Unhappy with new release

[coping 11]

I have loved using Penultimate. I use it for so many things. I often think better when I'm able to write and draw. Unfortunately this new release has ruined the app in my opinion. I've only just started using it, but so far, here is what I'm seeing:

- very slow performance while writing. It doesn't keep up with my writing, misses strokes, and puts strokes in the wrong place. The old app was nearly flawless at this.

- I can't easily see my pages. I have to scroll (and scroll, and scroll). This is a big issue as I have lots of pages related to projects. The simple overview allowed a quick way to jump to just what I needed.

- speaking of scrolling, the app often misses the two fingers and draws a line that I then have to go erase. And, I just find scrolling to be awkward when I'm using a stylus. Before I could swipe with my thumb to a new page, but now I have to lift the stylus and get two fingers on the screen. As noted, this often results in unwanted strokes.

- speaking of erasing: the hidden menu items for very common tasks just slows me down

- zoom seems much less usable to me. Not only is it also slow at rendering, but the area is too small and it's quite a pain to have to move the zoom box around.

- the "drift" feature is much, much worse. The old app would adjust as you wrote, slowing down as needed. The new app goes really fast at a constant speed making it really hard to write effectively.

- I can't seem to get very good strokes no matter how I write. Some of it is due to the laggy rendering, but it seems there is more going on here. I'm not sure what changed, but it's just not as smooth to write anymore.

I am so disappointed in this release. And of course, thanks to auto updates, I am stuck. I don't see a way to revert to the old app and keep my notes.

I really hope something can be done. But, without re-releasing the old app, I'm sure it will take quite some time to fix. Unfortunately I just can't wait for that. I have real work to get done. Sadly I'll have to see what else is out there.

(BTW, using it on an iPad mini Retina)

[M1kemyers 48]

^ this

[Edwin Diaz 19]

I could not agree more. I wish I had checked the reviews before committing to the update as I will find myself using Penultimate less and less unless we can fix what not only worked, but worked great. I guess I have come to expect Evernote to remain a great program, so this caught me off guard. Hope they listen, which I will say from personal experience, they do listen to their customer, and fix this soon. 

 

EDwin Diaz

[Hockeydave 12]

This app, pre-update, was easily the best note taking app available. Today's (11/13/14) update took away Penultimate's best features, being able to zoom in anywhere on the page and write at your own pace. You're now forced to write in a specified area of the app when zooming in regardless of you're writing style and forced to write at a set speed. The app pre-update allowed the user to customize everything from where they wanted to position the zoomed in feature and at what speed they wanted to write. The app would even stop scrolling when lifting your stylus. Evernote/Penultimate, please correct these two items.

Penultimate on iOS 8.1 iPad Air

[qingshuigm 10]

+1

Miss browsing pages using thumbnails.

It's too hard to see old pages now!!

[wired1337 2]

I'll add my voice to the ever growing roar that hates this update. The app is unusable.

[Photoboy 0]

This update is so terrible that the app is now completely useless to me!  All the issues Coping above raised are happening with me.  I rely heavily on my notes and not having the thumbnails to jump back and forth is devastating!  I am really in trouble for meetings tomorrow if I can't revert back to the previous version!  I am really screwed thanks to these guys!  

[MikekiM 13]

What a crying shame...  the prior version of Penultimate exceeded my expectations.  It needed nothing.

 

Now, it's useless.

 

Performance is horrible. 

 

The long running 'page' is exactly why I DIDN'T use competitor apps.. I wanted true Notebooks with flip pages, that I could preview for quick navigation.  

 

The old view had neat covers on the Notebooks that kept things looking clean and uncluttered.  They had names on the cover, like a tactile notebook would.  I didn't need to see the page preview.

 

It's a mess now.

 

I had a ton of info in these notebooks I am going to have to recreate elsewhere.

 

Ugh..what a bad move.

[starla80 2]

I just want to add my voice to this. I opened up Penultimate at a colloquium today to start taking notes and spent 5 minutes in disbelief at how I just couldn't. Because it's rubbish - utterly, clearly and undeniably rubbish. For all the reasons mentioned above! I had to borrow some pen and paper from a colleague in order to be able to take notes. Well done Evernote!

 

The fact that there was no warning for such an extensive update is absolutely inexcusable. I now need to find another app and some way to re-organise my notes and work routine. Not what you need from an app on which you rely for work, which is meant to make life easier - not add to endless pressures and deadlines and whatnot.

 

Can you please offer the old version back? 

[rreben 1]

Hi Evernote team,

I agree this is an incomplete release!

Two finger scroll is not so easy when you are working with the stylus. photos can not be resized.

Where are the thumbnails? I can't rearrange pages. The new usability concept has a lot of potential. But essential features are missing. What about the users who have used penultimate for a long time and who now have big notes with hundreds of pages? Not everybody is starting from scratch!

Do some beta testing first!

Kind regards

Rupert

[tmhbr 1]

please, please evernote: give me back my old penultimate app! the new version just is unusable.

 

Why do you think

 

- the new UI is better? now i seem to be unable to sort my notes by name

- the new icons in books are less distracting? changing writing color now takes more steps than before

- the new scrolling function is better? i don't see any improvement;  when i try to scroll in the new version, i incidentally draw a vertical line with my fingers

- the new zoom function is better? when i zoom with my fingers, the writing area (the small rectangle) is always in the center of the page; i use to start writing in the left-hand side, so i have to move it to the correct place every time i want to write

 

 

After all, i'm not happy with the new app version;

[avregeasyguy 3]

You STUPPID, STUPPID company!  What a piece of sh*! this APP is now!  I LOVED what it use to be.

 

-One long scrolling piece of paper!  The scroll feature only writes a big line when you try to do it.

 

-Flipping through a note pad style is HOW YOU TAKE FREAKIN NOTES IN THIS WORLD!

 

-The CONSTENT hiding of the features that I need!  Have to constantly touch an icon to get them back

 

-The old way looked classier!

 

-The names for my Note Pads are gone!

 

-I can no longer send A PAGE in an email!  I can no longer see small thumbnails of my single pages.

 

I will be looking for another APP to REPLACE the GARBAGE you have created.  I will rewrite every F-in page in a new APP just to spite what you have done!  I will bad mouth this APP to everyone that will listen

 

[maugreg 2]

Please give us back the old version! I want the old way to turn the pages! I want delete the whole page by one click!

[robval 0]

You STUPPID, STUPPID company!  What a piece of sh*! this APP is now!  I LOVED what it use to be.

 

-One long scrolling piece of paper!  The scroll feature only writes a big line when you try to do it.

 

-Flipping through a note pad style is HOW YOU TAKE FREAKIN NOTES IN THIS WORLD!

 

-The CONSTENT hiding of the features that I need!  Have to constantly touch an icon to get them back

 

-The old way looked classier!

 

-The names for my Note Pads are gone!

 

-I can no longer send A PAGE in an email!  I can no longer see small thumbnails of my single pages.

 

I will be looking for another APP to REPLACE the GARBAGE you have created.  I will rewrite every F-in page in a new APP just to spite what you have done!  I will bad mouth this APP to everyone that will listen

+1

[Batche 0]

I´m not bothered at the interface change, i quite liked it, though it was real nice the feel of a notebook.

Anyway, i´ve noticed several bugs and glitches that is really anoying, and since we all use this for everyday and everyminute notetaking, it´s really pushing us back ( I think i can say it for all of us who use this app a lot).

• The zoom for writing, i think it´s a good addition, but not been able to zoom the page anymore makes sketching very dificult. Also the "play" button doesnt work nice as the previous autoadjusting page scroll speed. It´s impossible to write in this update.
• There´s something really wrong with the writing, it just doesnt capture the lines right. My caligraphy is getting really distorted. I write with a regular pen.
• When i write in this new zoom mode, the stroke on the page appears thicker than i wrote.
• Now we can crate other NoteBooks, and this is real nice, but i can´t move my notes from one notebook to another.
• It´s real important we can see all the pages of a note as thumbnail, but I can´t find it anymore. This can´t be removed.
• I´ve notice, also, that when I paste a picture, it was somehow croped, but when in the zoom mode I can see the area outside the crop, so i think it´s a bug.
• The eraser tool is just too big for some sketches, the way it was before was way better.
• I can´t make notes with different page styles, it was a great thing, so i could do some writing on classic lines paper, and on another page do some sketches over a grid.
• The "undo" button must not be hidden.

I really liked the new pen and marker option, where i have better choices for the thickness of the lines.

(waiting desperatelly for a new update that fixes these things above).

Thank you.

[Annie-san 1]

Ugh.  This new iteration is TERRIBLE.

 

I miss...

• having the ability to insert pages when needed.  
• reordering the pages in my notebook.  
• the ability to see an overview of the pages in a notebook
• the title page of each notebook

 

Thanks to the kind people on this forum, I've been able to downgrade to the previous version.  

[Gerardoarriola 1]

I miss also the great previous version. So unhappy with this "new" (it seems to be older) version.

[koeselitz 10]

It's almost annoying to read the comments of others knowing that many still have access to their data in some form.

I was one of the unlucky ones who chose not to log in to Evernote - precisely because I knew what kind of company they are.

Guess what? Anybody who didn't log in to Evernote in Penultimate before - which was an option - saw EVERY SINGLE THING DELETED when they upgraded to this app, because this version deletes all local data and forces users to re-sync everything from Evernote again. There are those of us (like myself) who have lost years of notes and hundreds of pages because of this. This is unconscionable, particularly from a company that claims to care about protecting the notes and data of its customers.

My recommendation: offload your data to PDF as soon as possible and store it securely on an offline drive, and close your Evernote account. If you're giving them money, stop; if you were thinking about it, don't. Evernote cannot be trusted to protect data.

[TR_Markus 1]

This app is now useless to me.. Enjoy my couple of dollars as I mention to everyone I know not to buy this ***** app.

[CatzRuleZWorld 0]

I agree with a all of those problems. I used to use penultimate to take notes in class and it was slightly laggy on my 1st gen iPad mini so I bought a new iPad and it fixed the problem. Now they release a new update that makes it bad again!

 

Anyways, I was able to downgrade to the older version by deleting the app off my iPad then syncing the older version to my iPad it from my iTunes library. (Thank goodness it doesn't automatically update!)

[Jan van der Meij 0]

I agree with a all of those problems. I used to use penultimate to take notes in class and it was slightly laggy on my 1st gen iPad mini so I bought a new iPad and it fixed the problem. Now they release a new update that makes it bad again!

 

Anyways, I was able to downgrade to the older version by deleting the app off my iPad then syncing the older version to my iPad it from my iTunes library. (Thank goodness it doesn't automatically update!)

 

I agree with all the problems too and was also lucky to be able to roll back to 5.3.1. I really hope the developers are listening to their users!

[rcherny 7]

I often wonder how EN makes their decisions. They will frequently do these massive updates after long periods of time without any iterations or incremental changes. I suspect as was done recently with the Mac client they're constantly rewriting huge chunks of the software as opposed to little by little making it better.

The weird thing is that they frequently drop major features that people rely on or love. I just don't get it. I understand a desire to refine or simplify but do we need to keep removing features that people like? Basically you reduce value for customers with these wholesale changes that reduce as opposed to refine.

[ReyRey 0]

A little part of me died when I "experienced" the latest update.  

[Aqvadesign 0]

Yeaph, unfortunatly I must add to the list of the totally unhappy people about last update of Penultimate!

 

It is totally confusing and complicated now.   I am unable to find my notes and it is a mess to create new design/notes/photos to cut them out and to paste/reduce on 

another page...

The person who made this updated version probably never has worked with a NOTE app... but only was looking at neat and nice design!

It is useless 

 

Very frankly saying... the  best PENULTIMATE team could do is to give user the choice to go back to prior version!   at least everybody can choose!
 

I now try to transfer all my scripts I had for years in Penultimate to other Note App... as I cannot work with the actual version and update!

 

Please do something...  - you cannot leave customers unhappy like that!

 

Please!

 

 

[Aqvadesign 0]

A little part of me died when I "experienced" the latest update.  

same here