Get note title from first note characters. Why is there a 80 characters limit?

[SvenSND 30]

Hi everyone! 

I use to get my note title from the first characters of the note body. I noticed there is a limit so that only the first 80 characters are kept for the title.

In this topic, they tell there is a 200 characters note title limit

Is there a reason for the 80 characters limitation? I have to manually copy to the title. It's a little annoying; so if there's another way to do it I'm looking for your help

Have a great day. Best regards!!!

 

 

 

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  I thought the thread you mention said the limit was 250 characters?  The number visible will vary depending on which Evernote client you're using - web,  desktop or mobile - and what definition / how big a screen you have.  I just tried in Windows 10 Desktop and got about 140 chars visible,  250 in total;  so if something's limiting you to 80 characters,  it doesn't look like it's Evernote.  Can you give us more detail about what you're trying to do and whether you're using Desktop or Web?

[SvenSND 30]

Hi Gazumped, thank you very much for your answer.

I've tried it to be sure. If I write 200 characters in the note's body, when syncing the note, only the first 80 appear in the title. I don't think the problem comes from my screen: when I select the title, hit Ctrl + A to select all the characters in it, I only have 80 (I checked with https://www.charactercountonline.com/)

I'm using Windows Evernote Client on Windows 10 Pro. If I manually copy the 200 characters from the body to the title, I have no error and the title is 200 character long. The problem only appears when the title is automatically taken from the note's body (which I'd like to do)

[gazumped 11,652]

44 minutes ago, SvenSND said:

The problem only appears when the title is automatically taken from the note's body

A great light dawns...  😃  (And OK sorry I should have read your initial post better!)

But:  I agree - paste a bunch of text into a new untitled note and only the first 80 characters get auto-sampled into the title.  Vaguely odd - but that flags another question:  why do you need that many words?  I'd imagine Evernote assumed that the first line of a note would be some sort of heading - typically not as long as 250 words - and therefore only copied that length. 

Unless there are a lot of people out there looking for longer autotitles,  you're in a pretty small group here,  and not one I can see Evernote rushing to help...

Apps do exist to automatically process text,  so it is possible that you might be able to create some sort of script to copy the first 250 characters  of your text and paste them into the title field of a note - I'm thinking of AutoHotkey and Phrase Express here.  I did a quick search for "automate PC tasks windows 10" and got several other candidates which might help you,  but you'd have to invest the time to work out how. 

The other option would be to use shorter titles - maybe after typing several hundred lines of text you could just add "2019 Q1 meeting summary" or some such.  If the first 250 characters are in the text,  they'll still be searchable.  There is no extra benefit (AFAICS) to having them in the title too...

 

 

 

[PinkElephant 8,073]

Maybe it is a leftover from the old days, where field length was counted in bits and bytes, because they had to fit on a cardboard card going through a card reader - this was the main input medium for all types of data into the big thermal plants that went for a computer then. And imagine: The cards had a length of 80 characters ...

But this is way, way back - probably it is more related to the user interface: What benefit is gained from a title that will not be fully displayed on any device ? For searchability it does not count - the text is searched as well (although the „intitle“ parameter allows to limit searches to title-only).

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,938]

20 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Maybe it is a leftover from the old days, where field length was counted in bits and bytes, because they had to fit on a cardboard card going through a card reader - this was the main input medium for all types of data into the big thermal plants that went for a computer then. And imagine: The cards had a length of 80 characters ...

Yes, the figure of 80 characters is a suspicious coincidence. Yet it's hard to believe that there's anybody working for Evernote who has ever actually typed data onto a punch card (as I have -- note gray beard).

[gazumped 11,652]

My first introduction to computing - "type your name onto this card...  ".  That was a while ago....

[PinkElephant 8,073]

We had to punch examen ID, our names and student number onto cards to register for Examens at the university. Then we pushed them through a slot in the informatics building. Days later lists were posted, on this continues rapid needle printer paper, and you went searching for your name - because sometimes cards got bend or lost.

Glorious and blessed were these days ... when you could HEAR the godlike machines work in the buildings cellar.

[SvenSND 30]

Hye everyone, thank you so much for all your answers. Seems the problem doesn't only occur on my computer.

I'll simply do copy/paste for every note, it's no big deal. I'd like to avoid this title length limitation because I'm being maniac, and I want the first line of each note to be like the title (because for some note, there's only one line in the body of the note, whereas for others it's more complex)

All seems to be solved. Thanks again for your help!! Have a great day