(Archived) Am I stupid or is the feature missing?

[kasmenu 0]

As a user of Evernote and I must say I find it an awesome tool and easy to get information into. I use it on my Mac, Ipad and Iphone. I use a Scan Snap scanner on my Mac and its great.

The one BIG issue I have is its not so easy to get information out. There is no use storing the documents and then its difficult to access them. Make no mistake its easy to find something but then to get that PDF onto your desktop or onto a mail program is a shlep. I have to first open the document in Preview, then "file save as" the document to my desktop and then open the mail application start the mail and drag the document from my desktop. I use Outlook on the mac for my mail client and there is no way I can tell Evernote to use it as its mail client. I have looked everywhere

A lot of the time I would need to write a mail to someone and attach a document I have stored in Evernote, surly it should be as easy as opening Evernote, locating the document and dragging it to the mail I am writing or as I said am I missing something?

Howard

[manwithavan 0]

I agree. I use Evernote for the same reasons. Perhaps if Evernote could recognise when a note contains only a file, such as a pdf, and allow it to be dragged and dropped? I too find the lack of this functionality annoying.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

wow. i had no idea this could be a problem, because i use the native mailer, and all i have to do is drag and drop the file. it's too bad you are using outlook.

[floydwhetzel 0]

I've been successful with dragging files from Evernote into Outlook for Mac 2011. The trick is to drop the file onto the header area, and not the body area. When dropping into the body area, I get nada. When dropping into the header area, I get the attachment added to the mail message.

Hope this helps!

Floyd

[jemostrom 5]

I might be missing something here (it's was several years since I last tested it) but now when I try with a plain text file I get a note with the text in it, I can export this by copy&paste/drag&drop/HTML/enex ... which works fine for a single note. But I can't find a way to export multiple text notes in a way that it can be directly used. If it's possible I would love to know.

Also, tabs seem to be converted to spaces.

[SaraS 5]

While I agree that drag/drop would be nice, I have no problem extracting my attachments out of EN in their original format. Right-click on the attachment and Save As.

I do this all the time with PDFs. And I just tested it with a couple other types of attachments.

So I guess I don't get what the big issue is. No need to export the note to HTML. Just Save As the file on your hard drive, then drop it in your email.

[jemostrom 5]

I have to admit that the difficulties of getting info out of Evernote in the same format as I added it is the main reason why I'm not using Evernote to store stuff (I'm using DevonThink and Yojimbo for most things, but have just started to use Evernote for storing clipart and screendumps).

With images I'm able to drag & drop things and Evernote is perfect for this.

And yes, I can understand why HTML is the chosen format but unfortunately it doesn't work for me.

[Metrodon 2,184]

This doesn't work with Mail either - I find it more than a little annoying too.

[djbaker24 0]

The lacking feature on my MAC set-up vs my WIndows set-up is the ability to drag file attachments from the Outlook 2011 email into an Evernote MAC client notebook.

The workaround for now is to drag the attachment on to the MAC desktop, and once copied drag it in to the note. This works ok.

In the WIndows environment in Outlook 2010 you are able to drag the email attachment straight over to the WIndows Evernote client notebook which is great when wanting to keep PDF's etc.

[francisbrand 0]

I agree with you kasmenu. I know I can export any notes or attachments from Evernote, and also use the baked in emailer to send them. However neither does what I want it to do.

Baked in emailer doesn't pick up my server based address book contacts, nor does it keep a "paper trail" of correspondence in my email client. Exporting and using email client does all this but it is inefficient.

Today I took a photo of an exposed doorway using Evernote and in the building project notebook. Now at my desk I want to send the photo to the relevant team members. I also want all my emails to be archived and not to have to manually add the five addresses - baked in doesn't do it.

A great product but with, in my mind, one area that stops it being a seamless piece of kit in my workflow.

[felibb 0]

But as I mentioned before its getting the documents out thats a pain

Registered to support this.

One option would be opening ~/Library/Application Support/Evernote/data and going through the many many folders. But then again I use Evernote not for long and don't have a lot of notes stored. I suppose this will become less feasible as time goes by and I accumulate stuff there.

A feature to drag and drop separate files into Finder would be very nice to have. After all this is how notes are stored in aforementioned folder. For example, Yojimbo can do that, despite the fact it keeps everything in an sqlite database. But it can't sync (selected notebooks) across my Mac, Windows computer and phone. So I am sticking with Evernote hoping for improvements to come.

[kasmenu 0]

I agree that right clicking on a note and emailing it works great, but its useless if Evernote does not allow you to select your email application, as it stands now Evernote calls Mac Mail and I use Outlook as Outlook is our company standard for email, I can not find a way to tell Evernote to use Outlook and yip Outlook is set as my default email app on the mac.

cheers

Howard

[joshfree 8]

Right clicking a selecting Email Note in the Mac application works just fine. Nearly instant and painless.

[vagas 0]

Hi.

Drag and drop would be great, but right now I miss another feature too...maybe it already exists, I hope you can help me!

I use a Wacom tablet, and I'd love to be able to hand-write a note, or write on a pdf AFTER importing it in Evernote as a new note.

Right now, what I can do is using the tablet to manually write something, and then paste it in a note as an image. Obviously, I cannot write ON an existing image, this way...

[kasmenu 0]

Guys

some real world uses of how I use Evernote and why a decent drag and Drop out of Evernote will be enhance an already fantastic product.

Because Evernote indexes all my documents unlike Dropbox and as I am shocking at keeping structured filing systems I keep all the stuff I might need to get access to quickly in Evernote.

Not only do I an my receipts and keep them in Evernote with my Scan Snap Scanner but when I go to the store and buy something that I need to keep the receipt as proof of purchase I just take a snap of the receipt with my Iphone throw the document away.

I also keep things like bills from my power company and telephone. If fact since using Evernote I don't file anything anymore I scan it and Shred it.

The dragging to Evernote is fantastic and could not be easier. It would be great if I could highlight some words on the page with a highlighter and Evernote then used those as a heading or tags as it would allow a very elegant solution to get documents into Evernote nicely index with doing much.

But as I mentioned before its getting the documents out thats a pain, If I have a query with my power company or I need to email a receipt to a supplier, to just write the email, open Evernote, find the document and then drag it onto the mail in the format it was stored or converted to a PFD will be awesome.

So I am hoping my request falls on the developers todo list soon :-))

Howard

[Metrodon 2,184]

...I'd prefer them to fix the bug that stops me dragging attachments from Mail into Evernote first...

I may be missing what you are referring to, but I seem to be able to drag attachments from Mail into EN.

You can drag an attachment to the dock and create a new note - but can you drag an attachment into an existing note?

(bet you can't!)

[twizzard 0]

The real strength of Evernote is the ability to edit the files in a distributed environment, and if you are using it to share files among a multitude of computers and the iPhone, iPod Touch or the iPad, Evernote is a superb solution. Note that the updated file format may not be the same as the original; on my iPod Touch, if I edit some types of files, the Evernote app makes a text copy of that file and edits the text copy -- excellent answer.

However, if you are trying to use Evernote as a general distributed storage solution, I suggest using DropBox instead (DropBox.com). DropBox does not support editing of any files, so in that sense it is far less capable than Evernote. However, DropBox is an excellent way to share any sort of file among a multitude of computers and the iPhone, iPod Touch or the iPad. For example, DropBox is perfect for sharing encrypted files - something that would be inappropriate for Evernote.

The only real problem I've had in using both is remembering where each file is located.

[mdave 1]

...I'd prefer them to fix the bug that stops me dragging attachments from Mail into Evernote first...

I may be missing what you are referring to, but I seem to be able to drag attachments from Mail into EN.

[oxymoron9x 0]

We export to HTML for maximum portability because that format is an open standard that is supported by millions of different applications. It also can represent our range of data better than any other format.

I can understand the support for an open format. But, I think that export to PDF should at least be an option. People will understand that each format has its pros and cons.

I don't put video or sound media in my notebooks right now, but I do use screen clips. I don't really like the HTML export because you have to zip up the extra files in order to send the exported note and not every recipient of my notes understands how that is supposed to work. On the other hand, every one I deal with knows what a PDF is and that they can open them with one click.

I *have* been using CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com) as a work around for this, but it requires several more clicks to do than just using the normal EN options.

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the feedback, the drag and drop behavior could definitely use some improvement for some applications.

Thanks

[Metrodon 2,184]

I think the difference is on a Mac we expect a slightly slicker more integrated system than a Windows user would be used to.

Being able to drag and drop files from Evernote to Mail makes sense to me as a request, although I'd prefer them to fix the bug that stops me dragging attachments from Mail into Evernote first...

[jbenson2 2,147]

Since I don't use a Mac, I can't offer much more than what I already have.

In the Windows client version of Evernote, if I need a file (PDF, Word, PPT, or JPG), it is just a couple steps

1.) Right click

2.) Save as

Then I can do whatever I want with the document.

[kasmenu 0]

oh my goodness not the same note note or document .. I use Evernote to store lots of documents as I travel a lot and its easier to find things I also don't travel with the same computer nor all my documents...its that not whats its made for?

Goodness at least I know I am not Stupid its seems the feature is missing and if talked about so much on the forums it seems I am not the only one :-))

[jbenson2 2,147]

I end up doing this many many times

Really?

You don't have to put everything you've got into Evernote.

If you are doing it many many times, then just keep it outside of Evernote.

[kasmenu 0]

Thanks sorry its Schlep:-))

I fully understand about the HTML and why its used when wanting to export notebooks and its an open format. But I use Evernote to also store all the documents I keep, there are Word, Excel and PDF documents. Surely if I wanted to grab one of those from one of my notebooks it should be as simple as dragging the PDF,Word or Excel document to the mail application. it is still stored in its native format in Evernote why not just let me drag it out.

a good example was today, I had some airline bookings stored in a notebook, they were PDF documents from the airline. I needed to send them to a work mate who needed to check them.

As I could not email them directly from Evernote as it does not recognise Outlook as my email client, I had to open the document in Evernote, then open it in Preview then save it as a PDF which it already was onto my desktop and then drag it from the desktop to the mail I was writing. All I should have done was write the mail, drag the PDF from Evernote and press Send..

I know it does not sound like a lot and I am sweating small stuff from a great bit of software but I end up doing this many many times and then I also have to manage the folder of exported documents on my desktop, some of which I don't want to be in view, so I have to delete them and then clear the recycle bin each time so they are not left lying around.

Thanks

Howard

[jbenson2 2,147]

A shlep?

Check out the discussion here:

http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=21985&start=0&hilit=html#p94324

The key points from Dave Engberg:

• 
  "We export to HTML for maximum portability because that format is an open standard that is supported by millions of different applications. It also can represent our range of data better than any other format."
  "For example, if you had a notebook full of audio recordings and PDF notes and wanted to export those to the proprietary MS Word file format, then you'd basically have nothing, since Word doesn't represent either of those in any standard way."
  "Just export to HTML and then open the HTML from MS Word."
  "The *.enex format preserves 100% of the contents of your notes for use in another copy of Evernote. The format is reasonably well documented, so third party applications could implement converters/importers if they wanted to, but I don't know of any applications that have done so (yet)."
  "HTML format preserves 95% of the contents of your notes for use in an application other than Evernote."

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