Is there a way to add a note to EN without launching the app?

[GreyGray 15]

Hello, 

 

I want to not show the EN menulet, as it is taking up too much space along with some others I want to get rid of.  I use LaunchBar, and it can easily shove stuff into EN, but the app must be open, and it brings it to the foreground.

 

This is bad on a couple levels, though I am pretty sure i could shove it in the background by editing the script.

 

However, with the cell phone companies being so rediculous with bandwidth, I can't afford to just fire up EN and have have it start syncing.  I will blow through my data plan in a day.  I need to make sure I am on a wifi network for stuff like that.  When I make a new note with the minute, does it just write a file to a folder somewhere that EN looks at and then adds when you launch the app?

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  You've raised this is Mac help,  but you're talking about cell phone limits..  on what device / in which OS do you want to create this note?

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

 I need to make sure I am on a wifi network for stuff like that.  When I make a new note with the minute, does it just write a file to a folder somewhere that EN looks at and then adds when you launch the app?

 

In the EN iOS app, goto EN Home screen > Settings > General, and set Synchronize on WiFi Only to ON.

[GreyGray 15]

Hi.  You've raised this is Mac help,  but you're talking about cell phone limits..  on what device / in which OS do you want to create this note?

 

Sorry, that was indeed confusing.  I am traveling a lot, and I have a router that connects up to a wireless hotpot thingy.  In the end, it is cellular, even though my phones, TV's and laptops all connect to the router, but the WAN side of things has the data feed coming through a Verizon hot spot device.  Sorry about the confusion.

[GreyGray 15]

 

 I need to make sure I am on a wifi network for stuff like that.  When I make a new note with the minute, does it just write a file to a folder somewhere that EN looks at and then adds when you launch the app?

 

In the EN iOS app, goto EN Home screen > Settings > General, and set Synchronize on WiFi Only to ON.

 

 

Thanks!  I had added some firewall rules to my pfSense box, which seems to have dealt with it for the time being.  However, I would still like to be able to shove stuff into EN, in the same way the minute does, though without the minute.  For example, could an Applescript be made that on launch, will open a display dialog, and say: "Please enter in something".  I enter in something, slam the "OK" button and am off to get back to work on other things.

 

I hav a feeling there is going to need to be a "tell application Evernote" in there, which is going to launch it.  I tried targeting the EN helper application, but there is no AppleScript Dictionary that I can tell.

 

Is there an EN employe around here that could answer a quick API question?  Is there a way with the API to use `curl` to POST data to EN?  If that can be done, then I am set.  Or, an even better way, does EN have a watch folder, where you can shove stuff, and on launch of the application, it will stuff in into the EN database?  If I am brave, and I know this is not going to be supported but from a general workflow of you internal system, can i directly add to the sqlite database?  I understand I would have to fully understand the schema, and keep an eye on updates and such, but that seems one way to do this, and then I could mimic your local folder structure and put the local files in the right place.

 

Any suggestions on how to add to EN like the quick entry menulet without actually opening the app, that is what I am after, even if it gets a little tricky.

 

Thank you all!

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Any suggestions on how to add to EN like the quick entry menulet without actually opening the app, that is what I am after, even if it gets a little tricky.

 

The EN Quick Note using the EN Helper works for me like you requested.  I can add a quick note while EN is not running just by pressing the shortcut key (#3.1).

But you may need to setup things in your EN Preferences:

1. General Tab -- check these boxes:
   1. Show EN Helper in menu bar
   2. Keep En Helper running in background...
   3. Start the EN Helper when I log in
2. Clipping
   1. Uncheck all checkboxes under "After Clipping"
3. Shortcuts
   1. enter a shortcut for Quick Note.

That should do it unless I've missed something.

[GreyGray 15]

I apologize if my quoting is terrible, I'm replying on mobile.

Thank You! JMichaels…

With the preference settings that you've outlined it sounds like that should accomplish exactly what I need. I always use the keyboard shortcuts to access the menu so it looks like this will solve my problems.

I am A little curious as to what happens when there is no menu item and you get the keyboard command. Right now a floating dialogue popped down from the little menu icon. If that icon isn't there, then where exactly does the window popped itself too. Does it still grab to the upper portion of the screen where the icon intentionally could be, or is it just a floating window in the middle of the screen? I guess I'll find out soon enough. :-)

Thank you very much! I truly appreciate it.

[GreyGray 15]

 

Any suggestions on how to add to EN like the quick entry menulet without actually opening the app, that is what I am after, even if it gets a little tricky.

 

The EN Quick Note using the EN Helper works for me like you requested.  I can add a quick note while EN is not running just by pressing the shortcut key (#3.1).

But you may need to setup things in your EN Preferences:

1. General Tab -- check these boxes:
   1. Show EN Helper in menu bar
   2. Keep En Helper running in background...
   3. Start the EN Helper when I log in
2. Clipping
   1. Uncheck all checkboxes under "After Clipping"
3. Shortcuts
   1. enter a shortcut for Quick Note.

That should do it unless I've missed something.

 

 

 

Hi JM, I thought that would work, the trouble is, that the second I uncheck the first box as seen below, the other two uncheck themselves.  It takes a moment, but they end up going away.  It also stops the helper app as well. I even tried to manually add the helper app and manually launch it, but that behave radically and sometimes would show up as a menu icon, and others not.

 

Regardless, the usual keyboard command does nothing, either because the helper app is not running, or the menu item needs to be there to capture the keyboard commands.  As far as I can tell, the app has to be running to put stuff into it outside of the menulet icon.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I thought that would work, but no love on my end.  I am going to poke at the API, everything I keep thinking, the more it points to the API being the solution to me.  I have some friends over at Zapier who have a really nice set of IFTTT style tools that has an EN integration to it, with good debugging tools and error notes.  While they tell me to wade in the API waters with caution as EN can be a little finicky, it looks like I have something to do over the weekend.

 

If you can get this to work, ( your suggestion ) I would love to see it in action, but for me, I was unable to get your steps to work.  Thank you for the ideas though.

 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

Hi JM, I thought that would work, the trouble is, that the second I uncheck the first box as seen below, the other two uncheck themselves.  It takes a moment, but they end up going away.  It also stops the helper app as well. I even tried to manually add the helper app and manually launch it, but that behave radically and sometimes would show up as a menu icon, and others not.

 

Regardless, the usual keyboard command does nothing, either because the helper app is not running, or the menu item needs to be there to capture the keyboard commands.  As far as I can tell, the app has to be running to put stuff into it outside of the menulet icon.

 

 

Why would it work for me but not for you?  There must be some setting you're missing.

I have now tested this on two Macs.  Works perfect on both.

 

I'm running EN Mac 6.0.11 & 6.0.15 on Mavericks (10.9.5).

What versions of OS and Evernote are you running?

[GreyGray 15]

I truly thought it would work. I kinda smacked myself upside the head for not thinking of that combination of preferences.

I'll give it another try as I would be pleased as punch to be wrong on this and if you have multiple Macs that are able to pull it off, there should be no reason my version and platform won't be able to pull it off.

Last resort I'll find the preference file those settings are saved in, and hopefully it's a binary list or plain text file format so we can compare and perhaps hand edit. Let me ask you a few questions as it will be s few minutes before I get a chance to try it out again

When you have it working and you press the keyboard command to bring up the on screen dialog, where does it pop open from? With no menulet icon, where exactly is the windows spawn point on the screen?

When you hit up that first set of preferences with the three checkboxes, what exactly happens?

I uncheck the first box, that of your instructions marked section 1.1. The moment I click OFF that first checkbox, I get a small flash of the preference screen and then checkboxes 1.2 and 1.3 become unchecked and greyest out, unable to be altered, as seen in the screen shot I posted.

Section 2.1 and 3.1 don't seem to give me any issues but the app is not running, which is good, but also, the helper application gets toggled off. I'll triple check it in Activity Monitor, `top`, and `ps -ux`

Maybe you could set yours up this way and show me a screen ***** of section 1.1 to 1.3 as well as the following sections, plus a screen shot of it actually working so I can see where the quick entry field spawns open on screen.

I'm running EN 6.x Desktop, whatever is the version on the site for download now, non beta. Sorry, on my phone it kicks me to the mobile downloads and into the App Store. I'll confirm the version as soon as I'm in front of my laptop.

The OS is 10.10 Yosemite with all software updates current. I'll get specific versions from the About Box as well as Get Info version from the App and Helper App. Maybe my helper app is woefully out of date. I'll get all the data and go from there. Thanks for stickin' it out with me on this.

Just to be clear, we're not talking about any browser extensions and the dialog boxes they PPP open, we're talking about the small elephant icon that currently shows up in the Finder Menu Bar regardless of which app you are in. You can type into the box as well as there are two other options that are screen capture related. I just want to make sure we are on the identical thought process page and method.

As soon as I'm off mobile and back home, we will find out. Thank you JM.

No quoting options on mobile Safari if it is a reply to the last post? I see "quote" for previous posts, but not the last one, or the one I'm going to generally be replying to. Sorry about that.

I'll let you all know as soon as I can test it out again. Thanks!!

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

If you check the boxes I indicated, then the EN Helper in the menu will stay open after you quit EN Mac.

[GreyGray 15]

If you check the boxes I indicated, then the EN Helper in the menu will stay open after you quit EN Mac.

 

Then I am confused, as the entire point of my post was to get rid of the menu bar icon as I am running out of space depending on which application I am in.  If I am in photoshop, on a laptop, there is no room once all the Photoshop menu's load, so I lose TimeMachine, DropBox, ( which I am getting rid of soon.

 

I am running Mac OS X 10.01.4 Yosemite and Evernote Desktop download from the website as a web download version 6.0.16, EverNote Helper version 22.0. ( No AppleScript dictionary for the helper app )

 

I am going to try the settings once again, and report back in a new reply.  Here goes nothing…

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I could be wrong, but just because the EN Helper icon is not visible doesn't mean you can't still use the shortcut key.

GreyGray, why don't you test and play with this for a while, and then let us know if it is working or not.

[GreyGray 15]

 

Any suggestions on how to add to EN like the quick entry menulet without actually opening the app, that is what I am after, even if it gets a little tricky.

 

The EN Quick Note using the EN Helper works for me like you requested.  I can add a quick note while EN is not running just by pressing the shortcut key (#3.1).

But you may need to setup things in your EN Preferences:

1. General Tab -- check these boxes:
   1. Show EN Helper in menu bar
   2. Keep En Helper running in background...
   3. Start the EN Helper when I log in
2. Clipping
   1. Uncheck all checkboxes under "After Clipping"
3. Shortcuts
   1. enter a shortcut for Quick Note.

That should do it unless I've missed something.

 

 

I would love to see some screen shots of how you are pulling this off.  

All text is posted below the screen shots and is in reference to the screen shots above the text copy I have written.

 

As you can see above, the moment I uncheck the "Show Evernote Helper in menu bar", it removes it from the menu bar, but also greys out the last two options. They are all tied to each other in some way, as unchecking the second one, "Keep Evernote Helper running in the background when I quit Evernote", if I have the first checkbox selected so I can toggle the second, it is tied to the third in that the "Start the Evernote Helper when I log in to my computer" will be greyed out if the second item is not checked.

 

I have my System Preferences open right now, as a test.  When I toggle the checkbox for the "Show Evernote Helper in the menu bar", it correctly removes the item from my login items.  Checking the box, puts it back in, so that part is working correct as far as I can tell, even though I can't replicate your settings.  I do have to manually launch it, as I did not go through a login, which tells me it is in fact not running once it is removed from the login items.  Right now, if I press Shift-Command-E nothing happens, but if I go find the Helper app and launch it… The icon comes back into the menu bar, and the Shift-Command-E works again.

 

Here is a screenshot of the menu as I see it:

 

As per your suggestion, I have turned off the clipping settings.  While I am not sure that the icon bouncing in the dock, or the playing of a sound are that big a deal, it does lead me to think.  If there is a setting to prevent the icon from bouncing in the dock, in the clippings section, that to me, that implied an app is running, or there would be no icon to bounce.

I think, as far as I can tell, I have the settings as you suggested.  With the settings as per the screenshots above, and the Evernote application NOT running, pressing Shift-Command-E does nothing.  With Evernote running, it also does nothing.  I have quit all external applications, all keyboard shortcut apps, Dropbox, all if it is off 100%, removed from my login items and a reboot performed.  Id did leave Time Machine and any Apple related items in the menu, like clock, battery, etc.

 

Perhaps I am having a keyboard conflict with some setting in the System Preferences keyboard shortcuts area.  I went through them all and tired them all off, there is a restore to defaults option o I am not too concerned about that.  I am changing the Shift-Command-E to something that I would never use as my fingers would not be able to quickly get to the command.  Let's use: Control-Option-Command-\ as seen in this screen shot below:

 

 

Right now, Evernote is not running, and the helper app is not running, nor is it in the Login item, as that is how the state of the application is based on the preferences in the screen shots above.  Pressing the Control-Option-Command-\ shortcut and I get a beep and screen flash as a result of not being able to perform the action, though it is interesting that it is trying.  The beep and screen flash come from the Audio Accessibility settings set to "Flash the Screen when an alert sound occurs".  The sound is just the System Sound settings, which I have set to "Submarine".

 

In System Preferences, Keyboard section, I have gone through them all, and in the past, disabled most of them to avoid conflict as I prefer Keyboard Maestro.

 

As far as I can tell, there are only a few ways to interact with Evernote.  One is through the browser extension.  The main app need not be open for that to work.  Next time you launch the app, it will sync things up.  That could prove a useful way to figure out where and how to write some files just as the extension does.  That is a project for after I figure this out though.

 

The next way is through a keyboard command which can be defined.  However, for me, no matter what, the Helper Application must be running for this to work.  Or the Evernote application must be running for this to work.  If the Helper Application is not running, nothing will happen, I get a submarine beep and a flash on the screen.

 

 

If I launch the Evernote applicaiton, and my preferences are set per the above screen shots, Evernote is brought to the foreground.  The menu icon is no longer there of course.  Pressing Control-Option-Command-\ and Evernote the application is brought to the foreground.  A new note is made in the list, and the note editor is popped open in-front if all other windows. For example, Evernote is hidden via the Command-H Keyboard command.  I hit the command  Control-Option-Command-\ which I have set up in the preferences to make sure that I am not in conflict with any other keyboard shortcuts.

 

I am trying to at least get some parity in my versions with that of JMichaels, so I enabled betas, and it tells me I am all up to date.  I am curious what version of the Helper Application he is running. JMichaels, do you know where I can get other versions?  I turned on betas and it says I am up to date.  As a side note, there are a ton of items in the Evernote bundle that could be cleaned up.  It is already a large application, and I don't think that we really need all these types of images in the app…

 

Keep in mind, I resized this to 33% of its original, it was around 800K.  There are probably ~30 images like this that are all tif's and png's that are pretty large.  Considering EN is already a large app, maybe this could get cleaned up, especially since they are in the Helper App, I didn't even look in the actual Evernote app yet.

 

Further, I can tell you that it is the Helper Application that is accessing location services.  I have not had a chance to run Wireshark on it and see what it is sending out, but it is for certain that. The two issues, the strange applescript files and the calls to location services would be nice to get answers form Evernote support on.

 

I just downloaded the app from the website clean, installed it, and it is still the same version, so I am stuck at this version for the time being unless there is a server somewhere that I can download the beta stuff from, or I could downgrade, but would only do so if Evernote tells me doing so is in fact save to do.

 

The basic bottom line here is that the menu icon must exist i the Finder menu bar, or nothing is going to happen. At least on my system, that is how it works. Jmichaels, I would love to see a screen shot of you pulling up the Command-shift-E with there being no icon in the Finder, and I would love to see screen shots of your preferences, specifically the first page where you are able to select things in the way you mentioned.

 

As far as I can tell, there are some small issues in the preferences with those first three checkboxes in that they interplay with each other.  There is no way to have Command-Sift-E or any other keyboard combination fire off the Evernote Helper application.  The Evernote Helper Application has some questionable files in it that I would like to know more about.  Come to think about it, I am aware of many applications that have a menu bar icon that you can interact with once you remove the menu bar icon.  It would be pretty simple, like in Keyboard Maestro, to just have a setting that says "don't show Keyboard Maestro icon in menubar" and it would still work and all would be well.

\My JMichaels, I certainly believe, you, but  I would love to see this for myself.  Can you take a screen shot if you entering text into the Helper Application when it is hidden away?  Can you take a screen shot of your preferences with them set as you suggested?

 

JMichaels, you also stated:

> If you check the boxes I indicated, then the EN Helper in the menu will stay open after you quit EN Mac.

​Yes, that is what I was trying to get around.  I am running out of space in my menu bar, I would like Evernote to continue to work the same way it does right now, being able to send items to it from a browser, or fro the Helper Application, and the Evernote Application need not be open.  When I launch it, it syncs and then the data comes in.  I would just like to hide the icon from the menu bar.  For example, there is a disc eject menelet, I can drag that off and still eject disks, there is the Keyboard Maestro Application, and I can tell the preferences to not show the icon in the menu bar, or show a few different colored versions, but Keyboard Maestro will still continue to work.

 

Evernote i using a strange implementation in my opinion.  You usually can drag the icons around to suit your order, and drag and drop them off to delete them from the menu bar, none of which this icon honor.

 

This is all I have for now, any help would be appreciated.  I am also a premium subscriber, so I am going to send this off to support and see what they have to say as to how it is supposed to work.  Thanks again to anyone who is able to post along with this as to their experiences.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I'm guessing they will tell you that you need Evernote Helper running and to have it running then you have to have it in the menu bar (for whatever reason).

 

I think you are misreading JM's posts as well - he says 

 

 

 

1. General Tab -- check these boxes:
   1. Show EN Helper in menu bar
   2. Keep En Helper running in background...
   3. Start the EN Helper when I log in

 

Unchecking show EN Helper disables 2 & 3.

[GreyGray 15]

I'm guessing they will tell you that you need Evernote Helper running and to have it running then you have to have it in the menu bar (for whatever reason).

 

I think you are misreading JM's posts as well - he says 

 

 

 

1. General Tab -- check these boxes:
   1. Show EN Helper in menu bar
   2. Keep En Helper running in background...
   3. Start the EN Helper when I log in

 

Unchecking show EN Helper disables 2 & 3.

 

Exactly what happens to me.  So why are the options there in the first place if you can't even select them?  I read jMichaels post to be a statement telling me to set my settings a certain way, but I see what you are saying now, though I am still not sure as it was stated that

 

> Why would it work for me but not for you?

> The EN Quick Note using the EN Helper works for me like you requested.

 

As well as a comment as to how he has it working on more than one machine.  I'm pretty sure JMichaels understands wha is it that I am trying to accomplish, and it sounds like he is able to make that happen o his computer as well.

 

I would just like to understand what is  going on.

[Metrodon 2,184]

I'm pretty sure he misunderstood your request and you misunderstood his reply He'll be on later to confirm either way I'm sure.

 

As to why are there options? Who knows? Don't really care... 

 

Seems to me if you want to be able to use Quick Note then you need the Helper running and if you want the Helper running you need it to be shown in the menu bar.

[GreyGray 15]

I'm pretty sure he misunderstood your request and you misunderstood his reply He'll be on later to confirm either way I'm sure.

 

As to why are there options? Who knows? Don't really care... 

 

Seems to me if you want to be able to use Quick Note then you need the Helper running and if you want the Helper running you need it to be shown in the menu bar.

 

I hope not for sure  

1Password, Arq, Keyboard Mastro, previously DropBox ( Even color changes ), wifi icon, volume, time machine, and a Flux, and a bunch of other apps I have used all behave this way, where you can disable the icon, but app functionality stays the same usually via a helper app.  It is  good case to get rid of the prefs and users can just add it to the login items if this is how it works.  I want to run some more tests and see if I can't get close to understanding how the preferences are designed too work.

 

Thanks for taking the time to follow my post and get me thinking about this as perhaps a strange way the app behaves in regards to preference settings.  I appreciate it.

[Bunnyslippers 0]

GreyGrey, I'm able to do precisely what you need, unfortunately, I'm doing it on an earlier version of Evernote (v. 5.4.4, the latest version for Mac OS 10.6.8 — I know, I know).

Here's a screenshot showing the preference settings.

The default keyboard shortcut (command-control-N) works perfectly. You asked where the dropdown appears when there's no menubar icon, so here's a screenshot – it appears in the same position it appeared in when I had the icon activated, but it's not associated with any of the icons (the icon it's beneath in the screenshot is for another app).

So sorry you can't get this to work for you!