The Ecstasy and Agony of Evernote
Evernote is an essential workhorse in my daily life. I currently have 3,467 notes in my various Evernote notebooks, using an Evernote premium account. I use the product multiple times every day for note-taking (I have a reputation as a prodigious note-taker), personal journal (almost daily), electronic filing (I rarely file paper any more) and as a general, all-around information repository. I particularly like its architectural model using intelligent client applications synchronized with a server-side database. This allows me to keep information in sync on my laptop and desktop machines (both Windows) as well as my iPhone.
That is the “ecstasy†part. The “agony†came when I installed the long-awaited new Windows client (version 3.5 beta) last week. What I hoped would be a major improvement of the Windows client, was, instead, a deep disappointment. While I liked a few new features, such as the mixed view, the core note taking engine is still very primitive. If anything, it was a step backwards.
The two biggest problems are the very awkward and limited outlining capability and the complete lack of templates. The new table feature is extremely basic. I submitted suggestions in all three areas several months ago, but apparently these seemingly basic functions for a product with “Note†in the name weren’t desirable enough to see the light of day.
It is very painful when I have to drop back to Microsoft OneNote to get access to a decent outlining editor, and then transfer the result to Evernote, rather than have a native capability for outlining. For a guy who thinks in outlines, all I can say is, “Arrrgghh!â€
Perhaps Evernote should open up their architecture so third parties could create plugins to provide functionality not available in the core product. For example, the Thunderbird add-on “QuickText†provide very useful email message templating capability for a product that lacks such a feature. Perhaps other plugin vendors could provide decent outlining and table functionality.
Here’s hoping that Evernote someday gets it right. Please!
Mark
I just use the web-interface to Evernote, since my notes are stored in their cloud anyway. Why use a Windows client?
By the way, their cloud is my bone of contention with Evernote. I cannot access an Evernote from my iPhone when there is no network connection. (Yes AT&T, your service is spotty at best in the centre of high-tech Silicon Valley)
Unfortunately, the web interface is even less feature-rich than the windows interface – no templates or tables, poor outlining.
I do have good success with the iPhone app. I can use it too take notes and then synchronize when a network is present. That seems to work ok for me.
I guess my demands must be too specialized, but Microft addresses templating, tables and outlining wonderfully in OneNote. Too bad Evernote can’t follow suit.