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REQUEST: Ability to select image to display in card view


jrayindc

Idea

I never used the thumbnail view before when browsing my notes but with the latest updates for Mac, I figured I would try out the new card view. I'm curious to know what logic EN uses to display the image in the card? For instance, if a note has multiple images in it, which one does EN select to display? I use EN for business use and could find this new feature useful for browsing notes but need to know how I can control the image that is displayed.

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It frustrates me again and again that I can't decide for myself which image is displayed in the cardview. In particularly ugly cases I even try to get the desired image by adjusting the resolution. This really cannot be Evernote's intention that users waste time with such nonsense.

Please Evernote: A small option tick in the context menu "make this the poster image"... can't be that difficult.

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On 5/30/2018 at 5:02 PM, Chaseme said:

Competitor Notion allows users to change the 'cover' image. I'm not trying to threaten any changes, but just mentioning that this is what competition does in a business environment — find gaps they can fill.

I started messing with Notion and I must admit they are doing a lot of stuff right that is being discussed around here.

A lot of customization options, colors, tables that can add etc. The banner over a note and a icon in Notion was a really nice touch for me, because for almost all notes I insert a logo or a graphic related to the note. If it is a statement from Bank of America, there would be a logo of BOA. 

My intent is not to start discussing notion here, but we really need customization such as selecting the image we want to display in the card view. The presentation of information is sometimes as important as the content. It helps with your brain's cognitive abilities and makes you enjoy the tool you use.

We are dedicated Evernote users and we really need these improvements (maybe need is a strong word here but I would really love these improvements)

Cheers! and Happy Saturday!

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It appears to be completely random to some users' consternation. Sometimes manipulating the contents of the note will change the displayed thumbnail, sometimes it won't. I agree that there needs to be some sort of predictable method for which image is displayed. I've got hundreds of images in my historical research and some of the random displayed images are completely useless (like the backs of buildings, zoomed-in pieces of architecture, or fragments of paintings and statues.

I'm hoping that if the card view is here to stay that its functionality will at least be improved for more practical uses.

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Apparently it looks for a small square image, or something like that... but I think that the best rule, a functional one for users that want to pick one image as an identifier, should be "choosing the first image", an image that you would place usually at the beginning of the note.

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Actually, it looks for a large square image, to avoid headers and banner ads and the like. If it displayed the first image, on web pages it would often display headers, which I imagine most users wouldn't want. (Since most of my notes are web clips, that would be very unhelpful for me.) Better would be some way for users to choose which image is displayed.

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Yahenda, you nailed it. This is a case of people trying to be too smart and missing what the customer really wants. "Let's spend a lot of time and money creating an algorithm to guess vs doing something simple and letting the user choose." Hoping the engineering process gets revisited and we're provided much more control. Until then, such as with this feature, images in notes are not only useless to me but distracting so think I'll put this service aside for a while. Best of luck to the team, think they have a good basis to build something really great (just need to revisit how they design and engineer around the customer).

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This is a case of people trying to be too smart and missing what the customer really wants. "Let's spend a lot of time and money creating an algorithm to guess vs doing something simple and letting the user choose." Hoping the engineering process gets revisited and we're provided much more control. Until then, such as with this feature, images in notes are not only useless to me but distracting so think I'll put this service aside for a while. Best of luck to the team, think they have a good basis to build something really great (just need to revisit how they design and engineer around the customer).

I'm not sure exactly how best to search this, but GrumpyMonkey has posted a lot in the forums about how Evernote could/should offer a lot more options, and Evernote employee dlu has made pretty clear that Evernote usually wants to make choices internally and not provide options. Sadly for those of use who want more control, it seems that we're more likely to get fewer options than more over time.

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… in snippet view, the formula is that the image with the "largest smallest" dimension is shown. This means the image whose smallest dimension is the largest of all images' smallest dimensions. Here's a fuller explanation: http://discussion.ev...g-a-thumbnail/.

I assume that these thumbnail images are meant to be more than just eye-candy, and that they're intended to make it easier for users to find notes by visually scanning through the snippet or card view.

This visual trigger works much better for me than I expected, even when the image selected by Evernote's algorithm is inappropriate. Once I've seen the image a few times, it becomes familiar, and I can spot the snippet or card much more quickly in a long list.

This makes it all the more troublesome that Evernote's algorithm seems to be inconsistent across devices.

I'm finding that 5 to 10 percent of my thumbnails are completely different on my Mac and iPad. Has anyone else experienced this? Surely there's not much point in the thumbnails if they are not consistent.

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So after some confusion, I realized that I had posted my original comments in Evernote for Win and that's what josephavellino was referring to above... so I've re-posted it here both for everyone else's reference and because I'm actually using Evernote for Mac:

>

>

Hello,

I am new to Evernote, I just started using it today and the first wall I hit was not being able to change the thumbnails on my notes. Then I came to this forum and read all this stuff about choosing the right algorithm for automatically generating a thumbnail.

What puzzles me is: How do you put that much thought into selecting an algorithm for auto-generating an image for a more intuitive note-taking experience... and not consider letting us pick our own?

For instance, I'm trying to use EN to compare-shop different audio interfaces for my macbook... a note for each model I'm considering... but the thumbnails are a mess; they show the store logos or ads that also appear on the page but none show the actual item I'm trying to compare. Is my intuition that far-fetched?

Is it me? If there's a different, more positive way for me to view this, please let me know.

Thanks

>

>

Now, I've searched through the forums extensively for info regarding image selection for thumbnails in the various views (card view, snippet view and the now discontinued thumbnail view) and found many users who are dissatisfied with the presentation of thumbnails, specifically in the card view... not just the fact that they can't control what image gets selected to represent their note, but how the image that is selected for them is cropped.

I've also read dlu remark that "the backlog of features we'd like to do is pretty long, so things that aren't going to be widely adopted tend to be de-prioritized."

...So what comes to my mind right away is that the addition of this feature of being able to select your own thumbnail image to represent your note would actually address two problems at once, right? Now that sounds like TWICE the potential feature adoption... is that enough for a re-prioritization? :D

I get that maybe the Evernote team is trying to keep the interface as simple as possible; clean lines, intuitive, not overwhelming the user with too many decisions... but really, what could be simpler and more intuitive than dragging an image from your note to the snippet or card view and have it become the thumbnail? It wouldn't come at the cost of the precious thumbnail auto-selection algorithm... the two features would compliment eachother.

P.S.

I know listening to people whine about what they're not getting in their free product is tedious at best so... Thanks for your attention!

- Yahenda

...Also...Does this thread count as a "feature request" or do we need to make a new one with an official 'feature request' title?

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...Also...Does this thread count as a "feature request" or do we need to make a new one with an official 'feature request' title?

I think at this point the thread is more accurate with the "request" title, so I've made that change. (It still makes clear that the ability to select the displayed image is not currently available.)

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This is the #1 thing currently bothering me right now.

 

Some images are just not ideal for small scale icon recognition.  Images take far less time to recognize, compared to reading text.  In a brimming Evernote environment, icon recognition is a major time saver.  Especially when jumping between lots of notes.

 

Please implement a simple icon selecting system.  Facebook has set a good example and expectations of ease.

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A custom thumbnail icon in cards view would be so helpful.

 

I just got my evernote edition scansnap scanner delivered today (birthday present for myself). I love it so far! A problem exists, however, where unless I pay super close attention (the reason I got this scanner in the first place is so that I don't have to! ) I end up with some nearly random thumbnail in cards view. So sad  : (   It appears to all intents and purposes that I only ever scan receipts! My beautiful key photo is hidden in the mix somewhere! This happens often when merging notes as well.

 

Please help.

Please fix.

 

Seth

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I start using Evernote this week. The image selection in cardview is the first problem I run into. Frustrated already and then reading that this issue has been addressed since 2012 and not changed since! 

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I can't remember in what thread I saw it, but while in "snippet" mode there is a process (acceptable but it could be simpler if EN invested a little more effort in addressing this issue) where by you can select a specific photo to be displayed in "snippet view". You just have to make sure that the specific photo you want displayed is the widest. How do you know which photo inside a note is the widest photo. Just open the note in edit mode; scroll down the note and visually compare the widths of the photos as they pass by; if your desired photo is not the widest, you can enlarge it by using EN Skitch; just draw circle around the photo that is larger than photo and save the changes (a frame around the photo will appear); if the width of the photo is not the largest yet, repeat the process); alternatively you could reduce the size of the widest photo using a similar process (albeit with one extra step); first enlarge an save the changed followed by a cropping step; you might need to experiment a little; save the photo first in case you need to recover from a fiasco. I am sure there are better apps that could enlarge or reduce photo sizes better, but this process works for me. Best wishes.

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There is a work around. Granted, it takes some time, but if you really need this functionality, try the following.

 

Make sure your cards are visible next to the note you are working on. Then, look at the image displayed on the card cover. If you don't like it, find it in the note and use the cut function (command + X) to remove the image. Wait to see the card update to a different picture. Then, paste the image back in. You will notice that the cover picture doesn't change on paste. Keep doing this until it "picks" the image you want. 

 

For instance, if you had a rose, a lily, and a daisy picture. You want the cover picture to be the daisy. Just keep removing the other images until it "selects" the daisy picture. Then, you can paste the images back in without concern it will change. 

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jlb247: Thanks for your note :) . I tried what you suggested using my Surface PC (since my  Android smart phone does not have the "control-x"  option). As much as I tried to cut and paste, the image did not change from what was there originally. The only (non-optimal) solution that has worked for me (check one of my previous comments)  is to resize the image that I want displayed in my snippet view to the correct aspect ratio (there are some apps out there that can help you resize images) an then, after some trial and error, I get the right image.  It is not a very practical solution. I have only done it once or twice to convince myself that it works, but otherwise I never do it.  

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This is ridiculous: this is a simple request that has been posted for three years (an eternity in the programing world) and it still hasn't been addressed?  I've tried the workaround of resorting images to get one to be the preview and it's not working.  I have almost a thousand patterns that I want to catalog, and I want the pic of the front of each pattern to be the one that shows on the card so I can scan through them quickly for the one I want.  Not being able to select which one sticks as the preview without editing every picture and then futzing around with the order they're pasted in makes EN a total waste of my time.

 

And here I was ready to upgrade, hoping that it was at least an option in the paid versions.  Glad I searched the community first -- no thanks to EN support for not being there for the free users. 

 

Time to clear my hardrive of a useless program.

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I sense that the EN programmers don't grasp all the benefits of allowing the users to choose which image (amongst many images stored in a single note) to display in the snippet view. My personal reason of why I would like this convenience is because I have many notes that touch into common topic areas that I would like to easily identify with a common image when I scroll through all my notes . Yet, the notes are independent enough that I don't want to group them into a separate notebook. In any case, EN has so many other incredible benefits that they overcompensate this one annoying weakness.

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There is not a way to manually choose which image in a note is displayed in the snippet; Evernote will choose the image with the largest smallest dimension.

For example, if you have 3 images with the following dimensions:

75x100

100x400

200x300

The "smallest" dimensions are 75, 100, and 200, respectively. We're going to use the image with the largest of those "smallest" dimensions (i.e., 200).

The only way to "choose" which image is shown in the snippet is to manipulate the dimensions of the photo using a third party application.

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I just want to add that I quite like the way Evernote displays images in the card and snippet views. The algorithm works fairly well.

However, if a user could drag an image from a note onto the card/snippet to update the thumbnail, that would be amazing! :)

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On 29 décembre 2015 at 0:13 AM, Neil Rutledge said:

I just want to add that I quite like the way Evernote displays images in the card and snippet views. The algorithm works fairly well.

However, if a user could drag an image from a note onto the card/snippet to update the thumbnail, that would be amazing! :)

That's all users are asking for years!

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On 16 December 2015 at 6:34 AM, amanda_h said:

There is not a way to manually choose which image in a note is displayed in the snippet; Evernote will choose the image with the largest smallest dimension.

For example, if you have 3 images with the following dimensions:

75x100

100x400

200x300

The "smallest" dimensions are 75, 100, and 200, respectively. We're going to use the image with the largest of those "smallest" dimensions (i.e., 200).

The only way to "choose" which image is shown in the snippet is to manipulate the dimensions of the photo using a third party application.

amanda_h, thanks but you did not then explain the selection when the images are of the same size which is often the case if they all come from the same camera.

Not that having to manipulate images sizes to achieve this is at all user friendly, but as a alternative I have found that by using the 'Annotate this image…' function you are able to 'crop' the image size to either make the desired one have the largest small dimension or reduce that of the unwanted ones that are larger! It is still though a pain because you need to really know the sizes of all images to then reset them accordingly.

Surely EN it must be time to deal with this issue, it's not a significant change and seems to me to be obvious oversight for functionality that otherwise intelligently permits multiple images within one note.

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9 minutes ago, ctash said:

This is a popular idea... 4 different requests... come on, Evernote!

 

Competitor Notion allows users to change the 'cover' image. I'm not trying to threaten any changes, but just mentioning that this is what competition does in a business environment — find gaps they can fill.

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Just took a quick pass and it appears, I could be reading it wrong, that PDF handling needs some work, particularly if you have a lot of PDFs.  That would be enough to stop me from diving any deeper. But again, I may be missing something.

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I'm back in this thread after another 2 years (though apparently all related FR's were merged into Control Which Image Shown in a Note's Thumbnail/Snippet View), cos this is still bothering me enough to log in to the forum, and…

Notion is fantastic! I've adopted it an an organisational level at both my jobs... regular releases, good release notes, real people replying with intelligent replies if I have a question not covered in their excellent documentation.

Will get around to migrating my personal notes sooner or later… ciao Evernote!

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