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Where do the pdf files actually reside in Evernote?


idoc

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Ok, so after scanning in about 500 pdf files into EN using Acrobat X I realized that I should have selected "save as reduced file pdf" in every case so as to reduce file size. The savings in file size is pretty significant (about 50%) when you save it on acrobat X format. Fortunately, there is a way to "save as reduced file pdf" in a batch format by selecting "apply to multiple". This works very easily and rapidly as long as you can tell the program where the pdf files are. However, I couldn't figure where they reside. I can't simply highlight all the pdf files in the Evernote import folder since if I change anything there they will be uploaded to EN a second time as duplicates. Therefore, is there a way that I can simply change the pdf's that are already in EN? In the future, I will not save pdf's to the import folder until I massage them to perfection in a "holding folder". Any advice appreciated.

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  • Level 5

In EN Windows, they are stored inside the database file (the .exb file)

>Tools >Options >Open Database folder

The holding folder sounds like a good idea. However, in my situation, I have never hit the maximum monthly upload Evernote cap, so I just let the PDF go directly into Evernote.

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In EN Windows, they are stored inside the database file (the .exb file)

>Tools >Options >Open Database folder

The holding folder sounds like a good idea. However, in my situation, I have never hit the maximum monthly upload Evernote cap, so I just let the PDF go directly into Evernote.

Thanks jbenson, but that doesn't work. For some reason adobe acrobat does not seem to allow me to navigate to that folder and change those files. This is not an issue of reaching the monthly maximal cap; I simply want to get the storage sizes down as low as possible to save disc space, not slow down the program, not affect access on my android etc. The less bulky the files are the better the overall performance. I don't think that there's any simply way of changing it now other than removing the pdf's one by one from Evernote and performing file size reduction on them individually (which I am unwilling to do). Therefore, I'll leave it alone for now and be more attentive to it in the future.

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Can't you just edit them "in-place"? Right-click on a PDF in Evernote, and use "Open With..." to open with your PDF editor, and then just save it in reduced form. It should come back in automatically.

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Can't you just edit them "in-place"? Right-click on a PDF in Evernote, and use "Open With..." to open with your PDF editor, and then just save it in reduced form. It should come back in automatically.

Yes, of course you can. However, my question referred to the hundreds of pdf files that are currently in there. I don't have the patience to go through it one by one. Acrobat has the ability to perform batch operations on hundreds of pdf's at the same time; however, you have to give it the exact folder that they are sitting in for it to do this.

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Yes, well, unless you were to get into the .exb database, and extract them via some automated process, compress them, and then store them back, you're probably out of luck. Rainy day stuff, I guess...

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Anyway, it's a good teaching point for newbies. I wish I had known about this before scanning in thousands of pages. The way I would do it now is to establish a "holding folder" which is not an import folder. I would batch OCR, batch reduce file size and optimize. Those steps alone should decrease file size by at least 50%. I would then meticulously name them with appropriate key terms, dates etc and move the batch to an import folder.

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  • Level 5

idoc,

There is a way to retrieve your existing PDF documents from Evernote:

1. Select all the relevant notes in the Note List ("resource:application/pdf" search term may help)

2. Right click the selection in the Note List and choose Save Attachments...

Then you can process exported PDF files with Acrobat and re-import them back using Folder Import feature. After that you can delete original notes containing unprocessed PDF files.

If you have lots of PDFs and there is a risk of exceeding monthly quota, you may want to import them first to a local notebook, then move them gradually to a synced notebook. Alternatively, you may contact customer support and see if they will be willing to temporary bump your quota.

/Peter

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In EN Windows, they are stored inside the database file (the .exb file)

>Tools >Options >Open Database folder

The holding folder sounds like a good idea. However, in my situation, I have never hit the maximum monthly upload Evernote cap, so I just let the PDF go directly into Evernote.

Thanks jbenson, but that doesn't work. For some reason adobe acrobat does not seem to allow me to navigate to that folder and change those files.

Check out a program called Nitro Reader. They have a richly featured free version that doesn't seem as bloated as Acrobat.

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idoc,

There is a way to retrieve your existing PDF documents from Evernote:

1. Select all the relevant notes in the Note List ("resource:application/pdf" search term may help)

2. Right click the selection in the Note List and choose Save Attachments...

Then you can process exported PDF files with Acrobat and re-import them back using Folder Import feature. After that you can delete original notes containing unprocessed PDF files.

If you have lots of PDFs and there is a risk of exceeding monthly quota, you may want to import them first to a local notebook, then move them gradually to a synced notebook. Alternatively, you may contact customer support and see if they will be willing to temporary bump your quota.

/Peter

This technique is OK for extracting all the pdf's into a holding folder where you can batch and compress them. The only problem is that it is not possible to reimport them right back into the notes that they came from. When you import the pdf's back into EN they will need to be re-named and re-tagged from scratch. Too cumbersome.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks to everyone for the replies. It helps us EN noobs catch on quickly.

I will add a note of opinion that some of us need to use our PDF files a lot, so it would be better if the files were kept outside the database. It might also be better if there was a way to change the filename to match the descriptive name.

For instance, I have an FSA account for my health insurance costs. I have to justify my payments by uploading PDFs of the receipts or paperwork my doctor gives me when I leave his office. I need access to the individual file to upload it. Having to open the note's attached PDF and save it, along with a descriptive name, creates a few extra steps I wish I didn't have to perform. I can still get it done, but I am not super happy about having to do it.

Thanks again.

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I have to say that since posting this question I have used the File...Save as attachment feature more and more. It works very well and is effortless. You can literally go to "all notes" and request to save all the file attachments in every single note that you have. It will place a copy of every single pdf, doc, excel etc into a folder of your choice. From there you can backup the files or change them as needed. I use it mainly as a backup system so that I can always have my pdf's available.

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  • 2 years later...

WallyJ, agree 100%. 2 years on still no essential feature like this. A simple checkbox in the Options is all that is needed, "Save attachments to local folder". It's fine for the EN die-hards who have a degree and love to waste time working "stuff" out, but some of us have a life away from the PC and don't want a degree in EverNote, we just want simple logic!  

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WallyJ, agree 100%. 2 years on still no essential feature like this. A simple checkbox in the Options is all that is needed, "Save attachments to local folder". It's fine for the EN die-hards who have a degree and love to waste time working "stuff" out, but some of us have a life away from the PC and don't want a degree in EverNote, we just want simple logic!  

 

WallyJ et al, I understand you'd like direct access to the attachments stored in Evernote, but for many, maybe most, users this could cause more problems than solutions.

 

Evernote is designed as a self-contained system, and to ensure data integrity, all Notes and Attachments should only be changed via the Evernote system.

 

If you want to have attachments readily available outside of Evernote, I'd suggest that you first store the file in DropBox, and then upload to Evernote, leaving the file also in DropBox.  Of course, this can lead to problems if you change the file in one place but the other.  

 

You could have a workflow that ALWAYS first updates the attachment in Evernote, and THEN does a SAVE AS to your DropBox folder.

 

IAC, no one outside of Evernote can know if Evernote will ever provide user-selectable location for attachments.  So, some work-around like the above is the best you can do for the foreseeable future.

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This is where the ability to search by note attributes was very helpful - automatically select all files with pdfs. I know there is a search strategy (resource:application/pdf), but for those with a life outside EN, the button on the left panel in earlier versions was much easier. I think the batch adjustment of file sizes before uploading into EN is the way to go. I have Nitro Pro (v7): saving as a flattened file only reduced the file size from 34.5 to 34.2 MB on one file. Optimizing the same file for web view (I would only look at it on my desktop) made the file unreadablem but it did reduce the file size to 13.5 MB. Obviously the desirable figure is somewhere between those two extremes. Some automation would be good!

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