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Feature Request: Support for High Resolution Displays in Windows 8


anoddexperiment

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I figured out my problem - in order to get the manifest to take effect, I need to launch evernote from the command prompt and in from the installation directory. I have no idea why this is the case - it's weird, but it works now. The UI scaling makes it much more usable than the itty bitty UI before.

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I filed a direct request with Evernote Tech Support in August 2014 and was told a fix was in the works and should be included in the next build. I've installed at least two new builds since then and nothing is better.. A couple of weeks ago I queried Max about the lack of progress. Matt answered that he's taken over for Matt and his response is "After doing some research it still does appear to be something that the development team is still working on incorporating into the Evernote application. That is the most current update that I have on this, so it is still in the works."

 

Isn't this encouraging! All they can tell us is that "it's still in the works." No priority designation, no hint as to when. Is this more than a slip in the job jar to be drawn at random, but moving further down as more are piled on top?

 

Anyone have suggestions regarding alternate apps? I'm not up for the hassle of using the magnifiers.

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Isn't this encouraging! All they can tell us is that "it's still in the works." No priority designation, no hint as to when.

 

Sorry, company policy...

I will say that the effort to properly support hi-res screens is huge. It basically means going through every line of user interface code (1000s and 1000s and 1000s) and changing the drawing code to be aware that the N pixels we want something offset is really N*some_factor. And then testing on both normal and hi-res systems.

 

Anyone have suggestions regarding alternate apps? I'm not up for the hassle of using the magnifiers.

This https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/44722-feature-request-support-for-high-resolution-displays-in-windows-8/?p=332203 post from up-thread details a workaround.

 

(Personally, I have a Yoga2 Pro and have applied this workaround. I've found it rather interesting the number of programs that announce to Windows "Hey, I'm DPI aware!" but really aren't. Including things like Windows Installer (msiexec))

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I also find it surprising how incorrect the hdpi value is. I've applied that fix to three apps so far and it's kind of a pain (i should probably script the process - or better yet, Microsoft should provide an easier override in the program compatibility settings).

I'm positive Evernote is not alone in dealing with this problem. But it's good customer service to mention that you're still on it. Appreciate the post.

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Be careful using the same manifest for other apps. For instance, ours has vista/7/8/8.1 recognition. Adding that to an app that doesn't recognize one of those might cause "interesting" things to happen. We also specify v6 of the common controls. I don't know if the side-by-side manifest _replaces_ the embedded one, or just supplements it with what is specified. I mention that as an applications manifest may contain quite a bit of other data - for instance an app may have registration-free COM information in theirs.

 

For developers, the best thing is to open the EXE file in Visual Studio (as a resource). Then export the manifest (to a file) and use an editor to change the dpi setting to False. I'm not aware of a tool that can easily extract a manifest from an existing application...

 

And I totally agree it would be nice if there were an MS compatibility setting the user could override. My suspicion is that they don't because the application specifically says 'I can do this'.

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Yes, I try to ensure the manifests i generate are always based off the intended exe. I still can't figure out why I need to run it from the command line to get the OS to recognize the manifest file...but at least I have a solution.

 

For non-developers, you can use sigcheck: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb897441.aspx to dump the Manifest from a given exe

For windows 8.1 (possibly others) Make sure the format of the file is UTF-8.

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I am one of the long time posters in this string. I need some help here. I expect that I am not alone in this.

 

Would one of you who has more knowledge and has also had more success with this work around than me write down the "How To" from begining to end.

 

This work around has developed over that past month and has been shared in bits and pices. despite repeated efforts, I have not been able to put all of the pieces together. I have done the manifest thing and I have tried to launch Evernote from the command prompt and I cannot get it to launch.

 

Please lay the whole process out step by step with some screen shots. I am using Windows 8.1 on a 3200 X 1800 screen on an Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus

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This topic was created Oct 19 2013! It has 109 replies. Basically stating that Evernote has font scalability issues that makes Evernote basically useless on high res screens. BUT there are only two official replies from Evernote Employee saying follow the "hack" posted (go into your registry LOL you know cayse regular people love hacking their Windows registry) or wait!..we are working on it, it's hard you know. 

 

Talk about priorities. Evernote Employee didn't even bother to post here until 9 months after this thread was started. 

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So I finally got this working. No thanks to Evernote

 

It is really as simple as it is described above

 

  1. Download / copy  the file shown here and the paste it into a text editor save it as instructed in the Evernote folder
  2. Make the registry changes.

Note that in my case I do not have to start Evernote from the command prompt to get this workaround to work. Every time that I launch Evernote from the Windows 8.1 tiles Evernote stars correctly with the improved scaling.

 

If somone will tell me where I can acceess my media library I will upload a screen shot of what my registry looked like AFTER the changes were made to the registry. That should help most of you.

 

Remember that before you mess around in your registry tht you MUST set a system restore point that you can use if you need to back out of this if it does not work.

 

Ken

202 378 4868

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Trumped!  I wrote up the process as far as I can as attached.  Caveats - I don't have an HD display,  and I haven't changed my registry,  but I think this will work. @KJennings - as you've done this most recently,  perhaps you can confirm whether I got it right!  

 

HD Fix.pdf

 

Edit:  I can already see two problems - the links don't work any more (sorry about that - paste 'em' into your browser) and @KJennings already said you don't need to start from the command prompt!

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Got it. Got to be saved as a .manifest not a .txt 

Had no idea such a thing existed! 

Thanks, Amazing

 

Now if someone could only fix it so Evernote works with a touch screen! Is that being greedy? 

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Thanks Gazumped for taking the time to write it up in such detail.


 


Since I have already been sucessful I did not read your PDF instructions to compare them with what I did and what actually worked fror me.


 


For Oisin75  and others with Touch Screen machines


Note that the fix to my machine which was done using the instructions from Bart van As (post number 89)  worked. Additionally for you and other touch screen users like me, it works very well with Evernote using the touchscreen on my Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus


post-170484-0-17799800-1420550962_thumb.

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

+1 for this issue. I'm running Evernote on a macbook pro (running Win7) and it looks horrible. Not really sure what to do, I'm a premium user and have been for 4 years. I can't stand using the slow thin client, so it has to be the desktop client. When will this be fixed?

 

Reading through the thread sounds like these requests have been outstanding for over a year and totally ignored by the Evernote team. Pretty embarrassing to be honest... they put out features like 'Context' which are fancy but not very useful, yet they don't do what users are asking them for... sounds like Product Management at Evernote needs to be, umm, 'refreshed'.

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+1 for this issue. I'm running Evernote on a macbook pro (running Win7) and it looks horrible. Not really sure what to do, I'm a premium user and have been for 4 years. I can't stand using the slow thin client, so it has to be the desktop client. When will this be fixed?

 

Reading through the thread sounds like these requests have been outstanding for over a year and totally ignored by the Evernote team. Pretty embarrassing to be honest... they put out features like 'Context' which are fancy but not very useful, yet they don't do what users are asking them for... sounds like Product Management at Evernote needs to be, umm, 'refreshed'.

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/44722-feature-request-support-for-high-resolution-displays-in-windows-8/?p=336313

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I've applied the fix and the resolution works well enough, but now my font selection/size drop-down boxes don't drop down.  The only thing I see is a horizontal line appear directly below the boxes where the list should appear.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks, 

Kevin

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Thanks for the suggestion gazumped, really appreciate it. 

 

However, this is more or less a hack to get it to work, it's not a real solution. The UI layout is bad, things are fuzzy... It's 2015 not 1995, and to be honest Evernote is not living up to my minimum bar as far as quality software goes.

 

Can the Evernote team please take note, this is a major issue for your top users!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a really hard time believing this feature is even on evernote's roadmap, considering they introduced support for Apple's high-definition Retina displays shortly after Retina was introduced...way back in 2012.

 

Evernote Press Release in 2012:

"Our design team has been hard at work upgrading every button, texture, shadow, and image inside of Evernote for Mac to look sharp and beautiful on the new drool-worthy MacBook Retina displays"

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2012/07/18/evernote-for-mac-now-with-activity-stream-and-retina-support/

 

There is no good explanation for why it would take 3+ years to duplicate this feature in windows.

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There is no good explanation for why it would take 3+ years to duplicate this feature in windows.

Actually, there is. My understanding (I could be wrong...) of Mac is they get hi-res support for free with Cocoa. All they have to do is create an image@2.png for each image.png. In Windows-world, we have to pore thru several hundred thousand lines of code and translate every place where we said "draw this 3 pixels from the edge". Because pixels are bad. (And several of win-devs do have hi-res machines also.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

+1 to how badly Evernote needs to move its Windows client into the 2010s. I have a 3200 x 1800 13", and Evernote looks terrible on it. I use Evernote mostly on my Windows laptop (rather than my iMac desktop), and I won't be able to justify resubscribing to premium if the Windows Evernote client is still so uncomfortable to use.

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There is no good explanation for why it would take 3+ years to duplicate this feature in windows.

Actually, there is. My understanding (I could be wrong...) of Mac is they get hi-res support for free with Cocoa. All they have to do is create an image@2.png for each image.png. In Windows-world, we have to pore thru several hundred thousand lines of code and translate every place where we said "draw this 3 pixels from the edge". Because pixels are bad. (And several of win-devs do have hi-res machines also.)

 

 

That would be a good explanation, if Evernote was still some kind of start-up that couldn't afford to hire PMs, UX experts, and coders to get the job done. But Evernote is a mature company that sells a diversified brand and gets WSJ articles about its IPO plans. "But it's haaarrrrrrd" is a pretty high school excuse for a company with transparent plans to challenge Microsoft and Google in the productivity space.

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Seems to me that an Evernote Employee explaining why things might not be happening as quickly as we'd like is pretty useful information.  Don't think it was presented as an excuse - the hard fact is that Evernote have 100M users and at the moment Low-D users and their problems presumably outweigh the HD user-base sufficiently that the cost of rewriting the code simply isn't cost-effective - yet.  Evernote make their decisions based on business practicalities to which we're not party.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just upgraded our monitors to 4K, (3840 x2160) and would like to add my request for a fix to the Evernote display problems. I think a new one is that at 4K the fonts selector pull down stays too narrow to see the numbers. Also the note divider dotted lines are a single pixel which makes them virtually invisible at 4K!

 

I would also like to comment that the editor still needs quite a bit of work to bring it in line with the editor functionality of most other text based applications.  Come on Evernote before you loose out to Onenote!

 

IT

 

 

 

 

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I applied the fix in this forum and 9 times out of 10 it works. I came here to see if I should undo anything as today's update said it has fixed this problem. I take it that it hasn't then? 

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Finally they got it!!!

 

 

Evernote for Windows 5.8.4.6870 GA Release Notes

 

New

Evernote now supports high resolution displays!!!

 

 

Add a coworker’s business notebook to your account right from the notebook list

Taskbar icon illuminates when a new message is received

Improved

Numerous improvements to Work Chat and sharing

Several improvements to Context

Fixed several sync and stability issues

Resolved a bug that caused the password prompt to appear unnecessarily

Fixed issues related to Table of Contents notes

Resolved issues with Reminders search syntax

1 security fix -- learn more at https://evernote.com/security/updates#win

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It's "fixed" as in we're no longer lying to Windows that we support hi-dpi. This means Windows renders the window and then scales it up to the current resolution (hence blurry). This is a workaround to make Evernote usable on hi-dpi systems.

The "true" fix is much more involved and will take time. We felt it was more important to make the program usable. (If you want the non-blurry version back, there's a note much earlier in this thread about setting up an external manifest. You can do that and change the 'dpiAware' flag to 'true'. Me? I can't use EN on my Yoga2 like that, so blurry is better...)

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It's "fixed" as in we're no longer lying to Windows that we support hi-dpi. This means Windows renders the window and then scales it up to the current resolution (hence blurry). This is a workaround to make Evernote usable on hi-dpi systems.

The "true" fix is much more involved and will take time. We felt it was more important to make the program usable. (If you want the non-blurry version back, there's a note much earlier in this thread about setting up an external manifest. You can do that and change the 'dpiAware' flag to 'true'. Me? I can't use EN on my Yoga2 like that, so blurry is better...)

 

Thank you for at least getting this out. I think full, true hi-dpi support is beyond overdue, but this compromise is needed and I think, for most, welcome.

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It's "fixed" as in we're no longer lying to Windows that we support hi-dpi. This means Windows renders the window and then scales it up to the current resolution (hence blurry). This is a workaround to make Evernote usable on hi-dpi systems.

The "true" fix is much more involved and will take time. We felt it was more important to make the program usable. (If you want the non-blurry version back, there's a note much earlier in this thread about setting up an external manifest. You can do that and change the 'dpiAware' flag to 'true'. Me? I can't use EN on my Yoga2 like that, so blurry is better...)

 

Thank you for at least getting this out. I think full, true hi-dpi support is beyond overdue, but this compromise is needed and I think, for most, welcome.

 

 

Agreed.

 

I'm a developer (not for Evernote). Often things are way too big to tackle with the time you have, so you look for a workaround to at least keep people going until you can sort things properly. Happy they've at least done this. Let's hope the original fuller feature is not lost and does happen some time.

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It's "fixed" as in we're no longer lying to Windows that we support hi-dpi. This means Windows renders the window and then scales it up to the current resolution (hence blurry). This is a workaround to make Evernote usable on hi-dpi systems.

The "true" fix is much more involved and will take time. We felt it was more important to make the program usable. (If you want the non-blurry version back, there's a note much earlier in this thread about setting up an external manifest. You can do that and change the 'dpiAware' flag to 'true'. Me? I can't use EN on my Yoga2 like that, so blurry is better...)

 

 

 

So, assuming we are on the road to real hi-dpi, will I have to reset this little fix when that finally arrives?

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All these suggestions are hacks, the point is: Evernote does not have a story for the windows client on high resolution displays. Period.

 

I'm sure it was a conscious product management decision, I still question it though - considering how common these displays are becoming. Too late for me, I was frustrated to the point that I simply switched to a macbook, for which the OSX Evernote thick client works perfectly. Gotta stay mainstream, otherwise you get dropped by software makers... just the reality.

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All the suggestions are work-arounds for a situation that affects Windows users because of a decision made by Evernote early on in their development that happens to impact a 'feature' of Windows that isn't handled the same by Macs.  Evernote has a 'story' - they've done a quick fix while they work on a permanent option.  If you prefer to use Macs in the meantime,  or try different software entirely,  that's up to you.

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All the suggestions are work-arounds for a situation that affects Windows users because of a decision made by Evernote early on in their development that happens to impact a 'feature' of Windows that isn't handled the same by Macs.  Evernote has a 'story' - they've done a quick fix while they work on a permanent option.  If you prefer to use Macs in the meantime,  or try different software entirely,  that's up to you.

 

Not sure what you're referring to. The decision to dump .NET?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure if this is a new feature in evernote but all I do is:

 

- Select all the text in the note

- right click on selection and

- click on Simplify Formatting

 

Works for me.

 

I am using Windows 8 so I am sure it will work in Windows 7 as for tablets I am not sure.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm still confused - what does "not display properly on the Windows 8.1 desktop" mean?  I have an HD desktop and everything is miniscule because of that fact.  Most apps are hard to read.  I can however use two-finger swiping on the trackpad (it's not a touch screen) to bring any too-small windows up to a more reasonable when I need to.  Since I also connect to multi-screen HD monitors that are physically much bigger than my laptop monitor I can also move the image from one screen to another.

Windows provides a built-in text size feature that enables text resizing across all apps. You access it Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display I run my 4k Monitor at 180% normal text size. This is not the same thing as using the Magnifying glass feature.

 

Windows software that properly interacts with the text display API produces crisp, readable text. Evernote produces text appropriate to the 1980's on the same display. 

 

I've attache a sample below. I've retyped the first line of a card in Evernote on Notepad. If you don't have a hi res monitor, you may not be able to see the difference but on a 4k monitor, the notepad text is super crisp and the evernote text is pixelated. Doesn't matter what text font or "reasonable" text size you select,  the effect persists.

 

When your eyesight begins to have difficulty making out small text, the difference is between readable and not.

 

post-103211-0-81735800-1429108352_thumb.

 

BTW, the text that this post is being written is fine so they could lift the code from this forum to fix the bug.

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BTW, the text that this post is being written is fine so they could lift the code from this forum to fix the bug.

 

Since someone else owns the forum software I think they might be a little unhappy if Evernote stole the code.  I think EN are probably capable of working out  their own solution anyway - it's just going to happen on their timetable,  not ours...

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  • 1 month later...

I agree with everyone... please make this your top priority.  It's enough to make half of your users leave and go to any other note taking app -- nearly every one of which, supports high resolution displays.  What computer these days is NOT high resolution?  I mean come on...  Use evernote if you are running on technology that is over 5 years old....  Please hurry up.  We're not asking for a big feature... just better resolution for crying out loud.

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One more vote, evernote for windows is unusable in Hi res monitors plus scrolling and zooming in with touchpad does not work. Evernote metro app has very limited functionality.

 

If feels like evernote only considers apple products in their development.

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  • 1 month later...

One more vote, although anyone waiting for correct HiDPI support in Windows is probably going to be really disappointed. Evernote uses Chromium and Chrome/Chromium still can't get HiDPI working properly after 3 years of trying. Spotify on Windows is probably stuck in exactly the same problem because they also use Chromium for the UI.

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=149881

Funny that Firefox works pretty much perfectly in HiDPI modes and has for a while.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

I have the same resolution issues. I have a Surface Pro 3 (Windows10), and while Evernote Touch has impeccable resolution, Evernote Desktop version is basically useless. Unfortunately I cannot use Evernote Touch as it does not offer the highlighting capability.

 

Please sort out /give advice on resolution issues in the Evernote Desktop version.

 

Thank you,

Barnabas

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Hello,

I have the same resolution issues. I have a Surface Pro 3 (Windows10), and while Evernote Touch has impeccable resolution, Evernote Desktop version is basically useless. Unfortunately I cannot use Evernote Touch as it does not offer the highlighting capability.

 

Please sort out /give advice on resolution issues in the Evernote Desktop version.

 

Thank you,

Barnabas

I had forgotten until receiving your reply to the topic; I was still subscribed to this thread. I really wanted for months this issue to be fixed but reading your comment Barnabas is actually comforting, since I asked for a refund from EverNote many months ago due to this issue and jumped ship to OneNote without looking back. Evernote for mobile still kicks ass, but this issue for the desktop was a total deal breaker. I hope you find the right solution for you.

Marco

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  • 1 month later...

 

Hello,

I have the same resolution issues. I have a Surface Pro 3 (Windows10), and while Evernote Touch has impeccable resolution, Evernote Desktop version is basically useless. Unfortunately I cannot use Evernote Touch as it does not offer the highlighting capability.

 

Please sort out /give advice on resolution issues in the Evernote Desktop version.

 

Thank you,

Barnabas

I had forgotten until receiving your reply to the topic; I was still subscribed to this thread. I really wanted for months this issue to be fixed but reading your comment Barnabas is actually comforting, since I asked for a refund from EverNote many months ago due to this issue and jumped ship to OneNote without looking back. Evernote for mobile still kicks ass, but this issue for the desktop was a total deal breaker. I hope you find the right solution for you.

Marco

 

 

Could you share "how" you migrated to OneNote - Is there an easy way / tool/ wizard/ guide / steps? Please do share in case I decide to go that way. 

 

PS: I have loved One Note {using 2010} for a long time {been using both over several years}, but the last I used its "Clipper" I found it lacking the finesse of Evernote Web Clipper. Thoughts/ Comparative notes? 

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Hello,

I have the same resolution issues. I have a Surface Pro 3 (Windows10), and while Evernote Touch has impeccable resolution, Evernote Desktop version is basically useless. Unfortunately I cannot use Evernote Touch as it does not offer the highlighting capability.

 

Please sort out /give advice on resolution issues in the Evernote Desktop version.

 

Thank you,

Barnabas

I had forgotten until receiving your reply to the topic; I was still subscribed to this thread. I really wanted for months this issue to be fixed but reading your comment Barnabas is actually comforting, since I asked for a refund from EverNote many months ago due to this issue and jumped ship to OneNote without looking back. Evernote for mobile still kicks ass, but this issue for the desktop was a total deal breaker. I hope you find the right solution for you.

Marco

 

 

Could you share "how" you migrated to OneNote - Is there an easy way / tool/ wizard/ guide / steps? Please do share in case I decide to go that way. 

 

PS: I have loved One Note {using 2010} for a long time {been using both over several years}, but the last I used its "Clipper" I found it lacking the finesse of Evernote Web Clipper. Thoughts/ Comparative notes? 

 

Yeah, I used a tool to migrate my notebooks, I believe it was this one featured on lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/migrate-your-data-from-evernote-to-onenote-with-this-to-1560885406

 

And yeah I had issues with clipping on onenote. Now the mobile app is getting much better at it. I really liked evernote mobile app, but with the mentioned issues for desktop it was a no go. Fortunately Onenote has been developed extensively during the last year and their mobile app is really good now. You can do everything once was exclusive to evernote like searching text in images. Mobile app is still not perfect but its much better.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's been two years and the problem still hasn't been addressed, it seems, since the display of Evernote on my newly purchased Lenovo Yoga is awful... It looks like prehistoric Windows. Do something, please, or bye bye Evernote?

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, KJennings said:

Why doesn't Evernote acknowledge this DEFECT?

We have. (At least I have) May have been a different thread - there's a few of these. I will say that we are working on it but there are a few major pitfall areas we're trying to figure out.

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