Using Evernote like a BAWSS: What is Evernote?

What is Evernote?

Evernote is a software suite compatible with Windows, Mac, and Android that is primarily used for note-taking and photo/audio/document archiving. But it's so so so much more than that, and this is the first in a series of posts explaining how you can use Evernote in not only its venerable note-taking functions (which I actually don't think are its strong suits), but also as a project/task manager, web clipper, scratchpad, and basic image editor.

Evernote versus pen-and-paper notes

I actually don't take notes that often into Evernote. Once in a blue moon, I'll use it in that function, but more often, I'm taking notes by hand on paper, photographing said notes, and archiving them into Evernote. This can be accomplished in just one click of your camera phone if you have the Android widget installed, and plays into the best virtues of both dead-tree and whirling-electrons note-taking. I take notes by hand because I'm easily distracted by the Internet, and I like to mind-map. I archive the photos of the notes into Evernote so I can date, tag, organize, and share those notes. Also, the Premium version of Evernote can recognize text in photos (including handwriting!), allowing you to use Evernote's search function (another one of Evernote's best features).

Things that Evernote does really really well:

1. Sync across multiple platforms and devices. I have Evernote loaded onto all my devices (cellphone, tablet, netbook, and lab desktop --- a motley pastiche of Windows and Android).
2. Speed and ease of use. Its text editing capabilities are refreshingly basic. You can bold/italic/underline/strikeout text, change font/font size, adjust indent, and center text, and that's it. It uses remarkably few processor resources, particularly on my underpowered netbook. Its hotkeys are easy to learn and really speed things up once you burn them into muscle memory.
3. Web clipping. The newest version of Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome is nothing short of amazing. You can clip images, text, entire websites with images, .pdfs --- just about anything!
4. Email and sharing. A lot of my work is done over email, so it's really handy that I can email my emails to my Evernote account and archive email threads that way, so I don't have to fire up my browser and dig through gigabytes of archived emails. What's more, Evernote preserves attachments and embedded images in emails, so if someone emails me a document, I can just forward it to Evernote and turn that email into a note. I can also email people my notes in Evernote, and it preserves embedded images and attachments. Fuck. Yeah.
5. Tagging and searching. One of the key signs you've mastered Evernote is when you're able to find anything you have archived in only three or four clicks. A combination of notebooks, tags, and saved searches makes that possible, and that'll be a subject for a future post, but suffice it to say, this is one of Evernote's most powerful features, and it beats the hell out of a maze of folders in Dropbox.

Things I wish Evernote did better:

1. Linking to other notes within notes. I like to assemble 'kits' for things like classes and meetings, and unfortunately, I can't easily do something like create a master list with links to other notes. You can link to other notes within Evernote, but unfortunately, those links force you to use the browser-based Web version of Evernote, which is unnecessarily clunky. I wish I could link to notes within the offline platform and have it stay within the offline platform, instead of having to wait for my browser to load.
2. Tables. Evernote's native table function is really basic, like HTML 4.0 basic. It won't let you drag to adjust cell dimensions or merge cells. You can cut-and-paste tables from Word and OpenOffice, and it'll keep the formatting of said tables really well, but you can't create tables in Evernote with merged cells or anything like that, nor can you easily edit tables already cut-and-pasted into Evernote from Word or OpenOffice.
3. Updating attachments and syncing with Dropbox. You can use Evernote's 'import folder' feature (under 'Tools') to automatically upload files stored in Dropbox, but it's a little bit less easy to have it work the other way. This is probably not all that fixable, since you have to use outside programs like Word or Adobe Reader to open attachments in Evernote, and if you save documents edited in those programs, they don't automatically update in Dropbox. You have to manually save them into your destination Dropbox folder, which is sometimes a hassle unless your Dropbox folder is immaculately organized. This is a relatively minor issue, but one that if solved, would turn an excellent software suite into a Kurtzweillean singularity of badassery.

In short, Evernote's not a mere note-taking platform. If that's what you're after, then stick with Notepad and Dropbox. Evernote is more accurately an external brain, and I want to write a whole series of posts on how I use Evernote to keep my life from degenerating into barbarism and chaos. So stay tuned!