(Archived) Tags WITHIN a Note?

[wjbuuid 1]

I may be missing something, but I have found that tags with Evernote only allows you to tag a note. I was wondering if there is a way to tag an individual line/group of lines/etc. WITHIN a given note. OneNote has the ability to flag items. I also believe that Curio provided this functionality in the trial software I was testing (before picking Evernote).

If there is no way to tag something within a note, how does one go about making a feature request to Evernote. Is there a formal process or is it a "squeaky wheel" approach?

-wjbuuid

[smurari 0]

Totally agree with wjbuuid. I am trying to move over from onenote. The ability to add multiple previously defined tags/flags to any line of text is something that would vastly improve productivity. Magic made up markers are subject to typo's unlike tags which autofill/spell check.

[jefito 5,589]

I would think "flags" and "tags" would need to be treated separately.

That's my suspicion, too.

In OneNote, I could search for the "flag" "to-do" and a sidebar would display with just the following:

So it doesn't change the display of the note, just puts the relevant items into a sidebar. Got it.

This is different then displaying the notes that have a "to-do" in them. The OneNote method is a little more handy because you receive custom "views" that just show the "flags" without all of the "blah blah".

Yup. Right now, all we have is the ability to match notes via Search (using text, tag, dates, content, etc), plus the ability to highlight and scan through text matches in individual notes.

So, I agree that navigation would be an important part of this. I am not sure what "interior note links" is referring too. Based on the context clues in your reply , there may be some overlap.

What I called 'interior note links' for lack of a better term was just an elaboration on the existing note links. Note links are links to individual notes that you can embed in other notes, giving you the ability to thread different notes together. An interior note link would be a link that you can create that brings you to a single spot in a single document, so that you could, for example, make a table of contents in a note that allows you to jump directly to individual sections inside the note (or maybe into another note).

[wjbuuid 1]

by jefito on Tue Oct 11, 2011 10:23 pm

I would think "flags" and "tags" would need to be treated separately. My experience prior to Evernote was OneNote. In OneNote when you would search for "flags" it would have a sidebar which listed the occurrences of the specific "flag". Using "to-do" as an example. If I had the following notes (assume [ ] is a "to-do" "flag"):

MyNote1

Some stuff...blah blah

[ ] get some sleep

[ ] get some coffee

Some more stuff ...blah blah

MyNote 2

Some stuff ... blah blah

[ ] Add flags to Evernote

[ ] Add table insert function to evernote on mac ;-)

Some more stuff ...blah blah

In OneNote, I could search for the "flag" "to-do" and a sidebar would display with just the following:

[ ] get some sleep

[ ] get some coffee

[ ] Add flags to Evernote

[ ] Add table insert function to evernote on mac ;-)

This is different then displaying the notes that have a "to-do" in them. The OneNote method is a little more handy because you receive custom "views" that just show the "flags" without all of the "blah blah".

So, I agree that navigation would be an important part of this. I am not sure what "interior note links" is referring too. Based on the context clues in your reply , there may be some overlap.

[jefito 5,589]

Actualy, I think that several different things are being requested, and it's getting a little difficult sorting them out. One thing that's been mentioned is the new facility, whatever you want to call it, and maybe "flags" is the best thing for now, is somehow akin to Todos in Evernote. But I don't think that that's quite right, since you can search for notes containing Todos, but you can't display only the Todos in a note, nor can you navigate to individual Todos in a note. That's not to say that navigating between Todos wouldn't be useful, and if that were added, then navigating between flag-marked sections wouldn't be so far removed, I guess.

BTW, I get a pretty strong sense that navigation would be an important part of this, from what people are writing but also maybe from my own bias towards what I'd find useful. I could definitely see wanting tobe able to make a table of contents for a note, with links that allow me to jump from there to a specific section. The selective display of a note based on some flag-based marking ("only the actual notes... come up") isn't something I'd use, so maybe I feel it less strongly.

Another thing is that interior note links have been requested previously, and maybe that's influencing my thought process on this as well.

Another question: if flag-style "tags" as described were implemented, would they live among the current note-based tags, or in a separate container? Search in Evernote (including tags) currently operates on the granularity of notes, since search results come up in the note list; when you pick a specific note you can use the internal note search (a separate facility) to find all instances of a particular piece of text, and navigate around them. Of course, the global search facility does highlight instances of matching text inside any note, so maybe it's not so far-fetched that the proposed flag-search would display only matching flagged text in the current note; it seems a little weird to me, but highlighting in this case wouldn't.

Hmmm, gonna ponder this some more...

[dominatus 0]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe what is being requested is bookmarks or links within a note. I think it's tags.

The user just the ability to tag sections of a note, vs entire notes. For example, if I clip an article from CNN into evernote I could highlight and tag any quote as "quote". Now if I search for the quote tag only the actual quotes from the article come up.

If that's what's being requested, it IS how evernote uses the word "tag", it's just at a deeper level.

[mrgoerend 89]

You could use hashtags inside a note.

#tag

[dlu 628]

Thanks for posting everyone

[jefito 5,589]

Granted, how Evernote uses "tags" and how OneNote uses them is very different. But the name is the same, which could lead to the confusion. I like that Evernote allows labels to be applied to notes. That is handy. What I would like is the ability to insert a "tag" on a specific line in a note. So, call it what you want but it is "what I am looking for".

It's pretty well understood what you and other folks here are looking for (I think I've described it several times now), but continuing to call that facility "tags" just confuses the issue to Evernote users here who aren't as familiar with other products as you are -- I for one have never used OneNote. So sure, the term "tag" (not "label") is overloaded between different products (OneNote, HTML, whatever -- it's not that unusual), but it means one specific thing in Evernote, and what that is isn't a named link to a specific location in a specific note. Just so we're clear, though, I think that it would be a pretty cool capability; though it's not a need-to-have for me, I understand why people would want it.

[gregorit 0]

I'm also looking for this capability. Here's a common scenario:

I'm in an all-day workshop, I'm taking notes. In OneNote I could flag individual lines of text within a page. Flags represented things like "Ideas", "Action Items", "Decisions", "Informational", etc. In Evernote I am not able to do that, i.e., I have to instead preface my actual note with some sort of text. And pray I don't mistype that or use it inappropriately. In OneNote I can also show that flag as an icon like a "green square" or "light bulb" icon and associate it with a hotkey to make the icon show up easily.

The To-Do check box in EverNote is a subset of what I'm looking for - would it not be simple to have other symbols available? Sadly, this is the ONE feature that has me still using OneNote for meeting notes!

[wjbuuid 1]

Totally agree with wjbuuid. I am trying to move over from onenote. The ability to add multiple previously defined tags/flags to any line of text is something that would vastly improve productivity. Magic made up markers are subject to typo's unlike tags which autofill/spell check.

I think that tags are not what you''re looking for. Tags are labels that you can apply to notes, and you can apply a tag to more than one note. That model doesn't fit what you seem to be looking for. Maybe named bookmarks is something more applicable; a link to somewhere inside a single note, with a name that can go into a namespace that's searchable/browseable/etc.

Granted, how Evernote uses "tags" and how OneNote uses them is very different. But the name is the same, which could lead to the confusion. I like that Evernote allows labels to be applied to notes. That is handy. What I would like is the ability to insert a "tag" on a specific line in a note. So, call it what you want but it is "what I am looking for".

-wjb

[jefito 5,589]

Totally agree with wjbuuid. I am trying to move over from onenote. The ability to add multiple previously defined tags/flags to any line of text is something that would vastly improve productivity. Magic made up markers are subject to typo's unlike tags which autofill/spell check.

I think that tags are not what you''re looking for. Tags are labels that you can apply to notes, and you can apply a tag to more than one note. That model doesn't fit what you seem to be looking for. Maybe named bookmarks is something more applicable; a link to somewhere inside a single note, with a name that can go into a namespace that's searchable/browseable/etc.

[jefito 5,589]

Is a tag to a particular location in one note the same as a tag with the same name, but referring to a location in another note?

[wjbuuid 1]

There's no way to do this. Tags apply to a whole note, as stated before (and I don't envision them doing anything else, for the foreseeable future). About the best that you can do is put your own special text markers inside a note, and search for them.

Jefito, I know there is no way to do this. I did read AND comprehend your original reply to my message. I was bringing it up again to clarify "tags" vs. "flags" and point out that there is already a "flag-based" example (the To-do list). My hope is that someone at EN picks this up and it finds its way on some execute commit list for an upcoming release.

[kevin2i 0]

I may be missing something, but I have found that tags with Evernote only allows you to tag a note. I was wondering if there is a way to tag an individual line/group of lines/etc. WITHIN a given note. OneNote has the ability to flag items. I also believe that Curio provided this functionality in the trial software I was testing (before picking Evernote).

If there is no way to tag something within a note, how does one go about making a feature request to Evernote. Is there a formal process or is it a "squeaky wheel" approach?

-wjbuuid

You can easily make up your own marker to find sections within text. For example, if you want to mark a section with a keyword, just prefix it with a number, such as 8dog (8-dog works too). Write this above the area you want to mark.

To find the section, do a text search for the keyword, in this case '8dog'. This will ignore "dog" and only bring up notes with your mark, and highlight the keywords. You can play with your notation - any number will work, but characters such as #, %, (),†, @ are ignored. #dog just finds all 'dog'. A few special characters will work, such as œ, π. and ƒ (Option-q, Opt-p and Option-f on a mac). π-dog might look better than 8dog.

If you want to get fancy (and have time) you can hide or reduce visibility of your tag by changing it to light gray (or white).

The text search as awesome - I never use a tag search when looking for something specific, only when searching for a group of notes.

[jefito 5,589]

There's no way to do this. Tags apply to a whole note, as stated before (and I don't envision them doing anything else, for the foreseeable future). About the best that you can do is put your own special text markers inside a note, and search for them.

[wjbuuid 1]

I am a consultant and I track numerous projects. It would help my workflow tremendously to have searchable flags within notes. Right now I have to overload the To-do flag or come up with some quirky character string to search on.

Or...just use tags.

Right now tags are associated with an ENTIRE note. I want to flag individual items/lines/sections WITHIN a note for later searching/sorting. In any given note taking session, I may need to have multiple flags within the note. When I search for a specific flag or set of flags, I want only the lines that have been flagged with the searched flag. I don't want to tag a note as a whole. In most cases that is useless to me (while I know others benefit from the feature, which is fine).

Thanks,

Bill

[smaviglia 12]

Or...just use tags.

The poster is requesting the functionality of tags, but at a more granular level than the note. A reasonable request, akin to semantic tags. Potentially very powerful. For example, if you have notes about states (or countries), you can keep facts such as population, currency, language, religion, etc. as free text. If these facts are individually tagged (or "flagged") as such, then you could theoretically ask a question such as "what is the most populous state", or generate a report of all countries' currencies. Some wikis can do this, such as Semantic MediaWiki.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I am a consultant and I track numerous projects. It would help my workflow tremendously to have searchable flags within notes. Right now I have to overload the To-do flag or come up with some quirky character string to search on.

Or...just use tags.

[wjbuuid 1]

Bump.

I rethought the terms here. Maybe "Tags" isn't the right term. Maybe "flags" would be better. Basically, I would like to have the ability to flag items/lines in an EN note. This could work in a similar manner as the To-Do check box/attribute. I can use attribute searching to find To-do items (finished/un-finished) and it would be ideal to have more attributes (aka "flags") that I could simply insert into a not and then search for later.

I am a consultant and I track numerous projects. It would help my workflow tremendously to have searchable flags within notes. Right now I have to overload the To-do flag or come up with some quirky character string to search on.

[jefito 5,589]

Nope. No way to do this.

Just posting here is sufficient to raise it as a feature request; the Evernote folks read all posts.

~Jeff