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The New Evernote Web UI


claudecyrill

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First time I am registering there for one reason - New design of Evernote is terrible, it dont give any usable information, site must be as informative as possible. Please develop old version with new features, but dont move all users to new looking version.

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I prepare class notes for teaching on Evernote, which I then project on screen in the classroom.

I really appreciate the white space and the lack of distraction.

And the notes look beautiful on screen.

 

:)

Well, white space for Presentation mode is appropriate, just not for searching, browsing and editing notes. I need more out of that interface.

 

Yes. I understand. All of what you are missing has to arrive or this new version won't be of use to too many people.

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What's Wrong with this Clean Writing Window?

 

Can some of you folks who really prefers a "clean" writing environment please explain to me what is wrong with the current (non-Beta) EN Web client, when you take advantage of the "Open Note in Window" option?

 

It looks very clean and uncluttered to me.  So, please, help me out.  What's wrong with this:

 

Screen Shot of Current EN Web app with Note in It's Own Window

 

EN-Web-Note-Window.gif

 

JMichael, really hit the nail on the head

 

WE NEED THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THE OLD LOOK

Small Power user here, 6,000+ notes, on it every day iPhone, windows Desktop, iPad

 

90% of the time I need:

  •     I need to see the left panel with shortcuts, notebooks and nested tags
  •     I need to see the left panel plus the snippets
  •     I need to see the left panel plus snippets AND full note all at once

do I like that these can sometimes go away? that the text of the functions and control buttons fade out 80-90% to give more focus to the note?  sure but I have to have a way of seeing all of this old functionality,. Adding more mouse clicks and mouse movements to get what I need IS not helping me work.

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Please provide a Night/Dark Theme for Evernote Web UI

 

There has been a fair amount of discussion on this topic already, but this issue becomes GLARINGLY evident to me with the new Evernote Web UI. I am suffer from photophobia and many other Evernote users have shared their similar issues in this post. The new interface is intensely bright for people like myself and we will have great difficulty working with this. The Evernote team have shown their ability to transform interfaces into some clean and readable through the Clearly Extension, please work your magic with the Evernote Web UI as well!

 

Thank you!

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I've been following a GTD-style approach in Evernote and the new web UI is a disaster for me.  Here's a detailed critique why, in hopes that the UI designers pay attention.

I use the web UI at work on my Linux workstation, while at home I use the Mac OSX app.

 

What I need to do in Evernote is:

  1. Whenever I finish a task, I want to see my whole list of "next action" items so I can very quickly choose the next most appropriate one.  This happens several times per day.

  2. When I'm processing my inbox, I need to quickly and easily add new items to any of my dozen or so projects.  This requires being able to quickly switch between projects.  This happens about twice a day.

  3. During weekly review, I want to see all the to-do items in a project at once, check priorities, adjust tags, set deadlines, etc.

 

All of that requires being able to navigate quickly and see a lot of information.

 

So.  I have a 30 inch monitor, and on the new UI, open FULL SCREEN on my huge 2560 x 1600 monitor I see ... SEVEN notes.  Seven, Bob.  

 

Four million pixels for Evernote, and I can see just seven notes, and nothing else.  

 

What. The. H. Are. You. Thinking.  How is 7 notes on a 30 inch monitor ever a good idea?

 

Instead of one-click access to everything, with the new UI, everything is hidden.  This "simplicity" is NOT A GOOD THING.   I have to click, wait for an animation, and then find the notebook or tag I want on the animated-out tray.  

This multi-step interaction with hidden controls is *far* less efficient.  This is simply a fact and has been proven repeatedly in user studies.

 

In the old web UI I can see all my tags, all my notebooks, 17 notes, PLUS reminders, and more than enough space for a huge note or clipped web page.  I can see all that at once and move around efficiently with single clicks to instantly get the information I need.  All that is gone in the new Web UI.

 

The one great thing about the new UI is I'm not forced to use it.  If I was, I would take the rest of the day off to switch to a new product.  

 

Even keeping everything in a single big Google Docs spreadsheet would be better than this.

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EVERNOTE HAS CHANGED ITS VISION

It is no longer interested in letting you retrieve your information as its main purpose

So the New Web UI reflects this new Vision, not what we thought it was.

 

These posts from another thead are very relavent

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73509-me-vs-market/?locale=en

 

[ . . . ] This video by Andrew Sinkov gives some insight into how the process has unfolded at Evernote.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nKF2Xp_g24&feature=youtu.be

 

I have some extremely strong thoughts about what has happened, because I bought into the original metaphors ("remember everything" and your "external brain"), and the new one ("one workspace") leaves me behind. The "work" they have in mind is not my "work," [emphasis added by me] and I would prefer to have seen them achieve success with the original objective, which no one else out there can deliver (at least, not on every major platform). They were pioneers in attempting this ("remember everything"), but they aren't pioneers in making a "workspace" for me  [ . . . ]

 

 

[ . . . ]

 

GM, thanks for posting this very revealing video.

 

Some key points made by Andrew:

  1. Evernote no longer views itself as a "note taking" app
  2. Evernote no longer views itself as a storage provider for all your memories
  3. Evernote has conquered and dominate the note taking market, but it is a boring market that has little impact on the world
  4. They have "paused", and re-evaluated who they are, and what they want to do
  5. They now see themselves as the provider of relevant information as you work/type in Evernote
[ . . . ]

 

 

 

So I think I am seeing the Modus Operandi behind the new Web Based Client UI -- Evernote is no longer interested in our ability to retrieve information as its core use but to be a workspace for collaborative projects for corporations and small work groups -- that's great if you want a good Microsoft replacement but it's not what a lot of us use Evernote for.

 

The 100 year company of information retrieval is gone. I am troubled and keeping my eyes open for the next company that wants and is interested in storing and meaningful Retrieval of MY information.

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Although, indeed, pretty, the new Evernote web UI, at this point in time, leaves me flat...literally there is no dimension.  I need dimension to organize my thoughts and in the beta version I can find no way to even stack my notebooks. Then there's the issue of scrolling...for some reason I can't get to notes at the bottom of my screen.  But, the biggest deal with the new UI is my HD wide screen television/monitor.  When I open a notebook all of my notes are displayed in a column down the center taking one third of my screen space.  There is a great expanse of nothing on either side.....in, pretty darn white, white.  It is painful to look at, induces a terrible headache and my eyes refuse to focus.  If there were some way to introduce a softer, less glaring background to at least part of the screen it would be a much more comfortable wasted space.  The disappearing columns are pretty nifty and would be ok if I am doing one thing at a time.....but that's pretty much never the case and so seem to slow things down a bit.  For now, I will stick to the regular interface and wait to see what improvements/features will be next.

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Really terrible.  It looks like  a blogging platform, not a space to manage and organize information.  In order to maintain my privacy I don't download the EN desktop client on my web computer. Therefore, I rely heavily on the web interface at work. If the design stays like this it would just kill it for me.

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I don't care for the new UI at all. I have ~5,000 notes in multiple stacks and notebooks and the new UI just doesn't make scanning these easy at all. If you have to do this (and I would rather you didn't) can you keep the old UI as an option for Premium users please?

I know where everything should be, I hardly Tag at all so filtering by tags for my notes is next to useless. I do like to skim the notes from time to time.  

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EVERNOTE HAS CHANGED ITS VISION

It is no longer interested in letting you retrieve your information as its main purpose

So the New Web UI reflects this new Vision, not what we thought it was.

 

These posts from another thead are very relavent

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/73509-me-vs-market/?locale=en

 

[ . . . ] This video by Andrew Sinkov gives some insight into how the process has unfolded at Evernote.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nKF2Xp_g24&feature=youtu.be

 

I have some extremely strong thoughts about what has happened, because I bought into the original metaphors ("remember everything" and your "external brain"), and the new one ("one workspace") leaves me behind. The "work" they have in mind is not my "work," [emphasis added by me] and I would prefer to have seen them achieve success with the original objective, which no one else out there can deliver (at least, not on every major platform). They were pioneers in attempting this ("remember everything"), but they aren't pioneers in making a "workspace" for me  [ . . . ]

 

So I think I am seeing the Modus Operandi behind the new Web Based Client UI -- Evernote is no longer interested in our ability to retrieve information as its core use but to be a workspace for collaborative projects for corporations and small work groups -- that's great if you want a good Microsoft replacement but it's not what a lot of us use Evernote for.

 

The 100 year company of information retrieval is gone. I am troubled and keeping my eyes open for the next company that wants and is interested in storing and meaningful Retrieval of MY information.

 

Yes, I agree Evernote is definitely evolving away from what it used to be and going towards focusing on work. I think they trying to knock Microsoft Office into oblivion. They are moving away from what initially attracted me to Evernote in the first instance. And are now more concerned with how to help people do better work. I personally use Evernote for storage and GTD. But I am starting to worry about Evernote now as from the various media coverage out there lately about Evernote, they are heading in a different direction. Don't get me wrong, work is great and helping people to do high achieving work is cool. But this is not what attracted me to Evernote and I always thought of Evernote as a flexible application but now after their release of the new Evernote Web it is no longer flexible. And they starting to focus more on doing work like writing, work chat, presentations, etc. I am actually now contemplating departure because Evernote is moving in a new direction. It's a shame really because I been a loyal premium customer for few years and built up my confidence in Evernote. But they failed to keep up with what they first started out to do...

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I strongly dislike the new layout.

 

(1) I want to see all my notebooks at all times [unless the stack is collapsed] along with tags. Sure I have a lot of both but it's extremely easy to scroll to see things. Let people collapse if they want but give the choice.

 

(2) When I change the notebook at the top of a note, I want my notebooks to appear in the order they are in the nested list NOT alphabetic. The content of stacks are interspersed throughout the other notebooks and I can't find anything.

 

(3) There is way too much wasted space. Allow me the option to see all the columns I want to see and those who like the minimalistic approach to keep it.

 

I am one who hates to click and click and click for things. With this new layout I'm constantly clicking and it reduces my productivity. At least give the option of permanently keeping the old layout.

 

I gave up. Anticipating the change being permanent (based on how Evernote is positioning themselves), I've been straddling Evernote and OneNote. Some of my notes were duplicated (new to both in the last couple of months) and I just finished putting the rest of them in OneNote. (Although with Microsoft's history I'll probably hate the next version. On the upside, I'm already used to dealing with their "improvements.") I'm just thankful I didn't have many notes. I wish the best of luck to those who stick it out. Sorry, Evernote, I really wanted you to be the one.

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Now that I have been using the new Web Beta for a while, I have some more suggestions (though I doubt anyone from Evernote is actually reading this): 

 

I wish, wish, wish we had the option to choose whether to display the editing toolbar (with the bullet point, list, and indentation options) on the right or left side of the screen. I know I am in the minority, but as a left-handed person, it's a bit annoying to have to move the cursor over to the right side of the screen whenever I want to make a bulleted list (given that my mouse is to the left of my keyboard). I could be more productive if the editing tools were more accessible for me. Obviously, a better solution would be to implement keyboard shortcuts, but that's something many have been requesting for Evernote Web for years now (so who knows if they have plans to add that). It would't be difficult, especially for Chrome users, as we can customize keyboard shortcuts for specific functions of extensions and apps. Finally, some kind of night mode is essential, especially with all this extra whitespace. I'm hoping someone writes a browser script that puts the new Web Beta into night mode, with white on black text. Much easier on the eyes!

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Now that I have been using the new Web Beta for a while, I have some more suggestions (though I doubt anyone from Evernote is actually reading this): 

You'd be incorrect on that score.

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Now that I have been using the new Web Beta for a while, I have some more suggestions (though I doubt anyone from Evernote is actually reading this): 

You'd be incorrect on that score.

My apologies, then. 

Just to clarify. They do read every post here (or so they tell us, and I have no reason to doubt it), but they don't reply to everything, nor do they give out future plans very often, and especially they almost never ever give out release dates.

 

They do welcome suggestions, though.

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Now that I have been using the new Web Beta for a while, I have some more suggestions (though I doubt anyone from Evernote is actually reading this): 

You'd be incorrect on that score.

 

My apologies, then. 

 

 

Of course there is no way for any of us to actually know whether or not an Evernote employee reads EVERY post here (it would get very boring/tedious with some threads that get off-topic).  The only way I know of to make sure Evernote will read your request/issue, is to submit a Support Ticket.  Unfortunately, Evernote has now restricted use of Support Tickets to Premium account owners, except for reporting bugs, data loss, or account issues, which are also available to Free account owners.

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Of course there is no way for any of us to actually know whether or not an Evernote employee reads EVERY post here (it would get very boring/tedious with some threads that get off-topic).  The only way I know of to make sure Evernote will read your request/issue, is to submit a Support Ticket.  Unfortunately, Evernote has now restricted use of Support Tickets to Premium account owners, except for reporting bugs, data loss, or account issues, which are also available to Free account owners.

In this world, we rarely know anything for certain, but I do know that Evernote employees have said it often enough, as you well know. It's easy enough to verify; just do a forum search on "we read every post"; you'll find plenty of hits. I happen to take them at their word, others may not; if you want to claim that they're lying when they say it, then that's your business. But at least be up front about it.

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Of course there is no way for any of us to actually know whether or not an Evernote employee reads EVERY post here (it would get very boring/tedious with some threads that get off-topic).  The only way I know of to make sure Evernote will read your request/issue, is to submit a Support Ticket.  Unfortunately, Evernote has now restricted use of Support Tickets to Premium account owners, except for reporting bugs, data loss, or account issues, which are also available to Free account owners.

In this world, we rarely know anything for certain, but I do know that Evernote employees have said it often enough, as you well know. It's easy enough to verify; just do a forum search on "we read every post"; you'll find plenty of hits. I happen to take them at their word, others may not; if you want to claim that they're lying when they say it, then that's your business. But at least be up front about it.

 

 

You can quit acting like you have authoritative knowledge on this subject.  You can also quit putting words in my mouth.

You have your opinion, and that's fine.  But that's all it is, an opinion.  If you choose to believe everything everybody tells you, well then all I can say is, good luck with that.

 

But we can do a test right here, right now.  When an Evernote Employe reads this post, they can reply so stating they have read it, and confirm that in fact EVER post ever made in this forum has been read by an Evernote employee.

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Thank you for giving users the option to opt out. In my simple word:

 

Looks +

Usability --

 

Maybe fine if you have 20 notes. Not for me with 2500+. Why use up so much space with empty space? Makes it painfully annoying on laptop computers.

 

Where did the drag and drop go? This is a dealbreaker for my usage of Evernote as a storage and note/task management tool. Might as well sign up for Asana, Basecamp or Trello and invest my premium account money there instead...

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But we can do a test right here, right now.  [ . . .]

 

 

mmm hmmm kind of what I thought too, JMichael. We are all just spitting into the wind.

 

When you're "Bending the Universe" -- deep into forum threads is not where you spend your time

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Kind of a useless "test", actually.

If an Evernote employee responds "Yes, we really do read every post" (which is consistent with what they've been saying for some time, and I can certainly speak authoritatively on that topic; it's verifiable to anyone who cares to do a little forum search), didn't believe them in the first place isn't going to believe *that* either, while anyone who does believe them would be able to say "See?".

If no-one responds, then we are in the same situation, since we know that Evernote doesn't respond to every post.

Only if they were to respond "well, actually, we miss a few now and then" or "We don't read posts on Wednesdays", or whatever would you have any new information -- that'd be contrary to their public statements, from employees like the CTO, PMs, developers, and Geoff. Not a lot of incentive to give this answer.

Is this "test" is expected to prove anything at all? Or is it just an empty challenge?

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"Kind of a useless "test", actually." -- once again just your opinion.

 

It's a valid test whether you like it or not.  I'd think a big "authoritatively" speaking person like yourself could figure it out.  It's pretty obvious.

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No, it's a pretty useless test, and doesn't prove anything either way. Even if they do read every thread, I wouldn't expect them to set the precedent that they'll immediately respond any time someone asks, like Superman in Metropolis. They could read the thread weeks later, etc. Worse, it distracts from what was a pretty useful thread up until recently.

The new Evernote Web Client makes the GTD system impossible, which makes Evernote useless for me. I'm fine with them creating a new way to see/use Evernote, as long as they don't make the old way impossible. If they reach a point where the standard/supported client is built in the image of the new Web Client, I will definitely switch over to a different software - probably OneNote, since they just released a quality iPhone app. 

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Are we really having this discussion, about whether or not Evernote employees read forum comments? Seriously? Can we get back to the topic, which is the Web Beta UI, please? Had I known it would have derailed the topic, I wouldn't have voiced my skepticism in the first place. I only mentioned it because there has been a lot of feedback regarding the new UI, but as far as I can tell, no changes have been implemented. I'm sure they have a release schedule of some kind they adhere to, and are probably planning to make a bunch of changes at once. Anyway, that's all I have to say on the issue. 

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[ . . .]

The new Evernote Web Client makes the GTD system impossible, which makes Evernote useless for me. I'm fine with them creating a new way to see/use Evernote, as long as they don't make the old way impossible. If they reach a point where the standard/supported client is built in the image of the new Web Client, I will definitely switch over to a different software - probably OneNote, since they just released a quality iPhone app. [. . . ]

 

Yup. the web beta is worthless for GTD, its' worthless for Research where you need to do complex retrieval, its worthless for any kind of retrieval where you need context, switching quickly back and forth between notebooks and tags.

 

[edit] took out the -- evernote employees aren't reading this  comment lol

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Are we really having this discussion, about whether or not Evernote employees read forum comments? Seriously? Can we get back to the topic, which is the Web Beta UI, please? Had I known it would have derailed the topic, I wouldn't have voiced my skepticism in the first place. I only mentioned it because there has been a lot of feedback regarding the new UI, but as far as I can tell, no changes have been implemented. I'm sure they have a release schedule of some kind they adhere to, and are probably planning to make a bunch of changes at once. Anyway, that's all I have to say on the issue. 

Actually, since you voiced skepticism that anyone was listening, yes, it seemed important for you to know that they have said, repeatedly, that they read all posts, because they do value feedback. There is evidently some doubt that that's true. *shrug* As they read all posts (I believe), the minor derailment will not prevent them from hearing further feedback.

 

I'm pretty sure that you're right that they have a release plan going forward with the web beta (and I've heard that they release on a weekly basis, but I don't know that for sure, or how firm that is). They most likely have a UI plan in place, but like most developers, there's flexibility, and earlier feedback about usability issues should be valued higher, as it can lower costs by avoiding going down a bad road and needing to rip it out and redo; flip side is that they have some ideas about what direction they're heading with it, and they've invested effort to come up with that and will pursue it overall. Per usual, they don't specify what that direction is.

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Are we really having this discussion, about whether or not Evernote employees read forum comments? Seriously? Can we get back to the topic, which is the Web Beta UI, please? Had I known it would have derailed the topic, I wouldn't have voiced my skepticism in the first place. I only mentioned it because there has been a lot of feedback regarding the new UI, but as far as I can tell, no changes have been implemented. I'm sure they have a release schedule of some kind they adhere to, and are probably planning to make a bunch of changes at once. Anyway, that's all I have to say on the issue. 

Actually, since you voiced skepticism that anyone was listening, yes, it seemed important for you to know that they have said, repeatedly, that they read all posts, because they do value feedback. There is evidently some doubt that that's true. *shrug* As they read all posts (I believe), the minor derailment will not prevent them from hearing further feedback.

 

 

Why can't you respect the request of SophieJane to move on and quit repeating your opinion of whether or not Evernote reads every post.  Don't know why you say "actually", as if you are giving the facts, when it is still just your opinion.  We are all painfully aware of your opinion and will treat it according to the source.  So can we just move on and get back to the topic of this thread.

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Why can't you respect the request of SophieJane to move on and quit repeating your opinion of whether or not Evernote reads every post.  Don't know why you say "actually", as if you are giving the facts, when it is still just your opinion.  We are all painfully aware of your opinion and will treat it according to the source.  So can we just move on and get back to the topic of this thread.

 

 

Kindly learn to read and comprehend English if you wish to criticize me on this. Allow me to break it down for you:

 

"Actually, since you voiced skepticism that anyone was listening, yes, it seemed important for you to know that they have said, repeatedly, that they read all posts, because they do value feedback."

Ah yes, the so-called tell-tale "actually". Except when you put together that with the clause that it actually modifies (ignoring the embedded clause) you get: "Actually, yes, it seemed important". "Actually" is used here because SophieJane, having brought up the topic of whether anyone at Evernote was listening, seemed surprised that there's a discussion about it. "Seemed" which indicates expression of an opinion or viewpoint, seems hardly objectionable. Even so, all of this is secondary to the main clause...

 

.. "they have said ... that they read all posts". Do you deny that that is true? Let me supply a few of the numerous statements by Evernote staffers where they say exactly this, as evidence of the truth of this statement. They're easy to find, as I described earlier in the topic. My opinion is not even at issue here; what they said is part of the forum history:

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/23182-ability-to-resize-images/?p=242517

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/43257-scansnap-evernote-edition/?p=243064

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/35420-nested-notebook-stacks/?p=11573

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/52329-thank-you/?p=257014

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/41152-evernote-web-clipper-not-clipping-pdf-in-safari/?p=235531

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/36207-mac-app-crash-on-start-up/?p=213364

 

"There is evidently some doubt that that's true. *shrug*"

Can there be any doubt that there are some who do not believe that they read all posts? If there aren't any such, why all of the hullabaloo then?

 

"As they read all posts (I believe), the minor derailment will not prevent them from hearing further feedback."

 

Do you see what I did there? I've italicized the part of the sentence that would seem to indicate to most competent English readers that it's my opinion that they read all posts.

 

"I'm pretty sure that you're right that they have a release plan going forward with the web beta (and I've heard that they release on a weekly basis, but I don't know that for sure, or how firm that is). They most likely have a UI plan in place, but like most developers, there's flexibility, and earlier feedback about usability issues should be valued higher, as it can lower costs by avoiding going down a bad road and needing to rip it out and redo; flip side is that they have some ideas about what direction they're heading with it, and they've invested effort to come up with that and will pursue it overall. Per usual, they don't specify what that direction is."

This paragraph is not particularly germane to the "they read every post" claim, but just in case nitpickery wants to go here, too, the phrases "I'm pretty sure that", "I don't know that for sure", and "most likely" all indicate lack of total certainty, i.e., believe or opinion.

 

That's the sum total of the post that you object to. It's almost all plainly opinion, or easily verified facts. You've either effectively demonstrated your inability to understand plain English, or you're bird-dogging me. If you were actually so concerned about the topicality of this thread, you'd stop contributing untopical posts like the one I'm responding to. So please stop.

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@jefito:  Nobody cares about your convoluted logic at this point. Who's even reading your post?  Not me. We just want to move on.  Give it up.

Classic retreat. Losing on points, you take to your heels while shooting backwards over your shoulder. Well done. And good of you to speak for everybody here, when it's really "just your opinion", which seems to be the issue you took me on about. Double standards?

 

Anyways, you had the option of taking things private, where I would have quietly ignored you, which is best practice, usually. Instead, you chose to scold me in public over something that didn't concern you (it was a response to SophieJane's post, not you), in a post which you plainly didn't comprehend. You scold me in public, you get an answer in public. You want this to stop, then stop making bad choices.

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Jefito, please shut up with this ridiculous argumentative *****. (Are you kidding me? Even kids' shows can use the c-word for excrement!) JMichael does, in fact, at least speak for one more person (myself) with their agitation at this nonsense. We got your bloody point the first dozen times, promise! I'm personally sick of getting this off-topic, petty drama in my email inbox, as I'm sure some of the other 30-something people who subscribe to this thread to recieve feedback and discussion on the web beta layout would agree.

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'Twould be wrong to single Jeff out for the  harangues in this thread, JM did some flame fanning as well.  Perhaps next time something like this occurs, whomever the authors, forum participants can ask them to go to personal messaging to save the inbox.  End of the day though, this is what you get with democracy.

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So . . .  back to how the new Web UI Beta sucks pond water.

 

It's as if Adobe Photoshop started stripping away functions so they cold look more like Microsoft Paint -- that is insanity, Phil Libin.

 

  • NO ONE likes the "Suggested" content Facebook pushes on people.  

 

  • WE DON'T need yet more INPUT platforms -- we have our phones. We have our Pads

 

  • WHAT WE DO NEED is meaningful context platform to do meaningful searches and the ability to move information, data and notes. We can't do that wtih the new Web Beta

 

You are KILLING the most prized thing you have -- the most versatile visual platform database on the planet

 

WHY ARE YOU BETTING THE FARM . . . so you can look more like Facebook???

 

Put the gun down Phil Libin, Step away from from pulling the trigger. Life is meaningful as an External Brain . . .. It's okay Phil . ..  You were doing good. . .  You were at the top . . .  You were . . ., You were ALREADY "bending the universe"

 

You want a platform for working with business -- build it -- separately --  link it somehow.

 

YOU DON'T KILL WHAT IS WORKING AND WHAT IS LEADING THE WORLD ALREADY

 

Put the gun down Phil . .. . .. Put it down . . .

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While I appreciate the passion, let's please ratchet it down a bit. Thanks to everyone for the continued feedback!

 

We have another updated release here--I've also included a list of feature sets that are coming as well: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/74821-web-beta-release-notes-1112/

 

If you're actively using the beta and run into a particular bug we definitely want to hear about it.

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While I appreciate the passion, let's please ratchet it down a bit. Thanks to everyone for the continued feedback!

 

We have another updated release here--I've also included a list of feature sets that are coming as well: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/74821-web-beta-release-notes-1112/

 

If you're actively using the beta and run into a particular bug we definitely want to hear about it.

 

Evernote finally replied! Wooohooo!!

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It bothers me that I don't see any of the things a lot of us have complained about re: ease of use and new layout vs. old on the list of changes or upcoming features. That said, I'll give it a shot again when I'm on my laptop to see if it's somehow more usable and report back with my opinion after doing so.

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We've been listening and watching, yes. I have a team that crawls the space for feedback and aggregates it for the product managers.

 

I would say that last release was incremental. If you look at my follow up post in that thread, there's a good amount still on the way.

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Unfortunately, the beta is still completely unusable and counterintuitive for me, and after a very short amount of time poking at it again, I'm switching back. The notes list takes up too much space to show too little stuff, I see no option to restore a sidebars-like appearance similar to the current/old version, and starting on a blank note (not to mention the huge amount of blank space) is just annoying and hurts my eyes. I can't get past the lack of functional and aesthetic usability to test out the features.

 

Edited to clarify: I don't like that there's no tags list etc. next to the notes, and no default appearance of the notes list. Furthermore, the fact that it's not resizable horizontally and the fact I barely see four notes on my 17" monitor versus 8 notes in a much more compact and user-friendly list with the current/old version is too cumbersome and annoying for me to fight through in order to even properly try the beta. It goes against my needs with workflow and against my sense of acceptable aesthetics.

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I can only comment on the tags at this point since there has been so much feedback already.

 

Without nested tags this new Web Beta version is not usable for me since this is how I use Evernote...  (Meaning primary tag, and sub category tag). Not just alphabetical...  

 

Until then I will stick with the old version as long as possible.

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I gave it a fair try, immersed myself in it for a few weeks. I can't take it anymore, I've gone back to the old interface. It feels soooo much better.

 

How did you do this?

I'm trying to run the older version and it's telling me that my EN data is managed by a newer version .

How can I bypass this?

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I gave it a fair try, immersed myself in it for a few weeks. I can't take it anymore, I've gone back to the old interface. It feels soooo much better.

 

How did you do this?

I'm trying to run the older version and it's telling me that my EN data is managed by a newer version .

How can I bypass this?

 

Jeff510 is referring to the web interface. 

Your problem relates to desktop Evernote application and is unrelated to the web beta. 

The problem you are encountering usually occurs when you do not properly and completely uninstall the original application. See the proper directions for uninstalling here:

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/77444-how-to-completely-remove-and-reinstall-en-mac/

Once you properly uninstall the application, you can install whichever version, including older versions, you want. 

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I am praying that this so-called 'Beta' interface remains forever a user option. It's seems more a website or blog than an application. Please don't throw out the rule-book on user interface design simply to satisfy some internet passing fashion for "simplicity". It's not simple, it's empty.

I'm hoping that Evernote does not feel the need to pander to the latest fashion, and that it puts the real user (to whom Evernote is a critical work tool) and real usability first.

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I can't take this anymore... Evernote I am leaving you now! Bye bye... Why, you may ask? Well, it's a number of reasons and the main reason is obviously your new Evernote Web. I can't work efficiently using the new Evernote Web I'm sorry to say. Evernote your failure of making your Windows desktop client software bug-free left me with no choice but to rely on Evernote Web for my daily work. And now you come along with a new interface and you expect me to adapt with the new interface. No no no... Evernote I am the paying customer and you should make your software flexible enough for my needs but instead you make it rigid (unflexible) and forget my needs and focus on your needs instead!! This is not the way it works Evernote! Another gripe, Evernote not sure if you noticed but you have bugs in your software that have been there for years!! Have you bothered to fix them yet? No! Again you expect the customer to find a way around the bugs and adapt themselves around it. But you forgetting Evernote we the paying customers and are entitled to a quality product/service. Evernote I would have stayed with you for many years to come if only you listened and sorted out the buggy software and listened to my needs. But I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. Every new update you released Evernote I started dreading it and was procrastinating on installing it because I didn't want to be introduced to new bugs! Evernote I have to admit you have potential to be great and are miles ahead of your competitors like MS Onenote. But Evernote your mission is changing and many people are not liking it. Soon, people give up and leave if they don't get what they want. It's a bit like a relationship that turns sour if you don't make the effort to keep it running smoothly. Sorry folks (forum members) for throwing a spanner in the works but I have reached my limit with Evernote and now time has now come to say ADIOS AMIGOS!!!

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I don't think those people complaining about the new Web Beta really understand the name of the game.

 

Evernote has been a great help to a lot of people. Sure.  But Evernote is not a charity or state-sponsored Internet tool.  

Evernote is a business which wants to grow, that being the nature of businesses, and what nobody can expect Evernote to do is to not follow the money

 

Evernote has opted for the new Beta because it thinks that that is where it can grow its business fastest. 

It may be wrong, but that's a different issue.

 

It's the same story with Google. Google often drops or begins to "ignore" services which don't provide the growth it had expected and concentrates its activities elsewhere in the hope of hitting the spot. Watching it skilfully avoid paying tax in Europe, nobody associates it now with the Google that appeared to be the Young Turk of the Internet with users' interests at heart. 

 

I don't blame people for being upset about the potential loss of the Evernote they love, but business is about business, not selfless philanthropy. And for Evernote to do anything other than what it has done (assuming that it's market research is correct) would be the equivalent of the company not being true to its reason for existence and to the laws of the capitalist system within which it operates.

 

So who is going to set up and maintain an Evernote alternative out of a bright, shining and unadulterated commitment to improving the welfare of mankind and making the world a better place.

Any takers?

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This is false logic. Of course it's not about philanthropy! It's about listening to paying customers.

 

You can't grow by alienating your core user base. You grow by being recommended by your user base — that's where the business is! Ditching a tried and tested interface for the sake of fashion is simply not good business.

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This is false logic. Of course it's not about philanthropy! It's about listening to paying customers.

 

You can't grow by alienating your core user base. You grow by being recommended by your user base — that's where the business is! Ditching a tried and tested interface for the sake of fashion is simply not good business.

Precisely.

I remeber Mr. Phill said in his conference, "we did not got rid of the old design, because quite frankly we were afraid to." And they should be.

Loyal paying user base of evangelists that made this company is feeling that Mr.Phil is not listening to us, but purses his own strange vision. Steve Jobs he is not, whatever he may think of himself. And instead of hiding behind the wall of silence, it would be good business to listen to people who were the key component in the company's rapid growth by  evangelizing Evernote. I for one, would not be against "work chat",  except I feel it has been forced down our throats while there are thusands of people on this forum requesting, complaining if not begging for features that actually make Evernote improved. It is clear for what I understand that Mr.Phil's strategy is to continue to favor one platform over another, preach "elegant minimalistic" UI design, ignore the user requests, not only by not replaying and favoritism but also by not even showing they care. The company policy on how to treat it's customers, payed of not is quite frankly appalling. From "comments disabled" on it's youtube channel to ignoring Forum users as much as it is possible, not reveling any time frame of it's development while at the same time trying to sell us wallets and thermo bottles directly from the app. Or when they make ads and blog posts of the new features, (Mac only) that gets conveniently not mention every time. It's funny how work chat got updated on all platforms but the features we asked for over and over and over again have not. And when there is an updated it's in most cases first Mac. But the paying premium users such as myself have not been offered a chance to pay for the service we are getting, instead we are being charged the same but with less features. And there is no explanation why or any accountability from the company. Just wall of silence. That is what I call appalling.

Regarding the Web UI. I will try once again, but it will fall on deaf ears I'm sure. There isn't much that have not been said in this thread already. Lack of features that were always there, not an easy intuitive way to go back to old UI, too much white space, that looks like way too much white space on a large monitors, since the UI doesn't scale. It's almost 2015. that should be unacceptable. Overall, the vision of minimalistc design is not bad per se, but it should never be an only option, but an option that is seemless integrated in the standard fully functional UI.

 

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This is false logic. Of course it's not about philanthropy! It's about listening to paying customers.

 

You can't grow by alienating your core user base. You grow by being recommended by your user base — that's where the business is! Ditching a tried and tested interface for the sake of fashion is simply not good business.

 

I imagine that Evernote has calculated that the number of paying customers it will not alienate plus the new customers it expects to attract will be sufficient compensation for the loss of many of its existing customers.

 

Of course, they may very well be wrong. I did not wish to suggest that the company had made the right decision in terms of its identification of a demand not yet satisfied. 

I simply wanted to make some reference to the source of that decision ... the profit motive. 

 

[i notice references above to loyalty and accountability. Did those concepts make any difference to Google when it closed down the RSS reader that was fundamental to the lives of thousands? None whatsoever. Everyone could see the drive for increased profit and less "wasteful" spending behind its pathetic messages of consolation. (Everyone in Google is always so "excited" about everything. Maybe it should start using the word "unexcited" when it decides to ditch a service whenever the need to sustain double figure profit rates demands it.) ]

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Glennie - I understand what you're saying. I work in the legal department of a successful software startup, and I can totally relate. You can't do everything for all of your customers, you have to keep your bottom line in mind. 

 

On the other hand, while your Google comparison is apt, Evernote only has the one product. If Google were only an RSS feeder company, obviously shutting down their only product would be suicide. It's more like if Google decided to make some extreme changes to Google Search, which is that company's bread and butter... something they've never really messed around with. 

 

I just see some glaring problems with Evernote as an office productivity tool. It lacks any semblance of "finishing" a product. It is great for storing notes, but I need Microsoft Office (or Apple's comparable products) to create a highly polished finished product that I can print out and pass out, or to create a final presentation I can stand in a board room and present. There's just none of that present in Evernote. I avoid putting together final drafts in Evernote just for that reason; I'm going to have to reformat everything after I paste it into Word or Powerpoint, never mind Excel. So, why not start my first draft in the Microsoft product where it will be finished? Saves me a step, saves formatting, and plus Office is adopting a lot of the different strengths of Evernote anyway. Is Evernote going to have an Excel alternative? Am I going to be doing Mail Merge projects with Evernote? 

 

Too ambitious... Evernote should build on their strengths; I just don't see any hope for this product going up against Microsoft and Apple. Honestly, while I love the existing software, it is still quite buggy and I have to apologize for it pretty often. If you expect me to think we'll see them tackle on much, much greater challenges and somehow also fix the quality problems...  Just not seeing it. Evernote is a niche product, and a great niche product, but it's not a platform from which to tackle some of the biggest and most successful software developers of all time. 

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Thanks for the reply, Skells. 

 

For my purposes, the new Web Beta is great.  But something tells me that you may be proved right.

It just isn't clear to me who Evernote is sparring to do battle with as it moves away from the original Evernote concept.

 

Maybe they know but just aren't letting on. 

But this controversial redefinition of Evernote means that the company either has to take on some of the giants or it has to eventually have come up with something that breaks all the moulds, rewrites the rules and so leaves the company as the ruler of a kingdom that it has founded.

 

We will see.

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  • Level 5*

Glennie,

 

I think you may be giving EN too much credit relative to knowing.  I agree a company by definition takes their product where they think is best.  Typically successful companies do that with a clear value proposition by 1) solving a problem, be it service or product, and 2) doing it in a high quality fashion.  How well they do depends upon both.  Early EN as a second brain, even thought quality was a bit light, did well.  Zero to 100 million in quick order, with a percentage of paying customers.  The market approved.

 

 IMO, EN's problem of late is that the first above is murky and the latter is woefully lacking.  You have to have both.  Some of this tilting at windmills is not a good sign as far as I'm concerned.  The quality demand will skyrocket and they don't seem up to it.  They also seem to be following as opposed to leading.

 

To be clear I am an avid EN user who finds EN indispensable as my second brain after five years.  I'd as son it not get screwed up.  It is all about me after all.   ;)

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Glennie,

 

I think you may be giving EN too much credit relative to knowing.

In Glennie's defense, I do not think he ever said Evernote was right to do this. I can imagine many circumstances where software companies are kinda forced to make a Hail Mary pass at the market. It could be, for instance, that Evernote took venture capitalist money and are now expected to make very high returns (another thing I have seen ruin otherwise brilliant startups) or that they have put themselves in a corner where their otherwise very successful niche product is just not enough. Having not researched this, I am just guessing, but being expected to move worlds drains the strength out of a lot of companies. I would much rather see Evernote focus on what they have and add incremental improvements (like work chat) than try to reinvent their basic premise, as with the Web Beta.

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@Skells,

 

Agreed, I in no way meant to imply that Glennie said that EN was right to do this.  My intent was to say IMO he was being optimistic relative to "Maybe they know but just aren't letting on".  The new stuff is hip and buzz worthy, but  put together are there specific competitor(s) in mind?  Don't think so, I think it is more someone's vision of what EN should be.  Again, it's what companies do.

 

If anything in my above post I tried to make the point that I am of the opinion that the direction and execution of EN as a value proposition is not where it needs to be at the moment.  Perhaps some of the things you mention are the cause of the change in direction, perhaps somebody just thinks it's the way to go.  Whichever, I think the way they are going about it at the moment is not right.  Perhaps I will have the opportunity to eat these words at some point in the future, distant as it may be.

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While I appreciate the passion, let's please ratchet it down a bit. Thanks to everyone for the continued feedback!

 

We have another updated release here--I've also included a list of feature sets that are coming as well: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/74821-web-beta-release-notes-1112/

 

If you're actively using the beta and run into a particular bug we definitely want to hear about it.

I appreciate that Evernote is following the feedback, but disappointed that all the new release is about is features unrelated to the usability complaints and bug fixes. My problems aren't bugs, but actual features of the design...

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I'm using the new UI for a month now, and I must say I'm impressed.

 

Certainly the right direction to go in my opinion. Clean, distraction free editing, with simple and efficient controls.

 

I really like  the formatting pop up bar when you select text.

 

 

A comment for users that claim that there a lot of wasted real estate on the display. 

Take into account that for decades we ware using (IMO ill-designed) interfaces by having drop-down menus and buttons crammed in every corner of the interface. So we kind of got used to that and when things are removed, we get a sense of loss of control and efficiency. Well, habits change provided enough time is invested. It is more important to have an interface that maximizes your attention in editing the text (your content) rather than add noise with thumbnails, buttons and menus.

 

 

Usually I open multiple tabs with notes that I wont to focus on, and just have few clean pages for editing. I don't miss at all the note selection lists and other widgets present in the previous design.

 

 

There room for improvement though but thumbs up for the new design, I really like the philosophy of the new UI.

 

Cheers

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Trying the new one again. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Several new usability problems.

 

First, I'm trying to compare two similar notes from two notebooks that are in a stack. I want to click between them. But when I select one notebook, the left side notebook pane slides away. I have to click the notebook icon, which brings me to the top of the list...scroll down to where the notebook stack is, select the other notebook and then the note after the notebook pane again slides away. It is a pain in the rump to try and toggle between two notes this way. Big UI fail that would be avoided by allowing us to "pin" the notebook pane so it doesn't disappear.

 

Second, while writing I wanted to change the text formatting of different sections that I had pasted into the note. The only way to see the formatting options is to highlight text, and then it appears. Well, I already hate that approach because I'd like my tools to be visible all the time, and I hate the way the pop up tool bar pops up and obscures nearby content, but be that as it may, there is still a problem in that those tools don't tell me what font or size the selected text is. I want to select the paragraph below, and make it the same as the paragraph above. So how do I know the settings of the paragraph above? No idea! You get a Font and a Size dropdown, but there is no indication on there of what the current state of the selected text is! UI fail #2.

 

Also, some text formatting options are in the pop up box after highlighting, and some are in the weird vertical dropdown list to the right of the text. That inconsistency is driving me crazy, as well as the problem I've already noted where hiding the tools is a disservice to me because I can't always remember what tools are available to me that I can't see.

 

Also, there's items in the pop up tool bar that I can't even tell what they are for. And there's no roll-over text to tell me what the button does.

 

Man, I hope EN is listening. Some of the old things work for a reason. Don't throw it all out just because you're trying to prove you're not stuck in an old way of doing things. Keep the parts that work!

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Just found this thread. I have to join the large majority who dislike this web interface. I have to use it for work and I am finding it very unsatisfactory ( and I am talking from a "business" point of view). If change has a purpose - I am all for it. But often in the modern world I find the catch cry "Change is good - your just afraid of change !" as an catch cry of the mediocrity who don't know what they are doing or why they are doing it. 

We have done the "white album"  - the Beatles did it in 1968. Time to move on.

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Sort of similar design approach when they killed the efficiency of the Chrome clipper. More about marketing flash than productivity concerns and then some lip service (if any) until the complaints die away. My use of evernote has dropped off since then (I even undid my pro account renewal, but it was extended when I got my new android... lol) but that doesn't mean they aren't going out of their way to make me want to leave altogether. Too many clicks, too much hidden information, feels like they are trying to make everything mobile friendly just as mobile devices are getting larger cause mobile alone doesn't cut it. Seems like it is UI by trial and error again. All those millions to spend and not a proficient UI or HID designer to be found.

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The web interface is simply not usable to me.  It's beyond frustrating and has me, again, seeking a better solution for real, productive, hard-core, note-taking and information gathering.

 

I'm sure the interface has been reviewed as "fresh" and "friendly" and such. But is it really? So much white space, so much wasted room, so little of *my* data, fonts are GIANT, etc.  As has been said in this thread earlier, my desktop IS NOT a tablet or Android device/iPhone.

 

I do hope you guys realize that once Google Keep gets tags and some real organizational features that their much simpler interface and denser presentation of information (though still not perfect) is going to greatly affect your business.

 

I've tired to use Evernote since early 2008 and it has always proved to be too bulky and non-intuitive.  This newest update is no different -- it's shallow, too cute, and, most importantly, I still can't get to my information easily.

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I'm stuck using the web UI as my primary desktop interface since I'm on Linux at work, and I'm fearing the day I can no longer use the classic web interface. This new one is such a major regression in functionality and speed of basic operations, I am going to have to look for alternatives to Evernote just to maintain my efficiency.

 

I assume the design team has a very clear idea who they're designing this for, but unfortunately it seems I'm not one of those people.  I am full cognizant of the idea that the web UI is never going to be as featureful as a desktop version, but this feels almost like I'm being penalized for not using the desktop app.

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Agreed, the new web UI totally sucks... is confusing and pointless.. on top of that... every since their big update... 

 

1). You used to be able to have real-time collaboration... meaning two people could be on the note at the same time in conference and working inside the note.. but now.. they have this pain in the ass "Note Lock" feature that locks you out of the note!!  Thats right, in case you thought I was stuttering... if you are sharing a note at the same time with someone else... you automatically get locked out of the note... the makes it impossible to work inside the note... no cursor, nothing... just freezes on you. AND... there is no way to disable the "lock"... the only way you can regain editing control is to tell the other party to close the note and reopen it... lame.

 

2). There is no way to copy the notebook URL to simply paste it into a browser... if you right click on a notebook and choose "modify sharing"... and then copy the URL... it doesn't copy.. it fails to paste.

 

Watch this screen capture:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11616972/No%20Way%20to%20copy%20a%20notebook%20URL.mp4

 

3). I have had other strange issues as well... like everything suddenly getting centered in the note... and when scrolling a large note, it lags... and drags... it used to be fast.

 

Its really infuriating that they had the best damn product in the world and then went out and let their engineers "tinker" with ideas they though there "cool".. .that nobody needed and killed the capabilities that their customers relied on.

 

A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT... 

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After using Evernote almost exclusively for all my note-taking, reminders, to-do's, content curation, school assignment creation, presentation outlines... instead of a word processor, spreadsheet program, or any other "office" like program, AND PAYING MONTHLY on one account or more since the summer of 2008, I am about ready to switch to a membership with another program... or just stop paying services altogether and just use the services I get for free with MS Office.  Evernote's STATED determination to ignore customer feedback (read any of the few different interviews with the Evernote CEO if you doubt this) and unwillingness to design for anyone else but Evernote employees, I am SO close to calling it quits.  This beta is just another sign that Evernote is not worth what I am paying for it.  At least they did one thing right - they kept the features that make it easy to stop using Evernote and switch to some other product/service instead.  The decrease in functionality in ALL the interfaces on platforms I use (Android, Web, Chrome OS, and Windows) is making me more and more convinced that Evernote could not care less whether or not I have been a loyal paying member for the last SEVEN YEARS or not.

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Don't know if this will stay as part of this forum, but as of a few weeks ago, I made the move from Evernote to OneNote (after having paid for an EN subscription since 2008, though I haven't officially cancelled my subscription to EN just yet [better safe than sorry]).  So far all is going very well.  In particular, editing notes is much cleaner (formatting is far more reliable). The window is much less cluttered (and without excessive amounts of white space and giant fonts), outlining works much much better, note organization is better I think.  Capturing from the web isn't as good, but that's a very small part of what I do and so for what I amount I do capture OneNote works just fine.

 

The Android clients are on par -- mostly. Again, OneNote seems to be more reliable with formatting (which is essentially basic outlining, bold, and underscore, for me). I've had the EN Android client append taken photos -- to a note that already contained photos -- all over the place within the note. OneNote client doesn't seem to have this issue.

 

Evernote sure had a chance to own this market but it doesn't appear they listened, or cared, about what their longtime customers had to say.

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Don't know if this will stay as part of this forum, but as of a few weeks ago, I made the move from Evernote to OneNote (after having paid for an EN subscription since 2008, though I haven't officially cancelled my subscription to EN just yet [better safe than sorry]).  So far all is going very well.  In particular, editing notes is much cleaner (formatting is far more reliable). The window is much less cluttered (and without excessive amounts of white space and giant fonts), outlining works much much better, note organization is better I think.  Capturing from the web isn't as good, but that's a very small part of what I do and so for what I amount I do capture OneNote works just fine.

 

The Android clients are on par -- mostly. Again, OneNote seems to be more reliable with formatting (which is essentially basic outlining, bold, and underscore, for me). I've had the EN Android client append taken photos -- to a note that already contained photos -- all over the place within the note. OneNote client doesn't seem to have this issue.

 

Evernote sure had a chance to own this market but it doesn't appear they listened, or cared, about what their longtime customers had to say.

Yea. I think I'm in the process of making this move as well. OneNote does seem to lend itself to better organizational approaches and I'm more confident that it's going to remain a viable note app while EndNote execs seem to have no interest at all in reassuring its user base that it's going to maintain EndNote as a usable note management app. OneNote doesn't capture from the web as well, but it does let me copy and paste and its formatting is much more consistent and understandable than EN's. It also makes tagging more complicated, but its search engine is much more accurate than EN's. 

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I have to question some of the design choices with the new beta web client.

 

Improving focus over presenting information?

  • What's the point of having all that screen real-estate if your not going to use it?
  • use of whitespace is too extreme, you still have space for more information without it getting confusing or distracting
  • I never found I was distracted by the list of other notes on screen while creating a note.
  • In fact I deliberately glance at the list of other notes in the notebook because they are often related to the note i'm entering so I can appropriately name the new note (deliberately simplistic example, Note 1, Note 2, Note 3, etc...)

Creating new notes over finding old ones? 

  • With so many other ways to enter notes (web clipper, mobile apps etc..), do you really need to focus the web whole client around entering notes?
  • For me the web client is my main way to lookup previous notes, not to enter them
  • it now takes longer and is harder to find notes, multiple clicks, missing features like autocomplete search, notebook stacks etc..
  • the auto complete search box was key to finding my notes, being able to search for tags and notebooks at the same time as searching for keywords

Casual/new users over power users?

  • My main gripe with this is that the lack of a linux client means i have no real choice but to use the web client as my main client. If there was a power user alternative on linux then I wouldn't mind the web client being simpler
  • The new interface seems to be tailored to the occasional or new user than power users
  • power users i would assume are the ones who actually pay for your services and so should be just as important, if not more important than acquiring lots of new casual users.
  • I speak for myself as a power user that I value a full featured experience than a simplified one
  • The web client was pretty much feature complete but I the beta version still has a ways to go.

 

I'm trying not to over react to the beta version, after all by definition it is not feature complete or ready for prime time, but I have gone back to the original for now.

I hope that some of the points I raised above help guide the rest of the beta clients development in a direction that will be convenient to me.

Or give me a linux desktop client and I wont care what you do with the web client :-)

 

Richard 

 

Agree with everything written by Richard. I also use Linux for work (as well as Windows and a MacBook) - the web client needs to be functional, not just for Linux but also for situations where you cannot (or don't want to) install the full-fat client.  I can't see a single reason why the web client cannot be as functional as the local client (leaving aside local storage of notes, of course).

 

Tagging and building tag hierarchies is a fundamental part of most peoples' Evernote workflow, partly because EN doesn't give you a good alternative but also because EN (and the community of EN advocates) encourages us to work this way.  Tag hierarchies and saved searches are the only way to create and evolve effective workflows - the new web UI seems to ignore this.

 

Overall, the new web client appears to be a triumph of form over function: it suggests to me that decision-making in Evernote (the company) is now dominated by marketing and branding people. They seem to be more concerned with a superficial refresh of the web UI and pushing branded accessories than making thoughtful, meaningful changes which reflect real usage.

 

I really, really want to commit to Evernote more fully but this worries me. 

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Wow, the new Web Beta UI blows monkey chunks! I was about to panic and try to find another resource when I saw BETA in the forum and figured out how to switch back.

 

Minimalism is great for a living room. But is awful when overdone in an application that is supposed to be your transparent interface to a large store of information. Please do not force web users to suffer through a minimal UI designed for "clean" viewing on a smartphone. I have a 20" monitor and I want to fill my screen with as much information as possible in a user-friendly, quickly accessible manner.

 

You have failed if I open Evernote Web and cannot get single click to at least the last 10 notes I accessed. 

 

When I open Evernote Web you should show me my notes! Show me the most recent notes. Offer me the option to default to the notes I use the most frequently (or make it a button).

 

 

Here is the experience I suffered through on the Evernote Web Beta before I threw in the towel.

 

Clicking on folders showed me my folders and allowed me to search, not for notes but only folders.

 

Clicking on notes showed me my notes. But I could not search. Clicking on search then hit my notes. I felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me!

 

Show me my notes by date as default. Mix in folders by creation date. Allow one search to search both notes and folders. Offer check-boxes or other UI elements to allow me to specify if I only want to search notes or only folders. 

 

Shane

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No, I like it too! That Gotham font-type is an absolute stunner, too. I only find the notes in the note-list to be displayed too big. Than again I only use the web-interface of Evernote for minor tasks, so my opinion is one for quicker views and no full use.

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This new UI royally sucks. Everything (what little is there) is kindergarten-sized buttons. Somebody apparently thinks that a real productivity application has to look like the (already outdated) "flat" dumbed-down page, or look like some little kid's telephone toy. Geez!

 

I am on a quest to find out how to roll this back so I can get some work done. I really hope that's possible. I use the web UI all the time (nothing else exists for Linux!!!) and I can't be taking hours to figure this thing out -- assuming that's even possible. I've been a premium customer for years, but won't be for long if I can't roll this back. I'd rather figure out how to export everything than spend time trying to work with this brain dead UI.

 

Did I mention it sucks?

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For months I see Evernote’s team has been trying to get rid of screen elements as much as possible, replace text labels with icons, hide search field, etc. — to transform environment into “minimalistic, spacious, not that cluttered” one. In the end, it distracts me far more, because of doing more than less to research data previously collected with Clipper and Clearly. And now you say the old version is eventually gonna be dropped in favor of the new one? What a weird understanding of progress — to break things that work efficiently enough. So it’s the very time to search for a Evernote replacement then?

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Can anyone , including someone from Evernote... simply tell me how to unlock a shared note? Since the recent big update... if you are sharing a note in near real-time with someone else, ( I am a voice teacher and I give skype lessons to students and we share student folders with notes in it... )... the new update locks you out of the note, rendering it impossible to make any changes in the note... they said they did this to prevent the synching conflicts, but.... that wasn't nearly as bad as the new problem this created... now I can't share a note with my student in real-time?!

 

Well, that would be digestible if they had provided a way to unlock or override that feature... but apparently they have not.  Is this true? Is it actually true that they created a "lockout" feature when two people are sharing a note, that renders the note disabled for one of the users... and didn't provide a means to unlock the note or an override or a disable check  box in the preferences?  You got to be kidding me?!

 

So far, the only way I can get access to my students note is for my student to completely close evernote and relaunch... Does anyone know how you unlock a note after you have been locked out? 

 

C'mon Evernote ... creating a "lock out a user" feature when sharing a note in real-time is one thing...  but then to not provide any way to override that feature is just a huge oversize and mistake. Lock your customers out of the ability to use your product, and don't provide any easy way to unlock the note... ?  Because.... you presumed that out of MILLIONS of users, nobody is going to share a note in real-time?... You have got to be kidding me?!  

 

And Ill add... I am a "Pro" customer too... Im paying for a monthly service here?! 

 

What really is the solution here, anyone know?

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I'm not fond of the beta UI. I've been a happy long-time OneNote user but recently switched to a Chromebook at work, and I need OneNote 2013 access for my notes, but that's a problem with Linux and the ON web version is horribly slow. I tried out Evernote and like the speed of the web interface so I transferred my notes over. I could quickly find my notes in Evernote after the transfer, and I can easily view the visual hierarchy/organization I set up.... with the OLD web version.

 

After checking out the beta web interface I had a hard time finding where I was in my hierarchy of notes. Previously I could keep my list of notebooks open, followed by my list of notes within that notebook, very similar to OneNote's structure. The new web interface seems to put a much lower priority on note organization (why?) and more emphasis on making things look pretty. That's fine, but functionality is more important to many of us. It's very frustrating having to keep opening other menus to access a different notebook or stack.  If my notes were not organized and were instead just a list of hundreds of unrelated notes, the new UI would be fabulous.

 

Please allow the old Evernote web UI to be used in the future.  I'd go back to OneNote on the web if I have to but would rather stay with EN.

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Sorry guys, the new web interface is 100% UNUSABLE for for how I work. Two dealbreakers:

 

1) Nested Tags - absolutely necessary. I have folders of folders of tags so that I can find what I need quickly.

2) Searching - perhaps I missed something, but how can I list all the notes in a particular notebook that have a particular set of tags? It was not intuitive, if it is possible at all.

 

You can't take something as customizable as EN and strip out functionality (and space everything out) just so the design is "clean". I, and I'm assuming most people who live in EN need HIGH INFORMATION DENSITY.

 

I hate to be so negative because I love EN so much, but kill the new web interface with fire and start over.

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Of course, what you need may be in the pipeline.

It's just that we don't know what is in the pipeline.

 

Hint! Hint! Evernote. ... For want of saying "It will be in the next build" you may be in danger of losing Premium users .

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Continuing from where I left off yesterday.

 

It is all a bit remarkable, you know.

If we assume (reasonably?)  that the number of people unhappy and telling us is the tip of a considerable iceberg, then there must be a serious risk of Evernote losing a great many users and subscribers to Premium. (See, for example,post #181 in this thread.)

 

Many of these subscribers might be encouraged to hang on in there if they knew that there most important gripes were going to be dealt with in the near future.

 

So why doesn't Evernote do the obvious thing and issue periodic statements about development plans in an effort to hang on to disgruntled Premium customers? (Or have they done it somewhere and I haven't seen it?)

Four weeks of silence is a heck of a lot of silence.

 

Possibilities:

1. The Web version just doesn't generate enough cash to warrant the attention.

2. Evernote does not know where it wants to go with the Web version.

3. Evernote is inundated with work and can't keep up.

4. Evernote is just inept when it comes to customer relations.

5. The Web version is presenting considerable technical difficulties that are hampering development.

 

Have I missed any?  :)

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Just adding to the voices expressing dislike of the 'beta' UI.

I hate it. So much dead space. Navigation of notes is oodles easier with the 'old' version, and thankfully I managed to find the way to get back to it.

Why make something 'simpler' visually but harder to use?

Functionally, it'd be more valuable for me to be able to have multiple notes open simultaneously, if I needed... tiled, maybe, with a drag and drop option to view, amend, save, etc?

This sort of unhelpful design tweaking prevents me subscribing to EN.

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It's been awhile since I Iast tested the EN Web BETA, so thought I'd give it another test now.

 

It does have one feature missing from EN Mac (and I think EN Win):  It allows you to insert another table within a cell.

 

However, I can't find a way to

  1. ADD rows or columns to an existing table
  2. set its properties (grid, color, sizing, etc).
  3. Change the size of columns
  4. Change the size of the table.
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Been 6 months since I left Evernote after many years of being Premium user. So I thought I'd quickly add a post because my annual renewal date has just passed and guess what folks? I didn't renew my subscription (no surprise there!).

 

Just want to let you know that these days I'm using Google to manage all my data and the like. Everything that I used to do in Evernote, I now do it with Google products. It was hard at first and a bit frustrating to adjust because I missed the familiar functionality that Evernote used to provide me with. For example, the ease with which I could clip webpages to Evernote and the ability to tag notes. Not to mention everything done in one product as opposed to several products. But things started to get easier after a month or so of using Google. You have to stick with it long enough for new habits to build and replace the old ways of doing things. 

 

I found new ways of clipping webpages into Google Drive. And found out that I didn't really need tags because I could mimic the tag functionality using extra folders in Google Drive. And if I need to search something I find Google Search is more than adequate. I personally use the following: 

  • Google Drive to store all my content
  • Gmail for Email
  • Google Keep for quick note taking
  • Google Docs for all my Word, Excel, Powerpoint needs
  • Google Calendar for appointments/events.

I found that the best thing I could do with my existing Evernote data was to export it out and archive it on my PC (obviously creating back up on external HDD too!). And then to just start from scratch in Google Drive with notebooks being replaced by folders. If I ever need the old content then I can always do a search using my PC. Also some things can be transferred electronically using a on-line synchronisation tool (sorry can't remember the name but there is a topic for it somewhere here in the forums) that I did for stuff that I need constantly like receipts and bills etc...

 

It's working great so far and now several months later I find it very easy to use this as part of my productivity system. And best thing for me is all this doesn't cost my anything! Google is free to use... One thing that I don't use Google for is my tasks because this (for me) is far too basic for my needs. So I use Remember The Milk for that and this is a very powerful task management tool that helps me stay on the ball with all my daily tasks. I pay for Remember The MIlk as I need it on my mobile devices so this is the only thing I pay for.

 

Google allows me to do almost everything I could ever do in Evernote and for me the peace of mind of working on stable systems is a big plus.

 

Finally, I just had a quick look around my Evernote Web account (I haven't logged in for 6 months!!) and it is almost still the same. It seems Evernote has not made much progress at all! Just as well I jumped ship when I did because if I sat around waiting for Evernote to make the change then looks like I would have been waiting a long long time or maybe Evernote will never make the change.

 

All the best folks!!!

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I found new ways of clipping webpages into Google Drive.

 

I'm curious as to the solution you found for this! I'm never giving up my EN web clipper, but I'd love to know what other solution you found.

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I found new ways of clipping webpages into Google Drive.

 

I'm curious as to the solution you found for this! I'm never giving up my EN web clipper, but I'd love to know what other solution you found.

 

 

It's very simple really. Google provide a extension tool that allows you to save the entire webpage like a screen capture in .PNG format with a touch of a button. You download it from the Google extensions for Chrome browser. Alternatively you can save the webpage as a PDF file. Problem I used to get with the EN web clipper was the format was messed up on some webpages that I used to save. I no longer have that problem now...

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Awesome Screenshot does sort of the same thing, saving an entire page to a jpeg, a few more clicks though.

 

On my PC the screenshot only saves the viewing area of my screen. Many webpages are long and have to scroll down. The screenshot won't save anything that is not on the screen (as far as I know). This extension saves the entire webpage even the area not on the screen.

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Awesome Screenshot does sort of the same thing, saving an entire page to a jpeg, a few more clicks though.

I remember security issue about this plugin (last year), url tracking or something like that (I used it on chrome)

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Awesome Screenshot does sort of the same thing, saving an entire page to a jpeg, a few more clicks though.

I remember security issue about this plugin (last year), url tracking or something like that (I used it on chrome)

 

Don't know the answer to that.  I don't use it frequently, but sometimes it is a better option than clipper for me.  I've used it on Chrome and FireFox.

 

EDIT:  To be more succinct, mostly on FireFox in the past year since Chrome seems to have gotten bloated and slower with all the ads.  I rarely use Chrome anymore.

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It's very simple really. Google provide a extension tool that allows you to save the entire webpage like a screen capture in .PNG format with a touch of a button. You download it from the Google extensions for Chrome browser. Alternatively you can save the webpage as a PDF file. Problem I used to get with the EN web clipper was the format was messed up on some webpages that I used to save. I no longer have that problem now...

 

That's great if an image of the web page works for you.

 

It would not work for me.  I often need to edit the captured web page to add highlights, notes, and remove undesired content.

The EN Web Clipper works well for me 95%+ of the time.  Occasionally I need to apply the "Simply Formatting" to the Note after capture.  This usually cleans things up quite nicely.  Maybe 1% of the time I have to resort to a screen capture.

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There was security alert, sure Google could help to retrieve that.

Anyway, I use Fireshot on Firefox, it is also available on Chrome. It captures entire page also.

Edit: as JM, I rarely use it, I even don't reinstall such plugin on chrome since I remove Awesome.

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It's very simple really. Google provide a extension tool that allows you to save the entire webpage like a screen capture in .PNG format with a touch of a button. You download it from the Google extensions for Chrome browser. Alternatively you can save the webpage as a PDF file. Problem I used to get with the EN web clipper was the format was messed up on some webpages that I used to save. I no longer have that problem now...

 

That's great if an image of the web page works for you.

 

It would not work for me.  I often need to edit the captured web page to add highlights, notes, and remove undesired content.

The EN Web Clipper works well for me 95%+ of the time.  Occasionally I need to apply the "Simply Formatting" to the Note after capture.  This usually cleans things up quite nicely.  Maybe 1% of the time I have to resort to a screen capture.

 

 

@JMichael
 
I agree with you screenshot is not perfect solution and won't give you an option to highlight or edit text. 
 
The way I do it is if I do need to edit specific content or need to save it for future reference then I simply copy and paste it into a Word file and make the necessary edits there and save it. 
 
Yes, it's more work but I only need to do this occassionally as mostly screen shot is sufficient for my needs.
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My earlier postings got me thinking about the Save to Google Drive extension and I just discovered that it not only lets you save it in a .PNG format but also gives the user the option to save page as: 

  • Image of entire page (.png)
  • Image of visible page (.png)
  • HTML source (.html)
  • Web archive (.mht)
  • Google Document
I like the .HTML format better than the .PNG now!
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