(Archived) REQUEST: Assign note to multiple notebooks

[auntie_alias 0]

Example: I want Billpay receipt for SJSU housing to be in "SJSU" stack "housing" notebook, and also in "financial" stack "529 account" notebook, since it applies to both. But how to do this without the note appearing twice...

[jefito 5,589]

But what would be lost if iiz's request were completed—that is, if notebooks and tags were somehow combined, or if notebooks were eliminated? What current functionalities would then be impossible?

Notebooks are most likely not going away any time soon. They are a fundamental piece of the Evernote note storage architecture. They're a unit of sharing. They're the unit for offline note caching on mobile devices. The latter functionalities would need to be replaced.

So far, nobody has actually come up with a concrete proposal for how notebooks and tags might be combined; iiz's request was far too vague for me to be able guess what that meant.

[nicodo56 0]

I think the facility to access the same note from different notebooks would be very useful. On my computer I do this all the time with Shortcuts. It's very simple to right click a file to drag and drop a Shortcut to that file in another folder. Would be very useful in Evernote.

EDIT: Oops just realised I posted this in Mac forum but the point is still the same. If anyone thinks this post would go better somewhere else, let me know (this is my first post!)

[peterfmartin 221]

Here's why I would want to be able to put notes in more than one notebook: Because individual tags can't be shared publicly. (At least I don't think they can.) So let's say I find a quote or a resource online that I want to store in my ToReadTomorrow notebook which is not public, but I also want to share that resource to a public list of what I'm reading, a la Delicious. I don't what to have to save it in both places. If I could also share it to my public WhatImReading notebook...

If I can publicly share anything I tag with WhatImReading then great. But right now, I don't think that's the case.

You're right, but it sounds like changes to sharing (which might change this) are going to come before notes in more than one notebook, since Evernote hasn't yet given any indication it is considering treating notebooks like tags (meaning multiple notebooks can be applied to the same note).

[mrgoerend 89]

Smart notebooks could be an option, too.

[willrich45 0]

Here's why I would want to be able to put notes in more than one notebook: Because individual tags can't be shared publicly. (At least I don't think they can.) So let's say I find a quote or a resource online that I want to store in my ToReadTomorrow notebook which is not public, but I also want to share that resource to a public list of what I'm reading, a la Delicious. I don't what to have to save it in both places. If I could also share it to my public WhatImReading notebook...

If I can publicly share anything I tag with WhatImReading then great. But right now, I don't think that's the case.

[peterfmartin 221]

And, no, I don't mean Saved Searches. I am talking about something integrated with the Stack/Notebook structure - which, BTW, needs to provide more levels of nesting for those of us who manage hundreds of pieces of information.

I've got 8,990 notes now in one notebook and have been managing pretty well so far with tags, metadata, and keywords. I have an extensive tag tree that serves as a nested folder structure, going as far as five levels deep. Have you tried something like that?

[jefito 5,589]

And, no, I don't mean Saved Searches. I am talking about something integrated with the Stack/Notebook structure

Again, I am curious to know what it means to be integrated into the Notebook/stack structure. And why that's important.

- which, BTW, needs to provide more levels of nesting for those of us who manage hundreds of pieces of information.

Except that there are quite a number of people around who manage thousands of pieces of information, even 10's of thousands of pieces of information, all using tags and notebooks and saved searches.

Finally, these "Smart Notebooks" should allow filtering not only on tags but also on other note "metadata" such as creation-date, modified-date, maybe note type (if there is such a thing), etc.

Saved searches do that. Not sure what you mean by note type -- they're all just, well, notes, though you can categorize them using tags.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

EDIT: I misread the above post at first. This is a re-write of of my original post.

I'm pretty sure that "Smart Folders" and "Saved Searches" provide the same functionality.

To quote you:

They are essentially "virtual collections" of items based on some filter criteria

Not all systems integrate "Smart Folders" in with normal folders.

Many systems list the Smart Folders at the bottom of the list.

This is not unlike Evernote.

And now, you can add Saved Searches to the Fav Bar.

[danrhiggins 6]

Other software has solved with problem. They refer to them as "Smart"something-or-other. They are essentially "virtual collections" of items based on some filter criteria. But unlike Evernote's Saved Searches they in fact behave more like Notebooks meaning they could be included in a stack or something. The actual notes don't need to exist in one Smart Notebook or another, they can exist in multiple and when their tags are changed they appear or disappear from notebooks. The software products that use this make them am option. So you can use them together with traditional "collections" of stuff. Examples? Lightroom for photography - people may argue about with it is the best product for managing thousands of photos but the combination of folders, collections, smart collections, etc. offers flexibility to suit people's needs. Apple's Aperature has folders, projects and albums but it also has "Smart Albums". I just started using SmugMug to host photos and the Smart Collections is great. Even OSx has Smart Folders!

And, no, I don't mean Saved Searches. I am talking about something integrated with the Stack/Notebook structure - which, BTW, needs to provide more levels of nesting for those of us who manage hundreds of pieces of information.

Finally, these "Smart Notebooks" should allow filtering not only on tags but also on other note "metadata" such as creation-date, modified-date, maybe note type (if there is such a thing), etc.

Until Evernote improves their managing of notes for me it will be limited to simple stuff and I will need to turn to DevonThink or Yojimbo or something else to store information. Too bad because what I am asking for is not hard and I would love to have everything together on all my devices. But it is what it is.

[peterfmartin 221]

The benefit of notebooks and tags as they are is that one can use tags to label a note as something, like the two things in the OP's example. Notebooks are like physical notebooks. Here's an example from the "real world".

A student has several courses. They have Math, Science, Computers, English, etc. The natural thing is to have a separate notebook for each subject. You don't want your English essay mixed in with your Math proofs! Now, each subject has notes that you know are going to be on the test. You may take red stickies and flag each page that contains test materials. This is like the Evernote tags - a test question would be on multiple notes and you label each accordingly, regardless of which subject notebook it is in.

Notebooks allow you to partition your notes into exactly one of a number of categories (they also serve other functions in other contexts, like being the minimum unit of offline notes on mobile devices, but that's another topic). On the other hand, tags are labels that you can attach to your notes, You can attach multiple tags to a single note; this recognizes the fact that data can have many attributes.

Here's my example: I have two main notebooks: Personal and Work. Notes go into one or the other. But categorizations need not be in one or the other: I can have a "todo" item in either my work or personal world (that's a tag for me). I can have a note that's in the realm of "software development" in both my personal and work worlds (another tag). And so on. I can look for all of my "todo" items in all of my notes (work and personal), or just the individual ones. The fact that they are independent of each other is useful in the grand game of categorization, which can help us find our stuff.

But what would be lost if iiz's request were completed—that is, if notebooks and tags were somehow combined, or if notebooks were eliminated? What current functionalities would then be impossible?

[jefito 5,589]

In association with this topic, I hope that notebooks and tags would be integrated in future.

They are integrated already. They work together, if you want them to.

What is the benefit of separating notebook from tag as they are?

If they were the same, then there'd only be a need for just one of them. But they are not the same; they do different things. Notebooks allow you to partition your notes into exactly one of a number of categories (they also serve other functions in other contexts, like being the minimum unit of offline notes on mobile devices, but that's another topic). On the other hand, tags are labels that you can attach to your notes, You can attach multiple tags to a single note; this recognizes the fact that data can have many attributes.

Here's my example: I have two main notebooks: Personal and Work. Notes go into one or the other. But categorizations need not be in one or the other: I can have a "todo" item in either my work or personal world (that's a tag for me). I can have a note that's in the realm of "software development" in both my personal and work worlds (another tag). And so on. I can look for all of my "todo" items in all of my notes (work and personal), or just the individual ones. The fact that they are independent of each other is useful in the grand game of categorization, which can help us find our stuff.

[deverill 54]

The benefit of notebooks and tags as they are is that one can use tags to label a note as something, like the two things in the OP's example. Notebooks are like physical notebooks. Here's an example from the "real world".

A student has several courses. They have Math, Science, Computers, English, etc. The natural thing is to have a separate notebook for each subject. You don't want your English essay mixed in with your Math proofs! Now, each subject has notes that you know are going to be on the test. You may take red stickies and flag each page that contains test materials. This is like the Evernote tags - a test question would be on multiple notes and you label each accordingly, regardless of which subject notebook it is in.

I hope this helps, like Peter I was a bit unclear exactly what you meant, Iiz.

[peterfmartin 221]

In association with this topic, I hope that notebooks and tags would be integrated in future.

What do you mean?

If we could pin particular tags at the top of tag lists, I think it will work enough as notebooks.

You can effectively pin a tag at or near the top of your tag list by making the first character any symbol. In what way do you find notebooks better than tags, as they currently are?

And then I won't have to worry about which notebooks to choose / if I should make a new tag or new notebook.

How would your request solve this issue?

What is the benefit of separating notebook from tag as they are?

As someone who doesn't use notebooks, and only uses tags, I can't answer this from personal experience. Is there a reason you don't want to use only tags?

[iiz 1]

In association with this topic, I hope that notebooks and tags would be integrated in future.

If we could pin particular tags at the top of tag lists, I think it will work enough as notebooks.

And then I won't have to worry about which notebooks to choose / if I should make a new tag or new notebook.

What is the benefit of separating notebook from tag as they are?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Example: I want Billpay receipt for SJSU housing to be in "SJSU" stack "housing" notebook, and also in "financial" stack "529 account" notebook, since it applies to both. But how to do this without the note appearing twice...

So your objective seems to be how to associate one Note with multiple categories (SJSU/housing and Financial/529 account).

As the previous posters stated, each Note can be assigned to only one Notebook (NB).

You options, as I see them, are:

1. Use a combination of NB and Tags
   
2. Use only Tags
   

If you have, or plan to have, a lot of Notes specifically for SJSU, then you could use #1

However, #2 would probably give you the most flexibility, and would work as well, if not better than, #1.

With #1, I would probably change "SJSU" to be a NB, and the current Notebooks in the stack to be Tags.

Then, for your Billpay receipt:

• Notebook: SJSU
  
• Tags: Housing, Financial, Acct529
  

NOTE: By naming the tag "Acct529" instead of "529 account" it will make tag selection easier and avoid having to use quote marks in searches. When you are assigning a Tag to a Note, when you type "acct" the system will give you a selection list of all Tags starting with "acct". You will also be able to do a search with "acct*" to find all Notes for all accounts.

[jefito 5,589]

A note belongs to exactly one notebook. A notebook belongs to exactly one stack. You cannot do what you want.

Whereas, notes can have multiple tags.

Tags are an easy way to solve this.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Example: I want Billpay receipt for SJSU housing to be in "SJSU" stack "housing" notebook, and also in "financial" stack "529 account" notebook, since it applies to both. But how to do this without the note appearing twice...

hi auntie. well, in this case tags would work perfectly! see my response to your other thread for more