Read-Only Option for Notes

[alexferen 39]

Hi... Tried EN many moons ago, then went with OneNote but EN's cloud and accessible anywhere features are bringing me back...Enough kudos...

Is there a way to mark a note as "read-only" so I cannot accidentally erase or modify it? Thanks. Alex

[OBrien 12]

Please seriously consider this feature.

Ive been using Evernote for almost 10 years with the fear that I could accidentally erase or modify my precious data.

although I know I can restore from previous version on the web, i cannot do that on iOS. 

And what if I dont get noticed the fact I accidentally change data. This possibility makes me so anxious and keep me from using Evernote with important data.😭

I believe this is a common issue among many user!!

 

[digitalarchivist 1]

The ability to read-only lock or protect a note would have been useful to me today. I hope you will add this feature.

[Sandal Jepit 2]

I like to use evernote to log my experiment in the lab, because I can put everything from lab like photos of my experiments, scrap of notes on paper, and a short voice records about the problem in my experiment. So I think a feature to prevent accidental note changes is also important for me. Furthermore it would be great that this kind of locked note have a detail time stamp.

[Jennifer Weiss 1]

I save values that I want to be able to copy and paste for repeated use (example commands I need to enter at a command prompt for tasks that I only do occasionally).  Sometimes I'll accidentally cut rather than copy.  Once I've grabbed the value, I don't have a reason to return to the note, so it won't be until the next time that I want to copy the value that I'll realize I cut it the last time.  By then, I usually can't remember what the value was. 

My workaround is to copy the note and label it 'backup'.  Of course, if I edit the note, I have to remember to copy the edits to the backup, which is definitely a potential point of failure.

I'd much prefer to be able to change a note to read-only, realizing that I'd have to change it back if I want to edit the note.

[Vojkan Cvijanovic 10]

10+ years and you still haven't implemented this simple, but very useful feature. Shame on you Evernote.

[Metrodon 2,188]

No, but you could tag it and then be careful when you empty your trash.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

But I guess I would be careful in first place, but that's not what I'm after - anyone can delete something by an accident.

As metrodon pointed out, no, you cannot flag/tag a note for read only.

[Nomad76 0]

Hi!

Is there a way to lock Evernote to prevent "accidental" changes or edits to already completed notes?

Evernote is now my goto second brain. I have valuable memories in it. Things that I now reference, that do not need any further editing.

So if this feature doesn't exist, I would like to request that it be included. Just a simple switch or menu item to turn off editing.

Thank you!

Darrin.

[jbenson2 2,149]

No, this is not available.

Several other users in the past have requested various types of locks ranging from simple software locks to advanced encryption techniques.

This is a hot topic and Evernote is aware of the wide range of requests.

Best advice I can offer - be sure to backup your Evernote database regularly. Don't rely only on the cloud.

[eric99 1,083]

On 16-11-2015 at 11:00 PM, Holmes245 said:

On 16-11-2015 at 11:00 PM, Holmes245 said:

+1 for me on this as well.

 

In fact, in the Android version you do have to go into edit mode to edit your notes. I like this because I don't want to be thumbing through my notes and accidentally editing notes. The desktop version needs this because I too, like so many apparently, do accidentally delete attachments or notes. I don't like the idea at all that if I have any note selected and accidentally brush up against the delete button on my keyboard - BAM! There goes that note and if I don't notice it before I empty my trash, it's too late. It's the same with attachments. If you have an attached document and the cursor is located right after the document, if you accidentally brush up against the backspace key on your keyboard then your attachment has been deleted and it is not sitting in your trash at all! It's just gone.

 

It's design choices like this that puzzle me about the Evernote design team and why they make certain design choices, to be honest. Just too easy to lose work in Evernote. Evernote NEEDS something like this.

+1 for me on this as well.

 

In fact, in the Android version you do have to go into edit mode to edit your notes. I like this because I don't want to be thumbing through my notes and accidentally editing notes. The desktop version needs this because I too, like so many apparently, do accidentally delete attachments or notes. I don't like the idea at all that if I have any note selected and accidentally brush up against the delete button on my keyboard - BAM! There goes that note and if I don't notice it before I empty my trash, it's too late. It's the same with attachments. If you have an attached document and the cursor is located right after the document, if you accidentally brush up against the backspace key on your keyboard then your attachment has been deleted and it is not sitting in your trash at all! It's just gone.

 

It's design choices like this that puzzle me about the Evernote design team and why they make certain design choices, to be honest. Just too easy to lose work in Evernote. Evernote NEEDS something like this.

I fully agree: when double clicking an attachement, the cursor is always on the attachment, and to make it worse, the attachment icon gets selected as well (another bug, it may not be selected by just opening a file), so there is a very high risk that it may be deleted by accidently clicking the backspace or delete button !

Unfortunately, as far as I followed these discussions, I'm afraid that evernote will remove the edit button on all platforms, even on Android! I have the impression that evernote  is not designed for serious work but more as some kind of toy or scratch block where data loss can be afforded...

 

[goutos19 3]

I also would like to have a lock icon to make a note read-only.

[DTLow 5,745]

I up-voted (top right corner of this discussion)

and the vote is .....1

I encourage anyone supporting this request to vote.

Also - I posted a device agnostic feature request at 

 

[rjparker1 22]

Can we make notes read only?  I accidentally hit information inside notes in trying to copy \ paste on my mobile.  Then I end up saving it only to find out later that I moved something.

Is there a way in Evernote to mark a notebook or note as read only so I don't accidentally change data?

[DTLow 5,745]

51 minutes ago, rjparker1 said:

Can we make notes read only?  I accidentally hit information inside notes in trying to copy \ paste on my mobile.  Then I end up saving it only to find out later that I moved something.

Is there a way in Evernote to mark a notebook or note as read only so I don't accidentally change data?

afaik There is no read-only option

Its been discussed in the forums.

The workaround I use is to convert my note to pdf format.

[rjparker1 22]

On 4/8/2016 at 2:58 PM, DTLow said:

afaik There is no read-only option

Its been discussed in the forums.

The workaround I use is to convert my note to pdf format.

Genius.. that's good enough for me, thanks.

[gunfight 3]

I also want read-only notes, or at least the option to open any note as read-only on a mobile device. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally edited a note on my iPhone while walking around in a grocery store looking for recipe ingredients! And it's not like "undo" is easy to do on the phone. It's a pain to remember to choose 'present' mode immediately after opening the note. 

[Hwa87 2]

Seconding this request.

I use EN to work with newspaper articles a lot. It is a horrible mess if one of them gets edited by accident. To be able to lock and mark them, just like pdfs, just without having to export, convert to pdf, reimport would be very helpful (maybe as a premium feature?).

[DTLow 5,745]

On April 8, 2016 at 11:03 AM, rjparker1 said:

Can we make notes read only?  I accidentally hit information inside notes in trying to copy \ paste on my mobile.  Then I end up saving it only to find out later that I moved something.

Is there a way in Evernote to mark a notebook or note as read only so I don't accidentally change data?

Please indicate your support for this request by voting at

 

[lhenze 0]

I also would very much like to see the ability to lock notes.   I have a new Android device on which I've installed evernote but I'm afraid to use evernote on it because my precious notes feel too vulnerable there!

 

 

[UncleRic 20]

True enough.
But why isn't merely locking a single note a basic function across whatever plans the patron has?
It's merely neutering the ability to delete or modify via a toggle.
We could have BOTH history AND permanency. ☝️

[UncleRic 20]

4 minutes ago, DTLow said:

There is a basic note lock function, not connected to any plans.  However Evernote has not given us access to the toggle.

I use the feature from Filterize to toggle notes read-only and non-deletable

... interesting.
Why hasn't Evernote given us access to a toggle?

[s2sailor 2,458]

10 minutes ago, DTLow said:

There is a basic note lock function, not connected to any plans.  

It is used in shared notes.  When sharing you can select edit or just read capability.  The read only ones are locked.  I agree it would be nice if this function was exposed for all notes.

[FredJ 62]

I have a note that locks up, trying to go into edit of the note, and it hangs.
(well i actually have several, that hang on my mobile devices, ok on mac)
(a lot of them are scrapes of websites / web pages)...

PLEASE allow me to set to read-only and "not" go into edit mode, no need to.

I imagine if it doesn't try to edit, the note might just easily be "read"

 

 

 

 

[UncleRic 20]

I'm not looking for 3rd-party solutions to 'read-only' status.

This should be a basic property of ANY Evernote doc.

Think about the plethora of legal documentation, etc. that users import into their EverNote apps.

Most of these notes are to used as reference, without desire to accidentally alter or remove them.

Having to rely of restoration and/or 3rd-party means is an unnecessary hassle.
All that is needed is a write on/off (default) toggle somewhere in the menubar.

 

[Rizputin 1]

I cannot believe this has been requested for 5+ years. Seriously? Low effort, high reward. 

[OBrien 12]

It‘s almost insane. In this 5 years, they have been developing so many other features. But about this, nothing has been done.

We might should be get angry on this. Is there any way to make them get attention to this??

[UncleRic 20]

I assume some Evernote™ engineer is monitoring this discussion so I believe EverNote is aware.
That's why we have the Evernote™ forum.

Well obviously.... no movement in a half decade; which is NOT acceptable.

My guess the only way is to complain on either feedback or contact a human within EverNote and complain.

I think I'll do it... being that this forum hasn't produced anything that I value.

... Evernote has a few Facebook accounts (I've checked).

I think I'll ***** in PUBLIC.

 

[PinkElephant 8,846]

Most people posting here are on a paying a count.

So who is hindering you to go ahead and swamp support with this feature request ?

Here somebody from EN Amy listen in - at Support they get paid to do so.

P.S. Just to get this right: I think this is a good request, and have added my vote to the basket quite a while ago.

[UncleRic 20]

I've been a fully paid user for the past half decade or so.

The Evernote™ team hasn't given me (us) a followup on our request to have a convenient toggle to lock the document versus the the half-ass way recovering from history or via a 3rd-party hack.   I think it's a dereliction of duty.

Hence I've subscribed to the Facebook community and shall bring this concern out in the open.

 

Ric.

 

[DaneLennon89 5]

yes. this is a must for me as well. I use evernote exclusively for work and I have many documents where I will no longer need to edit them and it's important that I lock from future editing

[CheilaNg 2]

Hi,

Day by day, my notes are getting bigger and bigger and there are some contents that I do not intend to change, simply because they are study notes. So the feature of being able to block some notes would be a really nice one to have.

I suggest that just in case the person needs to unlock for some reason, the block feature could be a note status, where the user would have to use a toggle button to lock/unlock and have a popup message showing up to make sure the user really wants to proceed with th action whethe it's locking/unlocking the note. In case it's locked, the edit button would stop appearing.

Hope I didn't complicate this idea of locking lol.

[Steve10 1]

This has been a thread for 8 years?! Why hasn’t this been added yet. Just a read only option to avoid accidental edits. There are hundred of up votes here which means that this option would make thousands of people more satisfied. Please add this feature. It’s essential for a product like this 

[Derick 1]

I often want someone else to read my note on the iPad, so i hand it to them and they end up modifying/deleting part of my text inadvertently.

I also have notes that I reference often, but rarely edit.

In both of these cases I NEED a read-only option for these notes.

[Shantanu27 0]

Would love this feature and it's absolutely necessary to make app more user friendly for reading notes.

[Billdhampton@gmail.com 2]

My use of Evernote is divided between Notebooks where I actively add, remove, and edit information and another set of notebooks that serve as my library.  The library notes and notebooks are predominantly pdf files of books and articles that I use in my teaching / research.

I would very much like to be able to "lock" or prevent a note from being edited without an extra step.  Sometimes (especially when using Evernote on a tablet or my phone), I have accidentally deleted information about the pdf or even the pdf itself.  "Locking" the note would require you to "unlock" it in order to type within it or change it.  Notebooks could be set to default to "locked" or "unlocked" notes.  

This would allow me to share entire notebooks with my students without always having the extra step of making it "read only" for them.  Being able to set this option to a predetermined default would also be appreciated.

Thank you for your consideration!  I appreciate all that this company is and continues to become.

[DTLow 5,745]

5 hours ago, Billdhampton@gmail.com said:

I would very much like to be able to "lock" or prevent a note from being edited without an extra step. 

I merged your post with an existing discussion for this feature    
To indicate your support, use the vote button at the top left corner of the discussion

>>This would allow me to share entire notebooks with my students without always having the extra step of making it "read only" for them.  

Edit permission is actually a function of the share process

[iamnumberboy 1]

+1 YES YES YES. I'm a paying customer (2 years now), and have 100s if not 1000s of notes now. Being able to lock them down is super key since I'm using evernote as my lab book. 

[Sal G. 0]

a lock, unlock  would be an appreciated feature.

[Lavarock 0]

+1 This would be super helpful, especially for worry-free use of Templates! 

[franciswongcn 0]

I need this function too. I used Note to record all my stuff, from research ideas to shopping list. Therefore, I need to check with Note from time to time, it is quite easy to delete the text accidentally, so a simple lock button to individual note helps me a lot. I hope this function can be available soon. 

[Wilf Forrow 15]

1 hour ago, ezfine said:

As I saw the date of this request was at 2011, it's 9 years ago. I doubt EN's management team is aware of this very basic requirement.

I see where we're going wrong - 'Read only' means Evernote team just need to read it but not actually do anything with it !  :-)

Seriously, it's time to fix this guys.  I've lost information any number of times where I found out straight away, and was able to undo.  God knows how many times I did it without finding out.

The worst case (for me) has been where I right click a link (to open in new window), which selects it, so the next character I type in the source note replaces the whole link.  Bang, gone, and I probably won't even notice.

[viniciussp4 1]

+1

We totally need a read-only option. I have some notes that contains terminal commands and I use them regularly, but everytime I need to put myself in "alert mode" or I can accidentally erase or change some character, and this would destroy the command (which happened more than one time). Unfortunately, the way things are I can't even consider upgrading my account and probably I will have to change to another product.

[*** Simon *** 0]

+1 request to have the option of making notes Read Only.

Yes, I know that with my Premium account I can go back through the history if I discover a change. The problem is that it is currently possible to accidentally make a change to a note without realising it (especially when you use Evernote on smart devices and fumble them e.g. by putting them in your pocket without locking the screen). If you don't know that a change has occurred, there's no reason to go digging through note history.

Considering write protection has been a feature of note-taking throughout history (e.g. using ink instead of chalk or pencil, the little recording tabs on audio & video cassettes, the write protect slot on floppy disks, and the write-protect flag on almost every file system), this appears to be a "table stakes" feature.

[DTLow 5,745]

On 7/1/2020 at 3:59 PM, *** Simon *** said:

If you don't know that a change has occurred, there's no reason to go digging through note history.

I view  my notes in descending modification date sequence   
Recently edited notes are easily identified at the top of the list

fwiw  We've been told a view/edit switch will be available with the new editors (no date)

[BugnerH 0]

Agree. Just a simple padlock symbol on the top menu bar which when clicked locks/unlocks the note. To unlock a note it could require the users password to prevent accidental clicking.

When will this feature be available as its been requested ages ago.....

Thanks, Andy

[OBrien 12]

According to the preview video, next Evernote version might have edit mode/read mode. This is not exactly what we have been waiting for, although this may improve our concerns some how.

So many comments, no feedbacks for long time. That’s what I don’t get. At least, They can share us their thought and plan on this.

[bp5 0]

+1

[RunStephen 0]

I first emailed support two years ago to ask how to make a note read-only. Surprised it is still not a feature.  Please allow notes to be made read-only by the user!

Also, I do the same as noted by an earlier user, and that's a big reason I want this feature:
> I view  my notes in descending modification date sequence   

[Gear Feng 0]

I need this function!

[cacotigon 24]

I wish you could set this at the "app level", I do all my editing on computers but also have Evernote installed on my iPad for browsing/reading *ONLY*. The number of times that I've accidentally edited the damn note making it sync back is beyond frustrating.

[leelee1972 1]

On 6/12/2018 at 2:50 PM, Mikhail Osher said:

Not sure if it happens really often, but it will make my life such easier. Every time I open my notes with sensitive data I'm scared to erase something by accident.

Exactly!

Evernote normally makes life easier, but in this case they've given me a new thing to worry about.

I need new worries like I need a hole in the head.

Knowing I can recover something that I deleted by accident is useless if I don't even realize I deleted it.

I came extremely close to this happening tonight; hence my presence here now.

This feature should be a basic no-brainer.
 

[Miftah Thoha 0]

+1, need it. sometimes after i select all content of a note, copy and paste it to other app, then I can accidentally lost all the content because i press a tab button

[tvslaven 3]

I have long been missing a simple  way to just lock my notes with a single click to prevent accidental changes.  I am aware of the encryption function on text. Its not that I am wanting here. Its just a way to quick-lock a note from changes.

[PinkElephant 8,846]

If you really change it accidentally, you can always use note history to go back to a prior version of the note.

[UncleRic 20]

I don't know what the Big Deal is.... merely have a Read-Only (default) toggle in the corner somewhere. 
This would be in parallel with the history.
There may be times when adjustments need to be met, so click on the 'Read Only' toggle to 'Edit Mode' and make your adjustments, then toggle back to 'Read Only'.

The history is still valid; but it shouldn't be the only fallback of an accident.
 

[CheilaNg 2]

+ 1

I've been using evernote for at least 6 years and even after so many updates the lack of this feature still bothers me.

[lost_gweedo 73]

Agreed.  Adding my vote.

[Goodbye Evernote 2]

First asked for in 2011 (10 YEARS AGO), why is this feature still not available?

See ya!! I'm off to OneNote.

[UncleRic 20]

After about a decade, might as well move this forum into the trash bin; same outcome. 

[lost_gweedo 73]

On 3/25/2021 at 5:00 AM, Goodbye Evernote said:

First asked for in 2011 (10 YEARS AGO), why is this feature still not available?

See ya!! I'm off to OneNote.

I don’t think you’ll have what you’re looking for.  I think you can lock a whole section (in the classroom version) but don’t think you can protect a page. 

[UncleRic 20]

This is 'me' after a decade....

Most of my work is via desktop vs iPhone.

There's aways a way to 'recover' a problem, like retrieve from trash or history.

But there are times when I'm writing code (I'm an iOS Developer), etc. and I may have deleted a line or whatever; or even remove a legal PDF (***** happens).

There are times that I'm not aware of such an incident till sometime in the future; then it's 'recovery time'.

Having a READ ONLY option prevents '*****' from happening in the first place.

BTW: Evernote forbids me to write '*****' in my response.   I wonder if I can write '*****' in my own, personal documents. 🤔

P.S. I must admit, Evernote is getting better.

 

[eric99 1,083]

A database should always be protected against accidental deletion

Assume you have a note with many attachments. If you (or your family) clicks an attachment and accidentally click the delete button, the attachment is gone without any warning.  Since there are many attachments, you may not notice that it disappeared and you will not look in your history for the previous version!

For that reason I'm big fan of read-only mode.

 

[G Malhotra 0]

I have been a paid premium user since first available. 

I fully support having an option to toggle read only for a particular note

[faifaifai 16]

+1

[TechGuy 16]

wow, so much hostility on this forum. 

btw +1

[jefito 5,598]

Was wondering whether that was coming or not, since I knew you had the ability under the hood, for Hello and Food.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Something I think would be cool is to have notes auto locked if they haven't been modified in X number of days. Maybe even done on the server side rather than client side so as to not affect upload usage.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

I like BNF's idea. Even though I am not terribly concerned about deleting stuff, since I never empty my trash, I do accidentally modify the wrong note on occassion. Early drafts of things get re-worked, and then I realize that I had a newer draft already, and I am wasting my time. Not only that, but I have ruined the early draft by messing around with it (deleting things here and there, moving stuff around, etc.). The scary thing is that I sometimes reproduce the same stuff! But, not always It would just be nice to know that old stuff is locked. Unlocking is no big deal compared to the hassle of recovering stuff.

And, you know I am going to say it: you could give us the option to toggle this auto-lock on/off

[jefito 5,598]

And, you know I am going to say it: you could give us the option to toggle this auto-lock on/off

Heh. Options are for developers who are afraid of making choices...

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

And, you know I am going to say it: you could give us the option to toggle this auto-lock on/off

Heh. Options are for developers who are afraid of making choices...

Balderdash! (yes, I know who you are quoting)

Developers have to make choices one way or another when they design the default UI. That reflects their decisions, and if they did a good job (Evernote usually does), then most users will never have to mess around with any settings.

Giving users the ability to customize their experience is a choice as well, and it is pretty rare that I hear someone complaining about being able to do what they want to do

Taking away the user's ability to customize their experience, or deciding not to offer a feature is a choice as well, and I think a lot of customers complain when they cannot do what they want to do! It is especially painful when a feature Evernote developed to perfection is removed or radically altered, when a toggle would have satisfied everyone

[jefito 5,598]

Hmm, I thought that I was quoting myself... and kidding, too...

Frankly, since note locking is available through the API, it might be a good 3rd-party opportunity.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hmm, I thought that I was quoting myself... and kidding, too...

Frankly, since note locking is available through the API, it might be a good 3rd-party opportunity.

dlu said that somewhere in the forums. I guess great minds think alike! My mind may not be as great, but I know what I want

[May 268]

since I back everything up with Crashplan I can easily restore all my file's (not just Evernote) past versions or even deleted files (from previous days up to previous years). Everything is retained forever and there are no limits.

I actually had a problem recently when an app (Byword) on iPad deleted all of its files from the Dropbox. Took me just a couple of clicks to restore everything without any problem. I guess I could have contacted Dropbox support and ask them to restore those files for me but doing it myself is just much faster.

so the bottom line - automatic backup is awesome.

[micsaund 9]

Hi,

I'd like to propose a feature for all Evernote platforms: Let us toggle a read-only attribute on notes.

Let me explain why: I use Evernote to keep lists of customers, email addresses, etc. and other stuff that rarely needs to be changed. Sometimes, I will highlight those bits of text to copy/paste into another window. However, I occasionally hit a key on the keyboard which replaces all of the highlighted text in the note. If I don't notice this, the changes get synced and I lose the data that used to be there (admittedly my own mistake).

If you could right-click on notes and toggle a read-only checkbox or something similar, that would make Evernote much more robust for storing things that you never want to accidentally change like doctor info, email addresses of friends, or whatever. Also, if you think about how many things you clip/copy/paste into a note that never again need to be edited, it just makes sense to be able to lock the content to prevent edits.

Overall, I think a read-only feature would make Evernote even more useful for storing long-term info.

Thanks!

[pepr 12]

+1 on this, great "security" feature

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi,

I'd like to propose a feature for all Evernote platforms: Let us toggle a read-only attribute on notes.

Let me explain why: I use Evernote to keep lists of customers, email addresses, etc. and other stuff that rarely needs to be changed. Sometimes, I will highlight those bits of text to copy/paste into another window. However, I occasionally hit a key on the keyboard which replaces all of the highlighted text in the note. If I don't notice this, the changes get synced and I lose the data that used to be there (admittedly my own mistake).

If you could right-click on notes and toggle a read-only checkbox or something similar, that would make Evernote much more robust for storing things that you never want to accidentally change like doctor info, email addresses of friends, or whatever. Also, if you think about how many things you clip/copy/paste into a note that never again need to be edited, it just makes sense to be able to lock the content to prevent edits.

Overall, I think a read-only feature would make Evernote even more useful for storing long-term info.

Thanks!

hi. welcome to the forums!

this request occasionally comes up in the forums. so far, evernote doesn't seem like it is likely to implement it.

however, i sure would like to see it. even with trash that doesn't have to be deleted and note histories, it is still a worry, because you might accidentally delete something and not realize it for days or weeks, especially in an account with thousands of notes.

[micsaund 9]

however, i sure would like to see it. even with trash that doesn't have to be deleted and note histories, it is still a worry, because you might accidentally delete something and not realize it for days or weeks, especially in an account with thousands of notes.

This is exactly what happened to me. I had deleted something and didn't notice it for a few weeks. Why not give people the ability to avoid having to use the note histories at all when such a simple thing as a read-only flag would solve it once and for all?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

however, i sure would like to see it. even with trash that doesn't have to be deleted and note histories, it is still a worry, because you might accidentally delete something and not realize it for days or weeks, especially in an account with thousands of notes.

This is exactly what happened to me. I had deleted something and didn't notice it for a few weeks. Why not give people the ability to avoid having to use the note histories at all when such a simple thing as a read-only flag would solve it once and for all?

i could not agree more

[jbenson2 2,149]

It would be a wonderful safeguard if we could make our Evernote "memories" read-only.

[SomeBizzare 0]

+1

[Machine2473 0]

+1

As a database admin, I have a wealth of scripts, checklists and reference info that I stash in Evernote. More than once I've accidentally altered a note and not noticed for weeks, forcing research and correction.

[cnewtonne 0]

Please please do it. I have very same reasons listed above and making note(s) read-only is a must.

[jkenton 2]

I have tested this manual procedure a few times, and it seems to work. The notes (after importation) are not editable at the least...

1. Export the note(s) to a place where you can easily find them (computer desktop).

2. Open the notes in a text editor

3. Search for the section (near the end) that includes <note-attributes>

4. Copy a <content-class>xxxxx.xxxxx</content-class> somewhere before </note-attributes>. The API suggests that you use something company specific. I use my name.

5. Re-import the note to Evernote

Is there an easier way?

[BenB 1]

Dear EverNote team,

Please add the "read-only" feature. In fact, I recall that the earlier versions of EN (before it became cloud-enabled) had a button where you can toggle a note to read-only. I'm puzzled why it quietly went away.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

I never thought of modifying the ENMl. What a great idea. Maybe as Food or Hello, it could be preserved (those notes are un-editable). Ideally, we would get the functionality, but in the meantime, this might be useful.

[cnewtonne 0]

+10000

I truly believe this feature is highly needed to prevent accidental deletion or modification of notes. As a workaround, I wrote a MacroExpress code to disable the delete button when EN window is active. My only concern now is to accidently modify a note without noticing because I ctrl+c 100's of times a day. I just could not find a way to set the note control to read-only at runtime even though I was able to do so with other apps.

[Machine2473 0]

Bump.

 

And I can only image the howling if Evernote Business lacked the ability to lock notes into a read-only mode.

[Machine2473 0]

There are at least a couple of other threads with this same request, with only crickets in response. 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

There are at least a couple of other threads with this same request, with only crickets in response. 

 

Hi. I don't think of myself as a cricket

 

Requests for features occur all the time around here. Sometimes Evernote staff respond. Sometimes they don't. Most of the time, they cannot comment on the roadmap, so there isn't much to say. However, they read all of the posts.

 

As for the other users (this is a user forum), this feature has been requested in the past (by myself and others), and there isn't much more to say about it, I guess. Here are some ideas for "locking" notes. 

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35413-can-i-lock-my-note/?p=191517

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

There are at least a couple of other threads with this same request, with only crickets in response.

Actually, there are some threads with very recent replies (as in just a few HOURS before *your* post), such as the first two links below. The reason some threads have no reply may be b/c people don't use the search function to see if their request has been addressed before & the regulars on the board get tired of posting the same reply to the same question. The search function is your friend.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35437-suggestion-ability-to-lock-changes/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35413-can-i-lock-my-note/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/22032-lock-a-note-function/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/28111-request-lockunlock-individual-notes-for-windows/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/18706-how-to-lock-notes-against-deleting-or-editing/

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25110-request-lock-evernote-make-notes-read-only/

[SomeBizzare 0]

+1

 

please!

 

any formal EN response on this request?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

+1

 

please!

 

any formal EN response on this request?

Evernote reads but does not reply to every thread. Nor do they publish roadmaps or ETAs.

[JohnRoth 0]

+1

 

I have designed PDF forms for use with evernote and skitch - this would be ideal.

[Kotya 7]

I'd like to propose a feature for all Evernote platforms: Let us toggle a read-only attribute on notes.

 

I have asked for this couple of times before.

 

Is has been awhile since EV added ANYTHING useful to the note-editing/formating itself... I wouldn't hold my breath for the new features.

[Vester 0]

+1 - this is must have feature

[avkdsiva 0]

+1 - badly in need of this feature.

[eric99 1,083]

+1  I'm waiting for this a long time...

[Machine2473 0]

Join the club.  We're having matching blazers made.

 

The feature of marking a note as read only seems like such a small thing but I suppose there are other pressing issues.

[spacorn 4]

Here goes a very emotionally invested +1

[Liam Gretton 86]

I'd really like to see this feature return too. In EN2 you could lock individual notes but like quite a few useful features, that ability just mysteriously disappeared at some point.