Different Colors for Highlighter

[chunkit721 6]

Hmm I counter this problem for a while.

 

It seems to me that I can only change the color of the font rather than the highlight when I call out the "show colors" option under format.

 

Does it mean there is only one color available for highlight at the moment?

[Shane D. 277]

Hi All,

You may have noticed that all threads requesting different highlighter colors have been merged into this thread, regardless of platform specificity. 

This was done in order to better enable us to quantify and qualify user requests, and amplify their voice.

While this does not mean this is a feature that will be coming, we certainly want to relay user feedback/sentiment to our various teams.

Moving forward, please put all commentary and votes for different highlighter colors here!

[Riabiy Denis 3]

Oh my God. It's so stupid, that I can't choose the color...I'm amazed.

[Rajesh.Delhi 6]

Seems like people who made Evernote, don't use it. Highlighting with different colour is the most basic of things while making notes. It looks stupid on the part of the coder, that he/she gave complete colour palette to colour the text but not to highlight it. Makes absolutely no sense. 

And even after so many upgrades over the years, they have not included this option in their software. This is height of idiocy. 

Sometimes its good to look at the competition. Have a look at microsoft Onenote. Its got tons of editing options. The only reason why people use evernote is that they haven't ever used Onenote. 

I've used both the softwares and like Onenote more than Evernote.

Coders at Evernote... Wake up.. Bring more editing options like Onenote has....

[JMichaelTX 3,868]

If it helps, in the meantime, you could copy paste highlight "swatches" from software like MS Word and paste them into a master note in Evernote that you can reference easily. I know, right? Probably not worth it. It depends how much you want it.

 

Frank, thanks for the suggestion, but that really doesn't work.  The purpose of a highlighter is to emphasize something AS you are reading it.  Going to another app would be way too much distraction/work.

 

It's not like this is something hard.  Every other app I have used that offers a highlight tool also offers a choice of colors.

[Jon L 4]

I'm adding my vote to this, also as a paying customer.  It seems like such a basic requirement for note taking, and how difficult can it be to add in a few extra colours?

[Frank.dg 1,376]

Here are 2 half-decent workarounds I've tinkered with that you can use via Chrome extensions on the Web Client:

 

AlterNote:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/alternote-editor/hljkfahiahjhhpmpihngnommookkneji?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

 

Add-ons for Evernote Web App:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/add-ons-for-evernote-web/bnflfnhcfikgmmcmoghhejelmefpjhek?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

 

Both extensions have other features which extend Evernote's editor... such as list sorting, etc... which might be worth looking into :-)

[MrsGixxer 6]

I love Evernote but don't like that they have not listened to this request that has been around for several years so I canceled my premium and am no longer using it.  

[DTLow 3,406]

6 hours ago, TheMattyMiller said:

i wonder why this is not available. seems so obvious. 

Maybe because this isn't a high priority  feature request.  
The vote count is  (upper left corner of the discussion)

Please indicate your support for the request by voting

[Bruno Schmitz 1]

Why, after 2 years, this simple resource isn't implanted yet?

[RP23 1]

Different highlighter colors would be great. Really useful to distinguish between matters of different priority.

[Hal_Fayju 2]

+1

 

Desperately could use this functionality, need to categorise a check list by multiple factors. Changing the font colour just makes it eligible. I wouldn't mind if font colour was sacrificed for highlight colour

 

No offence intendted I understand how software development can be a slow moving process. But rather than blindly changing your app ui style to follow Yosemite making it a stark ugly white box (the iOS app is so much nice to use/look at), how about some new functionality. This thread was started over a year ago after all  

 

I will try and make do, but after my premium expires I'll look somewhere else if theres no movement. I do love Evernote. 

[wheelyweb 3]

It doesn't have to be a huge deal but choosing highlight colour, or at least defaulting to the highlight colour I've set in my system prefs is pretty basic. Just being able to choose from one of four would be HUGE!!!

 

jus' sayin'

 

 

[kthesun 11]

+1 

please add different colors.

[Camicia 1]

+1 Yes please! IT is annoying not being able to chose that color....

[kennygw 0]

Before this, I've never posted inside Evernote discussions, and am doing so now solely to +1 this feature request.

[macvos 7]

Come on Evernote, don't yawn and moan about a huge todo list, just add highlight colors. Then you'll have one item less from your huge todo-list.

 

[MsKelly65 0]

I would also like to see Evernote include choices of highlighting color.  I'm currently needing to use 3 different colors of highlighting on one note.  Changing the font color is a problem for me as I don't see as well as I used to, and the current "highlighter" color is just dark enough to make the text hard to read within it. I'm not willing to have to sign into another program to bring my Evernote stuff into just so I can highlight it in a way that will work for me.  I am going to check out OneNote and what it offers.  This could be a dealbreaker for me.

[unilizer 1]

It's now already 3 years that this feature has been requested and it's disappointing that nothing has changed in that time. ?

[Rxx 1]

+1

This is such a basic feature, it should be included.

[carlospwk 0]

I created this account solely to request this feature. Evernote team, please consider adding option to choose highlight colors.

[RobP 1]

any timeframe for this? really seems like a basic function that should be included, especially when I'm paying for Premium

[cmbkln 0]

This feature is also not available for the latest PC version.  I think adding highlighter colors is somewhat similar to the mindset behind using Post-It colors (somewhat recent team-up with Post-It), so hopefully they won't be adverse to adding that feature.

[Annapolis 7]

I agree and would like the capability.  As noted by cmbkln, it supports visual consistency with the "post-its" strategy.  Also, it would support highlight color theming promoted in several productivity/memory retention programs.   Additionally, for different learners - ADA and non-ADA - the ability to use different colors supports "seeing", comprehending and organizing information.   Please note - for many in these demographics, changing font colors actually generates more confusion; the productivity/advances occur and are more profound by changing/highlighting the "background" behind the font (blocks of themed data).  Dyslexia is one of the most common language-based learning disabilities (70-80%), representing approximately 5-10% of the US population (with some estimates as high as 17%).  As we move away from paper and paper based tools, it is important incorporate similar capability in digital environment for all demographics.   Thanks.  T

[Rick Jones 2]

Yes, I would love it if we could change the color of the highlight. If anyone from Evernote is following this, please heed.

[DrewDavid 4]

+1 looked for this feature today (OS X)

[Ol_Ol 3]

+1 ! Badly needed.

[Frisco 2]

+1 Recently downloaded Evernote on a friends recommendation, but not being able to highlight text in different colors really sucks. The software looks great otherwise. 

[panarchist 0]

Agreed - would also like this feature.  OneNote has had this capability for a long time, I'd like to see it in Evernote as well.

 

[reddevils1968 1]

I'd like to see multiple colors for highlights, specifically red and green. I like to use the colors to represent stop and go in my classroom.

[No Game Joe 2]

+1 for this feature request. Looking for it today, and this feature could have come in real handy in pointing out specific items to coworkers. 

[MHMdigital 9]

I too would like to see highlighting in different colors.  I am partially color blind, and the light yellow does not stand out nearly enough as other colors like green.  Considering highlighting can be done in a variety of colors while annotating, it would be great to see this feature for text as well!

[buildingJarl 3]

+1

 

Seems like a basic feature to include for a note taking app!

 

Also the current highlighting colors differ between windows and mac versions.

[HoHo 3]

+1 for the feature of changing highlighting color ... please also add this to the other versions - windows, android.

[John Jezl 3]

I, too, would like to use different colors to highlight different text. That type of ability to use colors to visually manage information is extremely helpful.

 

John

[Frank.dg 1,376]

If it helps, in the meantime, you could copy paste highlight "swatches" from software like MS Word and paste them into a master note in Evernote that you can reference easily. I know, right? Probably not worth it. It depends how much you want it.

[Rohugh 1]

I am adding a support post for this idea.  I use highlight for various headings within a text document and it would be useful to "code" them with different colours.  Maybe a dropdown from the highlight button to give the choice of 5 or so colours?

[heinet1 1]

Yes, please add this feature. It looks like it has been request for over 2 years now.

[Squeaky Geeky 3]

First time post in Evernote forums, been using it since it came out. +1 on he highlight colors. Never needed it until today, most times I copy and paste from word but I have a need to modify what I am pasting this time. Assumed Evernote had this basic capability.

 

 

[g-murray 0]

I too love Evernote and have been using it since 2012..The ability to 'highlight' is a real need.I looked for a work around and like many on this topic, found that OneNote provided the answer.. Until Evernote address this slight deficiency, I just create the note I wish in OneNote,then,copy and paste into Evernote.. There are many reasons to use Evernote other than OneNote and at moment, it is my preference..Just one last comment,OneNote is MSFT creation and as such synchronizes with Word docs..much more simply..In my opinion Evernote should make it a priority to address the 'highlight' feature or people may switch to other notetakers...

[Alison Lee 1]

You know what? I stopped waiting for this nonsense and instead downloaded Microsoft's One Note. They even have a tool to import your Evernote stuff. Plus it's FREE and they have plenty of highlighter colors.

[emloire 0]

Multiple highlighting colours are desperately needed by anyone who uses Evernote for serious notetaking. The lack of formatting options in general, but especially highlighting, constantly tempt me to switch to OneNote. Please add more colours. It's such a basic feature, after all.

[DTLow 3,406]

47 minutes ago, MrsGixxer said:

canceled my premium and am no longer using it.  

I can understand needing more colour choice, and using a different product.
I use alternative editors for my annotation work  (example, Preview on my Mac).

Why would you then pay for a premium account?
Why are you still posting in the Evernote User forums?

At least share with us what service you're using now.

[Pat123 0]

Maybe we should first ask for only one additional color, let's say red. That might be less challenging of a task for them to implement ?

[Jay-Bob 58]

Thank you all for your continued votes and feedback. To gather more specifics, can you please provide real-world scenarios on how you work and where different highlighters would make an impactful difference helping your workflow? Personal and collaborative situations described would be very useful based on your experience.

 

[Chan 1]

Jay-Bob,

Thank you for picking this up.  I'm sure we all appreciate it and I'm trying real hard not to sound like a total jerk, but this does not need a trade-study.  I see that the first post in this thread is almost 5 years old, and if I understand correctly, there are other related threads.  I think that reading the thread(s) should provide what you are looking for.

thank you,

chan

[s2sailor 680]

7 hours ago, Kimsman said:

Time will tell. I'd say it has to be within 6 months from now.

How about 8 months?  Can we negotiate 🙂?  I understand and get the sentiment, no argument from me.  There are several features that I would like to see added that I'm not sure will ever come either.  In the meantime, if you haven't already, do checkout the Evertool utility mentioned above.  You might find it useful.

[Metrodon 1,970]

Evernote don't discuss their roadmap.

[jefito 4,967]

In addition to what Metrodon said, this sort of feature isn't what your premium payments cover (considering that the highlight feature is available to both free and premium users alike).

[AEisenhart 2]

Does anyone know of a 3rd party or workaround to enable brighter colors to the hightlighter? Brighter colors would be a monumental improvement allowing faster focus on important details. I don't know why the current dull color was chosen but being different for it's own sake is not always a good idea.

 

anyone?

 

 

[SebR 146]

For EN Web it may be possible with an userstyle.

[AEisenhart 2]

what is a userstyle? there's nothing in the knowledge base about that topic.

[freyja313 43]

I came up with my own workaround for this by creating templates in MS Word using the highlighting and shading options and then copied from MS Word into EN "template" notes. When I want to highlight something in a different color I copy the row from the template note into the note I'm working on and edit the text in the now highlighted section of the note. Unfortunately you can't select and highlight existing note text with these colors but you can copy the shaded row from the template and then Copy > Paste as Text your existing note text and then adjust the text formatting to your liking (size, color, bold, etc.)

 

Here are some examples:

 

 

 

 

Not quite the ideal way to do this but I'm very happy with my results and not sure I'd actually get anything more to my liking with similar functionality built into EN. 

 

I copied my templates to a public notebook if you want to steal them outright or use them as a starting point for your own experimentation:

 

https://www.evernote.com/pub/freyja313/evernote-public

 

 

Things to note:

• I mostly edit notes in the Win desktop client so I'm not sure how this will work on other platforms. My notes with the highlighting do seem to render well in my Galaxy Note phone. 
• In the templates, the first row is shaded the color and the font is black Tahoma 10 Bold. The second row is shaded as well and the little boxes are ASCII characters in black. The third row is NOT shaded but rather large ASCII character rectangles with the font color set to match the shading on the other two rows. I created these because I like to use the squares and rectangles rather than horizontal rules to create more visual section separations. 
• The big giant colored squares are images that match each of the colors and, provided you have no other images in your note that will override the size of these, can be used to force color coding of your thumbnails in snippet view. I probably could have made these smaller but I haven't really played with them yet to see if the large size bugs me. (Shout out to GrumpyMonkey for the colored image snippet idea.)

When I have time I'd like to make note templates using all these same colors as background colors. If I ever do that I'll add them to the public notebook as well.

 

Enjoy!

[AEisenhart 2]

freyja313 !

 

great idea for a work around, thanks a ton for sharing it. Great color selection.

It's worth the extra second or two to banish that bland yellow/brown

 

A moderator or admin should post this somewhere more conspicuous so that others can find out about it.

thanks again.

[aitcdarc 1]

I agree with the other users that highlighting in different colors should be available. I've found a way around it...but it requires formating your document in Word and then pasting it into Evernote. A lot of extra work

[freyja313 43]

Hello all,

 

Please see my post here:

 

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/60962-a-way-to-add-brighter-colors-to-highlighter/?p=284914

 

Although my solution is specific to the Windows client (in that I know my method works there), maybe it could work for Mac as well? 

 

Good luck!

[Reality_Stasis 1]

freyja313 - THANK YOU! I was just about to make a template myself and came across this thread. I really appreciate you taking the time to share this! Hero of the day.   

[SebR 146]

what is a userstyle? there's nothing in the knowledge base about that topic.

An userstyle is a bunch of CSS rules that change how a particular website displays on your browser.

[Is this too long? 1]

+1. I've been on board with EN since there were only 260,000 or so of us, and this is my first post. I tried some of the new products out there, but they always left me underwhelmed. I don't know how hard it would be to deploy, but being able to highlight parts of notes in different colors would be extremely helpful. As a Premium member, I might even be willing to kick in a few extra bucks for the option   

 

Keep up the great work!!!

[vlx 0]

You can choose custom colors for highlight and for text with this bookmarklet: http://bit.ly/entexthl - web app only.

[lisec 123]

Hmm. Slightly off topic, but freyja313 it is odd that your link to your public notebook still works. I was told by customer support that they have removed the ability to make a notebook public when i noticed that my link was no longer working.

 

You can see my comments and Support's response here:  https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/65731-sharing-notebook-with-a-public-link/?locale=en

[lhb 19]

 

Does it mean there is only one color available for highlight at the moment?

 

That’s correct.

 

 

On a related note, I do get inconsistencies in the highlight colors:

 

1. I highlighted on iPad
2. I view on MAC

 

Now I see the faded-orange highlight color from the iPad version in MAC. If I rehighlight on MAC, I get the banana-yellow color.

 

Today, using all the latest versions.

[darvil 55]

Please introduce different colors highlight! In previous versions of the software - before the highlight button was inserted - I was able to highlight in different colors by using Mac's text contextual menu. Now it's impossible... Please introduce this option, its helpfulness is crucial!

 

Thanks,

dario

[wsplibra 0]

The hack is make in MS WORD and paste into evernote.  

[eschatonik 1]

Premium user here: Yep, went looking for this feature today and was surprised it doesnt exist. Evernote is first and forement a notebook replacement and highlighting notes in different colors is like note-taking 101. Hopefully the Evernote team gets on this. 

[inky 0]

Agree, would love this capability. 

[fast_learner 1]

+1. Shocked that this is not yet incorporated given the rich functionality throughout the rest of the application.

[jod82 1]

+1. Please add this basic feature already.

[tfcamp 0]

+1

[Alison Lee 1]

First time here in the forums, and I have no idea if suggestions here translate to implementation in future iterations, but +1 for me as well. I use Evernote (Premium) for a variety of things, and one feature I'd really love would be multiple highlighter colors - yellow is fine for "in progress", red would be nice for "work needed", and green would be great for "finished".

[lhb 19]

It seems that this has been introduced. Still trying to find out how the feature works

• Highlighting on the iPad gives me some kind of orange color
• Highlighting on the Mac version gives me light yellow color.

I'm still struggling with it. But highlight on the iPad to get orange highlights, then on the Mac to add your light yellow highlights.  It even turns up in the web version with the mixed colors.

[Innokenty Andreev 1]

First time commenting on this.

+100 for different colours of highlighter.
I am using Evernote everyday and working with large texts, so i need this feature a badly.
Evernote's team made the first move - with different colors of text. Time for highlighter now.

[BackVert 0]

+1!!

[OliverZ 0]

+1

[LondonAppDev 0]

+1 this feature would be useful to me.

[Takenote 0]

This would be great. +1

[Neil Marston 1]

Being able to highlight in more than one color is the main reason I am sticking with Onenote.

Please add this feature to Evernote

[aslansson 1]

Any improvement on this subject?

[tadakan 0]

I was able to copy and paste text from word with other colors of highlighting into an Evernote document and retain the colors, so the package they're using for rich text support can do it, it should just be a case of adding the UI to control it... and it sure would be nice.

[Jonathan.Painter 1]

Almost three years have passed since this idea was proposed, and yet, there is still only one highlight color. I would love to see multiple highlight colors. 

[taguntumi 2]

+1. Basic options outstanding for years and years whilst they add other crappy stuff.

[DTLow 3,406]

5 minutes ago, taguntumi said:

+1. Basic options outstanding for years and years whilst they add other crappy stuff.

There is a priority for requests being implemented.  
You can influence this by upvoting the request (upper left corner).
The vote for this request is currently ....

[Ricardo_Otake 1]

Would love to have multiple highlight colors AT THE SAME TIME   in each note. 

[siaromaniram 5]

Please, add different colors. Yellow is not enough...

[siaromaniram 5]

Please, add more highlighter colors! Yellow is not enough...

[sdf1 0]

As someone who has just started using Evernote over the last few months and is trying to decide whether to upgrade to Premium, not being able to highlight in multiple colors is a huge drawback.

(In general, would like a more robust text editor; but this minor, seemingly easy-to-add feature — different color highlights — would be at the very top of the list.)

[ciara_belle 15]

+1 .. please give us more colours... yellow is not enough. and its really pale.

[JohnOne111 0]

It may sound trivial but I use a comprehensive range of highlighter colours in my research and find it a little frustrating that Evernote only has yellow? There are many sophisticated and useful features in Evernote I find this limitation most surprising.

[Drexler Mathias 10]

or at least make it green

[TheMattyMiller 1]

yes, i prioritize by color. would like more colors for highlighting. i wonder why this is not available. seems so obvious. 

[Frank.dg 1,376]

3 hours ago, DTLow said:

Maybe because this isn't a high priority  feature request.  
The vote count is  (upper left corner of the discussion)

Or maybe it's not the most obviously accessible. +1's anywhere in the forum count... and it was once rumored that Evernote employees read through all posts. So either way. this is no secret. 

[Robert Lupinek 0]

I up voted this too.  Very nice feature to have.

[rdloar 2]

I have been using Evernote, about 3 years now and I am very happy with it. The one thing that I really miss from Onenote is the Florescent Mulit-Color Highlighter. How hard would that be to add to all of your platforms? In my research I use different colors for rating importance.

I have been using Evernote, about 3 years now and I am very happy with it. The one thing that I really miss from Onenote is the Florescent Mulit-Color Highlighter. How hard would that be to add to all of your platforms? In my research I use different colors for rating importance.

[gazumped 6,566]

How hard would it be?  Lessee... multiple device sources for tablet,  mobile and phone,  multiple OS variations of iOS, MacOS, WIndows and Android to support with various OEM tweaks for the mobile platforms...  I'm guessing it might take a little while.  I'll happily support this though - good suggestion! 

[Krunoslav 172]

12 hours ago, rdloar said:

I have been using Evernote, about 3 years now and I am very happy with it. The one thing that I really miss from Onenote is the Florescent Mulit-Color Highlighter. How hard would that be to add to all of your platforms? In my research I use different colors for rating importance.

I have been using Evernote, about 3 years now and I am very happy with it. The one thing that I really miss from Onenote is the Florescent Mulit-Color Highlighter. How hard would that be to add to all of your platforms? In my research I use different colors for rating importance.

Fully support this except I would like to see colors less saturated or option between the two. Maybe something like this....

 

[Julie in Oz 1]

I think that the word "highlight" indicates what the function should do, however the pale yellow in the Evernote Windows app is barely visible, so it hardly highlights at all. The poor highlight contrast is especially apparent on web-clipped pages which may contain other coloured elements such as images.

I understand that some people prefer muted colours, whilst others (such as myself) prefer much brighter fluorescent colours for highlighting, so I would suggest that the solution would be to allow users to choose.

Many applications on many different platforms have a choice of highlight colours, either as a list of predefined colours (less useful), or a fully configurable colour chooser. Examples include;

• Windows apps such as Word, Excel, LibreOffice Writer and even the minimalist Wordpad
• Android apps such Excel and Google Docs.
• Web-based apps such as Word Online, Gmail, Google Docs.

Evernote already has text colour selection. Couldn't a similar colour selection option be used for the Evernote highlighter?

[leosteeds 0]

+1 This would be a big help to me as I find my understanding is very influenced by the use of background colours. This seems like it should be extremely easy to implement - for example just a dropdown box if you click and hold on the highlighter tool would do. It is one of those features that I'm so used to using on almost any other software with a highlighter function that I assumed it was my mistake at first. But it seems this is indeed a missing feature, and a very conspicuous one, despite it being requested for over three years now.

[Dave Land 9]

+1 Want this to highlight code separately from general "highlighting".

[Quezion 0]

Just used the highlighter for the first time. Immediately thought "Why don't I highlight different parts in different colors?"

I was quite bamboozled that I couldn't find a way to do this. Turns out this feature doesn't exist, which seems ridiculous for a note taking service.

[ReganHouse37 2]

Please DO IT.  At the very least offer a few options relevant to the feature, i.e. HIGHLIGHTING.  Like a nice highlighter style yellow, blue, green, etc.  I'm not trying to pee stain my words!

[MissMackBailey 0]

Hi. Wondering if anyone from Evernote is going to respond and provide some feedback as to whether this is a feature that will be added in an upcoming release, or if this is a feature that will not ever be implemented so we as users can set our expectations accordingly. Anyone?