Will tab every be fixed?

[DJones69 0]

Greetings,

I've found Evernote's broken tab functionality to be very frustrating. There are even posts going back over a year talking about this. Is there any time frame for when this might be fixed?

I tend to write a lot of notes that have small snippets of code with comments to the side that annoyingly never line up because tabs are jacked up. This behavior really needs to exhibit what you might find in pretty much any reliable text editor. Even notepad gets this right.

Sorry if I'm a bit ornery, but this is really making it hard for me to enjoy Evernote.

Thanks,

Dave

[jefito 5,589]

Evernote stores its notes in a XHTML superset. Tabs are just whitespace to HTML, and that's pretty much how they're handled. Notepad (and other note editors) uses text as its basis, so of course it's handled differently. If you need to format text like source code in Evernote, you'll need to use the indenting tools provided on the desktop clients, and maybe others, or use spaces. It's a pain, I know.

[DJones69 0]

Evernote stores its notes in a XHTML superset. Tabs are just whitespace to HTML, and that's pretty much how they're handled. Notepad (and other note editors) uses text as its basis, so of course it's handled differently. If you need to format text like source code in Evernote, you'll need to use the indenting tools provided on the desktop clients, and maybe others, or use spaces. It's a pain, I know.

That sounds like a questionable design decision. Why not just support a format that's designed for this, such as OpenDocument or OOXML? The choice to use XHTML just leads to a crippled text editor.

[jefito 5,589]

Uh, because maybe the web is built on HTML and XML? And because it's a probably lot easier to get renderers for this format on many platforms than for the other two formats you mention (it's very nearly renderable in a browser, with minimal changes as I understand it)? I don't think that Evernote's plan was to become a text editor. Regardless, that's just the way it is, and it's unlikely to change any time soon.

[DJones69 0]

Uh, because maybe the web is built on HTML and XML?

Uh, OpenDocument is XML-based. WebODF is perfectly capable as a renderer.

I don't think that Evernote's plan was to become a text editor.

Huh? It's a note-taking tool. How can it not be a text editor?

Regardless, that's just the way it is, and it's unlikely to change any time soon.

That's a shame... and very lazy of the developers. Googling for "Evernote" and "tabs" brings up a decent amount of hits for this problem. It puzzles me that a much needed feature is being ignored.

[jefito 5,589]

Uh, because maybe the web is built on HTML and XML?

Uh, OpenDocument is XML-based. WebODF is perfectly capable as a renderer.

All choices have upsides and downsides. I can't speak for why they chose what they did, but I can guess that they wanted a simple HTML subset for ease of processing and rendering. Not sure where WebODF was when they chose it, but ENML was certainly around in 2008, when I started using Evernote.

I don't think that Evernote's plan was to become a text editor.

Huh? It's a note-taking tool. How can it not be a text editor?

Note taking is not the same as text editing. You can take notes with a pencil. Editing same is a trial.

Evernote's focus is less on being note-taking tool (though it has note-taking capabilities) than being a platform for collecting various kinds of information (including web clips, documents and yes, notes), and making them available on a number of different OS's with varying amounts of processing power. Unfortunately, it is not a replacement for a true text editor. Or a to-do list. Or a mind-mapper. Or a contacts manager.

For me, I can take notes using the provided indent/outdent functionality, and that works. I don't expect to use it as my code editor. It would be nice if I could round-trip tabbed code snippets to/from Evernote, but it's not critical to my use.

Regardless, that's just the way it is, and it's unlikely to change any time soon.

That's a shame... and very lazy of the developers. Googling for "Evernote" and "tabs" brings up a decent amount of hits for this problem. It puzzles me that a much needed feature is being ignored.

A shame, perhaps, but the developers are hardly lazy. There are plenty of awkward problems with using Evernote for any number of given scenarios; some may get addressed, some may not. Evernote has its own agenda for their future direction, and those figure into their priorities as well. Some problems fall off the bottom; there's not enough time to address them all. Since when has it been different for software development?

[mrmr_sf 1]

What's the update on tabs? 

Shortcuts (https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#!/article/23168732) still describe a tab feature that does not work. 

I'd rather not argue about why tabs can't work. Possibly more productive is to discuss if they are a valuable feature to move forward with. 

Simple tabs are a common way to organize text in a note. This would obviously be very helpful. Is it in the works?

 

"Tab" may not mean what we know as tabs in text editors. Let's not talk about how and maybe more about the level of need to accomplish tasks/scenarios. 

If we establish that this is an important need the product managers and engineers can work out how or if it is possible.

 

Thanks

[mrmr_sf 1]

Why is it that the moderators in this forum are often the most negative and anti-user-centered? I see people get shot down so hard for basically expressing a need. I've been torn to pieces about ideas I've brought up that later came to fruition. 

 

It would be really productive to talk more about how exactly you use evernote now in regards to the requested feature and how you use similar tools that do the feature you're requesting. Debating the obstacles is pointless. Identifying them to educate each other maybe but I would still say that's not the most productive discussion to have here.

[Tompei 0]

Really? No tabs? How are we supposed to layout text?

 

For example a list of shortcuts like this :

 

←→  Navigate horizontally

↑↓  Navigate vertically

⎇ ⌘ I Show tracks inputs and outputs

⎇ ⌘ S Show sends

⌘ K Keyboard map mode

⌘ M Midi map mode

⌘ Del Delete selected automation

⎇ F11 Toggle fullscreen

 

Looks clumsy isn't it?

[Keiran 0]

XHTML can store a tab using the ASCII code "	", not saying this would get round the issues in all situations but it should be fine for the desktop and apps.