Tips and Resources for new users and new forum members

[Wordsgood 526]

Hello!

(ATTN: Everyone...  If - okay where, there is no *if* - mistakes anywhere, please do point them out.  Thanks!)

Since I'm seeing a fair number of new (or newish) members on the forum lately, I thought it might be helpful to post some tips and resources that might come in handy if you are new to Evernote (EN) and/or the Forum.  These tips & resources apply to ALL news users - free, Premium and Business - except where otherwise notes.

This post is by no means all inclusive, and what I've mentioned here bare scratches the surface of the knowledge freely available to all users.

First, a few disclaimers.  (Feel free to scroll past them and go straight to the Tips, if you prefer.  Given the flavour of my recent posts, I just don't want folks thinking I'm trying to play one side against the other.)

Also, I'm using my phone so don't have access to the forum's text editor.  Ergo, in places I am using all CAPS and symbols in place of Bold, Underline and Italics.

DISCLAIMERS:

1) I'm a free user and until very recently, was eagerly looking forward to the being able to squeeze the admittedly reasonable yearly subscription out of my very tight budget.  I have *not* ruled out the possibility completely as of yet and NOTHING I say here or elsewhere in the forum is intended to discourage anyone from using - and paying for - Evernote.

Evernote IS a GREAT concept and for the most part, a great product.  Their cross-platform ability is second to none.  (At least for now.)

BUT...they appear to be going through what I *sincerely hope* are growing pains that will soon result in a stable product that fully lives up to its marketing and potential.

2) Yes, I am one of the people who has recently spoken out rather vocally about the way Evernote has handled some of their recent support policy chanes - and the app Updates that yanked certain features, such as a much loved Public Notebooks feature,  which was quickly reinstated "for now" after a cries of outrage here on the forum.  (But still no word on if it's going to stay or not)  ALL of this was done without *any* advance notice of any kind to users, free or paid.  Any information about major changes - good or bad - always seems to come out after the fact.  And then only after several users publicly speak up about it here.

3)  I've also publicly joined a chorus of users who feel EN is so focused on their push to enter the corporate world of cloud servies, that they have not shown much in the way of customer loyalty to the very consumer base upon which it has managed to grow to 100 Million plus users in less than a decade.

A move that, in my personal opinion, seems quite premature given that many long standing premium power users with 10s of thousands, are repeatedly finding the volume to be more that EN can handle with speed and reliability.  (Evernote itself has always maintained that a single account can hold up to 100,000 notes.  One would assume that at least for paying users, that means it can easily handle accounts with 30 or 40 thousand notes, but nothing I've seen so far bears that out.)

Some of these long standing power users are so frustrated with everything I've stated above, that they are now seeking alternative software. 

For me, personally, I'm staying with Evernote for now, but am also looking at alternatives.  (Free and paid.)  If, in a few months, my personal concerns are addressed, I'll stay on and even upgrade to Premium as soon as I'm able to thereafter!  (Bad year thwarted earlier plans to upgrade. And yeah, I know, EN wouldn't even notice if I left for good.

[jbenson2 2,147]

Impressive accumulation of Evernote topics. Thanks for all the work.

 

Just one minor point - the link for tags would be more beneficial if it goes to the 1st post, not the last one.

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/57740-the-benefit-of-using-tags/

[Wordsgood 526]

I see one of the comments has been removed. Yes, I know it's a marothon post and yes I know, it's not perfect, but I thought it might be helpful for some to have as much as possible in one post. No, I did not notice GBarry's post about the Suggestion Box before posting. (Sorry if you found my effort erronous and redundant.)

JB, thank you. The mobile version opens to the most recent and it just didn't occur to me to scroll back to OP before linking. I'll fix later this weekend. Thanks for pointing that out! ☺

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Thanks for that mammoth effort Wordsgood! I do think, however, that a lot of (our) concerns about various EN-related stuff might best be posted in a separate topic... more than anything, to get directly to the TONS of helpful stuff that is the meat of this thread - especially for the new forum members who will be clicking on this post in their droves.

[gazumped 11,652]

Wow Wordsgood - were you a bit bored recently or something?  That's an incredibly useful resource for newbies.  I agree with Frank though that the Disclaimers paras don't really belong here,  and do detract detract from the valuable stuff later.  I'll Evernote this for future linking..

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to organise your thoughts!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I'm impressed she did all that on her phone! :o

[gazumped 11,652]

LOL - hadn't event thought about that!  Good phone! 

[Wordsgood 526]

Gaz & BNF, yup, all on my phone. And yes, late night boredom was *part* of my motivation.

[gazumped 11,652]

Seems a pity to lose such a lot of work - and it could be useful to lots of people;  how about if one of the Admins removes the thread but you repost it with a little editing?  Or as separate items..  or Geoff has the new Knowledge Base project which could maybe use some of the topics?

[s2sailor 2,184]

Seems a pity to lose such a lot of work - and it could be useful to lots of people;  how about if one of the Admins removes the thread but you repost it with a little editing?  Or as separate items..  or Geoff has the new Knowledge Base project which could maybe use some of the topics?

 

When I first saw Geoff's post it seemed, at first glance, that he was looking for topics for a forum FAQ which I think would be great and a very good place for the topics that Wordsgood contributed.  Unfortunately, it looks like the Knowledge Suggestion Box is only looking for feedback on "existing documentation."  I'm all for seeing the Knowledge Base improved but I think there is also a need for a forum FAQ.

[Wordsgood 526]

Geoff and company, I do have a copy of my OP so please do feel free to delete this thread.

[jefito 5,589]

Wordsgood, I don't understand why you would want this deleted. Seems like a helpful contribution to me. It should probably be pinned to the forum header, in fact.

[Wordsgood 526]

It's probably just me feeling a bit touchy. Honestly, I don't much care if it stays or not at this point. Whatever the mods feel is best is fine.

But thank you for the compliment, Jeff!

[jefito 5,589]

It's probably just me feeling a bit touchy. Honestly, I don't much care if it stays or not at this point. Whatever the mods feel is best is fine.

But thank you for the compliment, Jeff!

 

Wordsgood, I don't understand why you would want this deleted. Seems like a helpful contribution to me. It should probably be pinned to the forum header, in fact.

 

I'd like to point out that with 648 posts, you are a de facto moderator (https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/65693-moderation-and-member-leveling-changes-to-the-forum/). You have a voice -- thanks for using it.

 

Unless somoeone reports this as a violation of forum rules, then there's no reason why it shouldn't stay. And plenty of good reasons why it should stay.