EN as offline article reading app with highlights and bookmarks

[neu 0]

1st, I wonder if Evernote is the right tool of the trade at all. Or what other apps can do this for me for free? Instapaper is almost perfect except it allows only 5 highlights a month(!!!) for free users. That will not cut it for me.

 

I downloaded the Web Clipper and the Clearly add-ons to my browser but frankly, it is not intuitive how I should proceed.

 

The ultimate goal is to read on mobile devices, Android and iOS, but I guess it should work first on the desktop/in the web equally.

 

Finally, hello everyone!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

 

Could you please rephrase your question? I am sorry, but I don't understand what you are asking. I've found Evernote to be spectacular for web clippings. However, I generally do not highlight. One problem you might find is that once you have the article in your account, it might be difficult to highlight unless you save it using clearly (stripping out formatting that messes up your highlighting) or save the article to Evernote as a PDF (easily done), in which case you mark up the PDF.

[neu 0]

Hi GrumpyMonkey!

 

Mission: to read flowing text (~ similar to HTML or EPUB) on mobile devices such as Android/iOS smartphones/tablets. PDF is just the worst file format you can read, as it is rigid, it's esp. bad on a smaller screen mobile devide (tablet, too).

 

I need the highlights and note taking also badly.

 

Actually, one of the most convenient to way to read this way is to read Kindle or EPUB ebooks. You can also convert HTML article pages to EPUB with Calibre with a few clicks. It is just, that it is cumbersome, converting, say, three shorter articles to "ebooks" then upload it on-by-one to device. I want to move on.

 

Do you know Instapaper? Seriously, this app is almost what I need... it is just more of a premium app for my taste. (It is well worth checking out, nonetheless.) There has to be competition.

 

So, a sycing reading app, like Instapaper or Pocket (do you know it? too bad it doesn't support highlighting at all) solves the problem of the need to convert articles to "books"; they just sync your content to your mobile devide for your reading pleasure.

 

How Evernote comes into the picture?

 

The Web Clipper is just a clipper; it saves your articles; nothing special. What got my interest is the Clearly add-on: which seem to work similar to reading app like Instapaper or Pocket; it makes a clutter-free, polished reading experience to Evernote. I just can't figure out how to work with it; I am even unable to save the pages of interest on the web. Is it what I need? Then how to use it for my purposes? If not, what else is there for me? I thought there should be a competitor to Instapaper which offers more than 5 highlights a month.

 

Ref.

Instapaper: https://www.instapaper.com/

Pocket: https://getpocket.com/

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I am not sure what is premium about instapaper... its a $4 application and there are no fees, and it is fantastic. 

 

EDIT: That being said, everyone's financial situation is different so of course the impact $12/year has on a person's budget is going to vary (however, once you factor in the $700 mobile device.... whats $12/year on top of that....)
 

Evernote does a great job of capturing web content, but it really sounds like you want Instapaper.... You can use the instapaper bookmarklet to save website straight to instapaper. 

 

The benefit of instapaper is that articles are available offline on your mobile device. This is a premium feature of Evernote and it is standard in Instapaper. 

 

What I think you might consider is the following workflow:

 

Bookmarklet >Instapaper (Where you do your reading)>IFTTT>Evernote

 

So, you save all your reading to instapaper, and use IFTTT (http://www.ifttt.com) as a way of saving your favourite content to Evernote for archiving and safe keeping. 

 

here's an article highlighting a few possibilities:

http://www.macstories.net/tutorials/instapaper-and-ifttt/

In particular you might really like this IFTTT recipe:

https://ifttt.com/recipes/182874-append-instapaper-highlights-to-evernote

 

This recipe takes all of the highlighting you do in Instapaper and appends them to a note in Evernote, so you can easily go and review your highlighted stuff in Evernote any time in the future. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

1st, I wonder if Evernote is the right tool of the trade at all. Or what other apps can do this for me for free? Instapaper is almost perfect except it allows only 5 highlights a month(!!!) for free users. That will not cut it for me.

 

I downloaded the Web Clipper and the Clearly add-ons to my browser but frankly, it is not intuitive how I should proceed.

 

The ultimate goal is to read on mobile devices, Android and iOS, but I guess it should work first on the desktop/in the web equally.

 

Finally, hello everyone!

If Instapaper is nearly perfect, except for the fact that you're limited to five for free, then I say pay for it. IMO, if an app works well for you, then one should want to & be willing to pay the devs for their hard work. If the devs don't make enough money for their hard work, then they will abandon the app & move to something else. I'm sure they have rent to pay & groceries to buy and few of us want to work for free.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Ah, I missed the changes they've made since Betaworks bought them from Marco Arment. I didn't realize they limited highlights for free users.

 

Even still, the subscription is a dollar a month, so not terrible, and at least you can give the workflow a try and make sure it suits you before ponying up the loonie per month for the subscription. 

[neu 0]

Thank you fod your feedbacks! I'll check the IFTTT (Ari Meisel highly recommended it as well)

 

Maybe I didn't check the detailed price structure of Instapaper, I thought it's more like $4 a month. $1 is definitely friendlier.

 

I do not want to archive anything, read and delete is my workflow. Feel lighter by doing so.

(Or at least definitely not "Remember Everything" like the Evernot slogan; if something I really like or will need, process it accordingly on a one-on-one basis)

 

(OFF: 1st paragraph here: http://markmanson.net/minimalism

I find it healthy to offload some bits as well.)

 

However I have a strong inclinatoin for free software (dunno why, but there are people like this), on my (Windows) desktop all my needs are superbly met for free (I jsut today retired total Commander for good). Even if the solution will not be ideal, I feel better at the end of it. On the Internet nothing beats free as a price point. (And the accompanying business model: they will buy us out.)

 

Anyways, would be funny if the only piece of software I paid for were a reading app monhly subscription.

 

Anyways, now I am in the market for a new smartphone and at the moment I am like, it's going to be a Windows Phone (would be funny if I had to choose another just for Instapaper)

 

Readability.com (also not on Windows Phone) might be promising nonetheless, but maybe there is a bug, I can't use, contancted support.

 

Besides all this, how to use Evernote Clearly? I couldn't figure it out (Firefox). If I am here, I liked the video.

 

Readability update: http://www.candlerblog.com/2012/03/01/readability/

 

For a minimum of $5 per month, Readability will pay out 70% of your fee to the writers whose sites you read most. As far as I can tell, as a user you don’t get anything extra (besides good karma) for subscribing.

 

That's what I call a business model!