# Evernote



## fredtgreco (Jun 24, 2014)

I am considering using Evernote for more organization. I have had a free account for years, but really only use it to "bookmark" web articles I don't want to lose. I now see that Evernote owns Penultimate (which I also have). How do you use Evernote - that is, for what? What is the best way to make use of it?


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## Caroline (Jun 24, 2014)

I don't use it much, but my pastor uses it all the time. Scans documents, sermon notes, etc and files them on Evernote.


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## Jerusalem Blade (Jun 24, 2014)

I'm like you Fred, I've never used my Evernote: here are some tutorials: using Evernote


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## VictorBravo (Jun 25, 2014)

I've tried Evernote on and off for years. I keep it because it has notes from way back.

But ever since I got OneNote 2010 with an actual tablet computer (not tablet, but tablet _computer_--as in running full-powered windows and all my applications), I've pretty much quit using Evernote.

I like OneNote because it indexes my handwritten notes as searchable items. No more legal pads for me. Plus, I can organize things as if in a notebook. I have, literally, more than 400 case notebooks with all notes, exhibits, correspondence, pictures, whatever, linked to it and available instantly.

I suppose Evernote could be used the same way, but I never could get the handwriting recognition to work well. It did back in the early days, then it seemed to not work anymore.


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## steelbender (Jun 25, 2014)

I use evernote everyday for almost everything...

saving web articles
blog posts
pictures
daily log
exercise log
family documents
kids artwork
notes taken in meetings


I have definately found that the more you put into it, the more helpful it is is.


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## fredtgreco (Jun 25, 2014)

VictorBravo said:


> I've tried Evernote on and off for years. I keep it because it has notes from way back.
> 
> But ever since I got OneNote 2010 with an actual tablet computer (not tablet, but tablet _computer_--as in running full-powered windows and all my applications), I've pretty much quit using Evernote.
> 
> ...


I wonder if One Note for iPad would work that way?


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## steelbender (Jun 25, 2014)

Evernote indexes handwriting and also text in pictures. Super handy. I use an android tablet primarily.


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## VictorBravo (Jun 25, 2014)

fredtgreco said:


> I wonder if One Note for iPad would work that way?



No, not last time I checked--which was about a year ago.


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## VictorBravo (Jun 25, 2014)

steelbender said:


> Evernote indexes handwriting and also text in pictures. Super handy. I use an android tablet primarily.



Interesting. The situation described in this thread is more like what I've experienced: around 10-15% recognition of extensive notes.


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## steelbender (Jun 25, 2014)

Not sure I could guess at my success rate as far as recognition goes. But since that thread, there is now handwriting within evernote itself.


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## Angela A (Jun 25, 2014)

I use it daily for study or sermon notes. Recipes devotional noted for daughter etc etc. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk


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## kodos (Jun 25, 2014)

I used to be a heavy Evernote user, but switched to OneNote as well, since I got my Surface Pro 2. OneNote is one of those hidden gems that Microsoft doesn't seem that great at advertising. Wonderful piece of software. Evernote on the other hand was always buggy (especially the desktop client), could never format stuff well, and is just a pain to use in comparison. It did however, work fairly well on my iPhone and iPad.


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## fredtgreco (Jun 25, 2014)

kodos said:


> I used to be a heavy Evernote user, but switched to OneNote as well, since I got my Surface Pro 2. OneNote is one of those hidden gems that Microsoft doesn't seem that great at advertising. Wonderful piece of software. Evernote on the other hand was always buggy (especially the desktop client), could never format stuff well, and is just a pain to use in comparison. It did however, work fairly well on my iPhone and iPad.


Rom,

Have you used (or seen used) the iPad version? I am trying to see if OneNote can take handwritten notes on a tablet?


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## kodos (Jun 25, 2014)

fredtgreco said:


> kodos said:
> 
> 
> > I used to be a heavy Evernote user, but switched to OneNote as well, since I got my Surface Pro 2. OneNote is one of those hidden gems that Microsoft doesn't seem that great at advertising. Wonderful piece of software. Evernote on the other hand was always buggy (especially the desktop client), could never format stuff well, and is just a pain to use in comparison. It did however, work fairly well on my iPhone and iPad.
> ...



I don't use my iPads much anymore (the kids use them for homeschooling while I take my Surface Pro out). Last I heard it didn't have handwriting ability (but that was a year ago), but I have an Office 365 subscription, so I'll give it a shot tonight when I get home and see if that is still the case.


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## VictorBravo (Jun 25, 2014)

fredtgreco said:


> Have you used (or seen used) the iPad version? I am trying to see if OneNote can take handwritten notes on a tablet?



As of six months ago, it still seemed OneNote would not do handwriting on the iPad.

I ran across a review of other apps that do have some handwriting function on an iPad: Hand writing on the iPad: Note taking with Notability | Macademise

It looks like Notability does not do handwriting recognition, but 7Notes does: 7notes - Smart Writing Tool

And, finally, back to Evernote--it looks like it does handwriting.

One last note: in all my experiments with handwriting recognition, ranging from early and failed adoptions of tech from the 90s, I've found the stylus-based input used on Windows tablets to be the most reliable. iPads use capacitive touch, I think, whereas my Samsung uses capacitive for finger gestures, but also uses Wacom-based "active input" with a stylus. OneNote handwriting recognition was designed for the active input approach. I suspect that is why it is not working for iPads.


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## kodos (Jun 26, 2014)

I downloaded OneNote for the iPad, and I can indeed verify that handwriting is unavailable.

And I second Victor's observation - that the Windows tablets (particularly the Surface Pro line) with active digitizers have the best handwriting support. Due to the active digitizer palm reject is superb as well, so you can lay your palm on the screen naturally when writing.


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## GulfCoast Presbyterian (Jun 26, 2014)

No handwriting recognition on my OneNote for IPad. Might be slated for an upgrade soon?


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## Richard King (Jul 10, 2014)

fredtgreco said:


> I am considering using Evernote for more organization. I have had a free account for years, but really only use it to "bookmark" web articles I don't want to lose. I now see that Evernote owns Penultimate (which I also have). How do you use Evernote - that is, for what? What is the best way to make use of it?




I feel better...I think. I use Evernote as a place to pile articles I don't want to lose but I know I should learn how to use it correctly. It seems like it is the answer to a ton of my problems but I just can't get it to feel intuitive. I need it but it doesn't come natural to me. If any one knows the definitive starter guide I will start all over.
Thanks.


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## Jake (Jul 10, 2014)

I tried using Evernote for all of my school notes for a while. I found I really liked the web version and the desktop version, but the tablet versions for both iOS and Android were not as feature-filled. Sometimes they would choke on formatting from the desktop version and not be able to edit a document. Sometimes even a note started on Android would have it's formatting ruined. On several occasions, I would be taking a long stream of notes with bullet points at different levels (tabbed over) and Evernote would choke and put all the bullet points flush at the left.

If you are using Evernote on the desktop, I would not hesitate to use it. And perhaps these bugs have been fixed, but I know even so the tablet version is less featured.

I've ended up just using Dropbox + Word documents. I miss some features of Evernote, but I have much more flexibility with formatting. A mix of Textmaker and OpenOffice on Android work on those platforms, and search is so good in Windows 8/8.1 that I don't miss that part of it.


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