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Long time user, 1st time poster: Evernote bullet lists needs to be fixed NOW


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I've been a user of Evernote for years, and have been a vocal advocate of it to my friends.

I'm reaching the breaking point with some of it's bugs though, with the most frustrating being bulleted/numbered lists. Bulleted/numbered lists has been broken in evernote *forever.* I use desktop version on both PC and Mac, and always updated to the latest version within a day. And it has remained broken forever on both.

The most egregious bug is that it seems to get very messed up with (1) multiple indent levels, (2) when trying to cut/paste within the list, (3) deleting in general. (Those are not odd use cases, obviously!) The bug will then have many manifestations, but the most common is a weird "space" in the bullet list that can't be corrected/deleted - it becomes a persistent gap/space, and seems to mess up the integrity of the whole list. Further, indentation levels get messed up, and sometimes the next bullet disappears.

This is an inexcusable bug for a product at this stage in it's lifecycle. The core value proposition of evernote is organization and note taking (everNOTE), and bulleted lists are one of the primary ways of doing this for many people. It is embarrassing and amateurish that a product with a massive office visible from 101, a valuation of $1B, and a recent round that raised $70M, can't have a functioning note taking feature for their note taking product.

For those out there for whom bulleted lists is one of the main things they want to use evernote for, I suggest you take a look at workflowy.com. Best web-based note taking / bulleted list tool I've ever seen, with a lot of really cool features such as zooming in / collapsing & expanding, sharing, tagging, and more. Light weight yet powerful. And evernote, you should seriously consider buying them.

Or at least fix this very basic feature fast! I've begun switching over to workflowy for many things, and if I'm going to spend my time in that app for note taking, outlining, to-do listing, etc., then I start having a lot less reason to use EN.

Note: I am being harsh because I love you!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I spent a lot of time researching which program to use, and I've finally decided to go with evernote.

Set it up, and jumped in to using it full force this morning.

I hit this bump... with the bullets, and I can't seem to get passed it.

The entire idea is to make things so simple and smooth in order to be more productive. Unfortunately instead, I keep going back and forth trying to get one simple note in the system. Every time I attempt to edit or change anything, the bullets get all messed up.

It's beyond frustrating. I don't know how to get passed it. I can't understand how so many people were able to use this successfully...

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I am another frustrated bullet user and as much as I love Evernote, I will look at other products to see how they handle bulleting.

Bullet issue #1 The most frustrating issue is the inconsistent behavior of bullets in Evernote. I just spent an hour taking bulleted notes with a good bit of indenting and when I was through, I saved the note and then went back into the note to review. All the indentation disappeared and I was left with a long list on root level bullets. To make matters worse, I fixed the indentation, saved it and rechecked the note and all the indentation disappeared again. It pretty much makes the organization of the note useless.

Bullet Issue #2 Later in the day, I attempted to reformat another note full of bullets and ran across the issue where the bullets disappeared when I attempted to changed the indentation of a block of bullets. No matter what I do, I cannot get the bullets to reappear.

Bullet Issue #3 Will the number outline feature ever give us the option of choosing different outline options. Currently, the use of numbers for every level is really ugly and honestly, I don't ever think I have seen an outline that uses that format. This is what it looks like now...

  1. Stuff

    1. Stuff

      1. Stuff
      2. Stuff
      3. Stuff

      4. Stuff


        Can we get
        1. Stuff
        a. Stuff
        b. Stuff
        i) Stuff
        ii) Stuff
        2. Stuff
        Thanks
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Agggg. So much potential. I'd got me and my wife onto Evernote. I had her buy a premium account so we could share her notebooks. I was starting to fall for Evernote as a new core app.

And then I realized that all the bugs and pain around bullets aren't just user error.

In fact they have no easy workaround. Cut and paste is hopeless. Deleting the awkward spaces is hopeless.

Is there an ETA for getting this fixed? If not I'm going to take the advice to switch to Workflowy.

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Formatting in general is poor in EN. Even basic functions, such as preserving font type/size across platforms or copy & paste, are buggy and problems don't necessarily get acknowledged as such. The issue of additional blank lines being injected (why???) when copying text from EN has been around forever and is being discussed on the forums, but I don't recall there ever having been a reaction from EN. Against this background, I doubt that bullets are high on their list of things that need fixing.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I have suffered with the bullet list problems as well.  

 

I just found this in the windows client:

    Format -- Simplify formatting (or Ctrl+Space)

If I have a multi-level bullet list with corrupted formatting, this seems to clean it up.  Your mileage may vary - I suggest making a copy of a note before you try it.  I'd be interested to hear any comments/experiences on this technique.

 

I definitely agree with the sentiments of other users:

 - why is there even a problem like this in software as mature as evernote?

 - why is there no PRACTICAL response from evernote or an evangelist (workaround , explanation, time-to-fix)?

 - if no practical response is possible, why is there no acknowledgement and apology?

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  • Level 5

My solution is to use Workflowy.com

It creates a perfect outline and does a fine job with bullets.

 

If needed, I will export portions of the outline into Evernote for reference.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh, please actually hear us :) I've been waiting for improvements forever...

 

Just today I had to use bulleted lists - and almost went mad with all those bugs. The whole lists thing is really pretty much unusable.

 

I'm thinking about making a screencast just to show you all the ridiculous problems I'm having with it...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Level 5

It's a small item, but I find I get most grief with copy and pasted items.

Scenario one:

 

Even within a note started fresh with nothing but Evernote typed content, I find that if I highlight a nested block and paste it somewhere within the same note, I may or may not see it behave as expected if I change indentation levels or number/bullet formats.  But for sure, if I sync it to ipad and do the same, I see all sorts of anomalies.

 

However if after pasting the block I highlight it and choose "Simply formatting", I find I have much better success with round tripping the note and not seeing anomalies after the fact.

 

Scenario 2, is pasting in a nested list from another app.  It may appear to be using the same bullets and number formats but the HTML or Rich text markup more often than not will create headaches, if I don't take the time to highlight the block and "Simply formatting".

I try and leave pasted (X)HTML or rich markup as read only reference where possible.  If I'm going to need to message it, it's almost better to Simply (ctrl-space) or Remove (shift Ctrl-space) formatting and add it back with evernote formatting controls.

 

Only then can I expect it to behave on subsequent edits, especially if syncing to other clients.

 

It can also be particularly important to Simply/Remove formatting in the whitespace above and below a content block.

It may appear to be empty, but often there can be unseen formatting tags lurking, be that HTML Table tags, or list, or other alignment cues.  Those are going to bite you at somepoint as you re-use and move the content around.

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  • 1 month later...

I'd just like to 'me too' this. A huge percent of my evernotes are notes I take from meetings or research and all those are in outline form using bullets. I'm forever having to reformat. Very frustrating. Simplify Formatting helps, but it's a work-around and doesn't always do the expected thing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evernote is going bonkers with my bulleted lists for the millionth time. Finding a post describing exactly this issue was a relief. Thank you OP, very therapeutic read. :P

 

While I appreciate the response from Evernote, I'm bummed it isn't a more concrete "this is currently being fixed." Bulleted lists... c'mon!

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  • Level 5*

...please know this is near the top of our list.

Is it a bullet list?

I couldn't help myself :)

Here is something that Evernote bullet lists get right. If you make an indented bullet list and then change the note to plain text (removing the formatting), the spacing is retained so that the note (usually) displays correctly in other apps that use Markdown. This is nice!

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  • Level 5*

...please know this is near the top of our list.

Is it a bullet list?

I couldn't help myself :)

Here is something that Evernote bullet lists get right. If you make an indented bullet list and then change the note to plain text (removing the formatting), the spacing is retained so that the note (usually) displays correctly in other apps that use Markdown. This is nice!

Yeah, a fix would be nice, but I just had a lovely struggle with the ThunderBird email program over, yes, you guessed it -- bullet lists!! There were other formatting oddities as well. It apparently isn't as easy as it may seem.
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  • Level 5*

...please know this is near the top of our list.

Is it a bullet list?

I couldn't help myself :)

Here is something that Evernote bullet lists get right. If you make an indented bullet list and then change the note to plain text (removing the formatting), the spacing is retained so that the note (usually) displays correctly in other apps that use Markdown. This is nice!

Yeah, a fix would be nice, but I just had a lovely struggle with the ThunderBird email program over, yes, you guessed it -- bullet lists!! There were other formatting oddities as well. It apparently isn't as easy as it may seem.

I've been saying that for years. Everyone gets on Evernote's case for this, but I think they have collective amnesia, or just are not old enough to remember the good ol' days. Bullet lists and outlines ain't as easy as they appear. Sure, Evernote has got to do better, but it's probably a lot easier said than done.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bullet list has been broken in Evernote for at least 4 years (!) now. The latest web update has it COMPLETELY broken for me running the latest Chrome on CentOS 6.4. I am currently looking for new note-taking software - or I will write my own. Good luck with your IPO - I don't recommend buying into it!

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Janik ... I can recommend workflowy.com for cloud-based bullet point lists.  100% reliable in my experience and has some slick features like really good collapse/expand of subbranches, double-click to make a given bullet sub-branch become the full-screen view, tagging and filtering via tags, sharing, and more. 

 

Not an evernote replacement obviously, but if you need really good and reliable bullet-point lists in a webapp give workflowy a try (free).

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I wrote up a long note with many levels of bulleted lists, and when I re-opened the note later in the day, the bullets were all completely messed up - most of the nested levels had been changed to root level, some bullet points were missing, and so on.  I had been so excited to start using Evernote for everything, but this bug with bullet points is a show stopper.  Please, please fix it!  Bulleted lists are essential to me in note writing and it is so disappointing that they are so messed up.

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I'm waiting for the fix for years. And because of this only bug I moved to Google Docs years ago. From time to time I came back to check newer versions of EN but the bug was still there, for years.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I have to agree -- I've contacted support a number of times about bullet issues.  I love Evernote enough to have become a premium user -- not because I need the space or features, just because I want to support the app because I use it so much.  Anyhow, I have to work around bullet formatting issues daily, multiple times a day, and it is irritating.  Just feeling frustrated and was curious if I was the only user in the world who uses bullets and has problems with it in Evernote.  Obviously I'm not alone - I see 3 users are online currently reading this post.  I know venting here won't help make it better, but I just wanted to voice my frustrations somewhere.  Bullets and in general any rich text type formatting is clunky and/or buggy in Evernote. I'm not taking my business elsewhere, but I wish making this as good as the rest of the app were more of a priority.  Ugh!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
this issue was raised a year ago, and the problem has been around for as long as evernote has been in existence, and it hasn't been fixed??

 

like what others have mentioned, evernote being a note-taking app must get the basics right, and outlining in numbered lists is a basic function of any note-taking app.

 

please fix this now!

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  • Level 5

Since my last update, we have released minor fixes to the bulleted lists. We are planning a large cross-platform note editor release (no timeline guaranteed because this is a *big* project) that will positively affect bulleted list behavior.

 

Thanks for letting us know what's important to you!

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  • 2 weeks later...

For all the devs listening out there:

Love the utility of Evernote: have used it almost exclusively for my first semester of law school (obviously very extensive use!)

 

However, it is very difficult to continue to use it, and at this point I must switch to MS Word.

 

I've had significant issues with using expanded bullet and numbered lists. I try to export to Word and there are not insignificant formatting problems.  (Yes, HTML export and copy-paste is available, and yet when opened/pasted into MS Word it still leaves extra bullet marks after every list indent. This requires extensive manual deletion if you're trying to save printing costs and space).

 

Because of this hassle - almost exclusively - I will switch until its fixed and use my Word files with Dropbox. (Word files can also be exported to a number of different additional formats). I could live with the inability to format notes if it printed correctly or I had some flexibility there. I could live with it if it was simply the weird way the bullet lists glitch.

 

I just have to have more ability to format lists and their printing format the way I need it. Good luck and I'll see you when it's fixed!

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I'm glad that it's a known issue and it's being taken care of --- for a second I thought I was the only one using bullet points extensively on EN and the only one bothered this much by this issue!

My premium just expired, and I'm holding my renewal hostage until this is fixed. I'll gladly renew my premium once this issue is gone. For the moment, this issue has forced me to use other programs, so I'm using EN less and less (against my will! I would really love to have this issue fixed and do all of my writing work on EN, as I originally intended to!)

 

I'll keep this thread bookmarked :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is so frustrating!  I literally run into the bulleted list issues hundreds of times per day.  Mostly it's that the bullets disappear if I reduce the indent and then the levels become mangled if I try to fix it.

 

Even this simple html editor in the forum gets it right:

  • Test
    • Test
    • Test
  • Test

Please make this a priority--we don't need more web clippers or food picture-thingys, we just need the functionality that's already there to work.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Although I knew this was an issue, I shared a note with a partner company on a project we are doing. Thought would make sense to use Evernote for this. Well bottom line is that was a BIG MISTAKE! Why...

 

He put his comments in my bulleted list underneath. I tried to respond with different formatting or bullets and WHAT A MESS! After telling myself over and over that I could just do something that would work I gave up and did a copy and paste into Word. (Of course Word then said WTF and the doc still is more of a mess than it should be for a 1 pager with 13 bullets.)

 

I just tweeted that I wanted to change my rating for Evernote bullets on survey I just got. I asked if they could extend the scale to my LEFT of the 0 so I could provide the appropriate response.

 

I'll keep paying for Evernote and do like lots of stuff on it but this one I'll not use again for a bit. I'll do in Word and save that to Evernote vs trying a bulleted list in Evernote again until I'm sure it's MUCH better.

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I too am a first-time poster, came across this thread from searching how to fix the bullet problems in Evernote. I'll add a post to clarify the specific aspects of bullet/note functionality that are an issue to me (or at least what I've noticed so far).  I'll try to give you enough to make a user story if that's helpful. 

 

I am a business and personal user.  When in meetings tracking key points and discussion items, it is best done with bullets.  On the personal side I'm researching plants to go in our back yard - again a bullet list of plants under a sub-header in the note is the natural way for me to do it. When I then want to share those notes via email or include them in some other document, the formatting is awful and has to be manually corrected line by line.  

 

Another issue is when taking notes, often the lead up to a section of bullets is a short text sentence w/out a bullet - then when you go to make the bullet, it adds an extra line and separates the thought from the above sentence - which is the opposite of what I want it to do.  The way I have to handle that is either putting everything in bullets and nesting (and then cross fingers) or to add a lot of extra line returns through the note in order to create more separation from above thoughts and create the visual impression that the sentence w/ bullets is still together.  (Happy to clarify if that doesn't make sense). 

 

If Evernote can fix these problems and make it more useful as a note-taking app I think it could explode (in a good way) in the business realm - and people would be willing to pay for that.  I know I would.

 

thanks

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  • 2 months later...

Bullets are still a daily frustratration for me in latest release under OS X.  Today's frustration: 

  • item 1
  • item 2
    • subitem1
    • subitem2

In this document, I cannot reorder "Item 1" and "Item 2" by cutting "item 1", adding line break after "subitem2", pasting, and Shift-Tabbing to adjust indentation.  When I Shift-Tab, the "item 1" line loses its bullet.

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Many other users' summarized frustrations apply to me as well.  Please fix.

 

For example of how it should work, look at Google Docs.

 

If the problem relates to copied in rich formatting, have an option to indicate where the rich text is maybe?

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  • 1 month later...

Because this was such a daily frustration, I did what any self-respecting Evernote user would do:  I nearly completely eliminated bullets from my notes.  Instead, I created "templates" that I copy and paste from with font size and colors for various sections and organizing.  I say "nearly" because I occasionally add some bullets.  However, I don't nest them -- top level bullets only.  It's nice to hear they are working better skennedy789.  Maybe at some point in the future I'll have to test them out -- perhaps after this thread goes quiet for good.

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We're still actively working on these. Can't wait to show you what we've got cooking!

Can't wait to see, and use. :-)

A functional, up-to-date, fully-rationalized* Note Editor would be a huge step forward for Evernote.

*Despite hours of investigation, I still have no idea how to control fonts, point size, styles (heading styles seem to be arbitrarily applied), line heights, or columns of content pasted into a Note.

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Just want to throw in my $.02. The editor has been my number #1 frustration since day 1 especially with bullted/numbered lists. It's actually discouraged me from using Evernote for certain things. I really hope this gets fixed soon before someone makes a competitive product with an actual functioning editor.

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I just started using EN a few weeks ago and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!  Am about to start law school in beautiful Vancouver and needed a cloud-based note taking tool that actually works.  I only work on Apple products and am currently using the desktop application for my MacBook Pro.

 

Now, I must qualify my above statement respecting love... I have one single issue that is starting to absolutely frustrate me:  the rather pathetic functionality of EN's bulleting and outlining features.  It is absolutely horrific.  Bullets will not populate after pressing enter while typing within an already-created bulleted list.  Bullets will not indent properly.  No logical subcategories when using the numbered bullets.  Simply put, a nightmare.  Especially when taking the most salient purpose of EN into account... A note-taking tool priding itself in ease-of-use, yet, users are unable to format a simple bulleted outline.  Rather odd, in my humble opinion.  

 

... This actually made me frustrated enough to seek out this forum and create a username.  Normally, I don't ever post on forums such as this.  

 

I beg you, please fix this!  In closing, I do feel rather pathetic myself for voicing my opinion in such a harsh tone about a service that I am currently using free of charge.  Once this is fixed, I will definitely upgrade to premium service.

 

Thanks guys and am looking forward to the fix.

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  • 1 month later...
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  • Level 5

It's only been 5 years.  We've had other pressing bugs, features requested and featured promised, older than that.  This bullets thing is still wet behind the ears.

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Tried the new beta? Any better?

 

I haven't tried the new beta, because I gave up on Evernote after literally years of false promises that this was "very important to the team."

 

Functional bullets should be a core feature of a note-taking program-- not a 3rd rate feature that gets ignored.

 

It's not like you need some exotic repro environment to decide if the issue is any better. Here's the test: try any non-trivial use case with bullets.  Try cutting and pasting to re-order and change the indentation level of a couple of sub-bullets.

 

Does the list self-destruct with weird line breaks and spacing that can't be deleted? Welcome to Evernote.

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  • Level 5*

 

Tried the new beta? Any better?

 

I haven't tried the new beta, because I gave up on Evernote after literally years of false promises that this was "very important to the team."

 

Functional bullets should be a core feature of a note-taking program-- not a 3rd rate feature that gets ignored.

 

It's not like you need some exotic repro environment to decide if the issue is any better. Here's the test: try any non-trivial use case with bullets.  Try cutting and pasting to re-order and change the indentation level of a couple of sub-bullets.

 

Does the list self-destruct with weird line breaks and spacing that can't be deleted? Welcome to Evernote.

 

 

It's not all that important to me so I'm certainly not going to take any time checking whether it makes you happy or not.

 

Just out of interest, if you've given up on Evernote why are you still posting here?

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  • Level 5*

 

Tried the new beta? Any better?

 

I haven't tried the new beta, because I gave up on Evernote after literally years of false promises that this was "very important to the team."

 

Functional bullets should be a core feature of a note-taking program-- not a 3rd rate feature that gets ignored.

 

It's not like you need some exotic repro environment to decide if the issue is any better. Here's the test: try any non-trivial use case with bullets.  Try cutting and pasting to re-order and change the indentation level of a couple of sub-bullets.

 

Does the list self-destruct with weird line breaks and spacing that can't be deleted? Welcome to Evernote.

 

What may not be clear in this thread is that this new beta is the first time they have rolled out the new editor.  So if you have had problems with bullets and are still using EN, this would be the beta to try.

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  • Level 5

The current public beta has new bulleted lists but we weren't ready with the copy-paste changes. Our next beta will have all new copy/paste to go with the fancy new bullets. 

 

Side note: Not exactly rocket science, but we made contributions to the W3C list spec as part of the rebuilding of our editor.

 

i.e. we're on it! :)

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Wow. Just stumbled on this. It's eye-opening to see that there have been problems like this for YEARS.

 

I personally would use workflowy.com for lists.

 

However, the crux of my productivity goal is to be able to use just ONE application, ONE system, for all my tasks/task management/GTD. It's a headache to try remembering where this note or information is. "Evernote? Workflowy? Where was it again?"

 

I've considered maybe writing an outline in workflowy and then linking it in a note on Evernote, but I'm still using two applications.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Due to my below post not getting any traction (I naively posted the below in a new topic), I made the decision to re-post my comment in this forum.  Hopefully this draws some attention due to the number of replies on this thread:


 


This is my second post respecting the same issue:  Bullets and list functionality.  Actually, for the sake of accuracy, I should rephrase the previous statement to "sheer lack of functionality of bullets and lists".  


 


I was an avid user of Evernote.  I absolutely loved it.  The syncing feature and ease-of-use are second to none.  Sadly, I no longer use Evernote for my daily note-taking due to a single and ongoing systemic flaw in the software:  Lists!  I must reiterate the absurdity of a software provider, such as Evernote, priding itself on being an unparalleled tool for organization and taking notes, having ZERO functionality in the outlining category.  I need not bore any potential readers and forum members with the specifics; they are easily found and discussed ad nauseam on other topics and websites. However, I will quickly summarize the problem:


 


When taking notes on my Macbook Pro using the desktop software (version 5.6 Beta 9), I am utterly disappointed when attempting the expectedly simple function of copying and pasting an outline (whether bulleted and/or numbered) from Evernote into Microsoft Word, and vice versa.  


 


I was intending to utilize Evernote as a note taking tool during law school.  As a side note to any possible Evernote employees reading this post, I am not the only disappointed student forced to utilize other, and admittedly inferior software, to accomplish a task that your entire business model was built and conceived on.  


 


I am asking, once again (I decided to throw in the towel after this post) for the following functionality:  The capability of taking notes utilizing your built-in bullet and/or numbering tools in the Evernote desktop software.  Then, the capability of copying and pasting these numbered/bulleted lists into Microsoft Word and vice versa, without the formatting being completely and utterly annihilated.  Lists lose their tabbed spaces.  Bullets seem to disappear at a whim.  When importing from Word into Evernote, lists do not reproduce even close to being useful.  In short, Evernote is useless to anyone interested in outlining functionality (I ponder the percentage of current customers listing the outlining functionality as one of their favourite motivators for using your product).  Finally, this entire mess could be easily and elegantly remedied by adding another extremely important tool:  an automatic Table of Contents.  I am attempting to copy and paste my Evernote lists into MS Word for the sole purpose of creating an automatically updateable Table of Contents.  


 


To wrap things up, please fix and/or add the requested tools for your loyal customers!  I beg you!  I will pay for the premium version if you accomplish this Herculean task of software engineering!  I will send you e-cards publicly thanking you for your achievements akin to man's first step on the moon!  Please... Please... Do something about this.  It has only been 2.5 years since customers have made you aware of this issue.  If I were currently in an MBA program, I would use this very experience to write a comprehensive case study, which would ultimately and convincingly conclude with an analysis about the ignorance of customer desires and the promulgation of the rather hilariously hypothetical new marketing slogan for Evernote:  "A note-taking tool without the basic tools for note-taking".  (Excuse the lack of enthusiasm in the above paragraphs... You may be able to gauge my frustration from my cynical style of writing.  I assure you, I am grinding my f****** teeth).


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  • 2 weeks later...

I just received the 5.6.0 Evernote update on my mac, and bulleting appears to be behaving better thus far (specifically, the copy-and-pasting of bullets from one note into another no longer experience formatting issues; instead the paste takes on the existing bullet list's formatting).  

 

It may be too early to say if all issues around bulleting have been fixed, but thus far it is looking like a step in the right direction. Thanks Evernote team!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

After several years bulleted lists are still terribly broken (as well as ordered lists).

 

Evernote Team, I don't know what you mean by "this is our priority", I await some explanation regarding why it is so hard to fix basic note taking feature for your flagship product.

 

 

For those out there for whom bulleted lists is one of the main things they want to use evernote for, I suggest you take a look at workflowy.com. Best web-based note taking / bulleted list tool I've ever seen, with a lot of really cool features such as zooming in / collapsing & expanding, sharing, tagging, and more. Light weight yet powerful. And evernote, you should seriously consider buying them.

 

Maybe you should really consider that comment?

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I was about to chime in and say 'are you kidding', what do you mean, "what issues", but I went and double checked and you have indeed finally fixed things!  THANK YOU.  Actually, I should probably say, "thank you" because I've only done a quick check rather than using it to take notes in multiple real-life situations, but still, many, many thanks.

 

The one thing it appears you made harder to do is share notes via email.  As much as I like Evernote, I work with many people who use other systems and sometimes emailing is the fastest and easiest thing to do.  The one you now have more easily available (via the share icon at the top of the note) emails a link.  That's awful, making someone have to go through multiple clicks (maybe even logging on??) to just get a simple note.  It's helpful functionality for something you want to have as a shared work item that will be changing over time, but not for a simple note share.   You have to go hunting through the menus in order to really email it: Note > More Sharing > Email note (way at the bottom).

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mrcn4, what issues are you seeing with bulleted lists?

 

Windows client issue:

Try reordering the list using copy and paste: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/81509-is-there-any-way-to-reorder-bulleted-or-ordered-list-using-windows-client-without-messing-up-the-list/

 

Web client issue:

Create a simple list:

pyAt4nj.png

Try reordering the items. Example: move "D" to the place between "A" and "B". To do so, select from "after C" to "after D" and drag/drop or copy/paste the selection to "after A". Result:

bP5OIx0.png

 

iOS client issue:

Create a simple list of five elements like the one in the web client issue:

pyAt4nj.png

Try reordering the items. Example: move "C" and "D" between "A" and "B". To do so, select from "before C" to "after D" (selection from "after B" is not possible), cut the selection, make a new line after A, paste.

Result:

SiKwypF.png

Additional note: The second bullet is not selectable, you can not enter any text there.

 

----------------------

 

The issues I mentioned regard simple lists. I used to work with 3-4 level lists in WorkFlowy and OneNote. Trying to do manage such lists in Evernote is not a pleasant experience, to put it mildly. Not to mention pasting web content.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Level 5
Bullets work OK for me. I tested in both the Web and Evernote Windows.

 

Got the correct result when I select just the data I want to move. (selected data is highlighted in blue)


 


Got a funky result when I select too much data to move. (selected data is highlighted in blue)


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Bullets work OK for me. I tested in both the Web and Evernote Windows.
 
A funky result when I select too much data to move. (selected data is highlighted in blue)
 
Correct result when I select just the data I want to move. (selected data is highlighted in blue)

 

 

The only thing that works well when moving elements is the second case you described: when you select only one element of a list.

But if you peek what's inside the clipboard, you will see no list-related html tags (elements like <li>,<ul>,<ol>). It's just copying the text, and it has nothing to do with lists.

 

Lists break when you copy/move multiple elements or element with sublist.

Or when you paste web content which happen to contain some list-related html tags.

Or when you try to fix indentation for a multi-level list for a saved note:

 1dJJ6zb.png -----> 8SlrXOx.png

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It's indeed a shame that so simple feature is broken. Copy/pasting lists bullet-ed and numbered lists from/to Word or Wiki is a hell. I don't know why is not fixed yet.

 

Is there a issue tracker anywhere so we can up vote on features?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have the same problem with Windows desktop client. Many many many issues with bulleted list re-ordering... Even such a simple action such as adding an entry in the middle of the list, and try to change the indentation level does not work as expected (the bullet is lost and the list gets cut into two disconnected parts).

 

This is just a shame for a software specialized in note-taking.

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Wow. Just stumbled on this. It's eye-opening to see that there have been problems like this for YEARS.

 

I personally would use workflowy.com for lists.

 

However, the crux of my productivity goal is to be able to use just ONE application, ONE system, for all my tasks/task management/GTD. It's a headache to try remembering where this note or information is. "Evernote? Workflowy? Where was it again?"

 

I've considered maybe writing an outline in workflowy and then linking it in a note on Evernote, but I'm still using two applications.

 

WorkFlowy and Evernote - 2 phenomenal apps in their own rights. So... does Evernote take on more of WorkFlowy's functionality or vice-versa? This does seem to be somewhat of a conundrum for some who would like to consolidate everything under one roof.

 

No app can fully take on the feel and flow of another app. WorkFlowy is spectacular... and even if Evernote were to have collapsible (outliner) lists - the whole nine yards - it could not take on the feel of WorkFlowy. Neither would I want it to. It would be interesting, though, if there were some sort of interconnectivity between the two.

 

Perhaps a 3rd-party app developer needs to come up with an outliner that syncs our lists to Evernote (even if not editable)... pretty much like the way Penultimate syncs to Evernote but we cannot edit the note in any way - yet our info therein is searchable. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am new to the forums, but have been a long-time Evernote user (and promoter).  In looking at this thread, I am still experiencing the extra bullet line when either 1) I copy/paste into Word or Outlook email client; or 2) share the note via email (similar to what mcrn4) outlines above.  Having just had a Macbook and now having a Windows workstation, as well as using the web, here is what I have experienced:

 

  1. Browser - works fine, no issues with bullets (using Chrome)
  2. Evernote for Mac - latest version worked fine when emailing and copying/pasting bullets into Word or Outlook for Mac (2011).
  3. Evernote for Windows - still does not work (issues with #1 and #2 above still persist).

Are there plans to update Evernote for Windows to be in parity with Evernote for Mac and the Browser version? 

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I thought about listing the issues with bullets, but they're already here, enumerated one by one, carefully explained in detail by other poor and unfortunately hopeful souls, in this ancient thread. None of them are fixed, by the way...

 

I just upgraded from 5.6.x to 5.8.5.7193 and the bullets are no better than they were years ago. I get it - the issue is hard to fix in such a large, multi-platform, product. Given the bullets are broken across the board in the same exact way on all platforms, it's obvious this function is part of a larger framework. If the framework isn't one you created, I empathize with the difficulty in changing it. Heck, I'll even empathize with an internally-written framework to a degree.

 

BUT... this is what you DO Evernote. You're an editor - that's the value you bring. Yes, you're in the cloud and you work across devices and that's why everyone uses you. That's why I happily pay for the monthly subscription and honestly would pay twice as much for the pleasure as it stands today! The crappy bulleted lists that absolutely won't get fixed ARE the eventual reason I'll rejoice when I leave you. You may think this is no big deal, that you have a certain gripey contingent of users, but you would be wrong. All the leaders I work with have the same chief complaint. Everyone I know uses bullets all the time - bullets are either their ENTIRE document or a substantial part of them. Evernote is NOT something people use to craft documents to other people - they use it for note taking with BULLETS!  My experiences may be anecdotal and you may have data showing my use case is niche, but I'm willing to bet you haven't done that bit of usability research or you're just praying to whoever that it's not the case. 

 

There are no other flaws in the product that I ever run across, but I would rather have copious flaws elsewhere over flaws in the basics. Why? Because you interrupt the creative thought process OVER and OVER and OVER again!!! I either have to STOP formatting my list of thoughts and accept them as they are or FIGHT the tool for a few minutes. I end up spending as much time reformatting bullets (something that adds no value) as I do creating my content ($$$ THE VALUE $$$). You're like my crappy "high end" Dell Laptop (don't start Mac guys, I also own a Macbook Pro and that's a different topic) that loses it's Wifi connection every 10 minutes. Can't live without it right now but boy I sure wish I could find a way. 

 

The hell Evernote! Please fix this! Seriously!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

With all due respect Jack, there has been no visible progress on this since being reported in 2012. At the time of this writing, the latest available build for Windows is public release version (5.8.5.7193.) Each of the items outlined be the original poster are still present in this latest build of Evernote. I find it completely embarrassing that your forums have better bullet list implementation that your flagship product. I cannot express my frustration at the hours I have spent correcting the formatting when trying to paste my notes to an email so that I don't look unprofessional. For such core functionality, there is no excuse for why it has remained SO broken for SO long. 

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  • Level 5*

The changes are also in the latest public version 5.8.5.7193.  Go to Tools -> Options -> General tab and select "enable beta features and updates." FWIW I have found the bulleting to be greatly improved.  In the past, cutting and pasting is where I usually ran into problems with extra or missing bullets.  Since using this new version, with the beta features enabled, I've yet to see any problems with bullets.

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Even if Windows version is improved, there are still some huge gaps. I have a list (unmbered with sub-bullets) of souvenirs to bring from my trip and today I've opened it on Android app and guess what? Sub-bullets "reset" a numbering of main list so I have now:

1. Person A

* gift 1

* gift 2

1. Person B

2. Person C

3. Person D

* gift 3

1. Person E

Only because I wanted to edit this list on Android. C'mon, Evernote team!

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  • Level 5*

As I understand it, they will eventually roll out the new editor to all platforms.  It is out for desktop but I'm not sure it is in the mobile apps yet.  It is a work in progress.

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WorkFlowy does it for me. Even if Evernote's bullets and text editing in general were working as one would expect, it is not an outliner, nor can it give you the power of searchable, taggable, zoomable or expandable/ collapsible lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists within lists... (∞)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a note to Evernote - I'm a premium member looking at switching to OneNote (or maybe Workflowy - thanks for the suggestion Frank).

 

Just today, ruined an entire list of notes I took because I moved one bullet point around.  The entire list's spacing and bullets messed up, with duplicate bullets appearing and some parts of the list becoming unformatted!

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Just a note to Evernote - I'm a premium member looking at switching to OneNote (or maybe Workflowy - thanks for the suggestion Frank).

 

Just today, ruined an entire list of notes I took because I moved one bullet point around.  The entire list's spacing and bullets messed up, with duplicate bullets appearing and some parts of the list becoming unformatted!

 WorkFlowy's the way to go for outlining. There's a *lot* that it can't do that Evernote does... so it's by no means a substitute. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Amazing how long it's taking to fix this.  I just went through 10 emails with Tech Support just to get them to stop telling me to update my software (it's up-to-date) and discover that this really IS a problem and refer it to tech support (apparently the first person responding to my query for half a dozen emails was Customer Service), who then verified that it IS a problem and referred it to the product team who will think about when they can implement a fix.  Really?

 

My continuing problem is with cut-and-paste of bullet lists between EN and Word, and EN and Apple Mail.  Doesn't work with the Mac client OR the iOS client.  Just learned that pasting from MS Word to EN web client works better: does recognize that it's a bullet list, still inserts extra spaces between bullet and text.  

 

Other software manages this, folks!!  It ain't rocket surgery!  From a  (for now) Premium user:  

 

PLEASE?????

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
I just updated my software to the latest version (5.8.13.8152) in order to alleviate bulleted list problems but it didn't help. I open certain notes and the list formatting loses its indentations and line breaks & spaces are created. I'll fix the list (turn list off and back on will remove the spaces, then re-indent).  Some time later, the formatting breaks again.

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A little progress!  Pasting bullet lists and numbered lists Evernote to Apple Mail, and Apple Mail to Evernote now works correctly!  In either direction, formatting remains correct, and the new program recognizes the list as a list.  Thanks.

 

Evernote to Word, and Word to Evernote, however, is still broken.  @jackolicious: Can you give us a timeline on fixing it with Word?

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I've seen a lot of EN promotions to try to persuade users go premium. I've been a premium user before, but stopped supporting EN since this issue is not fixed. I won't go premium again if this issue is still there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow!  I love EN, but have had issues with this problem for years.  I never really even checked to see what the issue was until now.  I kept thinking I needed to report this bug and make a suggestion for a fix, but it looks like you all have beat me to it.

 

I use bullets for customer to-do lists and it's always been buggy in EN.

 

Issues:

  • When I try to change bullets or delete them, it often changes the line spacing (i.e. the bullets - or new lines - are further apart vertically.
  • Sub-bullets that show properly on the screen in the note don't always print correctly and there's no consistent pattern (i.e. some sub-bullets print out correctly while some that show correctly on-screen print out as root bullets).
  • Always having to spent time editing bullets that change format when I didn't do anything that should have changed the format.

Very frustrating.

 

I like EN because it syncs across my desktop, laptop, and phone, but some of my most important notes are organized by bullets. 

 

I could use Word and leave the file on DropBox, but that involves a lot more steps and is a slower process than using EN.

 

So now that I know this thread is here, I'll be checking it regularly.  I sure do hope this gets fixed soon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is an example that happens to me all the time.  All I want to do is re-order my bullets but that's not possible in EN without reformatting from scratch.

 

  • Bullet 1
    • Bullet 1A
  • x Bullet 2
    • Bullet 2A
  • Bullet 3
    • Bullet 3A

If you highlight all the text in red and paste it where the 'x' is you get the following.  The pasted text is double bulleted and the Bullet 2 has no bullet point anymore but is indented. (hoping the photo comes through because I can't actually make this happen in this window).

 

Ok, so I'm not allowed to link or paste images into this community (You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.) ... sucks, really I can't post JPG images.  So here's the link to a hosted photo:

 

BTW, I'm using Evernote Windows 5.8.13.5812 (annoying that I can't copy that either) ... all text should be copyable.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/skipkn8p1o0rd73/Evernote-BulletProblem.jpg?dl=0

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I did some tinkering with an iOS app this morning called "Cloud Outliner" and was impressed (in that it works as you would expect). You can authorize Cloud Outliner to connect to Evernote, where it creates its own notebook. Anything within a note that is bulleted and/ or checkboxed, will show up in Cloud Outliner as a separate outline. If you change anything in Evernote, the change is effected in Cloud Outliner and vice versa. 

 

At the very least, this is one possibility for iOS and Evernote users who would like to have their bulleted/ indented lists in Evernote be collapsible as one would expect in an outliner. The movability is great too. Whatever hierarchy you shuffle around in Cloud Outliner will show up perfectly in Evernote. 

 

Cloud%20Outliner.png?dl=1

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  • 3 weeks later...

The latest betas of Evernote for Windows include updates to bulleted list handling. Turn on beta updates and features in your Windows options and let the Windows forum know what you think!

Hi,

 

I have been using Evernote for 7 years now and had given up on using bullet lists because of the mental suffering that it causes (the behaviour was totally unpredictable when editing lists). Reading this post I had hope that it may have been fixed, but after 5 minutes of testing you start to find the bugs. I am using  "Evernote for Windows 5.9.0.8665 (276665) Public". How is it that a dumb end user like me can find the bugs in 5 minutes - is the software tested before it is released?

 

To be fair, editing bulleted lists has been improved with this version - there are fewer bugs and the bugs I have seen seem to be more predictable. The behaviour of checkboxes is also significantly better - you can actually nest them and mix them with bullet points.

 

I still don't understand why the Evernote team finds it so hard to iron out the bugs in the editor. The design of the editor is good, but it still has significant bugs. The rest of the system is great and very reliable. It is like having a Porsche and finding that the steering wheel falls off every couple of days. 

 

Please find a developer who wants to make the editor a joy to use. Don't change the design just make the current one work so smoothly that you don't notice it is there - just like the steering wheel on a Porsche.

 

Best Wishes, 

Motz.

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