(Archived) Clipper for Thunderbird Redux

[hostricity 12]

When I started evaluating Evernote a few months ago, we were using a web based helpdesk, which meant the customer communications via email & helpdesk forms could be clipped to Evernote within a web browser. Unfortunately, the help desk we used has raised their prices, putting it beyond the reach of our non-profit clients as an email & organizational tool.

We've made a decision to move away from that solution and to a desktop email client. We chose Thunderbird because one of our missions is to use tools that are low-cost or free whcih we can then help our non-profit clients implement in their environment.

I realize that Thunderbird was not supported at the time we started working with Evernote, but at that point we had no plans to go to a desktop email client.

The problem facing us is that there's no desktop email client which supports IMAP and which supports the Evernote Clipper other than MS Outlook and for this customer base, the cost of Microsoft Office products simply isn't an option when OpenOffice and Thunderbird are avaialable for free.

So, we are faced with a dilema: Without Evernote Thunderbird support, how do we make use of Evernote in a manner which allows us to use Thunderbird efficiently?

WE WOULD BE HAPPY TO LOOK AT A DIFFERENT EMAIL CLIENT if one exists that will run on the Window & Linux platforms and which supports both IMAP and Evernote. We'd even settle for an email client that supports both IMAP and Evernote only on Windows.

Unfortunately, it appears that no email client other than Thunderbird exists which meets our requirements.

What that means is that we're more likely to abandon Evernote than to abandon email use.

I'm interested to know how others manage creating notes in Evernote from a desktop email client. I may be missing something simple that solves this problem.

What we did before is select the text and clip it to a note where we would then adjust the title, tags, and notebook as needed. We could even use Clearly to clean up the formatting before selecting what we wanted to post.

[heather 604]

You can forward emails to Evernote from *any* client (and assign them to notebooks/tags).

And, you can use the built-in clippers with Evernote for Windows/Evernote for Mac if you're using the Desktop clients, as they work with any program, not just the Web.

So, what exactly is your workflow problem that you're running into with the missing Thunderbird clipper?

[hostricity 12]

Forwarding an email to Evernote doesn't give the control needed because it isn't real time. You forward the email and then it appears in EN at some time in the future.

I don't understand how the Evernote Windows Desktop Client allow me to clip something from Thunderbird. I selected something in a Thunderbird email message & right-clicked, but there are no Evernote related options on the context menu.

I do see that I can copy text to the clipboard, bring up EN, click on New Note, paste the text, and go from there, but that's not as simple as having EN come up automatically with the text already in a new note, ready for finalizing.

The workflow issue is tailoring something in a Thunderbird email and getting it into Evernote as easily as possible. The more clicks and steps, the more difficult it is to get people - especially volunteers - to comply.

[hostricity 12]

Without the clipper tool, it also means that you have to clip from a website one way and clip from an email a different way - which increases training issues.

[heather 604]

Instead of Right-Clicking, select the Text in Thunderbird and hit Ctrl+Alt+V. It will go right into a new note in Evernote for Windows. One step.

You can use the exact same method on websites.

[hostricity 12]

I tried the ctrl+Avlt+V technique and it didn't work from Thunderbird or from Firefox.

Doing it the same way isn't the only issue.

I simply point out that the clipper works extremely well and has some excellent feautures that are not available simply using a clipboard technique --- ctr+alt+v isn't as easy as being trained to use the context menu and look for what you want to do. This works with all kinds of applications in addition to Evernote.

We find that training someone to use the context menu is the most universal thing we can teach them for most applications. Having a button to click isn't even as easy because it's less universal and you have to know the image associated with the function.

[heather 604]

Oh, I apologize. I gave you the wrong one. It's actually Win+A. Ctrl+Alt+V copies what's already on your clipboard (that's what I use more often.)

My point is that we have put our efforts toward designing a clipper that works with *every* application you could possibly install on your machine, rather than for a little used mail client. With Win+A (And Win+PrintScrn), you can clip everything that appears on your desktop, not just in your email client or your web browser, which is much more useful.

[hostricity 12]

Neither of the key combinations worked on my Windows 7 x64 machine.

The problem is that there's nothing visual that clues the user in to what they need to do like the clipper button or context menu options available within a browser or within Outlook.

Perhaps, you could set it up so that when you install EN for Windows, it adds the context menu items.

We do have speical requirements: Non-profits that use a lot of volunteers who are difficult to train and keep trained, and the cost of software (Microsoft Office & Outlook for example) which cannot be a requirement for a volunteer who often works on his or her own computer.

I do understand what you are saying, but you've chosen to implement a clipper which is easier to use in Outlook than anything available to be used with other email clients.

Just the fact that the key combiniations you stated don't work on my machine tells me right off the bat that there's an installation and configuration issue which goes well beyond "Download and install this thing from this link".

In the environment we are discussing, less functionality is a better option than functionality requiring a lot of support to make it work on a volunteer's machine and training the volunteer to use it. When there's a button to click or a right-click context menu option, the ability of the computer user to figure out how to do something goes up dramatically.

I'm not gigging you because you abandoned the Thunderbird Clipper. I'm simply giving you the courtesy of explaining why we will most likely abandon our efforts to make Evernote work for the specific customers I've been discussing.

[heather 604]

Can you do me a favor and go into Evernote for Windows, Tools->Options->Hot Keys and let me know what you see there under "Copy Selection"? By Default, it's Win+A, but it's user changeable.

Additionally, if you close Evernote, the clipper closes too, so you need to have Evernote open.

It's been a year since we discontinued our Thunderbird clipper, and we have an open API and scripting language. In that time, no one else has developed a clipper for Thunderbird and Evernote, but there's been other clippers designed for Evernote and different mail programs that are build on our API (and scripting language.) We don't have a clipper for Mac Mail, for example, but someone made one anyway.

We already have a Universal Clipper that works in more than just one program (which for some reason is not working on your machine, even though it works fine for me and many other people.)

So, like I said, we chose to focus our energies on supporting *everything* all at once (Including OpenOffice), rather than individually.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Can you do me a favor and go into Evernote for Windows, Tools->Options->Hot Keys and let me know what you see there under "Copy Selection"? By Default, it's Win+A, but it's user changeable.

Additionally, if you close Evernote, the clipper closes too, so you need to have Evernote open.

It's been a year since we discontinued our Thunderbird clipper, and we have an open API and scripting language. In that time, no one else has developed a clipper for Thunderbird and Evernote, but there's been other clippers designed for Evernote and different mail programs that are build on our API (and scripting language.) We don't have a clipper for Mac Mail, for example, but someone made one anyway.

We already have a Universal Clipper that works in more than just one program (which for some reason is not working on your machine, even though it works fine for me and many other people.)

So, like I said, we chose to focus our energies on supporting *everything* all at once (Including OpenOffice), rather than individually.

It would be nice if we had a post somewhere to refer users that showed all of the options for integrating apps / hacks to accomplish tasks.

For example, on the iPad there is no native Safari web clipper available. There are at least three options for getting a web clipping into Evernote: (1) copy the content of the page, email yourself a url to the page, and paste the content of the page into that email, (2) use the Safari hack, or (3) use iCabMobile, which has a web clipper.

Something like this for Thunderbird (even if only a few sentences) could help out a lot, and then users on this forum could link to the post whenever questions come up. Sometimes, I think people don't really want Evernote to use X to accomplish Y, they just want to accomplish Y. If they know there is a way, then everyone is satisfied

[hostricity 12]

Here's a screenshot of the hotkey options.

The screen capture works - but only when Evernote is running. For some reason the "Alt+N" didn't show up on the create new note hot key -- but it is there in the options and it is one the hotkey combinations that actually works.

None of the hot-key combinations work unless Evernote is running. Even then, not all of them are working. When Evernote is running, I can create a new note and I can do a screen capture using hot keys, but the other options are not working.

For any of it to work, Evernote must already be running - which is not required if you're using a Clipper add-in.

Essentially, part of what is missing is a stub that will process the hot-keys or context menu options and start up Evernote to process them -- which is major functionality not available unless there's a program or add-in running to do it.

Evernote needs to install a service that runs automatically at Windows start-up which processes the hot-keys and puts options on the context menu.

I do understand that there's an option to automatically start Evernote at Windows start-up, but that's not the same thing. Look how long it took me to identify the issue. Then, there's the fact that the user can exit from Evernote - which kills the clipping functionality, where they're hightly unlikely to stop a service.

If you want to have a generalized clipper, there has to be an automatically started service that manages it for it to work consistently and not generate training and support problems.

[KrisG 0]

Dear Heather,

when I try to use win-A on a text that I selected in one of the mails that I received in Thunderbird, I get an Evernote error message saying that copy to clipboard failed : ...didn't copy any data to the clipboard, or no data was selected (I translate from Dutch for you).

But why should I use win-A anyway ? The "clipping" does work when I use ctrl-c instead of win-A, followed by ctrl-alt-v. What extra should I get from the win-A hot key ?

[heather 604]

Win+A saves you the step of having to Ctrl+Alt+V, that's all. Not sure why it isn't working in your case.

[KrisG 0]

Thanks for clarifying this. Win+a works fine for text on websites, but for some reason not in Thunderbird (17.0). Apparently it doesn't detect the text that I have selected.

[mds386 7]

Myself and others are having this problem. I started another thread on this topic. You'll find it in the Windows section of the forum with the tag "Win+A".

This is problem with the latest Thunderbird and Firefox. Selecting text in the browser or in the email client and pressing Win+A results in a message box coming up saying:

Clipboard capture failed: "Clipper for Thunderbird Redux - Evernote Web Clipper - Evernote User Form - Mozilla Firefox" did not copy any data to clipboard or there is no selection.

But there is a selection. I selected a couple of sentences of text and pressed Win+A. I can see the text is still selected. When I dismiss the Evernote error dialog, the text is still selected.

Q: Did Firefox and Thunderbird a more secure Gecko that does not allow other apps to query their selected text and in the process break Evernote?

I to am on Windows 7 x64.

Win+A works for me in other applications.