Emailed notes are too large for recipient to easily view

[LightingGuy3 1]

I use EN Premium on MacBook. When I email a note [Note > More Sharing > Email a copy], select an email recipient, and then email the note, it shows up as a very large image [not large file size, but large image, so that a simple note on 8 1/2" x 11" paper, shows up on the recipients email as so large, that the user has to scroll down and scroll right just to try to read the note. Can't the image size of a note to be emailed, be reduced? This seems so simple, and yet I see a lot of frustrated users with same problem. HELP PLEASE.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Is the EN Note content text, or an image?

If it is text, it should be emailed as text.

 

I don't like the EN email process, so I just copy/paste from the EN Note into a new email in my email client (Outlook), and then send.

Works much better, IMO.

 

If the Note contains images, they may displayed scaled down to fit the EN window, but the actual size is retained.

So you may need to resize the image in EN (or in your email client) before you send.  the Mac Preview app can do that for you.

[LightingGuy3 1]

JMichael, thank you very much for your response. The type of "notes" that I want to be able to email are simply photos (taken from within the EN app on my iPhone) of my hand-written notes that I take at a meeting, on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. I might have 8 pages of hand-written notes, that I capture as a Note via my iPhone camera, again, from within the EN app on my iPhone. It looks great in the EN app on my iPhone or my iPad or my Mac. But as soo. As I email it to someone, the image becomes very large (not file size MB, but requires the recipient of the email, as well as the email viewed from my Outlook app, to have to scroll "way up, and way down@ to see even one of the 8 pages of my hand-written notes). I just want to be able to email my notes to a recipient without having to resize images before sending (from any of my devices). I look forward to your reply.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

My suggestion would be to capture the images as a PDF, but I don't see any way of doing that with the EN Camera.

However, if you use the EN Scannable app, you can choose to save the output as PDF, and send it to Evernote.

 

There are other 3rd party scanning apps that save as PDF as well.

 

The great thing about a PDF is that it will just show up as an attachment to your email, and the recipient can open and view at whatever zoom he/she wishes.

[LightingGuy3 1]

Thank you again for your reply. I will try the EN Scannable Ap, which I was not aware of. I have used the ScannerPro ap, which uploads the scanned PDF to EN, as a PDF file, but the same problem occurs: the PDF looks great on all of my devices, but as soon as I email the PDF, from EN on any device, it becomes a very large image, which the recipient (and me in my Outlook client) must scroll way up and way down just to try to see even one page of the PDF.

Right now, I love the elegance of EN, but this problem makes EN very frustrating, because emailing my hand-written notes is a critical part of my workflow. Seems like it should be easy. I know I am not the only one who is complaining about it, but I never get help directly from EN. So thanks again for your help.

[LightingGuy3 1]

JMichael, it works!!!!!! I downloaded the EN Scannable app, set it to make PDFs of 1 or Multipage scans, tried it out on 6 pages of hand-written notes. It uploaded the scan as a PDF to EN, just like I wanted. Now I can email the PDF from within EN if I want to, and EN sends as PDF, and not JPEG from my Outlook client. The PDF looks good from both the recipients Outlook App, as well as my Outlook App (on my Mac), and n the EN app on my Mac, the PDF is automatically displayed in the Open View so I don't have to open the PDF file like I would if I had made the PDF from a traditional scanner. This solves the problem of the image being too large!!!!! Thank you again. Best Regards.

[vsajewel 28]

I'm experiencing a similar problem with long notes that I write for my elderly Dad.  I put together numerous 'how to' notes with screen shots I've annotated in Evernote, along with text I've written and sometimes links.  I'm visiting him right now and I've only just realized that his intermittent problem reading my emails only occurs when they are Evernote notes I've emailed to him.  

He's 90 and he just can't seem to figure out how or why t use Evernote, so although he has the app on his Windows computer he never actually uses it (I put in there!)   

Work Chat sharing is just too confusing for him.  When he tries to read my notes via Chrome on Windows 7 using his gmail account, some notes are so large he can't read them or even print them.  Printing these would be a good workaround for him since he's 'old school' if the note displayed correctly in 'print view'...but it doesn't.  Just a small portion of the left side of the note is displayed in the (Windows 7, gmail/Chrome) print view.  I've scrolled all around these huge notes and I can't find a way to open the note within the Evernote app on his computer.  If he could open the note in Evernote, that too would solve his problem as it would both display correctly and print correctly.

My impression is that this is a recent problem because I've used this method for writing guides for him for many years and this size issue only cropped up in 2015.

I use Evernote a lot for composing detailed, step-by-step, how to guides for him on a variety of tech topics. I love that I can compose these guides for him by pulling in a variety of data types to illustrate things, but these newish problems with large display size is really frustrating for us both right now.  

Does anyone have any ideas why this occurs and how to work around it?

I gather from reading the above comments, that it's my use of images that's causing the issues.  I keep the image size setting on my ios devices set to 'small' although frankly, I've never figured out how differentiating that setting makes much difference to me.

Things I've tried include:

1.  Opening the emailed note in the Evernote app where it would display correctly and where it would also print correctly.

2.  It doesn't seem possible to export the note to a pdf format.  

Things I haven't yet tried:

1.  Maybe I could try creating the note using Pages and then export it as a pdf both to him and to my Evernote account.  This might prove to be the best alternative, but there would be a lot of jumping back and forth between Evernote and Pages for me since I can't annotate images in Pages (using ios 9) to my knowledge.

2.  Doing the same thing as in #1 above except using the ios Word app...but probably I'd encounter the same issues as in #1 using Pages.

I just realized that this topic is in the Mac forum, and my general usage is generally more skewed towards ios and Windows, but I do use a Mac mini too, and the problem is a universal one across all platforms I've used meaning ios, Windows and Mac.

[CalS 5,280]

You could try pasting the images in 1 x 1 tables and then sizing them from there.  Also, the newest version of EN enables drag sizing from the bottom right corner, not sure how it holds across platforms though.  I would try the 1x1 table first, FWIW.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 hour ago, vsajewel said:

I'm experiencing a similar problem with long notes that I write for my elderly Dad.  I put together numerous 'how to' notes with screen shots I've annotated in Evernote, along with text I've written and sometimes links.  I'm visiting him right now and I've only just realized that his intermittent problem reading my emails only occurs when they are Evernote notes I've emailed to him.  

If I understand the issues you are having correctly, then you might consider the following:

1. Resize overly large images in Evernote using a 3rd party app.  I really like SnagIT (one license covers all of your Macs/PCs)
   1. Just right-click on the image, and select "Open" or "Open in...", and pick your image editor.
   2. I find this works much better than messing with Evernote.
2. Print the Evernote Note to a PDF, and email the PDF to your dad
   1. Very easy to do in EN Mac, as all Print dialogs have a save as PDF option
   2. I'm pretty sure you can do this in Windows also, if you have any PDF tools installed
   3. Links in your EN Note should carry through to the PDF.
   4. As you know, it is easy to zoom a PDF as needed, which would probably be helpful to your Dad's old eyes.
   5. A PDF also makes it easy for him to open and have side-by-side with whatever app the PDF instructions

Good luck with your dad.

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, JMichaelTX said:

Print the Evernote Note to a PDF, and email the PDF to your dad

I would agree with this approach.  Or even better, my Mac gives the option of "Convert note to PDF"

I've experienced this many times where the recipient is not seeing my note the way I see it.  As you noticed with your pictures, or they've accidentally hit the delete key and modified the original.  I've found using the pdf format the best way to eliminate these issues.

[vsajewel 28]

Thank you all for your suggestions.  I should have mentioned that I'm on ios not OS X.  This is the only forum that discusses this issue at all...and believe me I've searched!  Sadly, on ios you don't have the option to print to a pdf.  I do use OneEdit Pro, an ios batch photo editing app for resizing photos. That works well when I need to resize pics...but most of the time I don't bother because the notes are just for me.  I guess what I need to do is make sure to resize things consistently if I'll be sharing a note via email.  But it seems to me it shouldn't be this much work!

I think I found a work-around that will work for my Dad.  Rather than emailing a note to him...I can export it and fthen add it as an attachment to an email.  Then he gets an email that he can actually open in Evernote.  It's not ideal for him because he doesn't use and Evernote and would just as soon get rid of it...but as long as he's relying on my to write step-by-step guides for him he's stuck with it.  Because I haven't found a better way of pulling content together from a lot of different sources. My work-around seems to be better than using Work Chat which completely frustrate him.  My Dad turned 90 last week...it's bizarre but he suddenly seems to feel a lot older! Thanks again for all the great suggestions :-)

 

 

[DTLow 5,736]

On February 17, 2016 at 0:41 AM, vsajewel said:

My work-around seems to be better than using Work Chat which completely frustrate him.

I'm an Evernote user and my daughter insists on using workchat with me.
I find it a little confusing and have to scramble to get it going on IOS.

Would it help if you send him public links to your notes, and use public links within your notes.
Then it's all browser viewing.

[CalS 5,280]

9 hours ago, vsajewel said:

Sadly, on ios you don't have the option to print to a pdf.

Workaround for this.  With the note open go to share and press Save PDF to iBooks.  A PDF will be created in iBooks and you can then email the PDF from iBooks.  You can delete the PDF after if you like.  FWIW.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On 2/17/2016 at 0:37 PM, csihilling said:

With the note open go to share and press Save PDF to iBooks.  A PDF will be created in iBooks and you can then email the PDF from iBooks.

Very cool tip!  I don't use iBooks (I use Kindle), so I would never have thought of this.
The PDF it creates is very nice.

One comment:  The "share" button you want is the one is the iOS Share at the bottom, AFTER you tap the ". . ." button.
The "share" button at the top is for EN Sharing.  Confusing.

Question:  How to give the the PDF a Title in iBooks?  It shows as "Untitled", and I can't find a way to give it one.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

46 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

Question:  How to give the the PDF a Title in iBooks?  It shows as "Untitled", and I can't find a way to give it one.

I finally figured it out.  What a convoluted, 7-step process.  I can't image that the designer that designed this process has ever used it.
This just goes to show that even Apple can design bad processes/UI.

I have shared this EN Note that details the process:  
How to Change/Set Title of iBook Document 

HTH.

[CalS 5,280]

Thanks for this.  I have only used the process a few times, away from my PC so I used the iPad to send a PDF of a note.  As such I just sent the Untitled file.  Should I do it again good to know how to apply a more appropriate title. 

[vsajewel 28]

On February 17, 2016 at 8:19 AM, DTLow said:

I'm an Evernote user and my daughter insists on you using workchat with me.
I find it a little confusing and have to scramble to get it going on IOS.

Would it help if you mail you send him public links to your notes, and use public links within your notes.
Then it's all browser viewing.

Thanks DTLow.  A lot of times there's personal information in the note so I've hesitated to create a public link.  But I guess if it's anything like YouTube video private links where really anyone could find the link if they knew exactly what they were looking for...but the probability of that happening would be extremely low...it wouldn't really matter.  Does that seem to be the case in your perspective?  I guess I don't know much about public links.  For example...could one end up appearing in a Google search?

[DTLow 5,736]

16 minutes ago, vsajewel said:

For example...could one end up appearing in a Google search?

Good question, and I don't have the answer.

I'd like to say Evernote's servers are not harvested for Google fodder, but I know enough to never say never.

We've all increased our exposure just by plugging into the Internet.

I can still sleep well at night, however I don't put anything into the Evernote web severs that is highly confidential unless it is encrypted.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

58 minutes ago, vsajewel said:

I guess I don't know much about public links.  For example...could one end up appearing in a Google search?

I can't cite the source right now, but I do remember someone from Evernote stating this about public URLs:

• The URL and Note are not discoverable via search
• However, the URL is public, and anyone who knows the link can access the note.

 

[vsajewel 28]

On February 17, 2016 at 0:37 PM, csihilling said:

Workaround for this.  With the note open go to share and press Save PDF to iBooks.  A PDF will be created in iBooks and you can then email the PDF from iBooks.  You can delete the PDF after if you like.  FWIW.

That's brilliant csihilling!  I just tried it out and it works beautifully...well at least it does on my end...we'll see what my Dad has to say about it.  It turns out my last idea for a workaround didn't fly with him...when he received the emailed note with the attachment which was a .enex file (or whatever the Evernote format name is...I forget) the email spent a really long time downloading.  He gave up after 20 minutes!  He uses Gmail via Chrome browser on a new Windows 7 machine.  So I know the speed issue isn't his computer or his browser.  More than likely it's his bandwidth...he has a the lowest plan you can get from his provider because apparently the older you get the more cost conscious you become!  

Anyway...I created a 9 page pdf which I successfully renamed thanks to JMichaelTX.

On February 20, 2016 at 8:25 PM, JMichaelTX said:

I finally figured it out.  What a convoluted, 7-step process.  I can't image that the designer that designed this process has ever used it.
This just goes to show that even Apple can design bad processes/UI.

I have shared this EN Note that details the process:  
How to Change/Set Title of iBook Document 

HTH.

The little tutorial you've created and shared for us all is a perfect example of the kinds of notes I'm writing for my Dad!  I really like to use Evernote for writing them because I can pull in different kinds of media and annotate screenshots all in one place.  I'm curious about what software you're using for annotations JMichaelTX?  I'll occasionally use an ios app Photogene for annotating screenshots...but Evernote's is faster, easier and more colorful.

One other incidental observation...I needed to create a PDF of a webpage the other day and discovered that in ios 9 you can do that by sending it to iBooks too.  In that instance iBooks actually does name the PDF too...although the name might not be exactly what you want.

There was one odd thing during the process of Sharing a note using the iBooks alternative.  When I selected iBooks as the Share option...EV asked me if I wanted it to be a private or a public link.  That puzzled me because no link is necessary.  I tried it both ways and the end result was the same.  I'm curious if you all encountered this question too?  I'm a beta tester for EV for ios...so it might be aberrant just due to that.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions!

[vsajewel 28]

38 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I can still sleep well at night, however I don't put anything into the Evernote web severs that is highly confidential unless it is encrypted.

 

 

LIKE THIS

Geez...now I've got something else to worry about?  I put almost everything into Evernote....except financial stuff and passwords...unless I encrypt them.  So, I guess I'm probably OK assuming some hacker can't use my or my families' medical information against us somehow :-)  If they can...I don't think I want to know...

[vsajewel 28]

14 minutes ago, JMichaelTX said:

I can't cite the source right now, but I do remember someone from Evernote stating this about public URLs:

• The URL and Note are not discoverable via search
• However, the URL is public, and anyone who knows the link can access the note.

 

Thank you!  That's good to know...and exactly how private links for YouTube work too...I think :-)

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

40 minutes ago, vsajewel said:

I'm curious about what software you're using for annotations JMichaelTX?  

I built the EN Note on the Mac using:

• SnagIT
• Evernote Mac

I love SnagIT.  I've used it for many years now, on both the Mac and PC (Windows).  In fact, one license allows you to install it on multiple computers, and on both Windows and Mac.  I always use SnagIT for annotations, never using the built-in Evernote tools, nor the Sketch app.

I make screenshots on my iPhone, and then attached them to an EN Note on my iPhone.  After a sync of both, I opened the EN Note on my Mac, and created the shared Note.

SnagIT made it very easy to reduce the actual image size (not just the displayed image size) to about 25% of original, and then crop it and then add the balloons.
The whole process took less than 15 min.

[vsajewel 28]

Thanks JMichaelTX for the SnagIt link...for some reason I can't quote part of that post.  I guess my little iPad's memory is maxed out...it keeps adding the previous quote I used about public URLS.  But I'll remember SnagIt this time because I actually put it in Evernote!  I know you mentioned it before but I had no idea how versatile it is...that plus the fact that I have no working computer right now.  But SnagIt does look pretty brilliant (despite its aesthetically unappealing name which kinda bugs me,) it could just possibly solve another problem for me too so I appreciate your patience!

[CalS 5,280]

50 minutes ago, vsajewel said:

That's brilliant csihilling!  I just tried it out and it works beautifully...

You are welcome.  Hope your Dad finds it easy to get at when he receives it.