Stacking Notebooks

[moldor 1]

I know you can have notebooks in "stacks", but is it possible to have a stack within a stack ?

For example, I have a stack called TAXATION, and then under that a stack for each financial year, and under each year the documents applicable for that year.

Call it OCD, but my wife has me organised...:-)

[CalS 5,311]

Nope.  Only one level within a stack.  Though with the above you could have a stack called taxation with a notebook for each year and notes in the years.  It wouldn't work if you wanted a notebook by document type under the years.

OTOH, some use tags to accomplish what you have above.  Notebook called taxation and a tag for each year, or even a tag for tax document type and a tag for each year in a less specific notebook including other not-tax notes (me).    Slightly different way of thinking, but same general result when trying to find something.

[DTLow 5,749]

On 2016-01-15 at 8:12 AM, csihilling said:

 a tag for tax document type and a tag for each year

That's the process I use, although a tag like tax-yyyy might be less OCD?

Using tags allows me to set up a hierarchy of tags.  

Using tags instead of notebooks also removes some constraints; for example if I have a tax related receipt do I file it in my Tax notebook or my Receipts notebook.

[CalS 5,311]

I'm in the US so I have a tag for each part of the return.  The OCD bit being they are preceded by 1040 , so 1040.Sched.A for example.  That way I can look at documents across years or get all of them with a tag:1040* search.  FWIW.

[gazumped 12,227]

Hi.  What they said basically,  although I think you can satisfy both the Revenue and the Wife if you set up a tree of tags like:

• taxation
  • 2015
    • document 1
    • document 2
  • 2016
    • document 1
    • document 2
  • 2017...

...and have all your documents in your single default notebook tagged with <taxation> <year> <document type>

-That way you can pull all the documents for taxation you ever created,  or slim that pile down to a particular year,  or even to a particular document type.

Personally I don't use tags that way - my notes are all titled with a date and document type anyway,  and those that relate to tax get "- tax" tagged on to the heading too.  A simple intitle:<dates or keywords> search then gets me all of the above breakdowns without the need for tags.

I'm extremely lazy however,  and you may have other preferences - the basic rule of Evernote is "do whatever feels best to you" 

[CalS 5,311]

One thing I would say to Gaz here is that the years have other uses and might be better served under their own parent tag, Years perhaps, as opposed to under a Taxation parent tag.  And it's funny how lazy works, I find it lazier to add tags through the drop down or Ctrl-Alt-T than type in the note titles, a couple of key strokes typically does the trick.  And I've only got 300 so not that hard to remember. 

In the end Gaz is spot on, do whatever feels best to you.

[michael.freidgeim 18]

Why people have to invent different workarounds? To have hierarchy of folders is a basic requirement, and Evernote should implement it a long time ago.

 

[DTLow 5,749]

11 minutes ago, michael.freidgeim said:

Why people have to invent different workarounds? To have hierarchy of folders is a basic requirement, and Evernote should implement it a long time ago.

You've chosen the wrong product if you want to organize your notes in a " hierarchy of folders"

Personally, I was happy to leave the folder methodology behind.
My opinion is that organization by tags is a superior method.

You could apply a two level hierarchy using stacks and notebooks

[gazumped 12,227]

...and - pointed out by many in lots of detail elsewhere - it's possible to put tags into any hierarchy you like, with infinite depth.  (No one has ever reported that they can't add another child tag to their <n>th-level system,  anyway.) 

With -IIRC- 100,000 tags to play with,  that's a lot of potential depth.

I have seen a system that has lots of tags,  and the owner says there's no problem with remembering the correct order of tags - the parent list is its own index of the contents (if you see what I mean) - Just follow the logic breadcrumbs of Home or Work / Money or Project / etc etc all the way to your required tag.

Only major handicap - that's a one-desktop only setup:  the tag hierarchy doesn't yet translate to mobiles or (reliably) to any other shares.

These,  by the way,  are not 'workarounds' in the sense that they're detours to avoid problems,  any more than the inability of a DSLR to take underwater pictures requires the 'workaround' of a waterproof case.  This is how Evernote is meant to work.

[JohnLongney 83]

My thoughts on this subject 

- solely relying on tagging (keywording) can leave one at a painful disadvantage.  For the sake of exporting a large number of vital documents/notes with the aim of conversion into standard file formats to anticipate the unwanted, but very possible malfunction of Evernote it certainly pays to think of EN notebooks as folders.

[DTLow 5,749]

4 hours ago, JohnLongney said:

My thoughts on this subject 

- solely relying on tagging (keywording) can leave one at a painful disadvantage.  For the sake of exporting a large number of vital documents/notes with the aim of conversion into standard file formats to anticipate the unwanted, but very possible malfunction of Evernote it certainly pays to think of EN notebooks as folders.

For exporting, the only export options are to a single folder; no hierarchy.
I guess I could add this option to my backup script but I prefer the tag organization.

Not sure what you consider standard format; I use html

[JohnLongney 83]

I never said or meant to say that Evernote's basic filing structure is logical by design. To overcome this inherent problem one needs to regard one notebook as one folder.  With appropriate naming of notes - essential anyway -  I  am able to create documents/files free from commitment to one software company, at the same compatible with all of the machine world. The pdf format is my chosen standard format.

Imho Evernote is perfect for gathering material but lacks when it comes to further editing.. As for long-term cloud storage? Scanned and approved by NSA?

[DTLow 5,749]

1 hour ago, JohnLongney said:

To overcome this inherent problem one needs to regard one notebook as one folder.  With appropriate naming of notes - essential anyway -  I  am able to create documents/files free from commitment to one software company

Which corresponds to the "Stacking Notebooks" title of the conversation.

As I said, I'm sticking with the tag organization.

As backup, I export my notes in html format to a single folder on a cloud drive.
No additional software required; The drive (Mac OS) supports tags

[moldor 1]

Thank you all for your comments and insight into this issue.

I'm currently looking at the "tag" method of filing things and, for a small 4 person family, that is certainly workable (I guess if you can remember the tag order !!), but for larger organizations I still feel the nested folder method has merit, not least of all reigning in my rampant OCD..:-)  After all, NimbusNote can do it (competing product) and so can OneNote (after a fashion)...

One of the things I use Evernote for (apart from tax, and my ham radio hobby) is the tracking of issues reported and solutions in my daily work in a Bank's IT Department - our current "documentation" system is an ancient POC called eRoom, which is heavily folder-based - it's a structure that people understand and are comfortable with, which is the other reason I want to do likewise in Evernote - if I can prove that Evernote will do the job more efficiently and effectively than eRoom, I stand a better chance of having it adopted across the board (we have OneNote as part of the Office suite, but for me it just doesn't have the same flexability as Evernote).

If Evernote had some sort of a "query language", where you could define (and save) queries on tags on both an individual and global basis then maybe the "one big pool of information" approach would work, but it would require some massive re-education of people's thinking - the whole folder paradigm is just more "logical" to most.

[DTLow 5,749]

3 hours ago, moldor said:

If Evernote had some sort of a "query language", where you could define (and save) queries on tags on both an individual and global basis 

See here for Evernote's "query language"      Evernote Search Grammar
My most complicated query is my Current Task List            
reminderTime:* -tag:!Archive -reminderTime:day+1 -reminderDoneTime:*
( notes with a due date, exclude Archived,  exclude future dated, exclude completed)

>>(I guess if you can remember the tag order !!)
Depending on the platform, you have a complete list in the sidebar, and a dropdown list as you start typing a tagname
Its actually easier than remembering folder > subfolder > subsubfolder?...

>>require some massive re-education of people's thinking - the whole folder paradigm is just more "logical" to most.
Agreed
One example used points to iTunes, the digital music library - there are no folders

 

[moldor 1]

Yes, I see your point - I'll take a more in-depth look at this, certainly.

[JohnLongney 83]

digital music:  by design identifiable by tags and footprints

digital (raw file) photography: ditto

Documents including html formatted ones are designed for day to day work. For proof of identity or  long-term storage totally unsuitable.

[DTLow 5,749]

3 hours ago, JohnLongney said:

digital music:  by design identifiable by tags and footprints

Not clear about footprints, but I'm sure there are user's who insist they must organize their music with a folder for each artist.

They can say this was the organization method back when there were music stores and when they export their music lists free from software, folders are by design logical to be compatible with the machine world. They'd be unhappy with the tagging in Evernote, but probably don't need stacking notebooks

[CalS 5,311]

2 hours ago, JohnLongney said:

Documents including html formatted ones are designed for day to day work. For proof of identity or  long-term storage totally unsuitable.

?