Feautre Request: Visualy structure your notes

[Qemist 0]

Dear Evernote team,

 

I love your product, yet I have a problem to organizing my notes. You already have such a great program that I quickly exploded the number of notes. But to find them again, structure the knowledge and not just to forget them, I am missing a feature. 

 

Right now, there is already a couple of methods to keep track of our notes, like timestamp, search algorithms, and tags, yet I find it still difficult to keep an overview. I think that humans think rather in associations then in timestamps. Something like a homescreen with a visual representation of all our notes would help a lot! Like a mindmap or a hierarchical tree or a net, that we can reshuffle as we want, create connections as needed and collapse and expand freely.

 

My idea is not unique, pearltrees for instance tried to implement a similar structure (and failed in doing that. I can't use it at least). There is also a JavaScript library called D3.js that could be suitable for such a purpose. 

 

Just a thought. In my view, such a feature would surely make your product even more awsome! Or am I just missing an Product that is already capable of this?
 

Best wishes, 

Phillip

 

[gazumped 11,664]

+1 for mindmaps and visual structure (it has been mentioned before).  Current products in this area - Mohiomap and Concept Draw

[Analyst444 182]

As a visual learner, I could appreciate a schematic (map?) of my EN Notes. However, the more I think about it, the less value I think it would provide from a functional standpoint, particularly since I have over a 1,000 Notes (I could never see them all on the screen at the same time).. - - - For example, other than a Notebook Stack and Notes within a specific Notebook, there is no other parent/child relationship between objects in EN. So, I don't see that "Nodes" on a map would be a big contributor. 

 

I just went to MohioMap's web site and watched the video on their MindMap product. It is visually appealing and technically impressive, but I not sure what value I would get from it. With the Windows version of EN, I can go to the "List" view and produce a list of Notes that have something in common (like being in the same Notebook, a Tag, a key word).

 

So, please help me. What am I missing by not having a visual schematic of my EN Notes, other than the "cool" effect? 

[DutchPete 247]

As a visual learner, I could appreciate a schematic (map?) of my EN Notes. However, the more I think about it, the less value I think it would provide from a functional standpoint, particularly since I have over a 1,000 Notes (I could never see them all on the screen at the same time).. - - - For example, other than a Notebook Stack and Notes within a specific Notebook, there is no other parent/child relationship between objects in EN. So, I don't see that "Nodes" on a map would be a big contributor. 

 

I just went to MohioMap's web site and watched the video on their MindMap product. It is visually appealing and technically impressive, but I not sure what value I would get from it. With the Windows version of EN, I can go to the "List" view and produce a list of Notes that have something in common (like being in the same Notebook, a Tag, a key word).

 

So, please help me. What am I missing by not having a visual schematic of my EN Notes, other than the "cool" effect? 

 

What you are missing is that if you could have a tree-like structure of your notes, with as many sub-notes as you wanted, you would have a vertical organisation that would allow you to visualise much easier as to what you have where.

Evernote allows notebook stacks, and notebooks with just 1 level of notes. But that does not let you see quickly as to what is available in each notebook. I believe Qemist's request is a good one. I cannot comment about the usefulness of Mohiomap as I don't use it.

[Qemist 0]

Thanks for the link, gazumped!! Mohiomap really looks like it's what I was searching for. Its net structure is quiet bubbely and a bit too flexible, but I believe I with some time I can create a good enough structure. A tree-like  option would alos be nice. But that are just details.

Now is just the question, whether the guys from evernote are interested in incorporating it into their product. The link between both solutions is in my opinion a bit rough. When you open a note in Mohiomap, it opens Evernote in minimized form. Again, details and maybe I just need to change one setting. Found it, all good  

 

@Analyst444: It just depends, how you like to structure your data. I think that many people could use visual structures. If you're fine with search algorithms and notebooks and stacks, then all is good. But I am getting lost in my 150 notes, and I can't imagine, how you structure your 1k notes without losing track 95% of your notes after say one month after creation. Maybe give Mohiomaps a try and you'll see what I mean?

 

Cheers!

[gazumped 11,664]

Actually I don't use mind mapping or any other visual style to structure the general body of 98% my notes.  For the most part they're emails,  clips,  screen grabs and random jottings that make up my generic record-keeping and research.  I don't think that visual layout has much to do with the actual data gathering.  It does have to do with laying out the structure of a project or a report or a process,  where something has to be explained coherently and in a logical order.  If I simply wrote that down in a note,  the order would need revision a few dozen times before it was complete.  My brain works in its own inimitable way,  and while I can probably name all the component parts of a standard internal combustion engine,  mentioning 'sparkplug' would make me think of 'rotor arm' and 'camshaft' (it's an old engine,  OK) without necessarily filling in between those points on a first run.  Same with business processes.  So it's useful to map out any of the above and then be able to describe them in the aforementioned coherent and logical way.

 

My notes don't need structure as such - I can find all the sparkplug information with a search  and of there's lots of it I might consolidate all the notes into one,  or do myself a Table Of Contents note with an 'exec summary' to make it quicker if I need the same information again.

[charboyd 272]

The Evernote App Center has a couple third party options: http://appcenter.evernote.com/search/795432c9f6bfe78d42a7f2350a0eea76