EVERNOTE:  HELPFUL NOTE PROGRAM

©2020 by Donald R. Snow
This page was last updated 2020-03-08.  Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's Class Listings Page .
ABSTRACT:  EVERNOTE is a program with free and commercial versions that stores your notes "in the cloud" and synchronizes them on all your devices, so you can read and edit them anywhere.  You enter notes by typing, drag-and-drop, capturing websites, recording audio, and other methods.  These go into notebooks that you set up and can be private or shared with others.  Anything with text in it will be indexed, so it is every-word searchable.  Notes are saved automatically and you can go back to earlier versions, if you need to.  We will discuss and demonstrate some of these features. The class notes for this presentation and related information in other articles, all with active URLs, are posted at  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow (snowd@math.byu.edu) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. The notes and related additional information in other articles is posted at  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html , all with active Internet links.
  3. Tips:  (1)  To put an icon on your desktop for these notes, or any webpage, just drag the icon from in front of the address in your browser onto your desktop.  (2)  To open a link, but keep your place in these notes, hold down the Control key while clicking the link.
  4. The problem for today:  Using EVERNOTE to save notes, images, webpages, files, and have them accessible on all your devices.

    5. INTRODUCTION TO EVERNOTE

  5. To get EVERNOTE go to  https://www.evernote.com/ , set up a free account with whatever user name and password you select; then download and install the program -- it's available for Windows, Mac, Linus, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and more.  As you install it on other devices, you use your same user name and password, so they are all linked to your account "in the cloud".
  6. Free version has limitations, but is still helpful for many uses; free version can only be installed on two devices, e.g., your computer and a smartphone, but you can use the web version on all your other devices
  7. Premium version ($8/month) and Business Version have more features and can be installed on any number of devices
  8. Helps and video tutorials are at  https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us
  9. Helpful "Unofficial Evernote Manual" is at  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-evernote-the-missing-manual-full-text/
  10. MakeTechEasier Evernote Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet is at  http://download.maketecheasier.com/MakeTechEasier_Evernote_cheatsheet.pdf

    11. IDEAS FOR USING EVERNOTE IN FAMILY HISTORY

  11. Idea for using EVERNOTE in genealogy -- Details are below, in other notes, and in articles on Don's webpage 
    1. Write notes and articles -- I write all my articles in EVERNOTE now, since it has the features I need and saves them automatically to all my computers and devices.
    2. Save webpages -- use the EVERNOTE Web Clipper described below or just use copy and paste
    3. Use for research logs for family history research -- can set up templates by just writing a note and then saving its form as a template or use one of their templates -- https://evernote.com/templates 
    4. Save pdfs and screenshots and files about a person, location, or event, so they line up in chronological order   
    5. Can automatically place images together side-by-side, e.g., parts of newspaper clippings; just copy the images to the clipboard and paste them into the note and it organizes them for you 
    6. Save instructions, pdfs, How-To's, conference
    7.  papers, manuals, and tutorials about research, technology, programs, databases, hardware, etc.
    8. Make lists of contacts, phones, email addresses; use ToDo boxes to put checks in when item has been completed 
    9. Save collections of letters, emails, ideas to try, recipes, so they are searchable and available on all your devices
    10. Premium and Business versions have additional features including a Presentation Mode for notes and notebooks and allows more file formats 
  12. For devices with cameras
    1. Use camera as a scanner since it squares up rectangular items and makes them clearer -- use for forms you fill out at doctor's office, etc.
    2. Take pictures of artifacts and describe them with audio in same note
    3. Images are automatically copied to your computer at home; can then be copied elsewhere 
    4. EVERNOTE is not very good for saving all photos and there are better programs for that 

    TYPES OF NOTEBOOKS IN EVERNOTE

  13. Notes are stored in two types of notebooks in EVERNOTE -- (1) synchronized notebooks and (2) non-synchronized (local) notebooks 
  14. Synchronized notebooks
    1. Stored in the cloud in your EVERNOTE account online at  https://evernote.com/  
    2. You can work on any note, even offline, and when it detects an Internet connection, it uploads the changes and downloads synchronized notes from your other devices
    3. Can have up to 250 notebooks -- more than most people ever need  
    4. Synchronized notebooks are available wherever you can get to the Internet, e.g. in a FHC, at church, on a research or vacation trip
    5. Synchronized notes or motebooks are sharable with anyone you choose; click on the Share button and email the URL to your contacts; can give them permission to view or edit  
    6. Synchronized notebooks are encrypted and backed up online, but anything sent over the Internet is NOT private, even if encrypted.
    7. Can also backup synchronized notebooks to your own computer or a flash drive in various formats
  15. Non-synchronized (local) notebooks)
    1. Non-synchronized notebooks are private and stored only on your computer or device, so not available on the Internet
    2. Can have any number of non-synchronized notebooks  
    3. Can manually back these up or transfer them to other devices by exporting to a flash drive 
    4. Use non-synchronized notebooks for private data, passwords, financial, medical, and personal information 

    GETTING INFORMATION INTO NOTES

  16. Notes are formed by typing, copy-and-pasting text, images, or URLs, recording audio, using the EVERNOTE Web Clipper, and a few other ways  
  17. Give a title to the note or it uses the first line of text as title; I use keywords at the start so they alphabetize together 
  18. Free version will save text, photos, webpages, and pdfs; premium version handles many more types 
  19. To save a file, such as a pdf in a note, just drag-and-drop it into the note
  20. Can send a whole collection of files into separate notes in a notebook by using Tools > Import Folder and tell it which folder to import and where you want the files to go; it puts the entire collection into the notebook, each file in a separate note; very helpful to put all pdfs from a conference or lranscribed letters , etc., into an EVERNOTE notebook, each into its own note
  21. EVERNOTE indexes all text in notes, i.e. it OCRs (Optical Character Recognizes) all text in notes such as pdf's, so they become every-word searchable, whether they were or not before -- free accounts only do the indexing late at night; paid accounts do it immediately
  22. Use EVERENOTE Web Clipper browser extension to save entire webpage or articles; or just copy-and-paste; I sometimes run a "cleanup" program such as Print Friendly -- before saving the webpage
  23. New Note icon (top middle) has pick arrow with various options such as to make an audio note with the microphone; it transcribes your dictation, but it isn't always accurate 
  24. Notes are saved automatically as soon as entered, so you never have to worry about forgetting to save something
  25. EVERNOTE  has many keyboard shortcuts, e.g. ALT+SHIFT+D puts date and time into note where cursor is; see "cheatsheet" above

    26. NAVIGATING IN EVERNOTE

  26. Drag a note or notebook to shortcuts panel (top left) to get to notes or notebooks you use often 
  27. Ue the email address you get with your EVERNOTE account so anything emailed to it automatically goes into a note; can use this to save some, or all, emails automatically
  28. URL's in text notes become active links by placing cursor at the end of the URL and pressing space bar
  29. Put ToDo check mark boxes anywhere you want for things like research lists, shopping lists, and research logs -- Format > ToDo > Check Box (keyboard short cut is CTRL+SHFT+C) -- Can later put checks in the boxes for completed items; can search for ToDo items or checked or unchecked items
  30. With touch-screen you can do handwritten notes  
  31. Move notes to another hotebook by just drag-and-drop
  32. Tags -- can attach any number of words as tags to do searches on later but searches can be done for any words in text even without tags    
  33. The panels to show notebooks, notes, shortcuts, tags, etc., can be moved the way you want
  34. Lists of notes can be sorted on any column by clicking in the column heading, e.g. alphabetically by title, or by date created, date last modified, notebook, tags, etc. -- If you write the date in International Date Format (YYYY-MM-DD) after a keyword, all those notes are listed chronologically; this is especially helpful for letters and items pertaining to an individual, since they are all in order
  35. Evernote Blog  has helpful articles about using EVERNOTE

    36. EDITING NOTES

  36. Editing synchronized notes or notebooks on any of your devices changes them on all your synchronized devices and on the web version 
  37. As mentioned earlier, very helpful to write and edit articles in EVERNOTE, since they are saved automatically and can be edited on any of your devices
  38. Has an Undo feature to go back several stepsand Premium versin has a way to go back to any earlier version of the note on your web version -- Note Info > History; but deleting a note completely is usually not recoverable 
  39. Deleted notes go into a Trash notebook in your account until you Empty the Trash adn are then not recoverable 
  40. Built-in Spell Checker underlines misspelled words in notes

    41. SEARCHING NOTES

  41. Search syntax for EVERNOTE is at -- https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/208313828-How-to-use-Evernote-s-advanced-search-syntax  and  https://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/search_grammar.php
  42. Can search through all notebooks or only selected ones; can then search within result set for additional search terms
  43. Search syntax includes:  space means AND; +[term] means [term] has to be there; -[term] means [term] must not be there; "[term1 term2]" means exactly those terms in that order; search terms are highlighted in the results pages
  44. Searching for "win" (no quotes) brings up results with "Win", "Windows", "wind", etc.
  45. Searching for tag:[tag] brings up all notes with that tag
  46. Keyboard shortcut WIN+SHIFT+F from anywhere on your computer opens the EVERNOTE window to search or enter notes 
  47. Searching "todo:" (no quotes) finds all ToDo lists, "todo:true" (no quotes) finds all completed check boxes; "todo:false" (no quotes) finds all uncompleted check boxes
  48. Search feature is global for all notes or all notes in a notebook 
  49. Global search-and-replace only works in a single note, unfortunately; no way to do global search and rplace in many notes; to replace something in all notes use the global search and then replace each hit individually

    50. MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF EVERNOTE

  50. Clicking on Atlas (lower left side) shows a Google map of where you were when you entered that note, if internal GPS was turned on -- may be wiser for security reasons to turn off GPS, especially when entering photos
  51. Exporting notes or notebooks -- right click on notes or notebooks and select Export -- Export formats are the following:
    1. .enex format = EVERNOTE format -- for backup or transfer to another computer without going over the Internet; especially useful for non-synchronized (local) notebooks; copy to flash drive and import into EVERNOTE on another computer; they go in as Imported Notes and you can change the name of the notebook or move them elsewhere
    2. .txt format = text format -- use this to put notes into a different program, but if only doing a few notes, use copy-and-paste
    3. .html format = web format -- helpful even if not posting on the web; especially helpful for things like collections of letters, since you can use all the power of a browser on the exported files, even though they are only on your computer and not posted on the Internet
  52. Usage button (top right on free version) shows how much of your free space you have used in the 30-day cycle -- free version includes enough space for thousands of notes; plenty for most people
  53. Can set Reminder for any note, e.g. birthdays coming up -- click on the Reminder check box (upper right side) and tell it the date and time you want and that note appears at the top of the list then
  54. Commercial versions of EVERNOTE have a Presentation Mode -- click on the Projection Screen icon (top right of the note); to view a presentation of several notes highlight the notes or notebooks, right click, and select Present; can also click on the Start Presentation button at bottom; shows them full-screen with larger text; to move through a note use mouse wheel, up and down arrows, or Page Up and Down; to move to next or previous note use CTRL+(Right or Left Arrow); ESC takes you out of Presentation Mode; simple, but effective, way to show notes without having to export them from EVERNOTE -- not available in the free version 

    55. CONCLUSIONS

  55. EVERNOTE has many more features and there are many third party programs to help -- see EVERNOTE Blog -- https://blog.evernote.com/ and the EVERNOTE App Center -- https://appcenter.evernote.com .  
  56. Many online tutorials on YouTube, etc. -- search for things like "evernote tutorials" (without the quotes)
  57. EVERNOTE is a very useful program for family history and many other things; free version is sufficient for many things
    58. Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .