Evernote..Anyone Still Using It?

Software
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I was a rabid Evernote user for years (search their forms for my real name and you’ll see several thousand posts…). I ended up moving to DEVONthink in about 2015 because Evernote just wasn’t quite meeting my more sophisticated needs to manage my work and personal information in the way I want.

Evernote does seem more popular than ever though. When I left Evernote behind in 2015 it seemed to be getting a fair bit more mainstream attention. Now I see it it on an increasing number of my students’ macOS docks, open on the screens of fellow cafe patrons, and hear it mentioned by a lot of less tech-savvy folk.
It is certainly a good solution for some people’s needs!

That is, of course, if you haven’t been paying close attention to the politics, employee churn, botched releases, and all that other stuff over the last 10 years, which contributed to my decision to stop using their service.

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I have commented earlier about my usage, but this thread has actually got me using EN MORE! I had meeting notes in Ulysses that I meant to move, but never did. Now I have moved them, re-remembered how I want to use it and I’m happy again! (Ish!)

I wish it had a better link with Dropbox (as it does with GoogleDrive). I wish it had Markdown support and Dark mode… the iOS app is very poor, but Drafts for creation tends to sort that with its plethora of actions!

I wish they would be braver and tell subscribers what they are doing to improve the App - it feels like a closed door… just like another company we know!

But it’s not too bad for my use,

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46

App selection is tiresome, a time waseter, and wonderful if we hit upon just right. I used Evernote exclusively on windows, andriod, mac and ios.

I used many (maybe most) of its fine features. The idea of a file cabinet that worked on every device I owned was useful.

When

  • My filing needs changed
  • Went to Apple Land (android became my library/Audible machine, windows was relegated to closet storage)
  • Writing genres changed

Ulysses became my prefered app

Actually, I never “liked” Evernote. But it accomplised what I wanted and needed. Now, Ulysses feels good and accomplshes the mission.

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A point to make. I mostly store documents in EN. I don’t have that many text notes.

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I agree that app selection is tiring but wonderful when you hit upon that app or workflow that just feels right.

Richard, how are you setting up Ulysses for everything? Are you using it as a filing cabinet? Clipping things from the web?

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Ulysses is not a filing app for web stuff. I imported recipe files i collected — Evernote > Ulysses. The results for non text files were a mishmash of sorta worked. (I keep reading about DevonThink)

My general Ulysses organization .

Darn the wrong link will correct later.

Corrected link

I’ve used OneNote. Fine app… Basically I’m not filing and storing as much stuff. The joys of the simpler life.

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50

I am still using it, I love the email to Evernote and the scan snap feature. My two cents

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51

I honestly couldn’t run my life without Evernote. It’s the single most used app I have. I thinkmofmit as my second brain and incorporate a lot of GTD philosophy and stuff I’ve learned from the course https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com. I can’t recommend that class enough, especially for mastering Evernote for creative uses and knowledge work.

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I never really looked into Ulysses, because to my knowledge it was subscription based.

It’s a great article, I never thought of that much utilization for Ulyssess.

Here is my current writing workflow, but it’s still changing regularly and I keep switching until something just “clicks” with me.

On iOS, I have Drafts, Byword, and Evernote (for writing) installed.

  • Most things begin in Drafts (if only it has a mac option), and then end up on Byword for less distraction writing, or in Evernote. I like to do “full in depth writing” on my mac, I don’t have a keyboard yet for the iPad Pro. In this workflow, I end up on Mac finishing what I need to.

On Mac, there are times I just start writing on the mac, this is hit or miss, Byword feels faster to get thoughts in quicker and then I just copy and paste into Evernote. Other times, because I already know what I am writing, I just go to Evernote and write in there.

For clarification, things I write to Evernote, are notes from a sermon I will be giving, or a presentation, etc. So I will pull up those notes from the iPad, where ever I am speaking at.

Hmm…the more I spend time on this forum and read comments…

Evernote is a storage, it has the ability to begin notes, and it has basic format options.
DevonThink is a storage, but it’s not so great at beginning notes in there, but supposedly great on other features I have yet to learn an unlock.

Too many apps…Too many possibilities.

  • My irritation with Evernote that was creeping on was just noticing the different formatting between iOS and Mac. No matter where I started the other side was always different.
1 Like
53

I thought I would share resolution to an ongoing problem I’ve been having with Evernote. Perhaps others are experiencing the same. That is, with some update in the last 4-6 months, Evernote’s Spotlight indexing broke. Search in spotlight would only look at Evernote note titles. It would not search within the content of the notes.

After a lot of troubleshooting, Evernote forum activity, Evernote support tickets (they finally acknowledged the bug), I learned of a fix yesterday. Not for the faint of heart given the fiddley steps that need to be taken, but it does work.

This solved a major problem for me so sharing here in case others could benefit.

Evernote forum post with solution.

Cheers! — jay

1 Like
54

Well, I cancelled my premium subscription, keeping the free version until I could transfer the rest of my keepers … three days later, got an offer for another year at $42 … that’s more what I felt my use was worth, so I re-upped one more year … that clipper really is the best. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m still using it out of tradition. I’ve kept all my conference notes organized within. It’s just my workflow now. When I go to a conference, I create a notebook with the name and year and put it in the stack of that conference name.

Also use it for meeting notes using Drafts to pre-pend onto the note. I haven’t upgraded to Drafts 5 yet, though, so don’t know if it works with the new Drafts.

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don’t know if it works with the new Drafts

Yes, it does! — jay

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I am still using it. In fact, I recently upgraded to Evernote Business. I have tested Apple Note, OneNote, and Bear and yet keep coming back to Evernote. (I blogged about it here.)

A month or so ago, the guys at Evernote demoed for me what’s coming in the Evernote in terms of collaboration. I am super-excited about that. It will be very much similar to Google Docs, where you are able to have multiple people comment on a note and see their comments in a side panel. For me, this is the missing feature.

The one thing still missing—and one I have requested numerous time—is MultiMarkdown. I use that everywhere except Evernote.

5 Likes
58

I’ve read your blog post and I agree.

I personally use Bear as I don’t use the ‘red flag’ features you mentioned. Bear UI and way it formats using some version of markdown is such a joy to use.

If Evernote would bring there UI into the modern age then I would probably jump ship, but its been years and I find it to be ugly.

59

Bear fixed one of my complaints, which is that you can now have more than one note open at a time. If they would add the ability to grab an external link so I could share notes with my colleagues, I would consider jumping ship.

I don’t mind the UI. I especially like the web clipper. There’s nothing out that that really compares to that.

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@MichaelHyatt so good to see you on here! In your Evernote setup, have you ever had inconsistencies in the formatting? That’s my struggle right now, I format something on the Mac, but then on the iPad, it looks so different (usually smaller). I then increase the font on the iPad to be readable, but then is huge on the Mac.

61

This post summarizes in a nutshell why Evernote still is missing the curve. They are trying to solve collaboration “problems” that others like Slack, Google, Dropbox, Microsoft and even Apple long ago solved - and solved well. And they ignored the real problems like formatting(!) that have plagued their core pro “solo” users for years This gave rise to Bear and Apple Notes. If you put any more of your data in Evernote, you are risking getting it out into a form you can easily use elsewhere, IMHO.

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Anything else besides collaboration? Anything focused on iOS?

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Any word on an updated/refreshed Mac app?