Handwriting support for the mac version?

[gnormandin 0]

I was just wondering if handwriting support for the mac version is in the works. I've just tried the windows version and noticed that full support for pen input is available.. it will be awesome to have this on mac as well.

[engberg 89]

The Mac will be able to display existing ink content (e.g. from your Windows or Windows Mobile client) relatively soon, but we don't currently plan to add the ability to create ink notes on the Mac.

[jbardi 1]

In a previous post on this subject, the reason for not including ink support in the mac version was rather ridiculous. You gave stats about how many people use Windows in the world over those that use Mac and that there were not enough Mac users to make it worth your while... if that is so, then why make a Mac version at all... that is a stupid statement. There are TONS of Mac users with Wacom tablets that would like ink support and you don't even care. Even Apple is including more and more ink support in the OS and you still act like it is a rare request... are you kidding me? Thanks for ink viewing in the Mac version... utterly useless as most Mac users of Evernote are not using Mac and Windows, so why would I care if I could read an ink document on my Mac if I have no way to create an ink document in the first place.

I am tired of you and other companies talking about the low percentage of Mac users as if we are insignificant and have no bering on anything. The reason there are so many Windows users even today is because companies like you refuse to make equivalent features... why switch to Mac when companies only release a limited version on Mac. That is what Microsoft does, "We will give you Office and Microsoft Messenger, but it will have very few features in common with the Windows versions because we don't want people to switch to Mac." Now Microsoft has a legitimate reason... so what is yours? Is it the same? Are you trying to keep everyone on Windows? Is that your ultimate goal? It is sad that I have Evernote yet I have to use Notebook by Circus Ponies and Inkbook by Mage Software because you refuse to include ink support. So now I have 2 locations where I store my notes, and Evernote is starting to look less and less like the most viable option at this point.

You didn't even say, "We will look into the possibility of including it if we get enough requests." No, instead you simply stated, flat out, there is NEVER going to be direct ink support in the Mac version. So the money we pay for the Premium account is good enough for you to profit off of, but not good enough for you to listen to take our concerns seriously to help improve your software? Where would you be without your users? We are not important enough to dedicate any additional programming time as the percentages are not high enough for you. Until companies start offering equal feature sets, nothing is going to change... but what do I know... I'm just a Mac user... a single digit percentage of the overall users... so just continue to ignore us because we are insignificant.

[engberg 89]

We certainly don't neglect the Mac platform in general ... the Mac has had many features for 1.5 years longer than the Windows client (e.g. thumbnails, etc.). More of us carry Mac laptops than Windows, and I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro.

Unfortunately, the only company that makes Mac computers (Apple) has never chosen to build a pen-based Mac or promote ink-based computing. As a result, we're prioritizing features for the Mac that every Mac user may utilize rather than putting our limited Mac programming resources into special input modes for the few who have bought special third-party input tablets.

Thanks

[Klupus 1]

I am a recent convert to Evernote from Circus Ponies and really appreciate the cross platform features and 'cloud' access. A BIG disappointment for me is the lack of drawing features for Mac users in Evernote. I also run Windows using Parallels virtualisation on my Macs (I am forced to) but what I really want are the same tools for sketching diagrams that are so cool in the Windows version. I love the way Evernote 3.5 Beta can take my rough sketches and straighten lines etc. Great!

I'm going to challenge the last post by 'engberg'. MS has been promoting pen based computing for some time yet it hasn't taken off. I think this is due to a mix of hardware and software constraints. Technology still has a great problem as it it has been unable to match the flexibility and experience of using good pen on paper. Where it wins is the ability to store and back up data. Delivering user friendly tools to facilitate the latter whilst providing a 'good enough' pastiche of the former would make Evernote a killer application.

To have a truly effective personal notetaker I need basic drawing tools. Think Windows Journal, not OneNote here. Delivering those across platforms will increase Evernote's competitive advantage. That is base on it's ability to operate across platforms as acknowledged by the inclusion of Ink reading in Evernote for Mac. Delivering the same tools for all users would in my view make Evernote and a subscription to Pro a compelling case for a lot of extra users.

BW K

[engberg 89]

To clarify - we'll happily store a bitmap image from any graphics program you want to use with an electronic tablet, and we'll take scanned handwriting in JPEG/GIF/PNG formats. If your handwriting is decent, our servers will recognize the hand-written text and permit searching for those notes later. We just don't have a special "vector drawing with electronic pens" mode in the Mac client itself.

Thanks

[NightStalker 407]

Dave - you just beat me to it I was going to chime in and point out that either scanning in or photographing (on the iPhone for example) any handwritten notes will give you searchable notes, due to the OCR that is done at the server end.

If I have actually scribbled notes in a real, paper notebook while on a phone call, for example, I simply snap it on the iPhone, or if it's a biggie, I scan it. Then into Evernote. No problem.

Not sure that I'd see a use for actually writing pen-based notes from within EN anyway, but I realize that I am a series of 1, so there would no doubt be others out there who may use that.

All I'm saying is that you don't need to do that. I must admit to finding the feel of a real pen or pencil on real paper is infinitely better than any Wacom pad - and I have 3 of them that I use for photoediting!

[jbardi 1]

Well, if it is not that important, then why include it in the Windows version... look at the number of Windows users that actually OWN a tablet PC.. it is probably about the same percentage of Mac users that own a Wacom tablet... most Windows users NEVER use ink support in Windows or Evernote, yet you have no problem including it for them... no matter what you say, there is no reason other than you do not use Wacom tablets. You have like one fifth, if not smaller, development staff for mac than you do windows... so no matter what you say, we know the real reason you are not supporting ink in Mac... its called a "waste of time" in your mind. A small company like circus ponies had no problem including ink support for the "low" percentage of wacom owners, so don't give me that *****! Then you have the Ink Book program which is ONLY for Wacom pen owners, and yet they have no problem making that program for the "low" percentage of mac users that use direct ink. It would not take you long to implement the feature... if ONE GUY at circus ponies can put that feature in in one update, your team could do it in no time... unless you just don't know how, which would be a better explanation than lying to us with these stupid excuses. I'm done!

[engberg 89]

The Windows application has had ink support for many years ... long before there was a service, or a Mac version. This was developed back when Bill Gates was waving around tablet PCs and telling the world that keyboards were dead. The tablet revolution never materialized, and Apple in particular never chased this trend. (I assume they had a few bruises left from the Newton.)

[AndersKn 0]

Hi,

One of my primary uses of EverNote is to take notes during meetings. It helps me a lot. To even further improve the quality and readability of the type of notes I make, It would be greatly appreciated if simple drawings could be made. The feature set of the ink drawing in the windows version looks to be more than adequate IMHO. I would therefore love to see the ink functionality implemented also in the mac client.

I don't believe that a wacom board or similar input device is necessary, given the limited context of creating simple figures. Thus, I think the whole Mac-EverNote community would be the target/audience for this feature.

I posted a note on my public notebook:

http://www.evernote.com/pub/anderskn/andersKristenssonPublic/

to illustrate the concept.

Best regards

Anders

PS. The figure was first created on the PC and thereafter I added the text on my Mac. DS.

[hmickelson 0]

So here is a really good one. I am sitting here wishing I could just sketch a couple of simple things on Evernote, having to switch from EN to a notebook (often I just stay in the notebook), when what do I see but an add for the Wacom. "Buy a Wacom and write notes directly in to Evernote". Wasted some time figuring out that it SHOULD say UNLESS YOU HAVE A MAC - THEN DON'T BOTHER. The new Tablet will reinforce what a silly idea this is.

I'd pay for Pro to get that functionality, BTW...

[sterlingrose1 0]

New to the forum - came here to find out if that fabulous wacom bamboo pad I just saw advertised would work with Evernote on a Mac. So disappointed.

There are many people, myself included, who have different styles of thinking depending on what they're doing. For me, typing is for transcription - recording meeting notes, sending e-mail, documenting facts. It's fast and accurate but not expressive. Handwriting and sketching are appropriately slow and expresssive and work better for thinking and processing. Evernote would be an awesome and great leap forward in productivity if it had handwriting input capability because then it would truly be one-stop remembering. In fact, to engage in a stereotype, it seems to me that the people who would get the most use out of the handwriting feature are more usually MAC owners than PC owners :?

hope the powers that be will reconsider...

[deverill 54]

I wonder if the fairly new $99-ish MSRP line of Bamboo tablets combined with the new iPad (assuming it has handwriting capabilities) will cause EN to reconsider.

I agree that it is odd to provide it for Win but not Mac, and the comment about ink-based computing confuses me. Mac has as many apps that accept pen input as Windows and even has Inkwell but I'm sure there's something at the OS level that makes a difference to them.

I would like very much to have this capability in Mac EN since it's a pain to scan and I don't have a mobile camera phone, but I'd also like to encourage everyone to work with the EN team instead of telling them what a load of ***** it is that they made a business decision for their business. Disagree, fine, but please, let's be civil about it.

[phurd99 0]

I have been using Evernote for years on the Windows version. I switched to Mac and used Notebook for a while until I found Evernote on Mac. I love the product but would really like to see the Ink Notes added to the Mac release.

I work with both platforms and the one nice thing is Evernote makes working between the two easy. I stopped using Ink on the Windows because I cannot add to it once it is sync to the Mac.

It would be nice to keep Evernote MAC and PC in line with each other. For those of us that use both OS, it would be a transparent. Reguardless of the market, if you win customers over with your products, they will stick by you.

Please reconsider adding Ink Notes to the Mac release.

[nemo20 0]

I also hope that you will reconsider, and put in the ink note feature in the Mac version of Evernote. There are alot more people buying Macs these days then ever before. Just giving us the ability to view Ink notes is more of a mockery than a help.

regards

new user of evernote.

[blysik 0]

Handwriting for the ipad with a capacitive stylus! I would be the coolest person in a meeting with this capability! Help me be cool!

[dax_02 0]

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. I understand, we have to choose where we invest our resources in developing software. However, two things seem obvious from these posts. A) Handwriting on the Mac platform of EN is in high demand for creatives/visual thinkers. The technology is possible. It's been done. SO, here's my question to Evernote developers. What can we as consumers do to assist you in deciding to offer this feature? Name your price. What do you need to see from us that would make you reconsider? Do you need more demand? More paying customers? Please understand, I'm never one to complain about applications I get for free, especially useful ones like EN - especially one's that recognize and capitalize on the power of cross platform data entry. You have done EVERYTHING right, in terms of gorgeous UI, working the triple threat of iPhone, web, and desktop apps, iSight integration, and compatibility with other apps in the AppStore. But please, on behalf of myself, the owner of a brand new Bamboo, and all of us Mac EN users on this forum, PLEASE reconsider. Contact Wacom, discuss options. If you as developers are indeed carrying around MacBook Pro's as well, then do it for YOURSELVES! You know when you created the feature in Windows, you WISHED it was coming back to our side too. Make that wish come true! All of us stand behind you, and will support you in your heroic efforts, and we can all share in a glorious victory together, when one day, Mac and Window's users together can write side by side in Evernote.

Thanks,

Jared

[bcarl 0]



[engberg 89]

Yes, Skitch is a great piece of software. If you write on a Skitch graphic before adding it to Evernote, it should be processed by Evernote so that you can search for the handwritten text later.

[odrade 0]

HI Engberg.

I don't want to bash you up for the lack of HW recog' for Mac (as others seem to have done) but i do want to know if your position has changed?

As I'm sure you know, Mac has fairly sophisticated HW Recog' software embedded in OS10 courtesy of "Ink" built right into the prefs pane. admittedly one needs to use a tablet device for this but that is really is not much of an obstacle these days. especially considering that the new model macbooks have a very generous trackpad that works very well with conductive styli.

If you build a HW Recog, inking feature into the Mac version i assure you that you will be be besieged by a significant number of thankful end users who will be grateful for the equality. (remember Macs historical ties to the design sector. We all use tablets and styli. we can't work without them. i personally use a cintiq and so DO have a direct on screen application/use for inking)

As a related aside: HW Recognition and inking would also be awesome additions to the iPad version of Evernote if/when you guys release it. This could also be another way to bridge the gap for direct on screen inking for Mac users (iPad + Styli + syncing = fairly cool option).

If you guys can build this into the iPad app you will have created a piece of software that will rival the anticipated capabilities of the vaunted Microsoft Courier tablet.

You will be loved by Mac users everywhere forever.

Thanks for your time.

If you build a HW Recog, inking feature into the Mac version you will have built

[engberg 89]

We'd still consider doing native ink support on the Mac at some point in the future, but we're currently focused on a long list of problems and features (e.g. better text editing and styling) that are also very important for Mac users, including those who don't have a third-party tablet for handwriting.

[odrade 0]

Thanks for the response.

[cinthia 1]

We'd still consider doing native ink support on the Mac at some point in the future, but we're currently focused on a long list of problems and features (e.g. better text editing and styling) that are also very important for Mac users, including those who don't have a third-party tablet for handwriting.

My 2 cents. Words of a wiser (richer) man than me "Find a vacancy in the market and fill it".

Text editing and styling means nothing compared to handwriting recognition! There is a vacancy, there's no competiton, Apple's existing INK technology exists so I'm perplexed that companies don't realize the value of this (but then most didn't see the iPhone coming either, now they're scrambling to imitate).

Maybe make handwriting exclusively available as part of a "premium" Evernote membership. Mac users have always been willing to pay for quality. People will wait on the other tweaks and updates (I personally don't even see the difference in most of them). Have you read the statistics on the iPad sales? And this is for a first generation product that even buyers realize will probably be ugraded within a year. We don't care! Doesn't that tell you something? There are netbooks and graphic tablets with "better text editing and styling". We don't care! The millions of dollars spent on iPads are coming from the same people who will pay more millions for handwriting recognition. It's as if the money is just sitting there and companies are too blind to pick it up.

Evernote is a wonderful filing cabinet but not the ONLY service of it's kind. The first company to implement Handwriting recognition for Mac (primarily iPad and iPhone) - is going to be THE company - period - and it'll be overnight, leaving all other services scrambling to woo customers back.

[engberg 89]

If you have a third-party tablet device attached to your Mac, then you can enable ink support (for free!) in the operating system:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ ... ternative/

This includes handwriting recognition, which you can use to write and produce text for any well-behaved application (including Evernote).

[cinthia 1]

If you have a third-party tablet device attached to your Mac, then you can enable ink support (for free!) in the operating system:

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/ ... ternative/

This includes handwriting recognition, which you can use to write and produce text for any well-behaved application (including Evernote).

Thanks for the link but the keyboard is a better input solution for text when sitting at the computer. Third party tablet devices are handy for graphics but integrated handwriting recognition is needed for portability. The keyboard on iPhone is (for me) about as good as a phone keyboard gets but it can't compete with handwriting on such a small device. I make do with audio recording and transposing later, as well as two FABULOUS apps -

Dragon Dictation for iPhone and iPad - (converts voice to text almost flawlessly and fast!).

http://iphone.dragonmobileapps.com/appl ... video.html

and

WritePad for iPhone OR iPad (converts handwriting to text almost flawlessly and fast!)

http://www.phatware.com/index.php?q=pro ... s/writepad

The good news is that multitasking is on the horizon in iPhone 4.0, making the need for an "all in one" app less. Thanks.

...now if I could just find a way to get evernote to recognize the emails I forward, I'll be sorted out... on to another topic search for that.

[kjeannette 0]

The last post in this thread was 2010. I'm wondering if there is an update on possibly adding the pen input/handwriting feature on Mac computers. 

 

I do have an Android tablet with pen and love the Evernote handwriting option -mostly because I have the ability to write and then go back and edit the note. However, my tablet is small (comparatively speaking). I also spend most of my day on my Mac and have bought a Wacom tablet.

 

I'd like to keep all my notes in Evernote and would love to have the handwriting feature I have on my tablet also on the Mac desktop version.  Are there any plans to add pen input/handwriting to the Mac version after all this time?  The best work around I can find is to use Notability and then important it as a PDF.  Please advise.

[iamgeo 0]

Hi all, posting my interest in having some kind of sketch/handwriting feature on the Mac version. It actually would be great to have feature parity across all platforms.

The reason I chose Evernote is because it's available across all major platforms and is fairly consistent. I've been a basic user of Evernote and would like to step up my usage more, specifically with handwriting/sketching notes.

Goodnotes and Notability seem to be really great apps for handwriting/sketching note taking, but I already pay for Evernote for taking so I would prefer to not use any other app.

(also, I went out to buy a Wacom tablet for the purpose of taking hand written sketch notes to use on my Mac with Evernote, just to find out it doesn't seem to be supported)

[DTLow 5,737]

21 minutes ago, iamgeo said:

Hi all, posting my interest in having some kind of sketch/handwriting feature on the Mac version. It actually would be great to have feature parity across all platforms.

The reason I chose Evernote is because it's available across all major platforms and is fairly consistent. I've been a basic user of Evernote and would like to step up my usage more, specifically with handwriting/sketching notes.

Goodnotes and Notability seem to be really great apps for handwriting/sketching note taking, but I already pay for Evernote for taking so I would prefer to not use any other app.

(also, I went out to buy a Wacom tablet for the purpose of taking hand written sketch notes to use on my Mac with Evernote, just to find out it doesn't seem to be supported)

Still no touch screen support on Macs; it limits support for sketch/handwriting

I use alternative devices (IPad), and store the files in Evernote as note attachments   
Notability works great on an iPad with an Apple Pencil   
Also the Procreate app for art work

>but I already pay for Evernote for taking so I would prefer to not use any other app

At it's core, Evernote is a storage/organization service 
The included free editor is basic, and text based (enml/html format)

[PinkElephant 8,197]

Handwriting is not supported by MacOS. This is not shortcoming of EN, it is simply not part of the OS.

Windows used to be the same, until Microsoft launched the Surface hardware. Because these devices run Windows as well, they added handwriting support. With Apple handwriting is in the iOS range of products, especially the iPad (Pro). Handwritten stuff grabbed in iOS will be transferred to the Mac platform as well, but is not easy to manipulate there.

An app with integration of handwriting is for example GoodNotes 5, for which a Mac client exists. It is not free, but can be bought by one time payment. But even there the handwriting is done on the iPad, the Mac app is the tool to access the handwritten notes on the Mac.

There is some touchscreen input option in Sidecar (iOS 13 and MacOS Catalina), but I have not tried it yet. In theory the iPad is connected to the Mac When used as side car and works like an additional Touch Screen monitor. Maybe this would be an option.

[iamgeo 0]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! I'm reading online a lot of folks are using a combination of iPad + Evernote + another-party-tool. This definitely sounds attractive to me but in reality, the iPad is out of my budget at this current juncture for me.

However, I did submit a ticket with EN and they responded with some sneak peaks of drawing on EN for macOS that might be released this year.

Fingers crossed everyone!