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rgp

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Everything posted by rgp

  1. Evernote tags == Outlook Categories == GMail Labels. However Outlook's Categories and GMail's Labels are not folder systems. Both Outlook and GMail have separate folder systems, so you can mix'n'match, just like with Evernote (though Evernote's notebooks have the also-well-known properties of being one level deep, albeit organizable in stacks). Tags, Labels and Categories all function like adjectives. Folders are more familiar, it's true, but not necessarily simpler, particularly when you try to scale them to larger systems of disparate items. My old example of classifying a red ball is a case in point; do I put it in the 'Red' folder or the 'Spherical' folder or the 'Toy' folder? It's not something that has a single easy answer, whereas it's pretty simple to describe it using tags. And tags are also quite familiar, if you understand them as simple adjectives or labels. I'd guess that most people learn adjectives before they learn strict hierarchies. I think I have to disagree with you slightly on the folder systems in Outlook and Gmail. If you look at that structure on your screen, they both look and operate exactly as your normal folder system on your hard drive. I can even put folders inside of other folders in both these programs. Specifically it is this appearance and familiarity that makes them so simple to use. And in spite of the differences in their terminology, my Outlook folders and sub-folders sync perfectly with Gmail's labels. Outlook then has additional CATEGORIES that you can use, and these are more similar to Evernote's Tags. Evernote's combination of tags and notebooks work well together, but when many users are involved who all need access to the same notebook, how can more tagging help? We tried it all, and tagging is not the answer. A folder structure may not always be simpler, but SHARED folders (notebooks) are the only thing that work across many desktops and mobile smartphones. Under that scenario, tagging is not simpler at all. Unlimited notebooks is the answer for my company, and probably any other companies who need what we need. I am not bashing Evernote. We love it, and it was working well for us. I just ran out of notebooks.
  2. Freedom of choice is great...but unfortunately that is not exactly what this is. My current frustration is based on the investment and the amount of work we have put in Evernote to date that is all, now, going to be wasted, as it all has to be moved or duplicated into a service that doesn't have this limitation. I freely admit that it was my own lack of research that allowed me to get caught by surprise with the notebook limitations. So I have no one to blame but myself in the end. Frankly, it was easy to assume that Evernote would allow growth...as in fact, they promote that idea a lot......just like most other online storage services. The fact that they don't allow growth in this one basic area was easy to miss, and for that very reason is frustrating.........absolutely not something I expected. And I am not the only one who has missed this,as is evidenced by a number of other threads on this subject. Notebook limitation is not one of their main headlines when they are promoting the product. And, clearly, if I had caught that fact earlier, I would have realized that this was not the service for my company's growth. Again...my bad.
  3. The tagging aspect of Evernote is simply a way of classifying or categorizing a note. That is great for making searches, but it is not the same capability as a "Notebook", which is essentially nothing more than a folder system. In MS Outlook, they allow you to create folders to classify or categorize the emails you want to store. Google's version of this is called "Labels". Both of these are merely the same thing - folders serving as categories. It is specifically the shared "notebook" system in Evernote that is attractive to a lot of users, especially those with many different individuals or teams who need access to the same space. It is a much more familiar and simpler system for most people to use, especially given that you can't share tags the way you can share notebooks. You mentioned..... "if you cannot or will not use tags...." suggesting that the problem is on my end. Wrong assumption. I was using Evernote happily until 2 days ago when I hit the brick wall of notebook limits. My team loved the system we had set up, and it was working perfectly for everyone. Earlier, we had experimented with making the use of tags the primary way of getting things done, and NO ONE in my entire company thought that it was simpler than using the notebooks as the primary structure. And as I have stated, there are a number of threads discussing this issue, and I am not the only one dissatisfied with this limitation. I went to these forums hoping to find that there might be something in the works to end the limitations on notebooks, or even to allow me to upgrade to a different level of service. Instead what I have found is a lot statements promoting the thought that I'm most likely the problem...and that I'm really not using Evernote correctly. Hmmmm......so, you're right, it evidently is not the product for me.
  4. "Comparing Evernote to Dropbox is comparing oranges to apples"......... I wasn't comparing Evernote to Dropbox at all. I am looking for a way to work with my sales team that allows us all to view, add to, and edit, files, no matter who first entered them. Evernote was working fine until I ran into the folder limit. I frankly haven't found any other option that suits us perfectly, but at least in Dropbox, I can share all the folders and I don't have to worry about limits. If I need more storage, I just up the limit. In an earlier post, jbenson2 said "A word of caution – many of the Evernote power users have found fewer notebooks are more useful than many notebooks." Well, the opposite is also true.....there are many Evernote users who heavily depend on folders as their primary structure, since they can share the folders with anyone. With just a little searching, I have found several threads where this is a big issue. It seems that Evernote is pushing the tagging strategy on everyone regardless of what might actually work better. For my company, the shared folder structure absolutely works better than tags. If they won't up the folder limit, I have to do something else.
  5. I agree with lpr completely. This issue would simply go away if there were no folder limits. If it costs more to provide them, just charge a fair price. That's what all online storage services do anyway. I really, really, really, don't get why there is a folder limit when there is all that storage space available. All these workarounds with tagging, etc., do not address how my company needs to work. It's no doubt my own fault.... a lack of research on my part....but I got my whole company involved in using Evernote without realizing we were going to reach a folder limit. Sharing folders is critical to our sales team which is spread out up and down the coast. After researching some other options, we had decided on Evernote BECAUSE we could share folders. We experimented with the tagging for a while at first, but being able to share a folder proved to be the only way that actually works for us. Now...suddenly...we can't create any more shared folders. I admit...My bad. So sadly...goodbye Evernote...hello DropBox.....or whatever the best equivilant is.
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