Wanderling Reborn

For how long ? Are they making a commitment to maintaining the legacy version (and this means fixing any incompatibilities with future OS releases) until there’s parity with the current version ? Is there a sunset date ? Our notes (my wife’s, mainly) are very simple and mainly used on iOS, so the redesign isn’t a big deal for us. But it does suck, to be honest.

So, I went through the list of alternatives. The list is good, the ratings all seem extremely subjective. Basically, the ratings are based on author's personal preferences. There's simply no way Joplin should be rated above Onenote. It has no OCR, no handwriting, it must be put inside an encrypted container if you want to protect your data on desktop, and its iOS version is very severely crippled. There's much more, I won't get into everything. This is not to say that it won't work for some people, but I would never rate it that high.

Then it wouldn’t be an alternative, would it ? My wife still uses EN because she’s so accustomed to it. I use ON because it’s unmatched for work notes if your company is on Exchange, and it only makes sense to use the same workflow for personal notes. In the end, any decent system will work, but it requires adjustment.

Just downloaded the latest Joplin for iOS. 1. Yes, the higligthing of searched word is fixed. 2. No, it’s still only exporting plaintext, dropping any attachments or pictures. So, the iOS version is still severely limited. Sharing HTML with other people is not going to work for e.g. meeting notes. But I assume the desktop version supports PDF export ?

Joplin’s data is not encrypted on the desktop. Only on mobile. (It can be encrypted if you put it in e.g. a Veracrypt container). When I tested it there wasn’t a way to search inside a note. Search would bring you a list of notes but then you had to find that text in each of them by scrolling. This may have been fixed since. On iOS, Joplin did not add itself to the Share functionality. You could not send e.g. a screenshot to Joplin - you had to save it first, open Joplin, then browse and add as an attachment, very time consuming and inefficient. Also, on iOS, it can only export plain text markdown files. All images are lost. If I want to send a note to someone, and it contains images, I can’t (perhaps from the desktop version but I use iPhone and iPad 90% of time). Overall, unless you mainly use plaintext notes and don’t mind Markdown, it’s not a good Evernote replacement - too limited. This is of course just one opinion.

The reason I don’t store it in EN or ON is that there’s just fewer extra steps required when working with this data. Also, I can still have it indexed and searched using DocFetcher, with index residing inside the same encrypted container, so it’s only accessible when this container is mounted.

I keep my sensitive notes in OneDrive encrypted with Cryptomator. (Can be any location, I just happened to have O365). After Equifax, I don’t trust any single company to keep my data safe. Unless it’s zero knowledge encryption, I assume f’ups will happen. The question isn’t “if” but “when”. Even Cryptomator is not a 100% guarantee. But at least, it’s far less likely that the same nefarious actors will have access to both Evernote servers and Cryptomator exploits.

The tags aren’t an issue as I am using plaintext tags everywhere and she’s been catching on with this method too. Web clipper works fairly well, actually. Are you referring to Notability for Mac? She’s using the iOS version, and it has a decent enough web clipper (you can send a webpage from Safari). It comes in as a searchable background image (or perhaps PDF). It also supports hyperlinks, but not between notes. What it really lacks is the ability to attach files, and web access.

Well, then Wacom’s out i of question, too. Besides, Apple Pencil is great everywhere else. For now, she’s been taking notes in Notability and exporting to EN. This means that she has to edit them in Notability as well, do not the best setup.

I don't believe there's any smart capacitive stylii (with palm rejection at least) for iPad. Bamboo, as far as I know, uses the same technology as Apple pencil.

Glad to see it’s not just me. I don’t typically use Evernote - my wife does - and she didn’t have a pencil, so she never ran into this problem before. I just got her the 1st gen AP, and it just doesn’t work, skipping more strokes than it registers. Works great in every other app. Reading through this forum, it looks like this issue impacts both generations of Apple Pencil ? Does it also happen with 3rd party ones, like Wacom Bamboo ? I can still return the AP and get a different brand for her.

This.

Yes, scanning large number of documents requires quick and accurate auto-crop, auto shutter (app takes photo by itself the moment it recognizes page boundary), and accurate B&W creation (no blown areas or too dark areas). TurboScan gets it all, probably Readdle Scan does too (didn’t try it yet, thanks for the tip @PinkElephant). The latest version of Scanbot (they renamed it and made subscription but people who paid for the old version retained their functionality) looks like it’s also there now - it used to be slower from what I remember. Genius Scan is just almost there. But I’ll take any of them before I use a hardware scanner ever again.

Well, it depends on the field, company, individuals involved etc. An employee trying to install a supposedly unbreakable encrypted volume on a company’s computer (that’s I assume connected to the corporate network) is going to make some more protective / paranoid people interested. Is he stealing IP? Does he keep porn on it ? Is he exposing us to any kind of liability? Even if the issue is easily explained, that’s not the kind of attention I’d want to attract.

I used to have a flatbed scanner with a feeder for multiple sheets, but it was still a hassle and I found myself using my phone all the time, because I could do it anywhere and not be tied to one room. My favorite scan app is TurboScan for iOS, it’s suited very well for quick scanning of multiple pages in B&W. The rest are either not that good for auto cropping, or don’t always get a crisp B&W scan (especially if the original is not B&W or lighting is poor), or take too many extra steps. GeniusScan is also very good, but isn’t as fast and accurate in auto cropping. Another advantage of using a phone is that it’s very easy to combine different sources, e.g. a paper bill with a screenshot of a payment via bank app, or a manual for an appliance with photos of it set to specific settings. All of this can of course be done on a computer, but with more steps and delays.

Installing Veracrypt on a work computer could raise a few eyebrows, depending on the company and the kind of information you are working with. What’s required is encryption at rest built into the program itself. I agree, using a personal phone and not letting any info sync to a computer that you have zero control over is the best approach.

Get Bitwarden password manager, it has a build in functionality where it checks if your password has been included in the lists of compromised passwords sold on the internet. Also a pretty good PM overall.

I had no problems using “dumb” felt tip stilii to take many pages of handwritten notes. While I strongly prefer iPads over Androids, there’s workable software in both environments. I do have an Apple Pencil now, and while it’s certainly a nicer writing device, it’s not a necessity, especially when using a zoomed area for handwriting that many note taking apps have. A short note can easily be taken on any iPhone or iPad. A used 6s is below $200 in the US, and would still be a perfectly serviceable phone even today (I’ve used one until spring). I’d couple it with Notability.

This is not always feasible. Actually one thing I absolutely hate about Onenote (which I use extensively at work) is the inability to share individual notes. There's information that, as a project manager, I can't share with the rest of the team - financial data, some contract issues, some sensitive data belonging to the customers, etc. Not everyone in the project team has the same level of access. To @reniwqwil5 - if you're still checking this thread - I firmly believe, based on years of personal experience, that tasks belong in a program dedicated to task management. Evernote, Onenote, a mindmapping program, even a simple text file are great for brainstorming, but once a concrete task is identified, it needs to go into a service (app, program) that was specifically designed to handle tasks. Not mere checklists. This service should have the ability to assign due dates and reminders to tasks, delegate them to other team members, search and filter by project or tags or due dates, sync to mobile devices so that I could get a reminder anywhere. The key to not letting small tasks fall through the cracks is to (a) write all of them down and (b) set up reminders. I use plaintext tags everywhere (just because they are going to work across the board with different software). They are very easy to add while typing by using automation software like AutoHotKey. I then copy the individual tasks to the task managing system (also can be easily sped up with AHK). I use Outlook on Windows and MS ToDo on my iPad / phone (they use the same data), but only because our company is using Exchange. Any decent task management service (e.g. Trello that @PinkElephantsuggested above) would work as long as it supports reminders, due dates, and task delegation. (Although Outlook is extremely good). From there, I set up due dates and reminders, and delegate tasks to other people. A typical text I would type in a meeting would look something like this: Proposal #tgDue end of the month need an estimate from #tgJeff #tgFollowUp #tgAct Typing these tags is just a three letter combo thanks to automation (e.g. #tgFollowUp is created when I type qqu followed by space, qqa = #tgAct etc). After the meeting is over, I copy all of the note lines that have #tgAct in them into Outlook tasks. This can be done with a single click in Onenote, or automated using AHK if you're using some other program. I assign due dates and reminders as needed, and delegate whatever needs to be delegated (hence #tgJeff and #tgFollowUp). I then erase all #tgAct tags. Every now and then I search for #tgAct across my notes to make sure I didn't miss any. This way, all tasks get captured and I am reminded of them. After that, ***** up is entirely my problem...

You don't see the gain in using common file types like spreadsheets directly without an external wrapper? Like, the ability to directly edit and mark up without having to undergo multiple steps? Real time collaboration on same document ? (Works great with OneDrive). Quickly sharing files? All of this while using multiple devices on multiple platforms (W10, Linux, Mac, iOS)? Saving notes / data in native format? Moving from one service to another without any modification whatsoever? You must not be sharing notes and records with others too much :) By "common" I mean PDF, XLSX, DOCX, JPEG, PNG, TXT. Webpages are confusing to many people when used as documents.

I've said this before. In the times when every cloud provider has indexed search and image OCR, and there's plenty of standalone apps like DocFetcher for those concerned with privacy, using a dedicated, proprietary wrapper for your data (be it Evernote, Onenote, Joplin etc.) does not make sense… at least to me. 90% of my data is in file folders on Onedrive (only using it because I am paying for Office365). 5% of the data I consider sensitive is in an encrypted volume with its own encrypted search index. The remaining 5% are short-term notes - and here's where programs like Evernote or Onenote come in handy. With generous use of plaintext tags, and common file formats (docx, xlsx, pdf) I can get most of functionality of Evernote (some is missing, some is gained) without ever having to worry about losing access, losing service, moving to another service, backups, sharing with others, encryption, compatibility, etc. Evernote / Onenote / whatever are great for capturing data and maintaining "live" notes, but for long term storage, it is exported into an indexed online folder as a common file type.

Joplin is, unfortunately, extremely limited on iOS. Joplin is not registered in the iOS “Share to...” functionality, so any additions of attachments or photos must be initiated from inside Joplin. I.e. can’t take a screenshot of a web page and send it to Joplin. Instead you have to save it, switch to Joplin, and add it from there. You can’t export any of your notes in any format other than plaintext with markdown. All images and attachments are lost and formatting only works if the recipient is using a markdown reader. This is not an issue if you don’t send your notes to other people from your iOS device. There’s a “read” mode and an “edit” mode. In the edit mode, you’re working with Markdown, meaning that all images become text. I often annotate photos and screenshots, which is a bit hard to do if you don’t see them. I am a heavy user of tables for arranging info and attachments. In Joplin, you can only create tables via typing Markdown code, which only becomes a table once you switch from Edit to Read. I want to write a note, not to code it. Markdown tables are a joke, especially when you want to rearrange them. There’s an attachment upload limit of 10mb on mobile. It’s an interesting project, and probably fine for desktop use. But I am very heavily dependent on iOS and Joplin is just too underwhelming there.

So, you have no problem if the service suddenly folds tomorrow, and are not interested in discussing its history and future. That's great, but I don't see how it's "weird" to discuss these things for those of us who do care. I've been through more than one case of a service I've been relying on either dying suddenly (Springpad, anyone ?) or getting bought out and getting changed so drastically it was no longer useful to me. Even if I have a way to transfer all of my data, it's still a major disruption. In case of Evernote, I don't really have that much invested into it anymore, outside of maintaining my wife's notebooks, but I still care about it and would like it to become attractive to me again.

Here's another great read. 2016 https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/4/11584764/evernote-ceo-chris-oneill-interview "Evernote's new CEO on the company's critics: 'I love to be underestimated'" " What people don’t understand about the company is that we’re in a very solid financial position. We’re on the path to sustainability. We don’t have to raise more money. We had a cash-flow positive month in March. " Sounds familiar ?

Is that what you read from the article ? Because what I read was that their CEO Du Jour (#3 in almost as many years) confirmed that (a) Evernote still has not been profitable so far despite drastically raising prices 3 years ago, and (b) their grand plan to succeed by becoming a business service provider did not work out and is being essentially shelved, along with the fancy socks that the article writer was so obsessed with. He thinks they finally may become profitable (i.e. not lose money) this year, but we've heard this before. I am discussing the article and what it actually says. No, they don't have to give away the premium service for free, but it seems pretty clear to me that they are not being successful with their current pricing and that they need to define a different business strategy now. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that I will win the lottery this year, either. But the article clearly states that they were still not profitable as of its writing, but "expect" to not be in red by the end of 2019. I believe I read something very similar in 2015 when O'Neil took over. The number of downloads isn't relevant, pretty much every app with some name recognition gets downloaded by almost everyone, they create a free account, and then never use it. I myself must've created at least 4-5 free accounts over the years because I kept forgetting my login or wanted to start from scratch. What matters is the number of paying users. And it's clearly hasn't been enough to make profit even year after year, let alone a nice return on investment. That's good to know... even though we've been through this more than once before. Let's hope this time it's going to be different. As opposed to all the previous times they "had it under review" in the past few years. Like a ship with torn sails, no compass, and too many captains. I personally believe that they should drop the prices and rehash the paid service plans to make the service attractive enough for the new users to actually pay for it; perhaps get rid of unlimited storage with limited upload, and instead introduce something like 10GB - 100GB - 1TB tiers, more in line with what everyone else is doing; and try to get as many paid users on their lower tier plans as possible to increase the appeal of the service while still having money flowing in, as opposed to concentrating on pushing the expensive top tier that most people don't need and don't want. And add full encryption, because in 2019 it's a necessity.