Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts that compares Journler, Together and Evernote in a PIM faceoff for Macs. The first post can be found here.
Evernote is one of the few cross-platform, web-based apps that I both use and enjoy. Add to it an iPhone app that is nearly as powerful as the web and desktop clients, and you get a clear winner of an application for a personal information manager.
Where Evernote shines
Here’s some of Evernote’s more powerful features:
- Developer and community. Like Journler and Together, Evernote has a strong support forum of users. Given the relatively newness of Evernote, you can imagine that there are a lot of users who are sharing the way they use Evernote and overcome perceived functionality shortcomings.
- Cross-platform. Evernote works on Macs and Windows, so having to use one OS at home and a different OS at work should not be a problem.
- Web-based system. You can get to all of your information from any Internet connection. No need to have your own computer or even a desktop client.
- iPhone app. This is what did it for me. I can add notes, review notes and even edit (some) notes from my iPhone. Being able to add photo notes is killer with the iPhone.
- Image recognition. Besides being cool, I didn’t see the use for text recognition in images before I started using it. Now, I do. Receipts, labels, signs. I search their content constantly now.
- Free or premium. The free version of Evernote has most all of the power of the paid version, plus plenty of room to store what you need. The premium version gives you more storage and the ability to attach documents to notes. I use the premium version.
- Desktop app. The desktop app gives you systemwide shortcuts that make posting to Evernote easy and quick. It’s not as nice as Together or Journler and their quick entry systems, but it works well. As far as look, the app is quite similar to Together, which is nice.
- Syncing. You can’t get better syncing across multiple machines. Just can’t do it.
Shortcomings of Evernote
For all of Evernote’s power, it has a few shortcomings, especially if you are picky about workflow or functionality. (If you use a Mac, I assume you are…)
Here’s where I think Evernote needs to improve:
- Quick entry functionality. Evernote suffers from not having a quick entry functionality akin to Together or Journler. The only way to change metadata in an Evernote note is through the desktop app’s full window.
- Smart folders. This is the most atrocious part of Evernote. While you can use Saved Searches, selecting the saved search (which operates just like a Smart Folder) triggers your tag list to open completely. It’s hard to explain, but use it one time and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Hopefully this functionality will change soon.
Recapping the review
Evernote is my choice. It’s got some functionality flaws that drive me crazy, but it’s far more powerful than either of the other two apps I’ve reviewed. Plus, I can carry it with me anywhere — via the Web or via my iPhone.
Plus, Evernote recently received more funding with the promise of several improvements — including upgrades to the desktop apps. I’m hoping the minor annoyances are soon to be gone!
Evernote offers a free version. The Premium version costs $5/month or $45/year. To see the difference in the versions, visit their comparison page.
Note: You can find the review of Journler here.
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Evernote does support adding things via Email. I use it all the time for quick-entry of short notes or photo’s from my iPhone.
It does, but I don’t use that really. I just post from my iPhone using the Evernote client.
I’m assuming the only real difference, save not seeing the note in the context of Evernote, would be that emailing a note (photo especially) would be quicker than uploading via Evernote’s iPhone app.
Right.. But it’s also nice because loading the mail app for a quick note is alot faster than the Evernote Client.. And if you setup things like “Multi Photo”, you can send messages to EverNote that contain multiple photos in a single note, real easy.
Very good review of Evernote. I share some of the same pros and cons. We decided to integrate Evernote into our project management application due to the pro’s you mention about it. During the integration process I got to know the team and they are a top-notch group of people building a great product.
Troy Malone
Is the datalock issue still a problem with Evernote, as is once you get stuff in you can’t get it out? Or has that been resolved. I’d hate to spend time developing a data set that was trapped in one application. Here Journler was fantastic about getting data in and out in a muli-application usable format.
You can export notes into text documents and reimport into other programs, much like Journler.
What I don’t know is how that works with the premium service when you have files embedded in a note. It’s a good question.
A quick review of the forums doesn’t reveal anything more, but you might poke around there.
Hey, check this Google Chrome Extension for Evernote, it is very handy.