Jump to content
  • 0

Evernote for Mac 6.2 Beta 1 Released


SoftwareMarcus

Idea

Posted
I’m really excited to announce the release of Evernote for Mac 6.2 Beta 1 which will address some long standing features that many of you have been requesting  The release of Apple’s El Capitan and it’s new split view feature gave us the opportunity to look at how Evernote works in a narrow window environment.  This has led us to redesign a few things.

  • First off Evernote now remembers the current width of the sidebar and the note list so that these elements will shrink with the window but they will also grow back to their original widths when you make the window wide again.
  • Second the sidebar will shrink into a single row of icons so that we take up a minimal amount of space but still provide a mechanism to navigate within Evernote. This is currently designed as a temporary state and does not include shortcuts or other sub elements.  However, let us know if you would like to run it as your main sidebar and tell us the features you would need.
  • Finally we’ve completely redesigned our note editor toolbars.  They are responsive which means as you shrink the note editor the toolbar also shrinks and instead of having formatting buttons disappear they will be added to a pop-down toolbar that can still be accessed when there’s not a lot of room.    Also new is that if you have a large monitor all of the toolbars will become a single row of icons giving your writing space a bigger area.
 

All of the above changes are available to every customer and not just those that are running El Capitan.

 

We’ve also made a number of other changes.

  • We’ve added back the All Notes button so it’s faster to get back to all your notes. 
  • We are continuing to refine work chat and how it integrates into the Evernote experience.  In 6.2 we’ve moved it to the bottom of the sidebar so it is no longer the top most item.  This helps separate it from all of your note functionality and aligns the design closer to our web client.  We are also showing recent chats in the sidebar so it’s quick and easy to reply to people when you receive a message. (NOTE: This is available for Yosemite and newer OSs)
  • Finally, many people have asked for ways to speed formatting via the keyboard and we've added this in 6.2 by allowing you to use markdown-inspired shortcuts.  We’ve posted a blog post about our new common editor and this is one of the first major new features from this team. Expect more in the coming months.  This basically means that you can type characters into your note that will automatically apply formatting or a style to the text.  Here’s the list of formatting options supported.
     


    • Inline Formatting

      *Text* = Italics

      **Text** = Bold

      ~~Text~~ = Strikethrough

      !!Text!! = Highlight

      `Text`= Code Block  

       



    • Lists and Tables

      Typing “1. “ will start a numbered list

      Typing “* “ will start a bulleted list

      Typing [] or [ ] will create an unchecked checkbox

      Typing [x] will create a checked checkbox

      Typing a line of at least three * or - will add a horizontal rule

      Typing a [][][] on it’s own line will add a table with 3 columns 

      Typing [][][][]x2 on it’s own line will add a table with 4 columns and 2 rows



 

We have also fixed an encryption issue so if you’ve bumped into this problem please try this beta.

 

Because this is a big release and we wanted to get this out to people to start playing with it as soon as possible we are releasing with some known issues.  Here’s a list of things that we know are broken but are actively working on fixes.

1) Many of the biggest issues in the beta are around the new note toolbar.  For example we’re still working through some important tag issues such as  CMD+’ doesn’t work and copying and pasting into the Tag edit field is broken.  Tooltips aren’t appearing and sometimes there are layout issues.

 

2) Of course some things have been moved around.  Probably the biggest change is that the note and tag areas are hidden when you are editing a note.  We felt these were less important when you were editing but you can still get to them quickly by clicking on their icons that remain in the formatting toolbar.

 

3) If you click in the Share dialog, add some names, click in the message field and then back to the recipient field you won’t get the suggestion menu anymore.  For now, please remember to enter everyone you want to share a note or notebook with in the recipient field before adding a message.

 

4) There appears to be an El Capitan bug where Rotate Clockwise or Counterclockwise doesn’t appear to work.

 

Thanks again for taking a sneak peek at our upcoming release and helping us find issues before we ship 6.2 to all Evernote for Mac customers.  We really want to hear what you think about the new features -- better window resizing, new toolbar, markdown and work chat improvements.  You can download the beta from here.  I should also mention that this release only works on OS 10.9 and above.  6.1.1 was our last release for 107 and 10.8 users.

 

NOTE: If you're not seeing the new formatting toolbar you may have to turn it on via Preferences : Software Update and check Enable new note editor toolbar.   Of course if you want to go back to the old toolbar you can also use this checkbox to turn it off.

post-223937-0-17986100-1443046632_thumb.

post-223937-0-09525800-1443046693_thumb.

Recommended Posts

Posted

I downloaded it (updated it from v6.1.1 beta) but I noticed that when I open the app it doesn't immediately show up. I have to click twice on the icon before the window appears. (Yosemite 10.10.5)

 

Edit: here's a gif

 

Q18iJOJ.gif

 

Also, the settings for the menu clipper seem to be broken. It keeps running even if it's set to quit when I close Evernote.

Posted

Also with this beta release, the formatting is not working properly: there's no blank line between a text and lists.

On Evernote for Mac it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Alas on Evernote for BlackBerry and iPad it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Hope that this issue gets fixed in the next release. Thanks!

  • Level 5*
Posted

Marcus - is this a whole new editor in this release or some under-lying functionality that you've just switched on that allows markdown?

  • Level 5
Posted

As far as I understand the current situation regarding the common code base for the new Evernote editor, only the Mac version 6.x and the latest Windows beta client are currently using it. The Mac platform for some time acts as beta platform (and not only Mac beta versions) for the new editor. On the mobile platforms and the Web client it will be introduced later. Thus, it is no surprise that there is still a formatting difference between platforms.

 

Am I right Marcus?

Posted

Also with this beta release, the formatting is not working properly: there's no blank line between a text and lists.

On Evernote for Mac it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Alas on Evernote for BlackBerry and iPad it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Hope that this issue gets fixed in the next release. Thanks!

This is not a bug but the way that Mac editor has worked since last year.  There was a decision to remove spaces before and after bullets.  The problem with the old model is that people who didn't like the space had no way to remove it.  Removing the extra space provides the best solution for all customers because those that like it can add it manually.  When the new editor gets rolled out to all major platforms this is the way it's going to work everywhere.

Posted

Marcus - is this a whole new editor in this release or some under-lying functionality that you've just switched on that allows markdown?

 

The new editor has been on the Mac since last year but the common editor team has been working on getting it ready to be deployed to all of Evernote's major platforms most specifically on Windows.   As some of that work winds down they can now turn their focus to adding features to the editor and the new basic markdown functionality is the first fruits of that work.

Posted

I downloaded it (updated it from v6.1.1 beta) but I noticed that when I open the app it doesn't immediately show up. I have to click twice on the icon before the window appears. (Yosemite 10.10.5)

 

Edit: here's a gif

 

Q18iJOJ.gif

 

Also, the settings for the menu clipper seem to be broken. It keeps running even if it's set to quit when I close Evernote.

 

I'm not able to reproduce this.  Is anyone else seeing this issue?

Posted

As far as I understand the current situation regarding the common code base for the new Evernote editor, only the Mac version 6.x and the latest Windows beta client are currently using it. The Mac platform for some time acts as beta platform (and not only Mac beta versions) for the new editor. On the mobile platforms and the Web client it will be introduced later. Thus, it is no surprise that there is still a formatting difference between platforms.

 

Am I right Marcus?

 

Yes, you're right.  Mac and Windows both now have the common editor which means both platforms will get any new functionality that the common editor team builds.  Once this common editor is deployed to the mobile platforms then those platforms will also get the new functionality but also more importantly the notes will be rendered in a consistent way.  The way bullets look is a great example of this.  A new common editor means consistent rendering of notes across platforms and a consistent set of features.  To get to the stage where a single editor can be used by many platforms has been a multi-year process.  The exciting news for all of us is that all of those engineers who have been working for the past year on building infrastructure will soon be able to turn their attention to adding new features to the editor.  As a user of Evernote, I can't wait for improved table support :) .  I'm guessing a lot of you would agree with me.

Posted

Markdown woud be absolutly great - thank you!

 

Most important in my opinion: in long reading text to have a structure with H1, H2, H3 (#, ##, ###) You can see this in the new iOS9 Notes app: Headers and paragraphes formates the text so pretty ...!

 

Bonus would be to generate a TOC (oder any other anchor _in_ a note).

 

To test it on Windows: I use 5.9.1.8742 (276742) - where to find a Beta?

Posted

...

As a user of Evernote, I can't wait for improved table support :) .  I'm guessing a lot of you would agree with me.

 

 

Thank you SoftwareMarcus!

Yes, you're right, i totally agree with you - i'm desperately waiting for improved table support!

 

And i'm very happy to read, that you're improving the evernote editor :-)

Evernote is a great product, but in 2015 there were some hard times (which made me even think about a switch to another solution).

I really hope the patience will pay off soon.

 

Speaking of table support:

Vertical alignment in table cells is a mixed experience in evernote.

EN Mac shows table contents with top alignment, but the same table has centre alignment in EN iOS and when printing the note with EN Mac.

I reported this issue to support several months ago, but they asked for my patience ;-)

Can i hope now, that this issue will be solved soon?

 

Mahalo

Posted

+1 for improved table support and also easier management of lists within a note (maybe with drag n drop). Many of us use lists to outline notes in class or for shopping and rearranging them is a pain.

 

Can't wait for an overall improved editor!


 

 

  • Level 5*
Posted

 

Marcus - is this a whole new editor in this release or some under-lying functionality that you've just switched on that allows markdown?

 

The new editor has been on the Mac since last year but the common editor team has been working on getting it ready to be deployed to all of Evernote's major platforms most specifically on Windows.   As some of that work winds down they can now turn their focus to adding features to the editor and the new basic markdown functionality is the first fruits of that work.

 

 

That's what I thought - the recent blog post seemed to imply that there was another new editor. 

Posted

Marcus, I'm really looking forward to the improvements mentions in the Evernote blog post and elsewhere in the forums!

 

I just updated to the 6.2 beta and am experiencing some odd behavior using fullscreen view on OS x 10.10.5.

 

When using Evernote in fullscreen and opening a note in a new window I notice the window opens on top of fullscreen mode (as it did before) and now the background window is dimmed. When switching the newly opened window to fullscreen using command + control + F the window goes to fullscreen, however when taking that note back out of fullscreen mode the behavior seems to go astray and the main Evernote window is actually brought to the foreground (in front of the single note in fullscreen) and minimized.

 

This only seems to happen if using the keyboard shortcut or menu option to initiate full screen of the note. If you use the fullscreen button on the top left of the window to initiate fullscreen the behavior seems to be appropriate. This is especially inconvenient if you primarily work with Evernote in fullscreen and need to quickly move notes in new windows to desktop view.

 

I hope this makes sense in text as I don't have time to record a video right now. Thank you for working with us!

 

I forgot to mention; I'm also not seeing the responsive formatting bar. For me, the tools simply disappear as the window is scaled down.

Posted

I downloaded and tried some new functions.

Speciale i like the new formatting and table features.
Great work.
 

I'm going to use it for my daily stuff and see if i can find some bugs ;-)

Posted

How does the markdown "thing" work? I have the new beta-version and tried every example you have. I dont seem to succed on making eg. code-blocks?

 

Any guide how to create it?

  • Level 5*
Posted

Finally, many people have been asking for some basic markdown features in our note editor.  We’ve posted a blog post about our new common editor and this is one of the first major new features from this team. Expect more in the coming months.  This basically means that you can type characters into your note that will automatically apply formatting or a style to the text. 

 

Just read this... and you have no idea how agonizing you've made the rest of my afternoon, during which I do not have access to my Mac and must use my work PC. 

 

Will this improved note editor help with the plethora of printing problems Evernote currently has? I have created some hardcore EN users in my workplace, but weak printing has held us back from complete adoption.

Posted

How does the markdown "thing" work? I have the new beta-version and tried every example you have. I dont seem to succed on making eg. code-blocks?

 

Any guide how to create it?

 

Marcus pretty much summed up the shortcuts in his post.  The "code block" might be misnamed, but it's a way to call out quick snippets of text similar to bold or italic.  It's experimental right now, but I've been using it to call out UI elements in a tutorial (click <enter> to continue).  It's not appropriate for pasting long SQL queries for instance, although we know that is a need.

 

To create one, type something like `Code` using the backquote key (above the tab key on most macs).

Posted

If you make the note window small, things get ugly quickly.

 

 

Be sure to turn on the new formatting toolbar in Preferences : Software Update and check Enable new note editor toolbar.  That should make things much nicer :)

Posted

hm. I see ordered lists still aren't fixed. First thing I checked since it's one of the biggest issues I have with this "note"-taking app. :-\

Posted

If you make the note window small, things get ugly quickly.

 

 

How many people are not seeing the new toolbar.  If you aren't then we have a bug.  It should look like this...

post-223937-0-55525800-1443130468_thumb.

Posted

 

If you make the note window small, things get ugly quickly.

 

 

Be sure to turn on the new formatting toolbar in Preferences : Software Update and check Enable new note editor toolbar.  That should make things much nicer :)

 

That fixed it! Thanks!

Posted

 

How does the markdown "thing" work? I have the new beta-version and tried every example you have. I dont seem to succed on making eg. code-blocks?

 

Any guide how to create it?

 

Marcus pretty much summed up the shortcuts in his post.  The "code block" might be misnamed, but it's a way to call out quick snippets of text similar to bold or italic.  It's experimental right now, but I've been using it to call out UI elements in a tutorial (click <enter> to continue).  It's not appropriate for pasting long SQL queries for instance, although we know that is a need.

 

To create one, type something like `Code` using the backquote key (above the tab key on most macs).

 

Sorry, I think I didnt explain my issue good enough. I know markdown and how to use characters to do stuff. ## for headers `` for codeblock and so on.

 

I would really like to see someone use it, can I get a screenshot of a code-block or a header used with markdown and se how it looks? 

 

What I dont know is: How to get it to look like a codeblock.

- Rightclick and select "convert to markdown"

- Select text and CMD+Y+D

- etc..

 

The post is only about what you can do, not how. It doesnt go it by just add the characters around some text.

Posted

Markdown woud be absolutly great - thank you!

 

Most important in my opinion: in long reading text to have a structure with H1, H2, H3 (#, ##, ###) You can see this in the new iOS9 Notes app: Headers and paragraphes formates the text so pretty ...!

 

Bonus would be to generate a TOC (oder any other anchor _in_ a note).

 

To test it on Windows: I use 5.9.1.8742 (276742) - where to find a Beta?

 

I second your suggestion about headings. I spend a fair bit of time editing notes to optimise them for presentation mode (My work involving taking a lot of notes and then presenting them back) and it would be great if Headings helps format things in Presentation Mode.

Posted

Love the new markdown integration.

 

Just one thing for now: strikethrough seems inconsistent when apostrophes are included, particularly if they're placed at the end of the text.

 

 

Posted

 

I downloaded it (updated it from v6.1.1 beta) but I noticed that when I open the app it doesn't immediately show up. I have to click twice on the icon before the window appears. (Yosemite 10.10.5)

 

Edit: here's a gif

 

Q18iJOJ.gif

 

Also, the settings for the menu clipper seem to be broken. It keeps running even if it's set to quit when I close Evernote.

 

I'm not able to reproduce this.  Is anyone else seeing this issue?

 

Launches fine for me. OS X 10.11(15A282b)

Posted

When making an ordered list it should look like this...

1. list item

2. list item

    a. indented list item

          i. double indented list item


The ordered list should not start back over at 1. This makes actual note taking and text editing difficult for anyone. Especially when it automatically creates your weird version of an ordered list if I start typing "1."

Posted

The default sizing on card view and especially snippet view seem to be off.

 

Here is card view (the default) when I first opened the beta app:

 

Screenshot%202015-09-24%2017.42.13.png?d

 

and changing to Snippet view looks like this:

 

Screenshot%202015-09-24%2017.42.29.png?d

Posted

:unsure: I'm not sure this implementation of Markdown is exactly what the community wants.

 

This beta provides Markdownish "shortcuts" to existing Evernote formatting implementation.  E.g. type "**bold**" and the text instantly becomes "bold".  But that's the end of it, the Markdown that got you to bold is gone.  What I think the community really wants is a bona fide Markdown version of a note that can be displayed/edited either way—as pure Markdown, or pretty format.  See Day One or GitHub for great examples of this in action.

 

If all we get is a shortcut to existing formatting implementation, why would I want to type **bold** instead of ⌘+B bold (or CTRL+B bold)?  When I asked for Markdown (years ago), I was asking for the option to have a real Markdown editing experience, not shortcuts to existing behavior.

 

 

IMHO

Posted

:unsure: I'm not sure this implementation of Markdown is exactly what the community wants.

 

This beta provides Markdownish "shortcuts" to existing Evernote formatting implementation.  E.g. type "**bold**" and the text instantly becomes "bold".  But that's the end of it, the Markdown that got you to bold is gone.  What I think the community really wants is a bona fide Markdown version of a note that can be displayed/edited either way—as pure Markdown, or pretty format.  See Day One or GitHub for great examples of this in action.

 

If all we get is a shortcut to existing formatting implementation, why would I want to type **bold** instead of ⌘+B bold (or CTRL+B bold)?  When I asked for Markdown (years ago), I was asking for the option to have a real Markdown editing experience, not shortcuts to existing behavior.

 

 

IMHO

You beat me to it. I can't stress this enough. I really hope the finished version provides a way to turn the auto-formatting off. I was so excited to hear about Markdown support, so I signed up for the beta, but I was hugely letdown by the implementation about 5 seconds into testing it. It seems like it would make more sense to be able to enter Markdown and get formatted previews or exports. At a minimum, you should be able to copy the note in a way that yields it's originally input text. Perhaps these are all features that are coming, but with the way it's implemented now, I basically cannot use it at all. People who love Markdown so much that they'd clamor for this feature for years are not the type of people who want their Markdown immediately converted to something else with the Markdown lost forever.

Posted

 

I downloaded it (updated it from v6.1.1 beta) but I noticed that when I open the app it doesn't immediately show up. I have to click twice on the icon before the window appears. (Yosemite 10.10.5)

 

Edit: here's a gif

 

Q18iJOJ.gif

 

Also, the settings for the menu clipper seem to be broken. It keeps running even if it's set to quit when I close Evernote.

 

I'm not able to reproduce this.  Is anyone else seeing this issue?

 

 

I'm seeing this as well.  Fully up to date 10.10, beta evernote just downloaded a few minutes ago.  Almost like the mainWindow.show() is set to not show by default or something, or the app is restoring a state of the main window being closed or something.  Is there debugging I can do to help out with this?

Posted

 

 

How does the markdown "thing" work? I have the new beta-version and tried every example you have. I dont seem to succed on making eg. code-blocks?

 

Any guide how to create it?

 

Marcus pretty much summed up the shortcuts in his post.  The "code block" might be misnamed, but it's a way to call out quick snippets of text similar to bold or italic.  It's experimental right now, but I've been using it to call out UI elements in a tutorial (click <enter> to continue).  It's not appropriate for pasting long SQL queries for instance, although we know that is a need.

 

To create one, type something like `Code` using the backquote key (above the tab key on most macs).

 

Sorry, I think I didnt explain my issue good enough. I know markdown and how to use characters to do stuff. ## for headers `` for codeblock and so on.

 

I would really like to see someone use it, can I get a screenshot of a code-block or a header used with markdown and se how it looks? 

 

What I dont know is: How to get it to look like a codeblock.

- Rightclick and select "convert to markdown"

- Select text and CMD+Y+D

- etc..

 

The post is only about what you can do, not how. It doesnt go it by just add the characters around some text.

 

If you are using double-backtick, that's likely your problem. Here's a screen recording of me doing a code block.

Posted

 

:unsure: I'm not sure this implementation of Markdown is exactly what the community wants.

 

This beta provides Markdownish "shortcuts" to existing Evernote formatting implementation.  E.g. type "**bold**" and the text instantly becomes "bold".  But that's the end of it, the Markdown that got you to bold is gone.  What I think the community really wants is a bona fide Markdown version of a note that can be displayed/edited either way—as pure Markdown, or pretty format.  See Day One or GitHub for great examples of this in action.

 

If all we get is a shortcut to existing formatting implementation, why would I want to type **bold** instead of ⌘+B bold (or CTRL+B bold)?  When I asked for Markdown (years ago), I was asking for the option to have a real Markdown editing experience, not shortcuts to existing behavior.

 

 

IMHO

You beat me to it. I can't stress this enough. I really hope the finished version provides a way to turn the auto-formatting off. I was so excited to hear about Markdown support, so I signed up for the beta, but I was hugely letdown by the implementation about 5 seconds into testing it. It seems like it would make more sense to be able to enter Markdown and get formatted previews or exports. At a minimum, you should be able to copy the note in a way that yields it's originally input text. Perhaps these are all features that are coming, but with the way it's implemented now, I basically cannot use it at all. People who love Markdown so much that they'd clamor for this feature for years are not the type of people who want their Markdown immediately converted to something else with the Markdown lost forever.

 

 

+1 from me.  I wouldn't say it's unusable, as it is nice to have a quick shortcut to get the formatting.  I personally would love a toggle of some sort, maybe a bit like WordPress has, to let you write notes in markdown, have them saved as plain text, but rendered (for preview / reading) with formatting like Day One, or have a full WYSIWYG editor with markdown shortcuts like is implemented now. 

 

I prefer the current implementation over hitting cmd-b, cmd-i, etc to bold/format/etc, but like you guys I'd love "real" markdown.  However I don't know how something like that would jive with the internal representation of notes (RTF IIRC).  For example what if you wrote a note in markdown, and then decided you wanted to highlight a section of it after.  Should the note's markdown be changed, or the formatting go "on top" of the existing plain text (making it not plain text anymore).  Or if you change your mind halfway through and want WYSIWYG editing. 

Posted

Crist! I didnt believe it was true event though I think I realised a while ago? Nope, not even close to what the community was asking for (atleas not me).

 

Actually I dont care that much about markdown as markdown. I just really want to take notes and format snippets of code/terminal commands in a clean way. Markdown is a good common standardish way of doing it but anything will do :(.

Posted

 

If you make the note window small, things get ugly quickly.

 

 

How many people are not seeing the new toolbar.  If you aren't then we have a bug.  It should look like this...

 

I figured the new toolbar would be enabled by default.

Posted

Unless I am misunderstanding what I am seeing in the beta, "markdown support" appears to simply be that markdown triggers macros that then format the characters in rich text, and the actual markdown disappears. I hope this is not the case, and I am just doing this wrong. If this is the case, it is very disappointing, and calling it markdown support is rather misleading. My markdown should not be blown away after I type it; it ought to be preserved and rendered as HTML when previewed/viewed/exported.

Posted

Ha - yeah going in to preferences to check the format bar option worked for me too. I didn't know a preference had to be selected for turning it on.

 

I'm still seeing the odd behavior with fullscreen use and opening new note windows.

 

Also, I'm getting odd behavior with pasting from Microsoft Word 2015 in to a new note. Selecting all and copying in Word, then attempting to paste in to Evernote isn't working. The text just won't paste. I can copy and paste text from other notes, though.

Posted

I have to echo disappointment for the road Evernote seems to be traveling to add Markdown support. There is almost no way you'll be able to do a good job of re-implementing Markdown, particularly not in this transporter-accident-esque way of merging Markdown with rich text.

 

What I believe you should do is take a full Markdown implementation, one that's time-tested and imbedded into multiple applications, and somehow bring that into Evernote. I'd urge you to consider Multi-Markdown, because that's becoming the de-facto standard integrand into these kinds of products.

 

Here's an example of why what you're doing is going to just aggravate the heck out of those of us who use Markdown elsewhere. Type three dashes and hit CR to get one of the fancy horizontal lines. Then hit backspace. The whole line disappears. What one would reasonably expect to happen is the fancy line reverts back to three dashes with the cursor positioned following the third dash on the same line.

 

As another example, your basic markdown syntax is broken: you don't allow "newlines" between markdown notations! For example:

 

*here

there*

 

should display both words in italics. Yours doesn't. That's why people can't get "code markup" to work: they are probably trying to put a backtick at the beginning and end of the code, and of course, nothing happens. Surely you don't expect them to wrap each line in its own set of backticks?

 

I'm sorry, but this just isn't going to work. I hope you include a way to turn this feature off so it doesn't surprise the heck out of people who don't know what Markdown is.

 

Posted

Where is the Evernote for Mac 6.2 beta 1 download link?

Search the original post for the third occurrence of the word "here".

Posted

Was really hoping the new editing functionality would allow for more than one highlight colour.  Same old yellow it seems at this stage.

Posted

Marcus, I'm really looking forward to the improvements mentions in the Evernote blog post and elsewhere in the forums!

 

I just updated to the 6.2 beta and am experiencing some odd behavior using fullscreen view on OS x 10.10.5.

 

When using Evernote in fullscreen and opening a note in a new window I notice the window opens on top of fullscreen mode (as it did before) and now the background window is dimmed. When switching the newly opened window to fullscreen using command + control + F the window goes to fullscreen, however when taking that note back out of fullscreen mode the behavior seems to go astray and the main Evernote window is actually brought to the foreground (in front of the single note in fullscreen) and minimized.

 

This only seems to happen if using the keyboard shortcut or menu option to initiate full screen of the note. If you use the fullscreen button on the top left of the window to initiate fullscreen the behavior seems to be appropriate. This is especially inconvenient if you primarily work with Evernote in fullscreen and need to quickly move notes in new windows to desktop view.

 

I hope this makes sense in text as I don't have time to record a video right now. Thank you for working with us!

 

I forgot to mention; I'm also not seeing the responsive formatting bar. For me, the tools simply disappear as the window is scaled down.

 

Thanks for finding this issue and reporting it in the forum.  We're investigating it now.

Posted

Was really hoping the new editing functionality would allow for more than one highlight colour.  Same old yellow it seems at this stage.

 

Yes, not too much new just yet but more to come.

Posted

The default sizing on card view and especially snippet view seem to be off.

 

Here is card view (the default) when I first opened the beta app:

 

and changing to Snippet view looks like this:

 

 

Thanks for reporting this issue.  We'll start looking at it.

Posted

 

 

I downloaded it (updated it from v6.1.1 beta) but I noticed that when I open the app it doesn't immediately show up. I have to click twice on the icon before the window appears. (Yosemite 10.10.5)

 

Edit: here's a gif

 

Also, the settings for the menu clipper seem to be broken. It keeps running even if it's set to quit when I close Evernote.

 

I'm not able to reproduce this.  Is anyone else seeing this issue?

 

 

I'm seeing this as well.  Fully up to date 10.10, beta evernote just downloaded a few minutes ago.  Almost like the mainWindow.show() is set to not show by default or something, or the app is restoring a state of the main window being closed or something.  Is there debugging I can do to help out with this?

 

 

Thanks for confirming that 2 of you are seeing this issue so we'll investigate more.

Posted

 

:unsure: I'm not sure this implementation of Markdown is exactly what the community wants.

 

This beta provides Markdownish "shortcuts" to existing Evernote formatting implementation.  E.g. type "**bold**" and the text instantly becomes "bold".  But that's the end of it, the Markdown that got you to bold is gone.  What I think the community really wants is a bona fide Markdown version of a note that can be displayed/edited either way—as pure Markdown, or pretty format.  See Day One or GitHub for great examples of this in action.

 

If all we get is a shortcut to existing formatting implementation, why would I want to type **bold** instead of ⌘+B bold (or CTRL+B bold)?  When I asked for Markdown (years ago), I was asking for the option to have a real Markdown editing experience, not shortcuts to existing behavior.

 

 

IMHO

You beat me to it. I can't stress this enough. I really hope the finished version provides a way to turn the auto-formatting off. I was so excited to hear about Markdown support, so I signed up for the beta, but I was hugely letdown by the implementation about 5 seconds into testing it. It seems like it would make more sense to be able to enter Markdown and get formatted previews or exports. At a minimum, you should be able to copy the note in a way that yields it's originally input text. Perhaps these are all features that are coming, but with the way it's implemented now, I basically cannot use it at all. People who love Markdown so much that they'd clamor for this feature for years are not the type of people who want their Markdown immediately converted to something else with the Markdown lost forever.

 

 

Thanks so much for the feedback, guys.  I definitely understand the difference between what you're saying and what we are including in this version.  Markdown provides a lot of benefits in portability between applications that we're not delivering here.

 

Evernote is still a WYSIWYG, and we have't done anything in this version to change that.  We really just wanted to introduce some quick shortcuts to make typing formatted text better, and we chose markdown syntax because we thought it most intuitive.  We've tried to be careful to call these "shortcuts" and not "markdown support" for this very reason, but we have lots of people talking and it's difficult for people who don't know much about markdown to know the (very big) difference.

 

Sorry if we accidentally got you excited about something that we shouldn't have.

Posted

 

Markdown woud be absolutly great - thank you!

 

Most important in my opinion: in long reading text to have a structure with H1, H2, H3 (#, ##, ###) You can see this in the new iOS9 Notes app: Headers and paragraphes formates the text so pretty ...!

 

Bonus would be to generate a TOC (oder any other anchor _in_ a note).

 

To test it on Windows: I use 5.9.1.8742 (276742) - where to find a Beta?

 

I second your suggestion about headings. I spend a fair bit of time editing notes to optimise them for presentation mode (My work involving taking a lot of notes and then presenting them back) and it would be great if Headings helps format things in Presentation Mode.

 

 

These are great suggestions and a really nice way to extend this feature in the future!  Internally, we've been calling the type of editing you're referring to "semantic editing", and we're trying to find a clean way of getting it into Evernote.

Posted

Where is the Evernote for Mac 6.2 beta 1 download link?

 

If people would like to automatically get the beta releases, please go to Preferences : Software Update and check the "Update to beta versions when available" checkbox.  If you want to download directly you will always be able to find it in my original forum post but here it is again.  Mac 6.2 Beta 1.

Posted

When making an ordered list it should look like this...

1. list item

2. list item

    a. indented list item

          i. double indented list item

The ordered list should not start back over at 1. This makes actual note taking and text editing difficult for anyone. Especially when it automatically creates your weird version of an ordered list if I start typing "1."

 

Agreed - this really bugs me too.  We're planning this for a (hopefully near) future version, but it didn't make this release in time.  Be looking for lots of improvements in lists (bullets and numbers) to come.

Posted

Unless I am misunderstanding what I am seeing in the beta, "markdown support" appears to simply be that markdown triggers macros that then format the characters in rich text, and the actual markdown disappears. I hope this is not the case, and I am just doing this wrong. If this is the case, it is very disappointing, and calling it markdown support is rather misleading. My markdown should not be blown away after I type it; it ought to be preserved and rendered as HTML when previewed/viewed/exported.

 

So sorry about this - we've been trying to avoid calling this "markdown support" because, to your point, it clearly is not... sorry for (our) miscommunication!

  • Level 5*
Posted

I don't use markdown much, so I don't know if this would satisfy those that do.

 

But what I would find useful is "Copy as markdown", so that I could copy selected text ( or the entire Note), copy markdown to the clipboard, ready to paste into another app that expects markdown text.

Posted

 

Where is the Evernote for Mac 6.2 beta 1 download link?

 

If people would like to automatically get the beta releases, please go to Preferences : Software Update and check the "Update to beta versions when available" checkbox.  If you want to download directly you will always be able to find it in my original forum post but here it is again.  Mac 6.2 Beta 1.

 

Tks. I'll try this version. 

Posted

 

 

 

I'd like to second the call for real MarkDown support. FYI, the email that I received about the beta said: 

======

Brace yourselves! We’ve just released a bunch of exciting new features with Evernote for Mac 6.2 Beta 1. In this release, you can expect to test: 
  • basic markdown 
  • new toolbar
  • window resizing
  • Work Chat updates and more
Check out these new features and download the beta here:  https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/88677-evernote-for-mac-62-beta-1-released/
======
So, even in the email it is being called markdown. The blog post also calls it "basic markdown". So, unfortunately the expectation has been set in a number of places that what is coming is markdown support. Basic markdown, to me, means markdown without the Github extensions. It sounds like others were expecting that as well.
 
I really appreciate the effort being put in. I think its going to be tough walking back expectations on markdown support now given how the new editor was announced.
Posted

I can't get over how disappointing this is.  I hope this "Markdown" toy can be turned off (and an option turn off that silly work chat thing while you're at it).  It just serves as an annoying reminder of how out of touch Evernote is.  $290 million in funding and years of asking for this, and this is the best you can do?

 

Obligatory repost: Evernote, The First Dead Unicorn

Posted

 

So, even in the email it is being called markdown. The blog post also calls it "basic markdown". So, unfortunately the expectation has been set in a number of places that what is coming is markdown support. Basic markdown, to me, means markdown without the Github extensions. It sounds like others were expecting that as well.
 
I really appreciate the effort being put in. I think its going to be tough walking back expectations on markdown support now given how the new editor was announced.

 

 

Agreed - and thanks. To be clear, I don't want to say that we're never going to add something called "markdown support" that meets the expectations - just not in this version.  What we've been considering is something similar to what @JMichael and @gelbander suggested - an easy way to import and export markdown to and from Evernote, but not changing the fact that at the end of the day, we're a rich text WYSIWYG editor. 

 

Since we have some folks who have some enthusiasm around this, I'll take the opportunity to ask.  Is this something that would meet your needs?

Posted

 

Agreed - and thanks. To be clear, I don't want to say that we're never going to add something called "markdown support" that meets the expectations - just not in this version.  What we've been considering is something similar to what @JMichael and @gelbander suggested - an easy way to import and export markdown to and from Evernote, but not changing the fact that at the end of the day, we're a rich text WYSIWYG editor. 

 

Since we have some folks who have some enthusiasm around this, I'll take the opportunity to ask.  Is this something that would meet your needs?

 

No.  I think you guys are missing it.  We're not looking for another import/export option.  We're not looking for gimmicks like what is in this beta.  We're looking for the Markdown experience.  If that can possibly resonate with you, then you might begin to understand how sub-par the current editor feels to us, and how frustrating it is that zero headway has been made (current beta included—zero).

 

Again, look at an app like Day One.  Actually use it for a while.  They nailed it.  Perhaps achieving this experience means some fundamental rethinking of how Evernote handles and persists data.  It probably does.  But engineers and power users would love you for it.  And love goes a long way in tech.

Posted

No.  I think you guys are missing it.  We're not looking for another import/export option.  We're not looking for gimmicks like what is in this beta.  We're looking for the Markdown experience.  If that can possibly resonate with you, then you might begin to understand how sub-par the current editor feels to us, and how frustrating it is that zero headway has been made (current beta included—zero).

 

Again, look at an app like Day One.  Actually use it for a while.  They nailed it.  Perhaps achieving this experience means some fundamental rethinking of how Evernote handles and persists data.  It probably does.  But engineers and power users would love you for it.  And love goes a long way in tech.

 

 

Thanks.. this is exactly the feedback I was looking for.

 

I won't argue that our current experience is great - we're trying to get there but we've got a ways to go.  However, I don't necessarily agree that adding markdown support and creating a great writing experience are contingent upon each other.  Tools like Day One or IAWriter (I love that one) are really beautiful markdown editors.  Agreed.  However, In my opinion, there are also really great rich text editors as well.  I really like typing in Medium's editor, for example.  Evernote's new web editor, although young, is much more about creating a better writing experience

 

Sorry this update didn't do it for you.  We'll keep trying, but don't write us off just yet.

Posted

Is there going to be a way to copy Markdown written text back out in markdown format?

 

Not in this version, but would that be helpful?  What would you want to do with it?

Posted

Here's an example of why what you're doing is going to just aggravate the heck out of those of us who use Markdown elsewhere. Type three dashes and hit CR to get one of the fancy horizontal lines. Then hit backspace. The whole line disappears. What one would reasonably expect to happen is the fancy line reverts back to three dashes with the cursor positioned following the third dash on the same line.

 
Thanks for the thoughtful post - the above issue is a bug and has been logged.
 
 

As another example, your basic markdown syntax is broken: you don't allow "newlines" between markdown notations! For example:

 

*here

there*

 

should display both words in italics. Yours doesn't. That's why people can't get "code markup" to work: they are probably trying to put a backtick at the beginning and end of the code, and of course, nothing happens. Surely you don't expect them to wrap each line in its own set of backticks?

 

This was actually intentional.  We're admittedly being conservative with the replacement out of the gates.  We plan on adding proper code blocks in a future release... it's not included in this version, however.  In the meantime, please don't wrap each line in backticks - that sounds terrible ;)

Posted

 

No.  I think you guys are missing it.  We're not looking for another import/export option.  We're not looking for gimmicks like what is in this beta.  We're looking for the Markdown experience.  If that can possibly resonate with you, then you might begin to understand how sub-par the current editor feels to us, and how frustrating it is that zero headway has been made (current beta included—zero).

 

Again, look at an app like Day One.  Actually use it for a while.  They nailed it.  Perhaps achieving this experience means some fundamental rethinking of how Evernote handles and persists data.  It probably does.  But engineers and power users would love you for it.  And love goes a long way in tech.

 

 

Thanks.. this is exactly the feedback I was looking for.

 

I won't argue that our current experience is great - we're trying to get there but we've got a ways to go.  However, I don't necessarily agree that adding markdown support and creating a great writing experience are contingent upon each other.  Tools like Day One or IAWriter (I love that one) are really beautiful markdown editors.  Agreed.  However, In my opinion, there are also really great rich text editors as well.  I really like typing in Medium's editor, for example.  Evernote's new web editor, although young, is much more about creating a better writing experience

 

Sorry this update didn't do it for you.  We'll keep trying, but don't write us off just yet.

 

 

Thank you for your honesty, and your candor. It makes us feel loved.

Posted

Great work. I love the shrinking sidebar, the new editor, and of course the markdown functionality. 

 

A question: is it possible to also show the shortcut when the sidebar is shrunk? Thanks.  

Posted

So far, really enjoying the Markdown.  As an Engineer this is huge for me.  Are there plans to support Headings?  At a minimum, it would be great if the in-built Markdown was on par with the Sublime Text plugin.

Posted

Great work. I love the shrinking sidebar, the new editor, and of course the markdown functionality. 

 

A question: is it possible to also show the shortcut when the sidebar is shrunk? Thanks.  

 

Thanks for letting us know you like the shrinking sidebar and new editor.  Currently we do not support shortcuts in the mini-sidebar.  This is what I meant when I said it's really meant as a temporary sidebar for when the window is narrow.  Would you use it more if it had shortcuts?

Posted

Marcus, thank you for restoring the All Notes button to the note list dropdown menu. 

 

I would suggest another modification to assist us. When a tag is selected in the sidebar, rather than just highlighting the anonymous Tag icon atop the note list, wouldn't it be useful to add the name of the tag next to the Tag icon? At least this would be a slight improvement to the fact that tags themselves are not highlighted when selected – which, as you know, many of us have requested.

Posted

is it planned to offer an editor mode to enter a complete text in markdown and than switch to a preview mode?

The online translation from a MD command to view in Evernote is very slow

If I copy MD text into a new note the MD commands are not executed

Posted

 

Also with this beta release, the formatting is not working properly: there's no blank line between a text and lists.

On Evernote for Mac it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Alas on Evernote for BlackBerry and iPad it looks like this:

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Header or text

* list entry

* list entry

Hope that this issue gets fixed in the next release. Thanks!

This is not a bug but the way that Mac editor has worked since last year.  There was a decision to remove spaces before and after bullets.  The problem with the old model is that people who didn't like the space had no way to remove it.  Removing the extra space provides the best solution for all customers because those that like it can add it manually.  When the new editor gets rolled out to all major platforms this is the way it's going to work everywhere.

 

Well, let me say that I don't like how it's done on the Mac. This should be an option, because I fear all the apps won't be updated to the feature in the same time... 

Posted

Markdown - Issue with Bold formatting.

 

If I use **TEXT** press Return and start the next line with a * List Item 

The point of the list item is in bold not normal format. Sometimes even the List Item text is in bold

Posted

Hi,

 

Unable to rename tags.

 

Procedure:

View->Tags

Right Click any tag

Click Rename Tag

The tag flashes off and on

You cannot type anything in to change the tag.

 

Any ideas?

This works on Evernote for Windows 5.9.1.8742

 

Regards

 

Garth

  • Level 5*
Posted

Marcus - is this a whole new editor in this release or some under-lying functionality that you've just switched on that allows markdown?

switches. switches everywhere.

  • Level 5*
Posted

A couple of things:

  • Any chance "1)" could be added to the markdown to start a list? This is a very common MS Word keystroke that starts a list.
  • While the toolbar is in design, can we get the indent and outdent buttons added to the mac like the Windows version has? See link. For that matter, if there is some editor parity being the goal, shouldn't the toolbars be virtually identical in function and order? The strikethrough icon is missing on the Mac, camera missing on Windows, and the order is slightly out of whack on several like the location of font color, checkboxes, etc.
  • Any plans to ever let Mac users merge notes in the order they are selected like the Windows version has vs having to hack the modified dates to get the notes to merge in the right order?
  • Finally, after installing it, it trashed my column widths. My columns are Created, Updated, Title, Sync, Tags, Notebook, and Size. I use the List view. When the beta installed, "Created" was about 80%-85% the width of the list, and the rest were as small as they could be. Just something to try an tweak in the upgrade process before it rolls out to the masses.
Posted

So far, really enjoying the Markdown.  As an Engineer this is huge for me.  Are there plans to support Headings?  At a minimum, it would be great if the in-built Markdown was on par with the Sublime Text plugin.

 

Thanks!  We do plan on adding proper headings at some point - we're working through the best way to add it.

Posted

Markdown - Issue with Bold formatting.

 

If I use **TEXT** press Return and start the next line with a * List Item 

The point of the list item is in bold not normal format. Sometimes even the List Item text is in bold

 

Good catch.  This is a bug and has been filed.  Sorry about that.

Posted

 

A couple of things:

  • Any chance "1)" could be added to the markdown to start a list? This is a very common MS Word keystroke that starts a list.
  • While the toolbar is in design, can we get the indent and outdent buttons added to the mac like the Windows version has? See link. For that matter, if there is some editor parity being the goal, shouldn't the toolbars be virtually identical in function and order? The strikethrough icon is missing on the Mac, camera missing on Windows, and the order is slightly out of whack on several like the location of font color, checkboxes, etc.
  • Any plans to ever let Mac users merge notes in the order they are selected like the Windows version has vs having to hack the modified dates to get the notes to merge in the right order?
  • Finally, after installing it, it trashed my column widths. My columns are Created, Updated, Title, Sync, Tags, Notebook, and Size. I use the List view. When the beta installed, "Created" was about 80%-85% the width of the list, and the rest were as small as they could be. Just something to try an tweak in the upgrade process before it rolls out to the masses.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.  I can answer the first two - the second two I leave to Marcus.

 

Adding 1) as a shortcut - that's a great idea.  We'll see what we can do.

Toolbar - We're just getting started with the toolbar improvements.  These suggestions are not at all out of line of what we're thinking.

Posted

is it planned to offer an editor mode to enter a complete text in markdown and than switch to a preview mode?

The online translation from a MD command to view in Evernote is very slow

If I copy MD text into a new note the MD commands are not executed

 

Importing and converting copy and pasted markdown is not part of this release - it's simply replacement while typing.  Sorry for the confusion.

  • Level 5*
Posted

 

is it planned to offer an editor mode to enter a complete text in markdown and than switch to a preview mode?

The online translation from a MD command to view in Evernote is very slow

If I copy MD text into a new note the MD commands are not executed

 

Importing and converting copy and pasted markdown is not part of this release - it's simply replacement while typing.  Sorry for the confusion.

 

 

Is that on the roadmap to more fully support MD, or is it just designed to be a typing shortcut?

Posted

Hello,

 

I have the same issue as @brooksy4503 (below), but with renaming Notebooks (not Tags) and without the "flash".

 

Clicking the settings wheel, however, triggers the slide-down card from the top and allows me to rename. 

 

Otherwise: Thank you, Evernote folks, for being so helpful, honest and engaging as you address what was (for me) an issue that had me literally half-switched to OneNote for Mac and iOS despite its lack of tags, miserable clipper, poor email handling… 

 

With the progress you're outlining on the Editor, I expect to remain a happy 'Premium' customer.

 

 

Hi,

 

Unable to rename tags.

 

Procedure:

View->Tags

Right Click any tag

Click Rename Tag

The tag flashes off and on

You cannot type anything in to change the tag.

 

Any ideas?

This works on Evernote for Windows 5.9.1.8742

 

Regards

 

Garth

Posted

Hi,

 

Unable to rename tags.

 

 

Garth

 

Oh my goodness...great find! We'll get someone on it.

 

 

A couple of things:

  • While the toolbar is in design, can we get the indent and outdent buttons added to the mac like the Windows version has? See link. For that matter, if there is some editor parity being the goal, shouldn't the toolbars be virtually identical in function and order? The strikethrough icon is missing on the Mac, camera missing on Windows, and the order is slightly out of whack on several like the location of font color, checkboxes, etc.
  • Any plans to ever let Mac users merge notes in the order they are selected like the Windows version has vs having to hack the modified dates to get the notes to merge in the right order?
  • Finally, after installing it, it trashed my column widths. My columns are Created, Updated, Title, Sync, Tags, Notebook, and Size. I use the List view. When the beta installed, "Created" was about 80%-85% the width of the list, and the rest were as small as they could be. Just something to try an tweak in the upgrade process before it rolls out to the masses.

 

Great suggestions on toolbar improvements.  The plan is to continue improving it over time.  Sorry about the column widths.  We just put a fix in so they don't auto-expand but we should probably check on your particular issue where the first column gets huge.  Thanks for reporting this.

 

 

Hello,

 

I have the same issue as @brooksy4503 (below), but with renaming Notebooks (not Tags) and without the "flash".

 

Clicking the settings wheel, however, triggers the slide-down card from the top and allows me to rename. 

 

Otherwise: Thank you, Evernote folks, for being so helpful, honest and engaging as you address what was (for me) an issue that had me literally half-switched to OneNote for Mac and iOS despite its lack of tags, miserable clipper, poor email handling… 

 

With the progress you're outlining on the Editor, I expect to remain a happy 'Premium' customer.

 

Ahh...yes renaming notebook is also broken.  Thanks for reporting this.  

Posted

Notebook field is basically useless when you start shrinking the window width, using the new toolbar.

 

Screen%20Shot%202015-09-25%20at%202.40.2

Posted

Another minor annoyance I just noticed.  I used to be able to click anywhere on a note to start editing, and if the click was in the bottom area of the note, it would just put the insertion point at the bottom of the note.  Now it seems that I can't click anywhere on that big expanse of white under any text I've written, but I have to click above a certain point.  It doesn't seem to be due to the text (what I thought originally) as with a one line note there's a point where the cursor turns into an insertion point, but that "area of clickability" seems to be the same.  From a workflow point of view I'm used to seeing the grey outer area outside the white editable / clickable area.  Now the entire note area is white, making me think I can click anywhere in there.   Kind of annoying and I'm finding myself being frustrated because I open a note, click and then realize I can't start typing until I move the mouse up to some (seemingly) arbitrary point above which I can.  I think this is just the color outside of the editable area going from grey to white so there's not visual differentiation anymore.

 

See attachments for examples.

post-270347-0-89307600-1443219544_thumb.

post-270347-0-90043100-1443219559_thumb.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Notebook field is basically useless when you start shrinking the window width, using the new toolbar.

 

Screen%20Shot%202015-09-25%20at%202.40.2

doesn't it get big again if you click on it and get out of the editing mode of the note? Not at my mac right now, but when I was playing with it this morning, I noticed the notebook and tag buttons were uninformative until I clicked up there, then they grew to normal sizes.

Posted

There are a couple of Markdown things that would be great to have in place:

 

#, ##, ###, etc. for h1, h2, h3, etc. I use these a lot in my own markdown to organize things.

 

Having [links](http://evernote.com)

 

Using - to indicate bullets in addition to the * character (I personally use that one a ton!)

 

Also, fenced code block support would be amazing. They look like this:

 

```

code goes in here

you can have many lines

and when you're done

```

 

Hope you consider adding these!

 

 

Posted

I also noticed that if you have a bulleted item and you start it with a block of code, it doesn't get turned into code. If the bulleted item doesn't start with code but uses code later in the item, that works.

  • Level 5*
Posted

There are a couple of Markdown things that would be great to have in place:

 

#, ##, ###, etc. for h1, h2, h3, etc. I use these a lot in my own markdown to organize things.

 

Having [links](http://evernote.com)

 

Using - to indicate bullets in addition to the * character (I personally use that one a ton!)

 

Also, fenced code block support would be amazing. They look like this:

 

```

code goes in here

you can have many lines

and when you're done

```

 

Hope you consider adding these!

 

I think to claim you have markdown, the article at Daring Fireball is the definitive source.

Posted

 

So, even in the email it is being called markdown. The blog post also calls it "basic markdown". So, unfortunately the expectation has been set in a number of places that what is coming is markdown support. Basic markdown, to me, means markdown without the Github extensions. It sounds like others were expecting that as well.

 

I really appreciate the effort being put in. I think its going to be tough walking back expectations on markdown support now given how the new editor was announced.

 

Agreed - and thanks. To be clear, I don't want to say that we're never going to add something called "markdown support" that meets the expectations - just not in this version.  What we've been considering is something similar to what @JMichael and @gelbander suggested - an easy way to import and export markdown to and from Evernote, but not changing the fact that at the end of the day, we're a rich text WYSIWYG editor. 

 

Since we have some folks who have some enthusiasm around this, I'll take the opportunity to ask.  Is this something that would meet your needs?

 

 

Yes, I've got to agree with the sentiment of the rest of those commenting on this feature.

 

Since we have some folks who have some enthusiasm around this, I'll take the opportunity to ask.  Is this something that would meet your needs?

 

No, it doesn't. This isn't what everyone thinks when they hear "markdown".

 

I joined the forum specifically to sign up for the beta when I read the associated blog article and its description "Basic markdown will be a reality". Finally, the biggest feature I've been waiting for Evernote to add!

 

Unfortunately this isn't Basic Markdown. That description to me, and probably everyone familiar with Markdown and all the flavours, is that you're describing Markdown that doesn't have any of the many extensions, e.g. Multi-Markdown, Git-flavoured, CommonMark, etc. So just plain vanilla Markdown.

 

Actually, the change that you've made makes the situation worse for markdown users. Now, when I type Markdown into a note the editor will change the contents and won't let me change it back. I want to capture Markdown syntax as I type, and I want it to stay there. Previously it was disappointing that I couldn't see a preview of my markdown notes. Now I can't take markdown notes because this *improvement* will remove the markings on the fly. Eek.

 

Anyway, I strongly advise you don't label this feature with "Markdown" in any way.  It's likely to be more damaging than beneficial when Markdown users are super disappointed.

  • Level 5
Posted

I’m really excited to announce the release of Evernote for Mac 6.2 Beta 1 which will address some long standing features that many of you have been requesting  The release of Apple’s El Capitan and it’s new split view feature gave us the opportunity to look at how Evernote works in a narrow window environment.  This has led us to redesign a few things.

Hello Marcus,

I really like the approach to use a common code base for the editors in all clients in order to create unique editing features and note rendering.

 

We’ve also made a number of other changes.

  • Finally, many people have asked for ways to speed formatting via the keyboard and we've added this in 6.2 by allowing you to use markdown-inspired shortcuts.  We’ve posted a blog post about our new common editor and this is one of the first major new features from this team. Expect more in the coming months.  This basically means that you can type characters into your note that will automatically apply formatting or a style to the text.  Here’s the list of formatting options supported.
    • Inline Formatting

      *Text* = Italics

      **Text** = Bold

      ~~Text~~ = Strikethrough

      !!Text!! = Highlight

      `Text`= Code Block  

       

    • Lists and Tables

      Typing “1. “ will start a numbered list

      Typing “* “ will start a bulleted list

      Typing [] or [ ] will create an unchecked checkbox

      Typing [x] will create a checked checkbox

      Typing a line of at least three * or - will add a horizontal rule

      Typing a [][][] on it’s own line will add a table with 3 columns 

      Typing [][][][]x2 on it’s own line will add a table with 4 columns and 2 rows

Markdown support is great and many users will appreciate this. I tested it and found some problems.

  • I could not get Strikethrough and Code Block to work.
  • When adding some markdown text e.g. bold text and removing the text again the bold state remains active and I have to use the toolbar to switch it off
  • I don't like that the feature is always activated. I sometimes for example want to use numbers without creating a numbered lists. How can I do that when typing "1." automatically creates such a list?

I would prefer a special markdown mode that can be toggled on/off as provided by the Markdown Here Firefox Add-On that I use for the Web client.

  • Level 5*
Posted

I would prefer a special markdown mode that can be toggled on/off as provided by the Markdown Here Firefox Add-On that I use for the Web client.

 

 

I agree.

 

Although there is clearly a sizable number of users who prefer to work in markdown mode, that is not true for all of us.

Like @Stuhrer, I also often want to just enter a number at the start of a line without starting an HTML list.

 

As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, I suspect those who prefer markdown would also prefer a mode switch, so that when markdown is "ON", then the editor stays in plain text allowing the full set of markdown code.

When the markdown is "OFF", then the editor would be in rich text mode, which would allow rich text, WYSIWYG editing, and would convert any markdown text that had been entered in the "ON" mode.

 

To keep things simple, perhaps you could set a Note as either "Rich Text" or "Markdown".

If "Markdown", then editing would only be supported in the markdown mode, with a read-only preview option showing rich text converted from the markdown.

When a copy of text is made, Evernote should put the following on the clipboard:

  1. Plain Text (which would be the markdown text)
  2. Rich Text
  3. HTML code of the rich text

Let me conclude by saying the having markdown support is not a big priority for me.

I know that for many others, it is one of their top priorities.

So I hope Evernote has some way to set priorities based on expected/projected number of users who need a particular feature.

Posted

Generally I like the way things are headed. The new toolbar looks good, responds well, etc. I think the tags look MUCH better rounded--I thought the old squares were an eyesore. Though it does take some getting used to that the tags disappear while editing.

 

I can't seem to hide "Upgrade Your Team" from the sidebar in Evernote Premium.

 

I also can't show the list of notebooks in the sidebar. I can show tags, not notebooks. Used to be able to. This is fullscreen in El Capitan GM. I can toggle the selection in the menu, it just doesn't do anything.

 

There are some rendering problems with the toolbar in the notes list view--see attached screen shot. 

 

Speaking of that toolbar, I understand some people requested it, but the return of the "All Notes" button is redundant when one can simply click on Notes in the sidebar, I think. And I'm concerned about having too many toolbars. Why not move that entire button group into the main app's toolbar? There's plenty of room up there. I think eliminating that toolbar would make the app look better overall.

 

I think the "Shortcuts" section of the sidebar should go below the main default group. Or at least let me move it there. Or better yet, why not add Shortcuts to the Notes|Notebooks|Tags as a main item? Then I could toggle the display of a list of shortcuts, that ruler could go away, and clicking on Shortcuts could show me a custom selection of "favorites" in a sense. And you could give the same treatment to Recent Notes. This way presentation and behavior of the sidebar items would be consistent and more intuitive.

 

 

post-268428-0-99421700-1443322462_thumb.

Posted

Hi Marcus!

 

I've been holding back on Evernote because of the lack of Markdown support. I was very excited to hear about this beta, so I signed up right away. I should note that I've only been using this beta, and haven't really used the 'regular' version of Evernote. I like it so far, but I don't really like how I can't see the 'source' of my markdown text.

 

I would suggest to show the text the way apps like iA Writer does, while editing. And show the 'parsed' text when viewing a note.

 

iA-Writer-Mac-App-Store.jpg

 

 

 

I have three more comments on the way Markdown is parsed in Evernote:

- I'd love to she Markdown headings

- For the 'checklists', I really like the way Github has implemented this. You create a checklist like so:

- [ ] Not checked item- [x] Checked item- [ ] Another not checked item

- I'm also a big fan of the default tables in markdown:

| Table head 1 | Table head 2 ||--------------|--------------|| Table content | Table content || Table content 2 | Table Content 2 |

Basically, in my ideal world Evernote would support full Github Flavored Markdown.

 

I know the Markdown implementation is in an early stage, but that makes this the best time to give my take on it.

 

 

Great work so far and I can't wait the test the coming versions!

Bram

Posted

I don't see why Markdown should be part of Evernote, at least at this stage when the developers are trying to get this unified editor up and running. If knowledgeable users can use Markdown syntax to format things, that's fine, but it shouldn't be one of the main development goals.

Markdown is a pretty geeky thing, and I very much doubt that many of the millions of Evernote users even know what it is, let alone want to use it instead of the current way of formatting text.

If you want to create a Markdown formatted document, use a good Markdown editor - I really like 1Writer on iOS. But let Evernote concentrate on the basics of WYSIWYG editing for now.

Posted

I don't see why Markdown should be part of Evernote, at least at this stage when the developers are trying to get this unified editor up and running. If knowledgeable users can use Markdown syntax to format things, that's fine, but it shouldn't be one of the main development goals.

Markdown is a pretty geeky thing, and I very much doubt that many of the millions of Evernote users even know what it is, let alone want to use it instead of the current way of formatting text.

If you want to create a Markdown formatted document, use a good Markdown editor - I really like 1Writer on iOS. But let Evernote concentrate on the basics of WYSIWYG editing for now.

 

Because I shouldn't have to have a separate app just to take my notes on when this product is called Evernote. The text editor is still absolute trash. Even just using in rich text. It is laughably awful. I can't take notes with this cruft and I'm tired of it. I've been tired of it. There's at least 4 different very active threads on this message board about how many users are tired of it and those threads have been active for YEARS. I pay for this product. I want to actually be able to use the text editor. It's awful. I'm not married to Markdown (I don't ever use it), but I am married to having a text editor that actually works and this one barely does.

  • Level 5*
Posted

I don't see why Markdown should be part of Evernote, at least at this stage when the developers are trying to get this unified editor up and running. If knowledgeable users can use Markdown syntax to format things, that's fine, but it shouldn't be one of the main development goals.

Markdown is a pretty geeky thing, and I very much doubt that many of the millions of Evernote users even know what it is, let alone want to use it instead of the current way of formatting text.

If you want to create a Markdown formatted document, use a good Markdown editor - I really like 1Writer on iOS. But let Evernote concentrate on the basics of WYSIWYG editing for now.

 

A lot of writers use markdown. As they are working on the editor, this is the perfect time to support it. I shouldn't have to use a separate editor and then copy it to evernote. If you search for markdown in the EN user forums, there are a lot of requests and questions about it.

Posted

I'm also pretty bummed about this markdown implementation. 

 

As an aside, markdown is getting more mainstream all the time. When Healthcare.gov had to be re-written from the ground up, they did it in markdown with a static site generator to lighten the server load. That means all the government bureaucrats had to learn to write about their healthcare policies in markdown. That's how their """CMS""" works. 

 

I would rather simply have my markdown notes in plain text that doesn't render anything and does simple things like indentation for lists and whatnot. I don't need Evernote to render Markdown; I have better tools for that. I just want it to be markdown-aware. 

Posted

Also, sorry for the double post, but is there a way to turn off the Markdown shortcuts? I can now no longer type markdown into my notes because it always triggers this new feature. 

 

Sorry. I hate to be a jerk. I know the developers are trying to give the users what they want, but this markdown implementation is actually *worse* than not having it at all. 

  • Level 5*
Posted

I created a note in Skitch on my iPhone. I cannot add tags. There is a padlock next to the date of the note. Is this a bug in the 6.2 beta?

  • Level 5*
Posted
Editing:  Rich Text WYSIWYG vs Markdown
 
While this thread is, in general, about the new EN Editor as exposed in EN Mac 6.2 Beta 1, the conversation seems to be dominated by posts about "Markdown".
 
My main concern at this point is that I hope Evernote developers do not become consumed by the new "Markdown" feature to the extent of ignoring most other features that have been requested for years, and hopefully are in the queue.
 
Evernote was designed from the beginning, and still is, to provide a rich text WYSIWYG editor.
I think that is what the large majority of Evernote users want.  If I'm wrong, hopefully someone from Evernote will correct me.
 
I understand that if you are using a plain text editor (not Evernote), that Markdown provides a simple, dumbed-downed, simple, alternative to HTML code to produce a nice, formatted, page when displayed by a browser, or Markdown preview app.
 
But if I am using a rich text, or HTML WYSIWYG, editor, what is the benefit of using Markdown in the content creation?  It seems to me that it will require a lot more typing, remembering the Markdown codes, and I still have to view in preview mode to make sure I have entered the correct codes.
So, where's the benefit?   What's the purpose?
 
With a rich text editor I have most of my formatting commands available as a keyboard shortcut.
Most of these are very well known, and even work cross-platform.
I see instantly, in real time, how the formatted textd will appear.
So why would I want to learn a new set of formatting codes, called "Markdown"?
 
There are many apps available for writers, many or most that support Markdown.
Frankly, I don't see Evernote as a strong writers tool (sorry Evernote managers/devs).
IMO, as I see it, Evernote is primarily a PIM (Personal Information Manager).
You can easily use it to create new notes by typing, web clipping, email-to-account, and even pasting the clipboard.
 

So, if one can easily, and reliably, create well formatted notes using the rich text editor, why would you want to use Markdown to create the Note, IF, you can easily export (copy) selected text, or the entire note, as plain text Markdown? 
 
 
  • Level 5*
Posted

The big advantage I see for 'real' markdown is that it is portable - a user can take mark up'd (or down'd) text between editors and know that the text will retain it's formatting. The user is also able to see the markdown tags embedded in a document.

 

Evernote have implemented new keyboard shortcuts for text formatting, that aren't visible to the user and do not show up in any other editor.

 

I'm really not sure what the point of it is, I don't believe that anyone techie enough to use Markdown isn't already aware of of cmd+b for example.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...