(Archived) Embedded / attached PDFs - why the difference?

[Davos119 1]

I am finding that some of my PDFs in Evernote behave like attachments (like they would in something like Outlook) and some appear 'embedded', so the content of the PDF is immediately viewable as a note.

I am a premium user and I have found that the 'attached' PDFs are not searchable, whereas the 'embedded' ones are.

The thing I don't understand is how PDFs end up in Evernote in two different ways. I assume it might be something to do with the app that sends the PDF to Evernote, but I am wondering if I have any control, or if there is anything I can do about this?

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

This is the 'attached' PDF. I created it with CamScanner on my Andoid Phone, then opened it in NoteAbility on the iPad and highlighted the quote, then I used the 'Open in Evernote' function on the NoteAbility app. This is how it transferred to Evernote:

I then opened the attached PDF, saved it to the Desktop, re-named it, and then sent it straight from the Desktop to the Evernote Windows app using the right-click menu. This is how it transferred:

It's the same PDF. Obviously the second version is preferable, especially as it's searchable, and the other one isn't.

Can anyone shed any light on why they're coming up differently?

Cheers

d

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I am finding that some of my PDFs in Evernote behave like attachments (like they would in something like Outlook) and some appear 'embedded', so the content of the PDF is immediately viewable as a note.

I am a premium user and I have found that the 'attached' PDFs are not searchable, whereas the 'embedded' ones are.

The thing I don't understand is how PDFs end up in Evernote in two different ways. I assume it might be something to do with the app that sends the PDF to Evernote, but I am wondering if I have any control, or if there is anything I can do about this?

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

This is the 'attached' PDF. I created it with CamScanner on my Andoid Phone, then opened it in NoteAbility on the iPad and highlighted the quote, then I used the 'Open in Evernote' function on the NoteAbility app. This is how it transferred to Evernote:

I then opened the attached PDF, saved it to the Desktop, re-named it, and then sent it straight from the Desktop to the Evernote Windows app using the right-click menu. This is how it transferred:

It's the same PDF. Obviously the second version is preferable, especially as it's searchable, and the other one isn't.

Can anyone shed any light on why they're coming up differently?

Cheers

d

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

I cannot access my Windows account at the moment, so I don't have the details, but somewhere in the preferences there is an option to view new PDFs inline (the second image you posted) or as attachments (the first image you posted). You can change this for a global change going forward, or right click on an individual PDF to change how it is displayed.

[EDIT:] By the way, I noticed your PDF has a really long file name. You can rename them as well. This can be an advantage if you use the advanced search grammar, which allows you to search for things by attributes like filenames.

[jbenson2 2,147]

From a couple posts last year:

Holding the Shift key while dropping the text file on the note will add the text file to the note as an attachment.

and

Starting with rev 123659 if you hold down Shift key while dropping a file on EN4 or executing Attach File command the resulting attachment will not be expanded inline, i.e. pdf's will look like all other attachments and .txt/.enex files will be attached instead of being imported. For backward compatibility reasons this does not work for embedded .jpg/.png files by default, so if you want this to work for images, set HKCU\Software\Evernote\Evernote\StrictAttachments to 1.

[gazumped 11,652]

...and if you right-click the PDF file in whichever state it is shown, you can tick or untick "view as attachment" which will change the way that you see it.

The reason that attached files are not searchable always used to be obvious: Evernote's OCR can't see inside an attached file, whereas it can process an embedded one. Your query raises an interesting question - what if you OCR (or allow Evernote to OCR) a file, then switch to "view as attachment" - is it still searchable? I'd suspect that it is, because an index has been created that points to this note; but it might be interesting to test it out...

[Davos119 1]

Thanks for the replies people.

Hmmmm, the 'view as attachment' option is greyed out for the PDF that was imported from NoteAbility to Evernote on the iPad, so I can't change the way it appears:

It's not greyed out on the other 'in-line' version, which as I said, is actually the very same PDF exported from Evernote to the desktop, re-named, and then re-imported.

So I don't know what that means. Maybe it's something to do with the way the PDF is created by the NoteAbility app? Maybe it's that silly long name GrumpMonkey mentioned (that's the name given by the app when you import a PDF, but yes I agree, it should be changed to something sensible)

Whatever it is, there's clearly something here that Evernote doesn't like...

Simple solution: add the ability to highlight and annotate text in a PDF directly in Evernote and do away with the additional step completely...

[Edited: to make image appear as thumbnail rather than full size]

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

The reason that attached files are not searchable always used to be obvious: Evernote's OCR can't see inside an attached file, whereas it can process an embedded one.

I don't think this is correct.

Whether the PDF attachment is displayed as "Inline" or "Attachment" simply controls how it appears in the Note when you view it.

It should NOT have any impact on OCR of the attachment, or on Search.

I just tested Search in EN Mac, and it does find attachments which are displayed only as an attachment icon.

Perhaps someone from Evernote can confirm/refute my assertion of how OCR works.

[Vincent JJ 2]

Hi - I have exactly the same problem with some pdf's.

But I found a workaround (which works at least for me) : in Evernote, right-click on the pdf attachment and save-as on your desktop. Then on your desktop, right-click on the saved pdf and choose send-to Evernote (assuming you have the Evernote fat client installed on your machine). And - magic ! Now it does arrive as an embedded pdf in Evernote.

Or even more simple : drag and drop that 'problematic" pdf from your machine to your Evernote fat client and it comes in as embedded.

This works even with attached pdf's already in Evernote: in the fat client drag that attached pdf to the left column, and Evernote creates a new note, now with the pdf embedded instead of attached.

[Ian Daniel 10]

This was driving me bonkers, it always showed the full PDF. Not sure why anyone would want that as a default setting.

Here's how to show as a small attachment only.

• Click on the Tools menu > Options > Note tab.
  
• Check "Always show PDF documents as attachments ".
  

[Argonauta 0]

Hello everybody, I am driving crazy with this issue as well. I would like to se my pdf files inline/embedded in the note rather than as attachment and I can do that while using Evernote application but not via Evernote web access. I used both Chrome and IE as browsers but no way: pdf there appear only as attachments. Does anybody knows if there is a workaround allowing pdf to appear inline when accessing Evernote via the web? Thanks a lot for your advice.

[gazumped 11,652]

So @Ian wants always to see the icon; @Argonauta only wants the inline version. Evernote can't seem to win either way - though it does offer the option to change from one default to the other as Ian notes. (You can also shift-drag and drop from a desktop to a note.)

However in mobile and web applications the default is the icon view, and so far there's no way to change that.

[Tedology 7]

...and if you right-click the PDF file in whichever state it is shown, you can tick or untick "view as attachment" which will change the way that you see it.

Just wanted to thank you for this tip...it's a good one!

[Argonauta 0]

gazumped today at 01:09 AM said: However in mobile and web applications the default is the icon view, and so far there's no way to change that.

Thank you gazumped - at least now I know. Your answer was more helpful than a billion emails exchanged with Evernote customer support.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

For searching purposes, I prefer to extract the text of PDFs, paste that into a note, and leave the original PDF in Dropbox as part of my efforts to optimize things for my particular situation (http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/29245-how-to-optimize-your-evernote-experience/#entry173506).

Whether you keep the PDF or not in the note with the extracted text, one benefit of this on mobile is that the content will remain searchable, even if you are not connected to the Internet. The last time I checked, PDF content was not indexed for offline access, and so it would not turn up in search results. In addition, because you cannot view PDFs inline, the extracted text enables you to easily jump around to every instance of the search result, no matter what client you are using.

[DigitalCaveman 1]

Okay, so I see that each has his/her preference about what they want evernote to do with their PDF's. At my College we are using Evernote to distribute one shared Note that has about 6-10 PDF's to all students. It's not ideal if the PDF's embed in the note because some of them might be 10+ pages and then the notes become extremely long and difficult for students to navigate and find the appropriate form. I understand how to set my preferences so I can choose how to view my PDF's in my notes, but this doesn't seem to control how others see my notes when I share them (in this case the students). Thus far, Evernote has become the best and most fool proof solution for sharing documents with students as a school and from Instructors to students. But the fact that the PDF's automatically seem to now be opening in the notes is causing issues. 

 

Is there a way to make the PDF's remain as attachments when a note is shared?

 

Thanks.