Paragon News and Views
Remembering Everything With Evernote
November 12th, 2009 by Ken AgnetaI have always been frustrated with the lack of a good tool to take notes with. My hand writing is so bad even I can’t decipher it later so paper and pen is out. I type a lot faster then I write, so it would seem like the PC would be the way to go. The problem was I could never find a good piece of software for note taking. You can type notes into your favorite text editor or word processor, such as Notepad or Word, but these programs are either too simple, too complex or too top heavy to be of any real use. Another problem is that these tools create a separate file on your computer for each note leaving you with the added pain of organizing all the notes you create, and forget about finding them later. There have been a few note taking tools on the market for a while like OneNote from Microsoft, but most of them I have found too top heavy and hard to use. Now, add that to the fact that most of these tools are only at your fingertips when you are on your PC or Laptop, and your back to pen and paper notes that you later transcribing into your digital tool and there are few things I hate more then duplication of work.
Enter Evernote
I found Evernote one day while searching online for a replacement for PlanPlus, my former note taking and planning tool, it had just become too cumbersome to use and nearly impossible to interact with on my smartphone. I found a link to Evernote on Lifehack. One quote in particular sent me to the Evernote website. “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible andsearch-able at anytime, from anywhere”. Evernote is an extremely lightweight, flexible, free and ubiquitous note taking tool. There are Desktop clients for Windows and Mac and smartphone clients for the Iphone, Window Mobile, Palm and Blackberry. For those times (and I find this happens to me often) when you need to take a note down and all you have for tools is a nearby desktop connected to the net there is a web client as well. All of these tools synchronize seamlessly with your Evernote online account. It really is a beautiful system, the developers should be proud.
The first thing I noticed was how fast the tool loads. It is up and ready for note taking in seconds. You can organize your notes into different notebooks, plus use the system’s free form tagging (like a blog, or wiki post) to sort them into categories across notebooks. For research Evernote adds a toolbar button to your web browser and to Microsoft Outlook, so portions or even entire contents of web pages or emails can be added to your default notebook quickly and easily. Evernote also adds a very nice screen capture tool that can be accessed via the Print Screen Button. It allows you to clip the entire application window with a single click, or click and drag to select a portion of the screen. A fast and efficient search tool rounds off the entire interface nicely. Overall, a great system for taking and organizing notes from your desktop.
If Evernote’s functionality ended there, it would still be a great tool. Add to it the fact that from your smartphone you can easily log a note by jotting it down on the screen, talking into your device, snapping a quick picture or simply typing it in. Evernote really is everywhere that you are, always ready to capture whatever it is you want to remember freeing your brain for more important tasks. This has been invaluable to me as it allows me to track with remarkable accuracy what I work on during the day and for how long. Recently our refrigerator decided to die, and while shopping I took pictures of each of the price tags to compare later at my desktop to deals I found on the web. It has endless uses.
Evernote also has a Professional (paid) edition that adds collaboration functionality and the ability to organize files. We have found this very useful for sharing notes on meetings and collaborating on projects. At $45/year per license it is a no brainier given the added storage space (though I have not even scratched the surface of the free account limit), collaboration, security and the ability to store any type of file. The premium version also allows you to search within PDF documents stored in your notebooks.
Conclusion
Evernote is an invaluable tool to me. I am really impressed with its versatility and I haven’t even come across a bug in the months I have been using it. For anyone like me who has problems remembering or getting a handle on all the different tools you need throughout the day, Evernote is a great central collection place for all your pictures, memos to self, business cards and project notes. You can download Evernote here, and check out their blog as well for some great tips on use.