mikea144

Hi, In legacy Evernote I commonly select one or more tags (via the tag list or shortcut list on the left panel) and then search for text within those notes to get a list of notes I want to examine. Specifically I click on a shortcut that specifies the tags and then type into the search field. This is very efficient: click the shortcut, click to position the cursor in the search field, and then type my search term. When I naively try this procedure with the new Evernote it doesn't work. If I click on the shortcut I see the matching notes as expected, but when I type in the search field my tag selection is discarded and ALL my notes are searched. If I try reversing the process, i.e. search for the text and then filter via tags, it fails in the same way. The text search searches every note as I expect, but when I specify the tag filters the text search is ignored so I see ALL notes that match the tag filters. I tried using the search field tag: feature to specify the tags in the search field with the search term. That works, but it's not practical because I must type way more and remember all the tags and type them all in. That makes searching so much more work that it's not practical for regular use. I've searched the online documentation but can find nothing about this. Please someone tell me how I can search using both tag and text criteria that doesn't require that I type in all the tags manually but rather lets me select the shortcuts and tags from a list. Thanks, Mike

PinkElephant, I've sent in a lot of support tickets. For the last one I sent 7 emails, tried some things they suggested but didn't help, generated a log, and recorded (using an application I had to install on my PC) the actions that caused the bug. In other situations I've also sent in an Evernote note that I crafted (to avoid exposing personal information) that demonstrated the problem. In this and other cases after a long series of emails and work on my part they've agreed that the malfunction exists, and then said they won't fix it. I think they're making a diligent and competent effort, but nevertheless when I report a problem I have to be prepared to invest a significant chunk of my time and effort and at the same time realize that there's a good chance that the bug won't be fixed. Sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it. Mike

On the Android main screen the number of notes that can be listed is smaller than it could be because there's so much wasted space. On my Pixel 3 even if I turn off all view options (tags, text, images, note size) I nevertheless see only 6 notes listed. This is not enough: I often need to scroll some to find what I want and so I'd like to see as many notes listed as possible. The sad thing is that there are 2 empty lines for every entry, so 6 x 2 = 12 empty lines on the screen, which if removed would allow maybe 2 or 3 more notes to be listed. Why do we need 2 blank lines in the middle of every note entry? Particularly on a small screen device this seems like a terrible visual design choice which is completely unnecessary.

I finally tried the new Android version of Evernote and immediately tested for long standing issues that I had with legacy Evernote. With the legacy version medium size notes would take a long time to open, then take a lot more time to be ready to edit, and sometimes would respond slowly to inputs. I tried one note using the new version and the performance is much better. The note opens quickly, is ready to edit immediately, and responds to editing inputs as expected. That's a worthwhile improvement. I tested again with a large note and this time performance was terrible. The note displayed immediately but then the app was completely unresponsive, soon displayed the app isn't responding message, and I had to cancel. It's hard to compare with the legacy app because there's a lot of variability in the behavior of both, but the new version is at least as bad and maybe worse. I thought that the new apps were going to fix problems with the old architecture. It's disappointing that they haven't corrected this major performance problem.

You're right: my guess is that I could do better! But how much am I going to get paid to find and document these bugs? Or is the plan that I just keep plugging along reporting problems because I want a tool that I heavily rely on and pay good money for to work correctly? I guess that's a good plan from Evernote's perspective: they save on QA because their users do the work for free that they should do before releasing the product. My message is that I wish Evernote would do a better job of QA, not release new versions that remove critical features, and in general treat their customer base with greater respect. New features and architecture are great, as long as you don't break the product for your loyal users who just want to keep using it without a huge investment in bug reporting and personal workflow changes.

Hi, Even though the new EN is missing a must-have feature for me (hiding the right panel) I thought I'd give the new version a try. I installed it, then reinstalled the legacy version, and made a copy of a note to test with (because the new version permanently strips all image indentation information from the note which for me breaks the note). I then did a little testing. I assumed I could edit a note with both versions as long only one EN version was open at once. First (as suggested by or8m8 on this forum) I tried the note option /Note/Note Width/Optimize Readibility to see if that would be an acceptable circumvention of the problem of removal of the image indentation capability. When I tried this option it had no effect: it just didn't work. The indentation of every image in the note was unchanged. I then noticed that I had a mixture of fonts and font sizes in the document that I hadn't noticed in the legacy version. In the new version I selected everything in the note (Ctrl-A) and used the pull-downs at the top to set the font and font size. However that also had no discernible effect on the fonts or font sizes. Later I tried this using the legacy version and it worked fine. During my testing at one point the legacy version showed 2 notes with the identical name and attributes. However later on the duplicate had disappeared. Since it was just a test I didn't notice if some edits disappeared too. Am I missing something? Shouldn't I be able to alternatively edit a note as long as only one version is open? Is there something else I'm doing wrong? Or did I just happen to discover 3 bugs in 15 minutes of testing? Mike

or8m8, Thanks for the suggestion. I just installed the current version, made a copy of one of my notes that includes images (mostly created via Alt-PrtScr to capture a Window), set the Optimize Readibility option for the note, and nothing changed. Afterwards all images in the note are still fully left justified. None are centered, or indented as they were in the Legacy version. For me this option has no effect. Is there something else I need to do to make this work? Thanks, Mike

I wasn't clear. I was not saying that we should make that assumption now: that's clearly not what they're doing. I meant that the better choice for both users and Evernote would have been to implement all features of the legacy version except for those for which there was a specific design benefit for excluding.

I agree with xaa. Treating a request to not remove a feature is not the same as requesting a new feature. We're just asking you to not take away features that we rely on. It should be assumed that features of the legacy product are preserved in the new version. We shouldn't have to request and plead to prevent you from reducing the Evernote capabilities that we need to do our work. You ask us to try the new product to appreciate it's value. I'm sure that you put a lot of effort into it and that there are lots of improvements for us to appreciate. In fact I'd really like to try it. However it's hard to do that when features I rely on are removed, my workflow is severely disrupted, and the new version strips out some formatting information so some of my documents can't be displayed correctly EVEN IN THE LEGACY VERSION.

This is a critical feature for me. I have loads of documents that are carefully formatted for readability and that use indentation of attachments. Note that this omission is worse than others because it strips indentation of attachments from any note viewed. If you view an existing note that has attachments indented in the new Evernote, then view it afterwards in the legacy version, all the indentation of attachments has been stripped out! The only way to get it back is to re-enter it manually in the legacy version or revert to an earlier version of the note. I don't understand how can they fail to appreciate the impact on their customer base when they release a new version that permanently strips out certain formatting information in existing notes without warning. Not to mention that no one with indented attachments is going to try the new version once they discover that this happens.

I've never noticed the Undo button because I use Ctrl-Z. Does it work in the new version?

I thought I'd ask support about this. Here's part of their response: In regards to the APK file, I cannot confirm that it might work and we don't distribute versions of the Evernote app outside of the Google Play Store. We want to be sure customers are getting the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates, and unfortunately, APK files don’t provide that. Do know, downloading from an untrusted source would be a use at your own risk scenario as we do not have any affiliation with 3rd party APK host providers. And yes, we don't even know if those files have viruses or malware. So, my take is that they don't want us to do this, won't take responsibility if anything goes wrong, but they don't say that it won't work. It's still a mystery to me that they provide a link to the legacy PC app but don't want their Android customers to have the same option. Nicoster it appears that you can find a version of the legacy apk and just install it. On another thread gazumped mentioned downloading it at https://evernote.en.uptodown.com/android/download/2259282. Just download the apk from the site and tap on it to install the legacy version. You may have to enable installing apps from unknown sources under Android settings. Depending on your Android version it may take some effort to find it.

I've just gone through this with support. Their position is that once you upgrade to the new app you can't revert to the legacy version. My guess is that means they're not going to provide the legacy apk. Hopefully they won't do something else to keep you from going back. Does anyone know a safe place to find the legacy apk?

Today I got an email from my broker. They have an excellent Android app that works well but they're replacing it. The email says the new app has these great new features but lots of stuff isn't implemented yet. Please give it a try if you're interested, and click on a button of the app to tell us what you like & what you don't. And, DON'T DELETE THE CURRENT APP and keep using it as needed. I installed the new app, tried it, and told them what I like and what I don't. The app isn't ready for prime time, doesn't do a lot of stuff, yet I'm happy. My life isn't disrupted, and I get to influence decisions regarding the new app to make it better. My view of the company is enhanced, not diminished. To me that's a win for them. Not a bad approach. I wish Evernote had thought of this. They could have used a win too.

For what it's worth I previously reported this to Support. They said "We haven’t built this feature into the new Evernote app. This is one of a handful of features we are still considering. Thanks for letting us know this feature is important to you. I will share this information with our product team." So, there's hope.

This is a must have feature for me. I typically access multiple notes at once, often on a small screen, which means that I must use the screen area as effectively as possible. To accomplish that I hide the note panel and disable Snippet, Card, and Thumbnail Views. When I want to view a new note I reveal the main window (which may be hidden or minimized), double click the note of interest to view it in its own window, and minimize the main window again. This way I take up screen space for the note list only when needed instead of all the time. I've done this ever since I started using Evernote, and it's the most effective way for me to work given my constraints. Please bring this capability back.

I embed PDFs in notes all the time and it's not acceptable to not be able to view them as an attachment. For me this is a must fix problem.

I agree that this is an important feature that needs to be supported.

Does anyone know if the old version will continue to be viable? If there are no bug fixes, no upgrades, and no effort to ensure that it continues to work with OS updates then sooner or later using it will become untenable.

Hi, I just tried the new EN but can't find how to hide the note panel. This used to be available as a check box at /View/Note Panel, but now I can't find it anywhere. I can drag the divider between the panes down in the Top List format but on my laptop it still takes up almost half the viewing area. Same problem exists with the Side List format. This new version is useless to me until I can fix this because on my laptop viewing both panes together makes them too small to use. Thanks, Mike

I tried all sorts of things on several Windows machines. It was very frustrating. The only way I could fix this and make it stick was with an SSD. And an SSD installed in on old machine really does speed it up tremendously. I don't know why Evernote doesn't fix their apps (on Windows, and it's much worse on Android) to correct this. This is a solvable design problem. If they'd stop adding unneeded features and actually focus on fixing major flaws they would have a professional and credible product that didn't require their users go crazy trying to make it work right. It's not hard to install an SSD as long as your laptop is designed to easily replace the disk. I did it on a laptop that required me to totally disassemble it but it was still worth it. You can do it in a couple of hours, it's not hard, and there are plenty of guides on the web to show you how to do it. Your can use Macrium Reflect Free to clone your current HDD so absolutely nothing changes except for the speed. My suggestion is that you give it a try.

Hi, I HATE the feature where a thumbnail of an image from the document is displayed in the snipit. I often have long titles that I want to see and when a thumbnail is displayed I loose so much of the title text that I often have to open a note just to see what the title is. It's particularly aggravating when the thumbnail is just the generic PDF icon. I can use other list views but none of them are as good as the snipit view. I'd like to see an option or other way to disable thumbnails in snipits. Mike