Three features I’d like to see in Evernote
I love Evernote. I first signed up on August 23, 2008, so I’m coming up on my 10-year anniversary. I have over 6,000 notes (I have no idea if that’s a large number or not).
I have an Evernote Premium membership, which gives me some enhanced features — primarily more data uploads per month; the ability to search text in images, PDFs, and Office files; the ability to annotate PDFs; etc. — that make it worthwhile for me to pay the subscription fee.
To be honest, I didn’t always “get” Evernote, especially when I first started using it. Then I started reading some of Jamie Todd Rubin’s blog posts on Evernote, especially some of the integrations with IFTTT. I also read Michael Hyatt’s blog posts on Evernote, and between those three sources, the tool started to “click” and work for me.
Now, Evernote is party of my daily routine. I’m sure I could find a replacement if I needed to, and I know there are other good tools out there, but I’m hoping I don’t have to make a change for a long time, if ever.
That said, Evernote isn’t perfect (yet). As a regular user, here are three features I’d love to see implemented in Evernote soon.
Markdown
Let me start this section by saying that one of the features I love about Evernote is the ability to simply write. Whether I’m in the desktop app, the mobile app, or the web interface, I can get into a distraction-free writing mode that allows me to quickly record my thoughts. For me, that’s an important part of the writing process — write first, edit later, and format even later.
But there does come a point when I want to format my notes — I want to make some text bold, some text italic, highlight some text, make headings, and more. I appreciate that Evernote has kept the formatting toolbar simple so that it doesn’t become a full-blown attempt to copy the features of MS Word.
But I don’t think Evernote needs to sacrifice the UI simplicity in order to support users who want more formatting options — many of us would love to see Evernote support Markdown. The ability to format my text without leaving the keyboard is a timesaver — using hashtags to denote headings; using two asterisks around text to make something bold; using one asterisk or underscore around text to make something italic; etc.
Footnotes
As someone who regularly uses Evernote for research purposes, I would love the ability to create a true footnote, with a reference at the bottom of the document where I can note the source of my information.
When I say footnote, I would like to see the following functions:
A number, inserted into the text, and formatted in superscript
Hyperlinked to the footnote at the bottom of the information
Sequential numbering that automatically updates as I insert or remove other Footnotes
I realize this may be a tall order, but it’s important to me, and worth asking for.
Nested Lists
Another important aspect of using Evernote for research and note-taking is the ability to create outlines of information, which normally use nested lists.
This generally works okay in Evernote when using a bulleted (or unordered) list — you start with the filled-in circle, and if you tab in (or indent), you get the empty circle. Even a third level gets you a filled-in square, but going to a fourth level (or more) simply repeats the filled-in square.
With numbered (or ordered) lists, Evernote simply falls down. You start a numbered list, but if you tab in (or indent), you just get a new level of numbered list starting with “1” again.
Ideally, we’d be able to choose from at least one of the two following options:
Or…
With those key changes, Evernote would become even more essential to current users, and remove some key roadblocks for people who have chosen to use other apps due to these current limitations.
Your turn, Evernote. 😀
Posted on 2018-01-30 #Evernote #Jamie Todd Rubin #Michael Hyatt