Has Evernote progressed enough to use?

Thanks all this is helpful.

I need a rich text environment for project notes, including pdf, Word, Excel. I need wiki linking, the ability to email to the app, web clipping and easy sharing of notes, docs/notebooks.

Also, Markdown is of little use in this context because of its limited formatting ability. I do need a well featured notes app for writing, editing and sharing notes. This is why I was thinking Evernote. It also need to work on mac and ipad.

Have you considered Amplenote?
https://www.amplenote.com/

Thanks for that. I don’t really want to work in a web browser. I really just need notes and files. I don’t use a digital calendar and have a good task management set up already that I don’t want to change.

It looks good though.

Still the same reason why I keep on paying for Evernote Premium. I have Bear and Craft but Evernote is still the best clipper for me.

I mighrt check out Upnote and compare.

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I exported a decade + worth of notes out of Evernote and into obsidian and am very happy with it… though I never used web clipping.

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I’ve been an Evernote user for years. While I couldn’t tell you my exact sign-up date (I’ve had a couple different accounts), I found a screenshot on my iPhone this morning from November 2013 and I’ll be darned if that big elephant isn’t there front and centre. It’s situated with a lot of apps I still use (Tweetbot, Pocket) and a few I don’t or aren’t with us anymore (Flickr, Mailbox).

I’ve gone back and forth a few times on Evernote. More than a few times actually. Depending on the time of year or my mood I’ll think it’s too costly or I’ll ask myself I really NEED it when I can save files to my Mac and jot notes in Apple Notes or Obsidian or Craft or - whatever. But I…

Keep.
Coming.
Back.

I won’t deny their transition to v10 was premature. They definitely decided one day that it was time to flip the switch and it wasn’t ready; not by a long shot. For me personally, the early issues in v10 were slow performance and the inability to drag notes to tags and/or notebooks. It was also quite obviously just displaying a webpage within a Mac/Windows pane which I didn’t love. I realize that’s basically what it is now, but they’ve improved the look and feel a lot. Anyway, v10 marks one of those times where I left the app.

In the time I was away from Evernote though, I just couldn’t get my workflow running as efficiently as I had once had it under the protection of the elephant. I’d be at work on my Windows PC and during a break I’d look up a place to stay on a summer vacation. Wanting to save it for later I’d think “I’ll just clip this to Evernote – oh yeah, I’m not using it right now, uhhh…save webpage to PDF? I guess. Email myself a link for later? Put it into Apple Notes on the web?”. None of the solutions were as quick or as elegant (in my opinion), and so I would begin the journey (or is it annual cycle?) of trying new apps.

I can hear everyone yelling right now - “Devonthink!”. “Joplin!”. “Craft!”. “Notion!”. “Obsidian!”.

I’ve tried all of those and they just don’t jive with my way of thinking, with the exception of maybe Obsidian for my personal thoughts. I just don’t find it to be as robust at storing screen shots, photos, quick sketches, – there’s no email in to Obsidian etc. I could write a compendium about this, but in the interest in staying on topic, I’ll just say nothing checked as many boxes (for me) as Evernote.

I then purchased an M1 Mac mini about 8 months ago, and when I saw Evernote had an M1 version of their app, I downloaded it. I told myself it wasn’t going to suck me in but I knew the moment I downloaded it, it was because a part of me wanted back in.

I was thoroughly impressed. Import folders are back, the app is fast, I actually really like their design and how you can save notes to both tags AND notebooks. It really impressed me. On top of that, the sync still worked flawlessly for me as it always had, even though I know some people report issues with this. I had far more issues with sync while on Apple Notes for a time.

I then saw a video by Tiago Forte about using a second brain and how he uses Evernote as his app of choice. When I saw his tour of how he has Evernote setup I began to think - this is how I see things, this is how I like my data set up. I subsequently discovered I’m a “Librarian” – a great fit for Evernote. In this journey of on/off throughout my tenure with Evernote and note taking apps in general, I’ve realized a few things:

  • As I mentioned above, I’m a Librarian
  • While I do use Obsidian for some idea generation, I personally don’t find “back linking” to be all that useful. I can feel your virtual tomatoes being hurled at me now. :rofl:
  • I’m going to use the app that works the best for me, not the one that all the cool kids on the playground have chosen as their cool app of the moment. Does Evernote deserve some of the criticism? Absolutely. But it’s become cool to hate on them, and when I silence all the voices out there and listen to my own voice, it’s Evernote for me.

So what makes it click the most for me?

It has to be its versatility in getting information ingested. If my wife emails me something and says “please don’t lose this”, I can simply forward it on to Evernote. In fact, we’ve got to the point where she’ll email me with the first line being simply - “please Evernote this”. If I’m online and I get an order confirmation number or I want to save a web page, I can do this easily with Evernote - whether I’m on my Mac, Windows, or my phone. I can take screen shots of just a section of the page, an entire page, or article view. And once I’ve piled things into Evernote from all manner of mediums out there, I can organize it with tags and notebooks in a way that my way of thinking jives with perfectly.

So if I were in your shoes OP, I’d try Evernote. Purchase an annual subscription and start using it full time. You’ll know quickly if it meets your criteria or not and if it doesn’t, they have a 60-day return policy (with annual sub). I know because I just used it a few months ago.

tldr; Evernote deserved some criticism on the transition to v10, but its working well now and I have no issues. With new apps like Obsidian and Craft becoming the new hot topic, Evernote has kind of been forgotten in the tech community. It seems like its even cool to hate on them, but for me, it’s still the king and you should give it a try.

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I’m using the two week trial version and must say I quite like it!

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Those of you using UpNote what makes you use that instead of Apple Notes?

Or are they pomodoro sessions? :tomato::tomato::tomato:

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I agree. UpNote is a great replacement for Evernote. I bought it a few months ago (on your recommendation, I think), and as long as UpNote is around I will not go back to Evernote.

So why?!?
If you find a workflow that works for you, that is great! Go with it!
And if something does not fit for your situation, don’t waste time with it.
It is not a kind of a religious question (or at least it should not be) what your workflow is like, and what you are using for that, or not!
The important think is, that it works, and it will most probably not work the same way to any other person in the world.
We all can just take a look around the fence to see, what is around us, and if we can use some of that stuff for our own needs, but nobody should ever think he/she has the solution for everything, or it is something a third person could be blamed for, if he/she uses some other approach to keep the world running.

(And while I use the quote of @AppleGuy as a point to start what I just wrote, it is not especially meant to address him with that!)

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FWIW: The two features I miss most after moving from Evernote to Bear are the web clipper and forwarding emails to EN. I’d have to think it through, but I am not sure I miss anything else. Those are two great features.

I have two reasons for not using Apple Notes. The first is that I’ve had problems with it syncing (to the point where I found it unusable). The second is that when I clip a webpage, I just get the URL in Apple Notes (maybe I’m missing something); I like to see the actual page, which Evernote does superbly and UpNote does pretty well.

The latest versions of Evernote are a joy to use on M1 Macs. The transition to v10 made vocal detractors out of a lot of people, but as I had no ties to what is now considered Evernote Legacy, I never understood the hate. I am very happy with the current state of the app. It’s not perfect, but it’s great for my needs, and the subscription model means that the app will continue to be maintained and improved.

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There’s also no great exit strategy from Apple Notes. Your notes are stored in such a way that makes it hard to move to other programs.

I’ve heard people say the same of Evernote, but you can export entire notebooks at a time and import to apps like Apple Notes etc. I’ve done this a few times without any major issues but of course, YMMV.

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Upnote has markdown, more consistent formatting, themes, auto backups, cross note linking, better export options, faster sync, better web clipping, looks better.

Also, it does not use my iCloud storage which is a plus for me. I mostly store archival/educational stuff in it and not personal docs so does not matter.

I agree, there is not a great strategy and this is one of the drawbacks of Apple Notes. But, one can use the Exporter app to export all ANs to markdown. I do this monthly as a means of archiving my notes. But, I do not use AN for storing webpages and the like—I use Finder or DEVONthink for this. I use AN for notes but many do contain attached PDFs, etc. A downside of AN is that attachments are not exported using Exporter—the attachments remain in AN in the notes to which they are attached. The only solution is to download the notes from iCloud—in which case the attachments are included along with a PDF of one’s notes. Again, not ideal but a combination of the iCloud download plus Exporter for the notes retrieves everything.

My frustration will of these note apps is that they each of their missing elements and frustrations. For my needs, Apple Notes, while adequate, would be nearly perfect, especially with the upcoming new features, if one could export the notes as text bundles or something similar.

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a couple of reasons

  • eliable sync , cross devices and cross platforms
  • markdown support
  • share web line of notes
  • web clipping
  • ability to export notes to varous formats
  • cross notes reference , a bit like wiki-links
  • last but not least, $20 for lifetime licence

Tried leaving Evernote but kept coming back. I note that the feedback on the new apps is mixed - either the sync or speed works or it doesn’t. I’m probably in the latter category and struggle with searching content in the new apps.

I looked at upnote but the performance feedback is also not all great. Their subreddit has many complaints. Also the could storage is limited to 20MB which means I can’t keep my larger PDFs. The search seems to be an issue as well.

I guess the elephant in the room will stay.

I suggest not going my subreddits for any product. Happy customers won’t go there and post about it. Unhappy ones are the noisiest. Same with Evernote and Bear subreddits if you check them.

You could compress large pdf. I’ve done that in the past without losing any quality. 20MB is a very large size for a PDF already but maybe you have a lot of images in them.

Evernote is good, expensive but good. If upnote improves its web clipper. I’m out of Evernote. Not paying 7.99/month for a notes app.

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