button in Mail.app.

HTH,

Erik

Unfortunately, highlighting everything, copying and then pasting to Evernote does not include attachments... which is one of the main thing I'm looking for.

[erikhuber 1]

Totally agree with the OP and have posted elsewhere regarding this issue.

Also, it would be great if I could just highlight the text I want passed on to evernote without actually needing to copy it (like when you have text selected in a message and then hit reply, only the highlighted text is quoted in the new email)

This may not be an ideal solution - but you can highlight your text and then hit Cmd-C (copy to buffer) followed by Ctrl-Cmd-V (global Paste to Evernote command). Two keystrokes and you're done. I use this frequently in lieu of an "Evernote Capture" button in Mail.app.

HTH,

Erik

[1957GoldTop 0]

Add me to the list for more Mac Mail support.

For example, the way emails are pasted into evernote from Mac mail is a bit confusing.

What would be great is, if I have an email selected in Mac Mail, but I don't have the content of the email selected and I use the menu bar to "paste to evernote", it should just send the entire email to evernote along with a link to the email. As it works now, it will send the email link and email header info (from, subject, date, etc), but the text that is sent is whatever text happens to be the last thing on the clipboard from any cut/copy which will likely not have any relevance to the email I have selected. For example:

*********

Subject: Grocery List

Date Received: Sunday, January 31, 2010 2:55:13 PM

Date Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2010 2:54:08 PM

From: Joe Smith

This text is not related to the email at all, it just happens to be the last thing I copied and that could have been days ago! Not very helpful.

*********

I actually just noticed that, while it does include a link... the link isn't always correct. It works sometimes and not others.

Also, it would be great if I could just highlight the text I want passed on to evernote without actually needing to copy it (like when you have text selected in a message and then hit reply, only the highlighted text is quoted in the new email)

It would also be great a dialog box would open up so I could then specify where in evernote to put the email and then tag it and add other information.

But, I am digging evernote so far and just upgraded to premium.

[engberg 89]

Many people don't use Mac Mail at all, so we've implemented the current solution that should allow anyone to send a note. We do plan to improve the capabilities of this interface in the future.

Thanks