(Archived) Feature Request: Notebook folders

[Romeodawg 0]

I personally am not a big fan of tags, because it's yet another step I have to take when I clip something, and I have to further stop and think about every possible tag I might need for an item. I don't like searching for tags knowing that if there is some item I forgot to tag or mis-tagged, it's not going to show up. It means I'm never quite sure if I've collected all my data.

Thus folders are a better metaphor for me - I know exactly where an item is because it is stored with groups of related items.

It seems like adding folders for notebooks would be such an easy thing to do -- much like iTunes and iPhoto added folders for playlists and albums. My current Notebook list is just getting too long, so while Evernote is such a fantastic solution for me, if this list becomes too long and unmanageable, it's just going to add more chaos rather than clarity. So I think folders are an overdue and crucial feature.

Honestly, a notebook IS just a folder -- I'm not even sure why they're called notebooks. It's a collected group of items.

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the feedback.

[aeromakki 0]

I want folders, too.

And I have the same disorder that Mr. Steven Spielberg, so i feel difficulties distinguishing information SPEEDY by lack of Colors & Figures for Discrimination ( ○ × □ ■ △ ▲▽ ▼ <=　these are all Nippongo) .

But i think people that don't have our disorder feel the same irritation and frustratin.

If the Feature i told above were one of the Premium, i would be one of premium member, and a pretty people would have same opinions as me.

I hope Evernote creators team would take the idea into consideration.

GoKentou wo Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu m(__)m

[jbenson2 2,147]

Folders instead of Tags?

Whoa! Let's not change horses in the middle of the stream.

With a successful product, and over 3 million users, a tweak here and there for improvement is fine.

But reinventing the wheel could be a nasty problem for many of the loyal Evernote users who rely on Tags.

[eweiss 0]

I don't care if you keep tags or not, but I like to organize my notes using folders and nested folders. Without folders, I'm consdering going back to Google Docs..and I'm a premium subscriber .

[jefito 5,589]

This has been discussed a fair bit to date, a search will find the copious commentary.

I personally am not a big fan of tags, because it's yet another step I have to take when I clip something

But you'll need to do that with setting a folder, too, and imagine how easy that will be if you have a fair-sized hierarchy.

and I have to further stop and think about every possible tag I might need for an item.

A similar process you need to go through with a folder hierarchy.

I don't like searching for tags knowing that if there is some item I forgot to tag or mis-tagged, it's not going to show up. It means I'm never quite sure if I've collected all my data.

One method that seems to work with me is to have a temporary tag (I use '_Todo') that I tag most things with, along with other tags that seem to apply. Then, at some semi-regular interval, I process the '_Todo' items, and re-tag if necessary. BTW, untagged items are very easy to find (so should be no big deal), though mis-tagged items may not be.

Thus folders are a better metaphor for me - I know exactly where an item is because it is stored with groups of related items.

Some of the commentary else-forum talks about this. My favorite example of where folders tend to break down is to ask the question 'what folder do you put the red ball into'? Is it the Red folder or the Round folder? Since folders are an either-or storage structure, you need to choose one. With tags, you can choose both. Folder just don't handle this case for me particularly well, nor do they scale all that well, in my opinion. I understand that it depends on what information you're trying to organize -- some types do fit more naturally into hierarchies than others.

It seems like adding folders for notebooks would be such an easy thing to do -- much like iTunes and iPhoto added folders for playlists and albums.

Hmmmm, everything seems easy until you have to implement it across all clients that you support. Dave E has posted on this topic, I think. Easy to describe is not always easy to do. It's hard for us folks outside to tell what may or may not be easy for the Evernote insiders.

My current Notebook list is just getting too long, so while Evernote is such a fantastic solution for me, if this list becomes too long and unmanageable, it's just going to add more chaos rather than clarity. So I think folders are an overdue and crucial feature.

I think that some folks have learned how to use tags and notebooks better in Evernote over time. Too many notebooks are hard to keep organized, because they're exposed in a flat system. I think that some folks have also moved away from elaborate tagging schemes. Keep things simple, and you can find things more easily.

Honestly, a notebook IS just a folder -- I'm not even sure why they're called notebooks. It's a collected group of items.

Well, sorta. Maybe. A search result is also a collection of items, but it would be a stretch to call it a folder. In Evernote, notebooks are the unit of storage where sharing occurs, and to some extent synchronization (think online vs offline notebooks). And they don't nest, whereas the term 'folder' commonly implies hierarchies in most computer systems, and hierarchies are something that Evernote has not really chosen to expose. Perhaps they are reserving the term 'folder' for later use, in the traditional way.

But do some searching and reading here in the forums; some bright people have argued both for and against. However, for now and the forseeable futre (speaking as an outsider), it's notebooks and tags for Evernote organization, and that's all.

~Jeff