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(Archived) How does the "Search within PDFs" premium option work?


reck

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I've paid for the premium version of Evernote as I have a lot of pdf documents in image form. I was under the impression that Evernote could OCR these documents and then I could use Evernote to search and locate text within these documents. The OCR side of things seems to work very well and appears to be very accurate.

However I can't work out how to search these PDF document within Evernote. If I search for a peice of text Evernote just returns a list of the documents that contain the text which isn't a lot of help as how am I supposed to find out where that text is within the document? I've tried opening the pdf documents in Adobe Reader after they have been ocr'd as suggested in another thread but Adobe Reader doesn't see the Evernote OCR information so its not possible to search for anything.

So how does this work?

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  • Level 5

I don't think Evernote will go into the details of how their OCR system works, but they have discussed it in general terms. Just keep in mind their key point - they won't mess with your original.

My originals are documents that have already been OCR'd by ScanSnap and can be searched where ever.

Other people who rely on Evernote to do the OCR will still have their original non-searchable version, plus a searchable version that can be searched in Evernote.

Sep 6, 2010 - Dave Engberg said:

  • If you have an OCR solution built into your own scanner software, then I'd probably use that unless it's really slow or inconvenient. That should tend to make the PDFs generally more useful in non-Evernote contexts.
    If you just let Evernote do the OCR, then the original is stored, but it's not searchable if you pull it out later to try to use elsewhere.
http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=18605&p=76608&hilit=OCR+original#p76608

And Oct 15, 2010

  • If your original PDF contains text that you can select/copy/paste, then you can put that into your account and search for it even if you have a Free account.
    If your PDF is a scan with no selectable text in it, then you won't be able to search for that from a Free account.
    If you have a Premium account, we'll do OCR on that scan to produce a "searchable" version, and index that for searching.
http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=19405&p=80346&hilit=OCR+original#p80346

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@jbenson2

Maybe I should have called the thread how do I use the "Search within the PDFs" feature. I just want to know how to use it not understand the technicalties underneath. My pdf files do not contain text that I can select and copy, its just image data which is why I need Evernote to carry out the OCR so I can search for the text later on.

When I create new pdf dcouments in the future they will be in the same format because my scanner does not do ocr.

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@jbenson2

Maybe I should have called the thread how do I use the "Search within the PDFs" feature. I just want to know how to use it not understand the technicalties underneath. My pdf files do not contain text that I can select and copy, its just image data which is why I need Evernote to carry out the OCR so I can search for the text later on.

When I create new pdf dcouments in the future they will be in the same format because my scanner does not do ocr.

As long as you keep your pdf documents in Evernote, they will be searchable.

If you take them out, they will not be searchable because they were not searchable before you sent them to Evernote.

Go to this link and scroll down to see the two versions I uploaded.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=21472&start=0

Evernote only returns originals - in your case, the original was not searchable, so you get back the same document.

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OK lets say I have a 100 page pdf document and I want to know where the word "treehouse" is within this document. How do I find it?

OK, I see your point. Sorry for dragging this out so far.

If you upload a 100 page non-searchable PDF, Evernote will find the document that contains "treehouse", but you would like to know: how do you find the actual location of "treehouse" (page number for instance).

You've stumped me. All of my PDF's are searchable so I can't test this. Is there anyone else out there who can assist?

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If my pdf documents were already searchable, like yours, I could have just stuck with the free version. The free version allows you add pdf documents and search them, assuming they already contain like yours. When the pdf documents do not already contain text, like mine, you have to fork out for the premium version which lists "Search within PDF's" as one of its features.

Did you see the video in the link I posted? it shows how you can search for some text and Evernote will highlight the text you searched for. This is what I paid for.

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Reck,

I think you have convinced me. And from what I can determine, the video is bogus.

http://blog.evernote.com/2009/07/27/pdf-search/

It highlights the searched words, but that appears to be just a marketing video-trick.

I have never seen a page turn totally gray with the key words popping out like they do in the video.

What say you, Evernote?

  • Is the video just a marketing trick?
    And how do you find a specific term in a 100 page PDF?

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Bogus?

But it lists "Search within PDFs" as a premium feature on the official Evernote website.

At the moment i'm no better off with the premium version than I was with the free version. Evernote has ocr's my pdf's but what's the point in this if I can't search and locate for text within the document!

This feature has been in for a while surely someone has worked out how to use it?

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Bogus?

But it lists "Search within PDFs" as a premium feature on the official Evernote website.

Bogus, yes. The video appears to be a fraud, not representing reality.

  • If I am wrong and the darkening of the screen with the key words popping out actually works in the program (and is not just a Hollywood trick), then I will apologize to Evernote.

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OK lets say I have a 100 page pdf document and I want to know where the word "treehouse" is within this document. How do I find it?

Old thread but I believe it's still the status quo:

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=12045&start=0

As Dave says in that thread, the Mac version allows you to search within the PDF b/c it's part of what's included in Mac OS.

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Thank you for that link.

engberg says this in that thread "The current Windows client does not highlight search results within the inline PDF preview. You would need to open the PDF (e.g. double-click) in your preferred PDF viewer to search, highlight, copy, paste, etc."

But how can I search in Adobe Reader if the ocr only works in Evernote?

I really hope this feature is not mac-only as jbenson would in fact be right in saying the video is bogus. No where in that blog, or mentioned in the video, does it say that it's only supported on the mac. The video just says "look, on the free version of Evernote no search results are found, pay for the premium version on suddenly 7 results are found and highlighted". If it only works like that on one platform it should have been clearly mentioned in the video and blog. I've also checked again on the premium page where it advertises what you get when you pay your money. Again I can see no reference to it saying that the searching of pdf documents is only fully functions on the mac client. I think its bad practice to start introducing features that only work on the mac (or PC) and even worse to not advertise those differences when they are marking it as a feature of the paid version.

At the moment the only information I have from Evernote is the forum thread posted by burgersNFries from over a year old. The blog and premium pages make no mention that the pdf search functionality on the PC doesn't really work. So i'm still hoping that I've overlooked something and the ability to search pdf documents, as advertised on the premium page, is available on the PC version.

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But how can I search in Adobe Reader if the ocr only works in Evernote?

EN's OCR allows you to pinpoint which PDFs contain the word(s) you're looking for. That's what you get for paying your money to EN. Any good PDF reader will allow you to search within the PDF itself, once you've identified the PDF to look at.

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I would have no problem letting EN tell me which document the word was in and then using something like Adobe Reader to show me where in the document the word existed. But adobe Reader, or any other reader for that matter, won't be able to search for anything because there is no text in these pdf documents, in effect they have been scanned in as images. If they were already in text form I would have no need for Evernote premium as I could already search for the text in adobe reader.

The best i've been able to do so far is save out the "searchable" version of the pdf, the one that the EN ocr server creates. I can then load this into a reader and search for a word. This is severely limited though and not a satisfactory solution because the "searchable" pdf is just a shadow of the primary pdf as all the formatting, images, tables, charts etc are stripped out and you are left with something that I can hardly recognise.

So far i'm not impressed as it doesn't appear to do what's been advertised.

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Not only is BurgerNfries wrong, but as usual, he is snarky about it.

NO pdf "reader" will search and find anything within a pdf file that has not been OCR'd on a windows system. period.

MAC's are different because pdf support is a part of the MAC operating system but it is not on any windows sytem. Therefore, in order to search a pdf on a windows based system, the pdf must be OCR'd by a program, be it a scanner program or expensive pdf program. A simple pdf reader will not be able to search any file until it has been OCR'd. Evernote OCR's pdf files, but does NOT pass this along outside of the Evernote program. This means that on a windows platform, Evernote can only find the file for you. Why can't it highlight the search text in the file? My understanding is that it is technically possible, but is another "feature" that has yet to be implemented on the windows platform. My opinion is that Evernote MISREPRESENTS the search ability for premium users by implying that something which can be done on a MAC can also be done in windows.

Any Evernote employee can feel free to correct me. I am a premium user, and am hopeful that someday Evernote will be able to implement the kind of search within windows which MAC users now get.

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Reck, I understand your position.

jfkaess is absolutely correct. I just ran two tests on the same printed document that contained the word "green".

1.) I turned on the OCR process on my scanner and scanned the document. I used a "good PDF reader" called Adobe Acrobat Reader.

  • Results: 3 locations were found and highlighted.

2.) I turned off the OCR process. Adobe Acrobat Reader could not find the word.
  • "Reader has finished searching the document. No matches were found."

For a Window user, neither Evernote nor Adobe Reader would be able to tell you the search term in #2 is on page 74 of a 100 page PDF (which is what the video suggests but actually misleads).

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Wait so the "Search within PDF" premium feature I'm paying to use doesn't even work on the PC! What's the point in EN going through all my pdf's and OCR'ing them if I can't then use it to search? Just telling me that somewhere within a large pdf is the information i'm looking for but then won't tell me where it is is all but useless. I'm left where I was before I paid, manually going through and reading the document until I find the bit I want.

Wasn't this premium feature added over a a year ago, maybe even longer? Why has this not been addressed when its one of the tent-pole (phrase stolen from Apple) features of the premium version? What I'm really annoyed about is that there is no mention that this is a mac-only feature. On the premium page it should clearly mark that it's a mac only. Also on the blog when the feature was released why did no one from EN say it doesn't work on the PC?

I'll wait to hear from EN before I explode but it sounds like I've been misled by EN because their official page and blog fails to mention this critical failing on the PC client.

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Reck, I understand your position.

jfkaess is absolutely correct.

For a Window user, neither Evernote nor Adobe Reader would be able to tell you the search term is on page 74 of a 100 page PDF (which is what the video suggests but actually misleads).

Thanks for checking that jbenson. Unfortunately it does seem that jfkaess is correct and BurgerNfries is wrong.

I'm waiting to hear from EN on this.

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reck

I am with you and having my eyes opened now, and as a premium user I am also beginning to wonder what I'm paying for.

It's bad enough that EN Premium Windows users can't locate by search tool, words within an EN OCR'd document as I mistakenly thought was the bonus killer feature, but now I can't rely on EN passing the OCR index back from their server and therefore can't guarantee to locate all my notes with pdf documents containing search terms. It logically follows that we need to do our own local OCR, therefore I don't see great advantage in paying a subscription any longer.

Evernote...am I right or am I missing some obvious shiny feature that is worth paying for?

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My apologies. I looked at her profile and it does not show her gender.

Search is your friend. All you had to do was search for the terms "green fingernail polish". :)

~Jeff

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Not only is BurgerNfries wrong, but as usual, he is snarky about it.

NO pdf "reader" will search and find anything within a pdf file that has not been OCR'd on a windows system. period.

Correct. But, last I knew, we were talking about PDFs in Evernote that had been OCR'd by Evernote...??? So yes, if someone uses EN to find a PDF but then (for some odd reason), chooses to go to a copy of that PDF on their hard drive, that has not been OCR'd by EN...search will not work. If you do this the way Dave suggested here, it's supposed to be searchable.

"For now, you can double-click to open the PDF in your favorite viewer where you can select text and search within the PDF."

Although the thread is over a year old & referring to 3.1, this did work in 3.5. I'd have to say it appears more recent PDFs don't seem to function this way, from what I can tell. I don't know if this is part of the recent server problems or something entirely different.

Also, BTW, scans over 100 pages are not OCR'd:

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=17179&p=69020&hilit=pdf+search#p69020

Search is your friend. All you had to do was search for the terms "green fingernail polish". :)

~Jeff

:)

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If you do this the way Dave suggested here, it's supposed to be searchable.

"For now, you can double-click to open the PDF in your favorite viewer where you can select text and search within the PDF."

:)

This does not work, which is to be expected. How can your "favorite viewer" search for text when the pdf document does not contain any text. Remember, all the ocr information is contained within evernote, as soon as you load the pdf in an external viewer all the text information is lost.

This is what I don't understand. Why are people, including Dave, telling people to search in an external viewer?

Can someone from Endnote please chime in and explain how this premium feature is supposed to work? It seems everyone is confused and no one has an answer. At the moment it just appears that this feature does not work on Windows computers but I can find no official word to say this is the case, only our test results.

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Reck, I ran a second test yesterday as a Premium user, auto sync'd every 15 minutes and waited 10 hours, but the PDF was not searchable. So much for OCR taking minutes for premium users.

And the issue still stands:

  • Is the video an accurate representation for a Windows user, or is it done by Hollywood editing?
    Does the Windows user's screen actually gray out and all the results automatically pop out at the same time?

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If you right-click on the PDF within Evernote on Windows, you'll see an option for "Save Searchable As..." if that PDF has been processed by our server, and your client has synchronized the OCR version of that document. We have found a few issues on the Windows client that prevent this from working correctly. You can confirm that the OCR has completed by logging on to the web and searching for that note there.

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We have found a few issues on the Windows client that prevent this from working correctly.

Been there, done that.

You can confirm that the OCR has completed by logging on to the web and searching for that note there.

For Windows users, there is an icon to the the far right of the note header. It is a small rectangle with a magnifying glass that is supposed to change from lite grey to lite blue once the Evernote OCR process is finished. The color shift is very subtle.

Based on the comments in this forum, I am under the impression that this icon represents the OCR status.

Is that correct?

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I'm not 100% sure about that icon on Windows version 4. I know there was some confusion about a similar indicator on one of our clients that only referred to the status of *images*, not PDFs. I find that the right-click method is the best way to be sure whether the client has the OCR version of that particular PDF.

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I'm not 100% sure about that icon on Windows version 4. I know there was some confusion about a similar indicator on one of our clients that only referred to the status of *images*, not PDFs. I find that the right-click method is the best way to be sure whether the client has the OCR version of that particular PDF.

OK. thank you Dave.

A visual clue or icon showing the OCR status (done / not done) would be very helpful and would eliminate a lot of these questions on the forum.

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If you right-click on the PDF within Evernote on Windows, you'll see an option for "Save Searchable As..." if that PDF has been processed by our server, and your client has synchronized the OCR version of that document. We have found a few issues on the Windows client that prevent this from working correctly. You can confirm that the OCR has completed by logging on to the web and searching for that note there.

NONE of my pdf's in evernote for windows 4.2.0.3616 show a right click option to "save searchable as". I went online to check and under attributes, there is an option for contains, and under that option "pdf". This option does not exist in the windows client. I am unable to tell if my pdf's have been ocr'd online. I don't see that information available. Where would i look to see?

I must confess at this point to being very confused. either my windows client is erroneously telling me that none of my pdf's have been ocr'd, or perhaps my pdf's actually have not been ocr'd. either option is making me a bit upset. I don't normally use the online version of evernote, preferring to use the windows client. Most of my notes are text or html, but I do have some pdf's and it concerns me that either they have not been ocr'd or I am unable to access their ocr data.

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jfkaess - we don't perform OCR on your PDFs if any of the following are true:

* The PDF already contains text that you can search, select, copy, paste

* The PDF is more than 25MB

* The PDF contains more than 100 pages

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Dave,

NONE of those are true concerning ANY of my pdf's. They are not OCR'd prior to being put into Evernote, none are longer than 25 pages and none are larger than 1 mb. I create my pdf's by scanning them using my canon p-150 scanner and having them sent directly into evernote.

You did not answer my questions: Is my windows client falsely telling me they have not been ocr'd (in that right clicking them does not give me the "save searchable as" you said should be there)? How can I use the online version of Evernote to tell if the document has been ocr'd? If in fact it has been ocr'd, why does it not show this in the windows client?

And lastly, which was the first post in this series, why does Evernote not highlight the searched words within the pdf on the windows client like it does in the video demonstration, and the way it apparently does on a MAC? Why is this not plainly stated anywhere?

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If you right-click on the PDF within Evernote on Windows, you'll see an option for "Save Searchable As..." if that PDF has been processed by our server, and your client has synchronized the OCR version of that document. We have found a few issues on the Windows client that prevent this from working correctly. You can confirm that the OCR has completed by logging on to the web and searching for that note there.

It's good to see someone from Evernote in this thread but Dave you've not answered the question and the reason the thread was started. "How do you use the premium Evernote feature - pdf searching"?

Could you please explain how one goes about searching a pdf once it has been ocr'd by Evernote? If you've seen the video that was posted (and I linked to earlier in this thread) at the time this feature was released you'll see what I'm trying to achieve. In that video someone searches for a word within a pdf document and 7 results are returned and highlighted. This is what I've paid for.

This is one of the key selling points in the premium edition of Evernote and the video sells it very well but it seems no one can work out how to get it to work.

Until someone tells me how searching works I've had to resort to using the dreaded "searchable pdf" file which is generated by the Evernote ocr server in order to find something in the pdf document which is not a pretty "solution" and has its own problems.

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If you don't see an option for "save searchable" when you right-click on your PDFs, then they don't have an OCR version on that client. You can try searching on the web to see if they're searchable on the web to narrow down the problem.

The Mac client is able to use the full PDF support in OS X to give a standard and simple way to display a full PDF within our application. Windows has never supported anything related to PDF, so we've had to license PDF processing libraries from a third-party vendor (FoxIt). The current solution shows a "preview" of the PDF by rendering it to a bitmap, but this doesn't yet support selecting text, highlighting searches, etc. This is something we plan to improve in the future, but is unfortunately about 20x harder on Windows than on Mac.

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If you don't see an option for "save searchable" when you right-click on your PDFs, then they don't have an OCR version on that client. You can try searching on the web to see if they're searchable on the web to narrow down the problem.

The Mac client is able to use the full PDF support in OS X to give a standard and simple way to display a full PDF within our application. Windows has never supported anything related to PDF, so we've had to license PDF processing libraries from a third-party vendor (FoxIt). The current solution shows a "preview" of the PDF by rendering it to a bitmap, but this doesn't yet support selecting text, highlighting searches, etc. This is something we plan to improve in the future, but is unfortunately about 20x harder on Windows than on Mac.

Point 1: Yet, apparently there is no way even online to tell if a pdf has been ocr'd by evernote? That is other than running searches, which is hardly an effective way to check each pdf. And apparently none of my pdf's have been ocr'd in the windows client or else the windows client has a problem (4.2.0.3616) and either way, you have no explanation for why that might be.

Point 2: Evernote has intentionally mislead and misrepresented the search function by implying that what is available in the video and in the MAC client is also available for windows users.

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Correct, there is no simple way in the web interface to see the OCR status of a particular PDF in your account. The information is available via a relatively obscure 'debug' page for a note, which you could see if you:

1) right-click on the note thumbnail on the web and Open that image in a new tab

2) change the URL for that image to replace 'thumb' with 'debug'

In the resulting page, the section for the PDF Resource will show a link to the "alternate" form of that PDF if it has been recognized.

I don't think it's correct that we "intentionally" misled anyone about the functionality of the Windows client when we posted a video of the Mac client. Our Windows client has plenty of functionality (e.g. ink, OneNote import, etc.) that isn't available on the Mac as well. This particular feature is definitely one on our list to improve for the future.

However, if you're not completely satisfied with Evernote Premium, we'll gladly give a refund (* if possible) to anyone that requests one via a support inquiry at the bottom of: https://www.evernote.com/about/contact/support/

(* = some payment methods like iTunes don't give us any mechanism to offer a refund, and others like PayPal may limit how long after a purchase we can give a refund, but we can give a refund in the large majority of cases.)

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I don't think it's correct that we "intentionally" misled anyone about the functionality of the Windows client when we posted a video of the Mac client.

Based on the very open communication policy Evernote has, I don't believe it was intentional either.

But... that video has obviously misled a lot of users. As I have mentioned before, it would be very easy to update the blog and add some text that the search result shown is only available on the Mac.

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Dave,

Thanks for your response. I have no interest in a refund. The financial cost of premium is insignifcant compared to the value of Evernote, and most importantly to its potential, and i feel like my premium membership is enabling continued development of this tool.

Here is what I would like instead of a refund;

1. An accurate way in the windows client to tell if my pdf has been ocr'd by evernote.

2. A solution to why many of my pdf's which do not fall into the 3 non-ocr'able category have not been ocr'd

3. The ability to highlight search terms inside of pdf's in the windows client.

I don't think those are unreasonable requests or expectations.

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I'm afraid I agree with jfaess because I feel misled as well.

Right there on the premium page it says "Search within PDF" documents. To me this means you can search and locate text within a pdf document, this simply isn't the case with the Windows version.

When the feature was released and that video made why didn't you show it working on the PC? Because you can't do what you show on the video on the PC. Is there any disclaimer anywhere in that blog saying it's a mac only feature? None I could see.

On the premium upgrade page where it tells you that it includes "Search within PDF" does it say anywhere that it only works on the MAC? None I could see.

Can you see why people are feeling misled or at the very least confused? Your telling people it can do something (and showing a demo on video), people buy the software for Windows and then find out that the functionality only exists on the MAC.

I understand there are differences in the OS's that enable the MAC to have this extra functionality but this doesn't excuse hiding the limitations in the PC version, which is what I feel you have done.

Please consider adding some text in the blog and the premium page explaining that the search feature is only fully functional on MAC's. It's good to hear that it's on the list for improvements and hope its near the top.

Our Windows client has plenty of functionality (e.g. ink, OneNote import, etc.) that isn't available on the Mac as well.

Is OneNote even available on the MAC? If not this is a mute point. Are any of the big premium features that are listed in the comparison table on the premium page PC only? That would be a better comparison.

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Is OneNote even available on the MAC? If not this is a mute point. Are any of the big premium features that are listed in the comparison table on the premium page PC only? That would be a better comparison.

It's a valid comparison. And it's not a moot point b/c it's something that's available on PC but not Mac. Just like ink notes. Just like taking a photo from within EN is available on iPhone but not Windows.

If you're feeling so cheated/misled, please utilize the refund that Dave has offered.

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I don't think it's correct that we "intentionally" misled anyone about the functionality of the Windows client when we posted a video of the Mac client.

Based on the very open communication policy Evernote has, I don't believe it was intentional either.

But... that video has obviously misled a lot of users. As I have mentioned before, it would be very easy to update the blog and add some text that the search result shown is only available on the Mac.

Generally speaking I would agree with you, I just think in this case the evidence is pretty damming. You can see people in this thread and others asking how the feature works, obviously they have been led to believe the software can do something that it can't.

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Generally speaking I would agree with you, I just think in this case the evidence is pretty damming. You can see people in this thread and others asking how the feature works, obviously they have been led to believe the software can do something that it can't.

You've been offered a refund. If a company is intentionally misleading potential customers, refunds are not freely offered. FWIW, I have yet to see anyone complaining that they requested a refund & were denied it. If you harbor such negative feelings, please get your refund & move on.

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Is OneNote even available on the MAC? If not this is a mute point. Are any of the big premium features that are listed in the comparison table on the premium page PC only? That would be a better comparison.

It's a valid comparison. And it's not a moot point b/c it's something that's available on PC but not Mac. Just like ink notes. Just like taking a photo from within EN is available on iPhone but not Windows.

I think you're missing the point again. OneNote export is not listed as one of the big premium features like pdf searching is. Are any of the big premium features that are listed in the comparison table PC\Windows only?

I'm sure there is the odd menu option here and there that is on one platform and not the other, but pdf search is important. This is the primary reason I purchased the upgrade.

If you're feeling so cheated/misled, please utilize the refund that Dave has offered.

My motivation for posting is not to get a refund.

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Here is what I would like instead of a refund;

1. An accurate way in the windows client to tell if my pdf has been ocr'd by evernote.

2. A solution to why many of my pdf's which do not fall into the 3 non-ocr'able category have not been ocr'd

3. The ability to highlight search terms inside of pdf's in the windows client.

I don't think those are unreasonable requests or expectations.

None of these is unreasonable, no, in my opinion. #2 is certainly reasonable, particularly for a premium user. Just out of curiosity, did you (or reck) file a support ticket, which would be the way to go, particularly for a premium user? #3 is on the list, as Dave has said.

~Jeff

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Generally speaking I would agree with you, I just think in this case the evidence is pretty damming. You can see people in this thread and others asking how the feature works, obviously they have been led to believe the software can do something that it can't.

You've been offered a refund. If a company is intentionally misleading potential customers, refunds are not freely offered. FWIW, I have yet to see anyone complaining that they requested a refund & were denied it. If you harbor such negative feelings, please get your refund & move on.

Again my motivation for posting is not to get a refund. I think my points are valid and this thread will help people understand what's going on with the software. It may even help people in the future thinking about purchasing the premium account.

If you harbor such negative feelings, please get your refund & move on.

I don't appreciate being told to move on btw. Why are your posts always so negative and snarky? You can make a point without being so rude, give it a try.

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I think you're missing the point again. OneNote export is not listed as one of the big premium features like pdf searching. Are any of the big premium features that are listed in the comparison table PC\Windows only?

No, I'm not missing the point. If you get a refund, you are made whole again.

If you're feeling so cheated/misled, please utilize the refund that Dave has offered.
My motivation for posting is not to get a refund.

I don't know what your motivation is then. They are not going to be able to incorporate the feature you want, very soon. So your choice is to either get a refund & move on. Or not get a refund & continue to gripe about being misled, which serves no purpose.

(dead horse - I'm moving on)

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  • Level 5

If you're feeling so cheated/misled, please utilize the refund that Dave has offered.

Why ask for a refund? All that ends up doing is sweep the issue under the rug and drive away customers.

The solution is to correct the information that many of us think is misleading.

The benefit of this solution?

  • 1.) Prevent potential future users from being misled
    2.) Retains existing customers
    3.) Enhances customer good will
    4.) Inexpensive and easy to accomplish
    5.) It's the right thing to do

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If you're feeling so cheated/misled, please utilize the refund that Dave has offered.

Why ask for a refund? All that ends up doing is sweep the issue under the rug and drive away customers.

The solution is to correct the information that many of us think is misleading.

The benefit of this solution?

  • 1.) Prevent potential future users from being misled
    2.) Retains existing customers
    3.) Enhances customer good will
    4.) Inexpensive and easy to accomplish
    5.) It's the right thing to do

Thank you, my thoughts exactly.

I think it's good to discuss things like this. It helps EN in the long run and also people reading this thread in the future. Burgers I really don't understand your attitude to "grab a refund and run", can't you see the bigger picture?

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Here is what I would like instead of a refund;

1. An accurate way in the windows client to tell if my pdf has been ocr'd by evernote.

2. A solution to why many of my pdf's which do not fall into the 3 non-ocr'able category have not been ocr'd

3. The ability to highlight search terms inside of pdf's in the windows client.

I don't think those are unreasonable requests or expectations.

None of these is unreasonable, no, in my opinion. #2 is certainly reasonable, particularly for a premium user. Just out of curiosity, did you (or reck) file a support ticket, which would be the way to go, particularly for a premium user? #3 is on the list, as Dave has said.

Thank you, Jeff. You are correct that at this point, filing a support request is the solution to number 2. I didn't do it before now because i wasn't sure if it was a user error (in that i didn't know what I was doing) or a problem with my data or the windows cli8ent. Since we've effectively narrowed this down, it's time to file a support request.

Thanks to you and to Dave for your helpful replies and interactions.

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jfkaess -

1. If you can right-click on a PDF within the Windows client and see the option to "Save Searchable" for that PDF, then it has been OCRed correctly and that data has been synchronized to the client. If you do not see that menu option, then the client has no OCR data for that note.

2. For privacy reasons, we won't discuss your account contents on this forum. Most likely, you have uploaded PDFs that are already searchable (i.e. they already contain plain text that can be found in something like Reader), so we didn't bother to do redundant OCR on those documents.

3. Thanks for the feature suggestion. As discussed, this is something we would like to add, but it is not a small undertaking, since it involves us incorporating something the approximate size of Adobe Acrobat Reader into our application.

Thanks

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Dave and Jeff,

I filed a support request and have been interacting with support to resolve item number 2. It appears that pdf's which i created using PDF Redirect v2 from word documents contain teaxt so have not been ocr'd by Evernote and are in fact searchable. What is missing on these files is a visual indocator so I can know they are searchable.

However, I have other pdf's that were created by scanning them directly into Evernote via my Canon P-150 scanner. These files have been OCR'd by the evernote servers. SOME of those files do have the right click option to "save searchable", and some do not, though in fact they do have text which has been OCR'd (I can tell because of the OCR errors), but do not have the right click option. The scanner software does NOT do any OCR'ing, it just scans and saves the pdf directly into Evernote.

I am still working with support on the reason for this.

Thanks again for your help.

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  • Level 5

The solution is to correct the information that many of us think is misleading.

"many" - file under "words that don't actually mean much".

Well, at least I didn't use the word "all" or "none".

After watching the video and using Windows Evernote for a couple years, another possibly phrase that comes to mind is:

  • Which I am going to believe: the video or my lying eyes?

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Thanks for the feedback that the PDF search video isn't clear enough that you're viewing a Mac interface.

We added a caption into the video at the point where we're demonstrating the search that makes it clear that the highlighting within the PDF is Mac-only.

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I'm happy to report that I have worked with support and resolved the issue of my pdf's appearing to not have been ocr'd by Evernote. Evernote will not ocr anything that has already been ocr'd by another source. My scanner was doing a quick and lousy job of ocr'ing my pdf's without my knowledge since the manual made no mention of any ocr abilities. Finding the buried check box in the pdf job settings and unchecking it resolved the issue. I just scanned my apartment lease - 25 pages of 11x14 fine print and it took Evernote about 20 minutes to ocr it (and did a great job).

For me, the as yet unresolved issues are:

1. A way to show easily that a pdf file has been ocr'd. This could have shown me I had a problem long ago, and saved me from having to rescan a bunch of documents.

2. Searched terms highlighted inside the pdf documents in the windows client like they are in the mac client.

Great thanks to the Evernote support team for helping me step by step to resolve the problem of my pdf's not getting ocr'd.

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Thanks for the feedback that the PDF search video isn't clear enough that you're viewing a Mac interface.

No problem, glad you agree that the video needed some clarification. :D

We added a caption into the video at the point where we're demonstrating the search that makes it clear that the highlighting within the PDF is Mac-only.

I think that caption helps a lot Dave, the video is a lot clearer about the limitation on the PC with that.

I still think listing "Search within PDF" documents as a feature on the premium page and then not mentioning that it's only for mac is a bit dodgy though.

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BTW, I believe the knowledgebase on this subject is incorrect. See No. 5, below. Shouldn't that be "the PDF is NOT of a handwritten document"?

We only attempt to process an Image-based PDF if all of the following conditions are met:

1. The raw PDF is 25 megabytes or less.

2. The scan contains no more than 100 pages.

3. The raw PDF doesn't already contain "searchable" text that you can select and copy.

4. The PDF isn't encrypted or protected with a passphrase.

5. The PDF is of an handwritten document.

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BTW, I believe the knowledgebase on this subject is incorrect. See No. 5, below. Shouldn't that be "the PDF is NOT of a handwritten document"?

We only attempt to process an Image-based PDF if all of the following conditions are met:

1. The raw PDF is 25 megabytes or less.

2. The scan contains no more than 100 pages.

3. The raw PDF doesn't already contain "searchable" text that you can select and copy.

4. The PDF isn't encrypted or protected with a passphrase.

5. The PDF is of an handwritten document.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, we will tweak the knowledge base article to make it more clear.

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I have a few questions about this... (win client 4.2.1.3726)

jfkaess - we don't perform OCR on your PDFs if any of the following are true:

* The PDF already contains text that you can search, select, copy, paste

* The PDF is more than 25MB

* The PDF contains more than 100 pages

I have at least one (very old note with a ) pdf which should OCR under these conditions but it is not (judging from the grey maginifying icon).

So, questions:

- If a previous OCR run while being scanned is the reason for this: how can I check wether a pdf-file has been marked as searchable even though it contains only images?

- How come something as basic as the "contains: pdf" entry is not there in the windows client, but only in the web client? Will this be added in the near future?

- Is there search grammar to check for a filetype? This is not the same as mime is it?

- To what would "save searchable" translate in the german localization in the windows client? I have not found a pdf file which offers this entry, but maybe the translation is different from what I expect...

Finally, I would like to add that while I am a happy premium user and frequently recommend evernote in blog entries, I feel there is no need for any forum members to tell people in this thread to either get a refund or move on... The problems as well as the suggestions and points made were valid in my opinion.

If you are happy and the problems in a given thread are not yours, maybe it's your turn to move on and read a different thread. Just my 2 cts.

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You can right-click to open your original PDF in your favorite desktop PDF viewer. From there, try to "Select All" and then Copy to grab any existing text. If you get anything that can be pasted (e.g. into Notepad), then the PDF is already OCR'ed, and we won't do it again.

If your client is in sync, you can also right-click on a PDF to use the "Save Searchable Version" menu option if we have run OCR on that particular PDF. If you don't see that menu option, then we haven't.

To search for notes with PDFs in them:

resource:application/pdf

This is also available from the "Attributes" panel on the left so you don't need to type it manually.

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Thanks for the quick help.

Now, that is fascinating. I am not even aware where I actually configured my scanner to OCR images I scan in... but the PDF at hand has apparently been OCRd prior to importing into Evernote.

For the search within Evernote, though, this does not actually make much of a difference (meaning: I could search words in that scanned in text) as long as there aren't any text bits in the images. If the OCR process does not start as soon as there is any searchable text in a PDF, the images within a PDF do not get OCRd and are basically lost to the otherwise great image text search of Evernote!

I saved the syntax for PDF attachments in my how-to-search-evernote-note (^^), but in the windows client I can not find the PDF entry among the list of attributes...?

it says:

(contains)

images

audio notes

ink

encrypted text

to do

unchecked to do

checked to do

attachment (and this finds *any* attachments)

in that list in the web client, I can see "PDF", in the windows client I can not. Either I can not find it (point me to it, pleeease) or it needs to be added.

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Ah, I thought that there was an entry for "PDF" under "Contains" in the Attributes list, but I must have been mistaken.

You can manually search for:

resource:application/pdf

and then save that in a "Saved Search" for execution later if you need to find all PDFs.

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  • 7 months later...

I have Windows 7 Client and an Iphone. I am a premium user. I scanned the document with a dell printer scanner.

I cannot get a search on a pdf to highlight the word. Evernote can correctly find the pdf with that word in it, but I need to go through it to find it.

I need confirmation that getting a pdf to highlight the searchword is not possible on windows 7 client. I also need confirmation that getting a pdf to highlight the searchword is not possible on the Iphone 4.

I intend to purchase a fujitsu scansnap s1300. Will scanning a pdf into this printer allow me to get highlighted searches on a pdf?

Is the only solution for a highlighted pdf search word....buy an apple computer?

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  • 8 months later...
  • Level 5*

Is the PDF highlight search term feature available for Windows users yet?

Getting really impatient as its one highly essential feature.

Someone please let me know

Have you tried it recently?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Level 5*

Is the PDF highlight search term feature available for Windows users yet?

Getting really impatient as its one highly essential feature.

Someone please let me know

No, not that I can tell from version 4.5.7.7146 with a Premium account.

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I have examined this issue over the last week; as it was one of the reasons I went premium. To be honest its a feature that shouldn't be advertised until it is fixed.

Basically if you create a Searchable PDF.... either through your scanners software or afterwards using something like Omnipage 18 std (£70 in the UK) and THEN upload to EN it works as you would expect it to (in windows). If you have single page PDFs you will see the word you have searched for in yellow... if its a multipage PDF you may have to open the note and do CTRL-F to search through, but again results will be highlighted in yellow.

If on the other hand you just have (what you think are) image PDFs EN will OCR (99% of the time?#!) but for an inexplicable reason it will not highlight in yellow and you can't do CTRL-F either! so its only slightly useful on a single page and virtually useless on multi-page PDFs.

I'm still happy :) with EN but this poor feature should be pointed out/warned against! and MORE IMPORTANTLY emphasise that EN works great if you upload Searchable PDFs uploading image PDFs is the wrong decision!

You can see the difference in this shared notebook...

https://www.evernote.com/pub/m1kewood/ocrproblem

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  • 6 months later...

So I've read through all this and the bottom line is it is not true that a premium account gets me a searchable pdf? I just finished chatting w/ an EN rep who told me that the pdfs are "searchable," but that EN wouldn't jump to the location w/i the pdf. I'm disappointed and feel a bit misled. Am I right that i cannot upload a searchable pdf via scan?

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  • Level 5*

So I've read through all this and the bottom line is it is not true that a premium account gets me a searchable pdf? I just finished chatting w/ an EN rep who told me that the pdfs are "searchable," but that EN wouldn't jump to the location w/i the pdf. I'm disappointed and feel a bit misled. Am I right that i cannot upload a searchable pdf via scan?

On Windows, if you upload a searchable PDF, then you will be able to search in WIndows, and your Adobe PDF reader will find the text in the file.

On Windows, if you upload a PDF that can be OCR'd, then EN will index it and will tell you that yes, the word you are looking for is in the PDF, but when you open in Adobe PDF reader, it cannot tell you where it is.

On Mac, it is different because the Mac has PDF baked in and it can do the OCR search within the PDF file.

It isn't really a limitation of EN. In fact, EN extends what you can normally do, but yes, it is frustrating to know your word exists in a 50 page document, but once you open the document, you cannot search for it.

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  • 11 months later...

I am a premium user, and I'm appalled that EN does not highlight text in PDF images on Windows in the serach results.  This is just stupid.

 

This is one of the MAIN reasons that I subscribe to EN and I've been fighting with it for months trying to figure it out, and then finally find out through forums (and a quick 1 second FLASH of text on one of their tutorial videos) that says it only works on Macs.  That's such a crock.

 

This is 2014.  Listen to your users EN and fix this issue, that apparently has been talked about on this forum for 3 years now!  

 

FRUSTRATED!

Doug

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  • Level 5*

I am a premium user, and I'm appalled that EN does not highlight text in PDF images on Windows in the serach results.  This is just stupid.

 

This is one of the MAIN reasons that I subscribe to EN and I've been fighting with it for months trying to figure it out, and then finally find out through forums (and a quick 1 second FLASH of text on one of their tutorial videos) that says it only works on Macs.  That's such a crock.

 

This is 2014.  Listen to your users EN and fix this issue, that apparently has been talked about on this forum for 3 years now!  

 

FRUSTRATED!

Doug

 

I don't like it anymore than you do, but the highlighting is a feature of Mac OSX, not Evernote for the Mac. Evernote doesn't do anything to make the highlighting work on that platform.

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What an education! 

 

I, too, expected things would "just work." Silly me. I have also watched EN progress on my iPad, and have noticed that not all things work everywhere...but that's my ignorance in thinking that it should be so (and perhaps too much influence of Captain Picard---Make It So!) 

 

In any event, I think the most helpful solution is to see a checklist chart of what works without exception on which platform, so we know what we're buying or expecting, realizing that everything will never work everywhere.

 

I am reminded of sage advice from long ago, when there were Apples, Amigas, IBMPC, Commodore and TI machines to be had -- choose your application, then buy the hardware that runs it.

 

This conversation is--for me--the single most specific recommendation for buying Mac that I've ever seen.

 

Thanks to all who contributed, and slogged their way through it.

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