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emmgee

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Posts posted by emmgee

    Customize note toolbar?

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    First of all, I wanted to put this in the Desktop Answers/Solutions area but the "Create" selection doesn't allow that.

    I've tried the "AI Cleanup" and I don't like it and won't use it.  Is there a way to remove it from the menu bar?  A way to customize the toolbar generally?  I use the Mac desktop version.

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    Credit where credit is due

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    I have used Evernote since 2009.  I was one of many customers (yes, I pay for Evernote) that got discouraged and started looking for alternatives.  When the big changes were announced and took forever to bring to market, I was a doubter.  The dust has settled and now Evernote is a modern app again.  I'm sure there are many other capable apps but for me Evernote does what I need and I'm sticking with it.  I just felt like saying thanks to the Evernote team for persisting and making good changes.

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    Thank you, thank you, thank you

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    I am an Evernote user/customer since 2011.  I have stuck by Evernote through thick and thin although I have strayed now and then when I got discouraged.  I had a serious fling with Notion.  The redesign really helped – I primarily used Evernote on Windows.  A few weeks back I switched to a Mac and ugh, Evernote really sucked.  It looked like the new Evernote but was slow as molasses.  After some googling I found that it had not been optimized for Apple Silicon yet.  I strayed again, not knowing when relief would come.  I couldn't find anything I liked better so I crossed my fingers and hoped that an Apple Silicon version would be released soon.

    I just installed 10.32.4 and glory hallelujah!  It is like greased lightening now.  Thank you to all the Evernote developers who made this happen.  I have a ton of investment in Evernote and truly didn't want to stray again.

    • Like 3

    In case you are thinking of leaving evernote...

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    Reply to my own post above.  Two things:

    I work for a company that creates products that are sold to business customers.  We have stiff competition.  Our company is doing well because our products are pretty good as evidenced by our annual sales, profits, and market share.  I get a salary from the proceeds which helps me meet my personal and family commitments.  If we fail to innovate, that all could change.  So I have a personal motivation to listen to customers and do what I can do to keep our products competitive and our company profitable.  It helps customers, helps the people in my company, and it helps me.

    If our company is backsliding and our current customers are being tempted to "defect", I would hope that they would say something to us like I did above, including "please don't give us a reason to defect".  I like to say "businesses don't do business with businesses, people do business with people".  This is another reason why I feel like I have a personal relationship with Evernote.  It isn't a transnational relationship.  The Evernote people have created a product that has made my life better.  So why wouldn't I try to get their attention?

    Second thing:  Since posting above, I have been experimenting with Notion.  I've watched a lot of YouTube videos and purchased an online training course.  I go between watching those resources and trying things out in my Notion account.  My assessment:  Notion is pretty darn good.  What's likely to happen next:  Notion looks like it could become my "daily driver".

    In case you are thinking of leaving evernote...

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    My plea to Evernote:  Please give me a reason not to look around.  I read the list in the original post and noted one reason not to consider Notion:  "...how do you know Notion will be around tomorrow?"  My first note in Evernote is dated 1/3/2009.  I didn't think too hard about whether Evernote would be around "tomorrow".  I loved the new idea that Evernote brought to the market and wanted to try it.  That question is irrelevant to me at the moment as well.

    Here's what is making me look around.  Evernote on Windows has barely changed in years.  It is getting long in the tooth.  Microsoft Office was the same way until the new CEO came along and kicked some butts.  There has been a ton of innovation in recent years, a lot of which I really like and use on a daily basis.  It isn't perfect but it keeps evolving and I have confidence that it will evolve some more.  I'm not looking around for an alternative to Microsoft Office.

    I am playing around with Notion.  It's kind of hard to learn because they've crammed so much into it.  I don't think I'll need a Kanban board and some of the other things they've thrown in.  But you can sense the electricity surrounding the product.  New things are coming out all the time.  There is some serious innovation going on there.  I think it's worth a look.

    Nothing innovative is going on at Evernote.  Six months after the new CEO arrived and told everyone that brighter days are ahead – nothing.  I suppose there is a lot of refactoring and other under-the-hood stuff.  All well and good.  But I have zero confidence at this point that any true innovation is on the horizon.  I would love to see some signs.  Otherwise, I'm going to keep looking around.  I'm going to try a few things in Notion.  Odds are that once someone is loose in the saddle, they aren't going to renew their premium Evernote subscription.

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    New Evernote CEO - Ian Small

    in Evernote General Discussions

    Posted

    I read Ian's introductory blog this morning.  He said he wanted to hear from customers.  I couldn't find an easy way to pass along my feedback.  Ian, I hope you'll read this.

    I think I'm one of your earliest users.  My first note is dated 1/3/09.  I was using a Mac at that time but switched to Windows, back to Mac, and back to Windows.  For a while I used a Windows touchscreen laptop.  I have Evernote installed on my iPhone and iPad.  I've tried OneNote.  Bleh...

    As I think about the apps that make the use of a computer worthwhile, there are just a few:  a web browser, Microsoft Office, an email client, photo editing software, an autocorrect utility, a screen grab utility – and Evernote.  Rumors of Evernote's demise greatly concerned me.  I am hooked on using Evernote as sort of a Swiss Army knife to use to write down my thoughts, keep notes on various things, capture snippets of information, etc.  I use the Web Clipper all the time.  It is very handy to capture a note on one device and look it up on another device.  It's been hugely important to be able to load Evernote on a new computer and have almost 10 years of notes, thoughts, and information magically appear on it.

    But I've had my share of frustrations too.  Only recently the dictionary function on Windows seemed to get fixed.  Really?  The UI is all over the place.  Honestly, I never seem to remember how to use the iOS apps, both of which are oddly different.  Touch on my Dell laptop didn't work because Evernote stopped supporting touch (maybe you do now; I don't have a touchscreen laptop now).  I have lived through the Evernote Moleskine days and all of that distraction.  In 10 years I've never really felt like Evernote truly knew what its center of gravity was.  I hope that will change.

    Here are some thoughts...

    Make Evernote nice to look at and easier to use:  It's been a while, but I recall that the Mac UI was really nice.  The Windows UI is utilitarian.  Hire some designers and UI experts and spruce it up.  Create some consistency between the iPhone and iPad apps and allow users like me to easily move between them.

    But don't dumb Evernote down:  If I want a dumb note app, I can use Google Keep.  OneNote used to be overly complicated and now they have made it overly dumb.  Easy to use should mean easy to use, not dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator.

    You probably should support Markdown:  It's not my cup of tea, but why not offer it to customers who love it?  I think there are a lot of folks out there would would prefer to write notes in Markdown.

    This is my cup of tea:  I would like the choice of a more sophisticated editor.  I don't want a Word clone, but some more formatting tools would be nice.  One thing I would love is the ability to set my own paragraph spacing.  I would love to have Styles.  A table function that really works would be nice.  How about offering three editor UIs:  Document creation, standard (i.e., the one that is used today), and Markdown.

    Leverage your cloud:  I've always wondered why Evernote didn't go in the direction of Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.  Evernote was the "100 year company" – I would have trusted my photos (30,000 of them) to Evernote.  Now I pay Microsoft.  That might be too far from your center of gravity but it makes more sense to me than Moleskines.  

    Fire your brand consultants:  Recently I read Chris O'Neill's blog article titled "CEO Notebook: Say Hello to a Refreshed Evernote".  It read like a long-form Dilbert comic.  "Engage with what matters!"  "Extend impact!"  "Explore What's Possible!"  Evernote is a software product.  It does stuff.  It will not solve world hunger or achieve peace in the Middle East.  For my photo editing I recently switched from Adobe Lightroom to Capture One because its features are better.  I use Snagit instead of free screen grab utilities because its features are better.  I could go through the list of the software I've selected and I suspect in every case I make a choice because of a combination of features, ease of use, visual attractiveness, and price.  Microsoft office is the only thing I use because my company requires it.  Stick to making the product better.  Fire your brand consultants and hire some UI experts.  

    Software quality has to be rock solid:  The dictionary thing really got to me.  How could a company in business as long as Evernote have such a flaky dictionary?  There are other software issues I've encountered over the years.  This is table stakes.

    In conclusion:  Please don't let Evernote die.  It is a pioneering product that is still very relevant.  It has competitors but I think Evernote is still the best.  You need to keep it there.  You need to keep a clear eye on what you do well and avoid  things that are peripheral.  I think Adobe's strategy is a good one to watch.  They are creating a cloud-centric model with a solid focus on the workflow of creative people and leveraging the power of tablets.  Although I personally prefer a competing product, I think from a strategy point of view they are making some excellent moves.  What Microsoft is to office apps, Adobe will be to creative apps.  Maybe Evernote won't ever be a Microsoft or Adobe, but I think you should aspire to being identified as the King of the Hill in a core area of application usage.

    Good luck!

    • Like 15
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    It's almost 2018 and Evernote's spell checker is still bad

    in Evernote for Windows Requests (Versions 6.25.1 and under)

    Posted

    I got a new laptop a couple of weeks ago and installed Evernote.  All of a sudden the underline problem wasn't there anymore.  Turns out a later release seems to have fixed it.  I'm now on 6.8.7.6387 (306387) Public (CE Build ce-1.36.3494).  I checked my old laptop and it wasn't on this release.  For some reason Evernote didn't alert me even though my settings include auto-checking for updates.

    Anyway...  Thanks for addressing this.   

    It's almost 2018 and Evernote's spell checker is still bad

    in Evernote for Windows Requests (Versions 6.25.1 and under)

    Posted

    I am writing a note in version 6.7.5.5825 on a Windows 10 computer.  I just typed "isn't".  Evernote's spell checker doesn't recognize this word.  It underlines "isn" -- I guess Evernote doesn't know about contractions.  If I add to the dictionary the entry is "isn".  You gotta be kidding.

    My biggest gripe about Evernote for Windows is that when you add a word to the dictionary, the underline doesn't go away.  Next time you write that word there is no underline, so that's good.  Every other spell checker that I know of (including Evernote for Mac) removes the underline after the word is added to the dictionary.

    C'mon Evernote developers.  This should be easy to fix.

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