Reminders to iCal required

[mwlodarski 37]

If there was just one feature to be implemented in 2016 exporting Reminders to iCal would get my vote.

Each notebook should come with a complimentary calendar feed which one should be able to subscribe to. 

That's it. Nothing more is needed to make it a perfect app for a productive individual and team.

I know there are some workarounds available but I am not interested in them. I want native solution.

Evernote, get to work and deliver, please

[DTLow 5,736]

5 minutes ago, mwlodarski said:

If there was just one feature to be implemented in 2016 exporting Reminders to iCal would get my vote.

Can you give more details on why you want this - it seems to be a duplication notification wise.

[mwlodarski 37]

I want to have everything in my calendar.

Since I do most of my work in Evernote and use notes as to-dos as described here, I would like to avoid other stuff.

If I need to do something, I create a note and add a reminder for the day when I plan to work on it. If I could see them in my calendar, I would not need to create events by hand

 

[DTLow 5,736]

>>I want to have everything in my calendar.

Got it.  I also link some notes to calendar entries.  
I tried some services, but wasn't to happy with them and am currently doing it manually.

Its not a great solution. The calendar entry has a link to the note, but there's nothing in the note.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

3 hours ago, mwlodarski said:

Since I do most of my work in Evernote and use notes as to-dos as described here, I would like to avoid other stuff.

It would be nice if Evernote did everything, but it does not.  In particular, it does a very poor job of task management and calendars/event management.

So, even though you'd like to avoid "other stuff", you may want to consider tools like IQTell, which does a great job of:

1. Tight integration with Evernote 
2. Project/Task/Action management
3. Integrating your calendar and email with the above

[mwlodarski 37]

6 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

It would be nice if Evernote did everything, but it does not.  In particular, it does a very poor job of task management and calendars/event management.

1. Evernote doesmany things: note taking, scanning, OCRing, searching, presenting to name a few. I see nothing wrong in asking for more on a public forum. To be honest, if an app provides any time-related functionality (like reminders) a simple calendar feed should be standard feature accompanying this functionality. iCal is a standard format, so there is just one output required.
2. There are plenty ways to handle tasks management in Evernote. From checkboxes within notes to using more advanced frameworks like the one I described here, one can use the app according to her needs. For me, Evernote is the best task management software in the world and I have tried many systems and apps.
3. I see no reason to sign up for another app that charges even more than Evernote in my country for just one feature.
4. Also, I am not sure this is the right forum to hard sell non-evernote software.
5. Thanks for your kind answer though.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 hour ago, mwlodarski said:

 I see nothing wrong in asking for more on a public forum.

I completely agree.  I was not in any way trying to discourage anyone from requesting new features.  My apologies if I came across that way.

1 hour ago, mwlodarski said:

To be honest, if an app provides any time-related functionality (like reminders) a simple calendar feed should be standard feature accompanying this functionality.

One would think so.  Many years ago many of us requested a simple Due Date field.  After years of promises not fulfilled, reminders was Evernote's answer.  Many, many users have also requested a calendar function, but Evernote has not shown any interest in providing it.  Who knows if they will, or not.

1 hour ago, mwlodarski said:

For me, Evernote is the best task management software in the world and I have tried many systems and apps

That says it all, right there. If Evernote provides your idea of task management software, then you are all set.
I, and many others, find it falls far short of even the basic functions needed for task management.

2 hours ago, mwlodarski said:

Also, I am not sure this is the right forum to hard sell non-evernote software.

I'm not selling anything, hard or soft.  If you are referring to my statements about IQTell, I was just trying to share with others a great solution for an area where, IMO, Evernote is lacking.  I'm a huge user and fan of Evernote, and I use it extensively with IQTell.  I have no relationship with either Evernote or IQTell, other than being a paying customer.

2 hours ago, mwlodarski said:

Thanks for your kind answer though.

You are quite welcome.  Sorry if I came across as anything other than trying to be helpful.

Good luck.  I wish you the best.

[DTLow 5,736]

6 hours ago, mwlodarski said:

For me, Evernote is the best task management software in the world and I have tried many systems and apps.

I'd have to disagree on this.
If I had serious task management requirements, I'd be looking at different apps.
However my task management requirements are simple and I do them within Evernote.

For me, Evernote is the best digital filing cabinet in the world, and the PIM features are an added bonus.
 

[CalS 5,280]

@DTLow

@mwlodarski clearly states "For me,...." in the post, kind of hard to disagree with that. 

[DTLow 5,736]

3 hours ago, csihilling said:

clearly states "For me,...." in the post, kind of hard to disagree with that.

That would be like saying - "For me, its a fact that the earth is flat" on a Planet Earth forum discussion
I would also express my disagreement to that

Of course the person is entitled to hold any opinion they want. But if they are going to express it, it should be based on sound facts.
I will admit that they said "For me" which possibly mean that it doesn't have to fact based.

[CalS 5,280]

49 minutes ago, DTLow said:

That would be like saying - "For me, its a fact that the earth is flat" on a Planet Earth forum discussion
I would also express my disagreement to that

Of course the person is entitled to hold any opinion they want. But if they are going to express it, it should be based on sound facts.
I will admit that they said "For me" which possibly mean that it doesn't have to fact based.

For me, there are matters of fact and matters of opinion, oftentimes with a slippery slope between them.  And the adjective best just adds ice. 

Thanks for putting up with my post, don't know why I posted it in the first place.  Maybe because "for me", IMO, IMHO, and the like are sort of get out of jail free cards relative to opinion based matters.  Whether I agree or not, it's just someone else's view.  Now back to the topic at hand.  </end of topic> 

[DTLow 5,736]

On January 27, 2016 at 1:06 PM, mwlodarski said:

I want to have everything in my calendar.

Since I do most of my work in Evernote and use notes as to-dos as described here, I would like to avoid other stuff.

If I need to do something, I create a note and add a reminder for the day when I plan to work on it. If I could see them in my calendar, I would not need to create events by hand

 

You might be interested in the auto sync service discussed at https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/55121-sync-reminders-with-google-calendar/?do=findComment&comment=369106

It's an announcement of the Cronofy Calendar Connection Service; a two way sync between Evernote reminders and the Calendar (iCloud, Google, +)

[mwlodarski 37]

Thanks, tried it but it asked me for my Apple Password. Thanks, but no thanks.

[DTLow 5,736]

On February 15, 2016 at 1:39 AM, mwlodarski said:

Thanks, tried it but it asked me for my Apple Password. Thanks, but no thanks.

It was a concern giving access to my calendar and Evernote, but its a requirement if they are going to update both.  
More holes poked into my security, and possibly my deal with the devil (no offence intended to Cronofy)

Evernote seems a little more sophisticated.  
You can access a panel to see who has access, and revoke that access.
Also, if things go south - the damage is limited to my notes.

I don't see anything like that at Apple for my calendar access.  
Also my calendar is integrated into my Apple account.
Perhaps @adambird can comment on this.

[adambird 10]

If you have two-factor auth (2FA) enabled for your Apple account then you would an app specific password that could be revoked. We store the password as encrypted credentials to be used for access.

Alternatively if you don't have 2FA enabled, then we exchange the credentials for a token which we store encrypted, discard the password and use the token for access. 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I would have come out with guns blazing about the Sunrise Calendar app, which pulls in Evernote reminders, iCal, Google Calendar... and a bazillion other things like iOS Reminders, (which not even Apple have implemented into their iCal), Trello reminders etc, etc... but sadly, it seems that Sunrise is going to be Sunset. I think I read somewhere that they are going to be working on Microsoft's Outlook and will be integrating all of the core stuff from Sunrise into their new project... but that's a story for another day. 

They do state that the Sunrise Apps will continue to be available in their respective app stores, even though development has come to a stop. They also have a web app for desktop. 

What would be interesting would be to find a substitute app that does something similar. I think this leaves a gaping gap for other developers to take up the reigns and market themselves to Evernote users who use Evernote Reminders a lot and would like to plot their reminders on a calendar. The Evernote team raved about Sunrise Calendar once upon a time.

You could go ahead and test out Sunrise for now. Fully functional and really awesome. Going back to the title of this thread... a suggestion wold be to pull both iCal and Evernote Reminders (and whatever else you want to play around with) into Sunrise Calendar. Everything on one interface. 

[DTLow 5,736]

20 minutes ago, Frank.dg said:

 

I would have come out with guns blazing about the Sunrise Calendar app

 

I glanced at this briefly.
Apart from the sunset part, my concern was that I did not want to switch to another calendar app; I'm guessing the Google Calendar people might feel the same way.
The solution I wanted, fed into the calendar system I currently used (iCloud)

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Cool. In this digital day and age most don't find switching things up to be too jarring. Mwlodarski or a bunch of others might find this useful, since Sunrise Calendar is just as useful now as it ever was. The sunset part is more a halt on adding further features... but more interestingly it would be great to find an alternative to Sunrise out there. Sunrise takes 5 minutes to set up and I've found it to be easy to adapt to, since most Calendar apps are fairly intuitive. A great addition for anyone wanting to see everything on one consolidated interface. Personally I use it for pulling in iOS Reminders... and the occasional Evernote Reminder. It's an option for those who really, really, really want to easily see Evernote Reminders in a Calendar and are willing to switch things up a (teeny) bit to achieve that. As I mentioned before, Sunrise pulls in your iCloud stuff, including iOS Reminders, which, strangely, Apple hasn't gotten around to yet. Lots of plusses all round for those who are up to trying it out.

[mwlodarski 37]

I think there should be no such discussion. Export to iCal is a basic feature. No magic discovery is required. The standard is like 20 years old.

A small project that can work on all platforms and make lots lots of users happy (user forums are not even 0,001% of Evernote user base). What's not to like about it.

 

For now, I:

1. Open Evernote and Calendar together using Split View
2. Drag a Note to a desired position in Calendar. Note's URL becomes Event's title.
3. I cut the Note's URL and paste into the URL section of the Event.
4. I copy Note's title into Event's title field.
5. I set all other Event characteristics (duration, location, etc.).
6. I save the Event.

 

[DTLow 5,736]

10 minutes ago, mwlodarski said:

Drag a Note to a desired position in Calendar. Note's URL becomes Event's title.

Thats an ugly process - I'm favoring a more integrated solution

[mwlodarski 37]

7 minutes ago, Frank.dg said:

Cool. In this digital day and age most don't find switching things up to be too jarring. Mwlodarski or a bunch of others might find this useful, since Sunrise Calendar is just as useful now as it ever was. The sunset part is more a halt on adding further features... but more interestingly it would be great to find an alternative to Sunrise out there. Sunrise takes 5 minutes to set up and I've found it to be easy to adapt to, since most Calendar apps are fairly intuitive. A great addition for anyone wanting to see everything on one consolidated interface. Personally I use it for pulling in iOS Reminders... and the occasional Evernote Reminder. It's an option for those who really, really, really want to easily see Evernote Reminders in a Calendar and are willing to switch things up a (teeny) bit to achieve that. As I mentioned before, Sunrise pulls in your iCloud stuff, including iOS Reminders, which, strangely, Apple hasn't gotten around to yet. Lots of plusses all round for those who are up to trying it out.

Thanks for that Frank.dg. I have tried Sunrise in the past. A nice app, but it has some limitations. For example, all Evernote notes are only 1-hour-long events and you cannot change it. It generates holes in my calendaring when I schedule 4 hours of work on a note. 

Also, my target is to use as few apps as possible. I am tired of sync issues, different formats, discovering new workflows and limitations. One complete solution is the Holy Grail and Evernote is damn close to it for me when it comes to my work & life organisation. Thus, my little request.

[mwlodarski 37]

31 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Thats an ugly process - I'm favoring a more integrated solution

I only do scheduling with Evernote once per week when I do my Weekly Review. So it is survivable. I would be adding Reminders while looking at Calendar anyway. Integration would save me time on copying Titles, etc.

Major problem for me now is: when I click on the Note link in Calendar it opens the Note in Safari and only after that opens the Note in Evernote. Any idea how to omit the Safari part? It takes up to 10 seconds for the Note to load.

[DTLow 5,736]

4 minutes ago, mwlodarski said:

Major problem for me now is: when I click on the Note link in Calendar it opens the Note in Safari

It's been much discussed in the forum.

You're using the external link, and you want the internal link, also called the classic link.

On my Mac, I can retrieve the classic link by holding down the option key when I copy a link.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

1 hour ago, mwlodarski said:

Thus, my little request.

 

Bottom line is this: don't get your (one's) hopes up. You're going to get nothing but silence from Evernote on almost everything task and reminder related, for one simple reason:

Take a look through the Evernote App Center and do some preliminary digging around on the www and you will find scores of very good 3rd party Evernote apps that do just about anything you want, extracting Evernote Reminders to Calendars (Sunrise), checklist items in Evernote notes to integrated interfaces (Swipes), Evernote notes to Kanban boards (Kanbanote) and Eisenhower Matrices (Gneo), etc. There are loads of fantastic 3rd party apps that sync directly with Evernote - both ways. I'm sure you know this...

The reason why Evernote will not do much more than what we currently have is that they would disenfranchise a lot of those very innovative 3rd party apps built right on Evernote's back. Take a look at the Evernote platform awards which gave a lot of these creative folk incentive to build their apps. A huge part of Evernote's expansion came directly from 3rd party apps that go all out to promote themselves and in the process point directly toward Evernote... both onramping utilities as well as those apps that grab your Evernote information. For Evernote to create their own task management interfaces beyond the Reminders list and checkboxed items within a note would be kind of impolite... and they know that. Call it a catch 22... call it what you will, but Evernote will not ramp up the task management area significantly. How could they? The last major development in this area was the Reminder itself. There's Work Chat for collaboration... but that's an uninteresting story. 

[DTLow 5,736]

8 minutes ago, Frank.dg said:

The reason why Evernote will not do much more than what we currently have is that they would disenfranchise a lot of those very innovative 3rd party apps built right on Evernote's back.

You might be right, but my feeling is that it's better for a product to stick to its core function.

This is my preference for Evernote also.  An example is if I want to do some serious writing, I use a Word Processing app instead of ranting about features that EN should add.  Likewise with calendar and reminder functions.

[mwlodarski 37]

13 hours ago, DTLow said:

It's been much discussed in the forum.

You're using the external link, and you want the internal link, also called the classic link.

On my Mac, I can retrieve the classic link by holding down the option key when I copy a link.

Yeah, but that moves me back to manual adding to calendar. This dragging, although manual too, feels better than simple copy/paste. I guess that's more psychology than real problem.

BTW. if I use a classic link on my Mac, will that work properly on the iphone?

[mwlodarski 37]

13 hours ago, Frank.dg said:

 

Bottom line is this: don't get your (one's) hopes up. You're going to get nothing but silence from Evernote on almost everything task and reminder related, for one simple reason:

Take a look through the Evernote App Center and do some preliminary digging around on the www and you will find scores of very good 3rd party Evernote apps that do just about anything you want, extracting Evernote Reminders to Calendars (Sunrise), checklist items in Evernote notes to integrated interfaces (Swipes), Evernote notes to Kanban boards (Kanbanote) and Eisenhower Matrices (Gneo), etc. There are loads of fantastic 3rd party apps that sync directly with Evernote - both ways. I'm sure you know this...

The reason why Evernote will not do much more than what we currently have is that they would disenfranchise a lot of those very innovative 3rd party apps built right on Evernote's back. Take a look at the Evernote platform awards which gave a lot of these creative folk incentive to build their apps. A huge part of Evernote's expansion came directly from 3rd party apps that go all out to promote themselves and in the process point directly toward Evernote... both onramping utilities as well as those apps that grab your Evernote information. For Evernote to create their own task management interfaces beyond the Reminders list and checkboxed items within a note would be kind of impolite... and they know that. Call it a catch 22... call it what you will, but Evernote will not ramp up the task management area significantly. How could they? The last major development in this area was the Reminder itself. There's Work Chat for collaboration... but that's an uninteresting story. 

I appreciate your input and effort to write that many words. That's a weird theory, though. For two reasons.

1. Lack of logic. One simple example would be the Drafts app that allows basic notetaking with "Save to Evernote" option. To "be nice" to this developer, Evernote should give up the notetaking part.

2. The focus. Any company that wants to suceed has only one thing to look at and focus at. That thing is The Final Customer. Not the supplier, not the distribution partner, not the 3rd party developer, but the final Customer. If Final Customer is not happy, they do not spend money with the company and such company closes shop. End of story.

So, although my iCal implementation request may not be something they implement, I wouldn't be saying it because of the 3rd party developers, but rather by lack of popularity of my suggested feature.

I think I am done with this discussion. I submitted a feature request and explained at lenght why I want it and how it should work.

Have a nice day.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, mwlodarski said:

BTW. if I use a classic link on my Mac, will that work properly on the iphone?

Yes - it works fine on my iPad.  I think it connects via an internal note id that remains constant across platforms.

>>Yeah, but that moves me back to manual adding to calendar.

At one time I was using an AppleScript to create the calendar event.  It worked well, created the link and set event title correctly.

 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

On 2/17/2016 at 0:54 PM, mwlodarski said:

I have tried Sunrise in the past. A nice app, but it has some limitations. For example, all Evernote notes are only 1-hour-long events and you cannot change it. It generates holes in my calendaring when I schedule 4 hours of work on a note. 

Also, my target is to use as few apps as possible. I am tired of sync issues, different formats, discovering new workflows and limitations. One complete solution is the Holy Grail and Evernote is damn close to it for me when it comes to my work & life organisation. Thus, my little request.

@mwlodarski, it's a pity that you won't give the Evernote Calendar Connector recommended by @DTLow authorization to connect to your Evernote account (You did once upon a time with Sunrise Calendar)...

• It's a service rather than an app. No messing around with an extra app
• It will connect to your iCal
• You can schedule as much or as little time as you want on an Evernote note, (which Sunrise Calendar did not give you).
  • Drag the Event frame to enlarge it and expand it's time-frame.
• If you change the name of the Event in iCal, it changes the Note Title in Evernote
• If you drag your Event to another time block, it changes the Reminder time in Evernote
• You can (a) create a new iCal Calendar (and custom color) and then (b) have the Evernote Calendar Connector sync with that on setup.

[CalS 5,280]

Buyer beware.  If you decide to discontinue use of the Connector you have to be very careful in disconnecting so as to not accidentally remove existing reminders from notes.  Also, I had some completed reminders show up as open again after setting this up.  They were older though so may have been from before EN made the significant changes that mad Day and the rest work.  My experience anyway.

[DTLow 5,736]

22 hours ago, csihilling said:

Buyer beware.  If you decide to discontinue use of the Connector you have to be very careful in disconnecting so as to not accidentally remove existing reminders from notes. 

I don't know about the danger of disconnecting,
I'm still a happy user of this service, but I found some quirks:

+ My experience is with a daily appointment, where the time changed each day.  
    I go into my note and change the reminder date and time.  
    Looking at my calendar, I see the appointment with the new date and time. 

+or- And the old appointment; its disappeared from the calendar.  
        If I really thought about it, this is the way it has to be.

+or- I was using the Evernote "classic" link in my calendar entries.  
       Now instead, there is a unique Cronofy url.  
       Clicking it gets me my Evernote entry in the browser.  
       I wouldn't expect this url to be live after disconnecting.

+ You can go into the calendar and make an entry recurring.
    It seems to work ok - but it creates complications; I'd avoid doing this

 

 

[CalS 5,280]

There may be a setting someplace of which I was not aware, but when I deleted a reminder from my calendar the corresponding reminder in EN was cleared, not marked as done.  I didn't care for that and decided it wasn't the tool for me.  But then I had all of the "appointments" in my calendar created by Cronofy as remnants.  So I was very careful to be sure I had deleted my account, disabled all permissions, etc., before I did the clean up in my calendar.  If I hadn't and I simply purged all the added appointments I would have lost all those reminders in EN.  Easy mistake for someone to make.

[DTLow 5,736]

12 minutes ago, csihilling said:

 when I deleted a reminder from my calendar the corresponding reminder in EN was cleared, not marked as done.

My impression was that this was restricted to calendar date and time.  They only used reminders as an interface for those attributes.  

[CalS 5,280]

 

56 minutes ago, DTLow said:

My impression was that this was restricted to calendar date and time.  They only used reminders as an interface for those attributes.  

Not sure what that means, but from their web page (remove being very specific in this case):

Cronofy connects Evernote directly to your calendar so that any time you set a reminder in Evernote, a corresponding event will appear in your calendar.

Then, from you calendar you can:

• change the time of your reminder by moving the event
• alter the name of your note by changing the name of the event
• remove the reminder by deleting the event
•  

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, csihilling said:

My impression was that this was restricted to calendar date and time.  They only used reminders as an interface for those attributes.  

Not sure what that means,

>>when I deleted a reminder from my calendar the corresponding reminder in EN was cleared, not marked as done.

It means you get date and time sync'd
You don't get a "done" indicator

[CalS 5,280]

Remove can be interpreted different ways as is obvious by this conversation. 

Personally, I would prefer the reminder be synced, not just the date and time.  You lose sight of any completed reminders when the date/time gets synced to nothing.  Not a good thing as far as I'm concerned if you want to ever go back and search for a reminder you've marked as done, which I have done in the past.  So not the right tool for me or anyone else who might use reminderdonetime.

[frogdude 10]

I think an iCal feed either for all reminders or per notebook would be great. 

There are 3rd party work arounds, but not satisfactory. 

Hope the price increase brings this forwards 

[vladcampos 644]

Em 1/27/2016 at 17:39, mwlodarski disse:

If there was just one feature to be implemented in 2016 exporting Reminders to iCal would get my vote.

Each notebook should come with a complimentary calendar feed which one should be able to subscribe to. 

That's it. Nothing more is needed to make it a perfect app for a productive individual and team.

I know there are some workarounds available but I am not interested in them. I want native solution.

Evernote, get to work and deliver, please

I would love to have the exact same thing 

[DTLow 5,736]

7 minutes ago, vladcampos said:

I would love to have the exact same thing 

Did you see the postings on Cronofy Calendar Connector

It seems to do the job

[vladcampos 644]

10 minutos atrás, DTLow disse:

Did you see the postings on Cronofy Calendar Connector

It seems to do the job

I know the solution and I agree, it does the job. But I don't feel comfortable with the kind of permission needed by Cronofy. Once connected it will have full access to the contentes of all my notes. I'm not accusing anyone or anything like that, but because of all the personal information I have stored I don't feel comfortable. 

Also, iCalendar feeds are becoming quite popular among productivity Apps. Todoist, Trello and several others have this feature.

[IamGo 0]

Been waiting for straight forward Google Calendar integration with Remindes for years........... a decade now i would say

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2017-11-07 at 5:11 PM, IamGo said:

Been waiting for straight forward Google Calendar integration with Remindes for years........... a decade now i would say

You're welcome to indicate your support for this request using the voting buttons at the top left corner of the discussion
The current vote count is

Evernote has not indicated an interest in this feature. imho you'd should be looking at third party solutions
I use scripting on Mac to integrate reminders with Apple Calendar

[jwofford 0]

Please add the ability to link Evernote to iCal on Mac. I use it much more than Google. Thank you for asking!

[PinkElephant 8,073]

You are posting in a thread that was silent since 2017. Since then all clients were relaunched, and EN added the tasks feature.

It has integration with Google calendars now. If you want to link your Apple calendar, create a Google calendar, link the Apple calendar to it, and then theGoogle calendar to EN.