In an earlier post about Evernote I wrote about the advantages of scanning and uploading to Evernote for Mac and Windows. In this post I want to focus more specifically on the storage of files at Evernote.
Obviously text notes are simply text, but there are many other ways to save documents to Evernote. The most basic means of storing a document at Evernote is via a file attachment function. If you are accessing Evernote via a browser, the file upload function works much like any other file upload via http.
If you use the Windows client for Evernote or Mac, you will find the file attachment shortcut readily apparent on the interface. While I no longer use Linux (Ubuntu or Linux Mint were my favorites), undoubtedly there is a similar function on the user interface. There are not files that you cannot store, but there are advantages to storing PDFs in particular.
On iOS devices like the iPad or iPhone the file upload to Evernote is a little more intuitive in one sense, but is limited by the OS itself. Because there is no file manager in iOS (think Finder in Mac or Folders in Windows), you cannot select specific files from the iOS Evernote client. Your choices include uploading pictures from the camera roll on your iPhone or iPad (you can also take a picture from within the Evernote interface), or recording voice notes that are automatically attached to the note you create in Evernote.
The use case I find most compelling is that Evernote indexes every note, including PDFs that are sent to a premium account ($45 per year for up to 1 GB of transfers per month, or $5 per month). This provides the ability to scan or upload file attachments without the need to identify the file contents in the file name. If you are like me, you digitize much of the information sent to you for future retrieval. Evernote allows you to simply scan, upload, and search later when you need the document.
Getting your files up to Evernote is super simple. Every Evernote account includes an email address for the user. Simply email a file as an attachment and you have a new note with an attachment on Evernote. Very easy.
Do you use Evernote? How are you using it to hang on to information or cultivate ideas?
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Great post! There was actually a great article in Inc. Magazine last month of which Evernote was the “main entree”. I’ve used it for a few years now, but they had some great use-cases that I hadn’t considered, one of which being the printer that you mentioned in one of your posts for scanning in notes!
Since then I’ve taken some of those ideas to heart and my productivity has increased without question! I’m involved in several extracurricular ventures, so any time I have a brainstorming session with a collaborator, I take a picture with Evernote for Android. You wouldn’t believe how handy this turns out to be when you’re wondering a week (or many) later, “What exactly was my idea again?” or “How did we think feature X should look or work?”. It also helps me keep my to-do list in sync between all of my various devices (not to mention that I basically have and can edit it from anywhere in the world)!
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I do the same thing. When I have a thought or believe something will be useful later I just send it to Evernote. What month was that Inc. article?
Exactly! It occurred to me that this phenomenon happened so frequently (not being able to recall something and wishing I had saved it / made note of it), that I said to myself: “Why not just save everything?” So I offloaded my memory to the cloud
It must have been the January issue if I’m not mistaken, the February one just came out not too long ago and it’s about GoPro. It really was a great read though, included the full back-story of how Evernote came to be, along with some prominent individuals that use it and interesting use cases I hadn’t considered (ex: taking pictures of meals to remember what you ate, taking pictures of business cards you receive as you get them).
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Am definitely going to look that Inc article up. They also have a nice little Chrome extension called Clearly which works like Safari’s Reader function. Makes reading long articles easier.
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I’ve got a premium subscription this year and I’m uploading a ton of files for long term storage. Yep, I love Evernote. You’ve ready Michael Hyatt’s blog I presume?
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I really love the indexing function that comes with the Premium service.
I read Michael Hyatt first thing each morning.
The more you talk about EverNote, the more interested I get. I love hearing about the neat stuff you can do without having to actually look into it myself, I guess I’m getting lazy.
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Glad I can be a point of reference point. I think I am finding a niche in the “geezer geek” section of the blogosphere!
I just downloaded evernote to my android phone 2 days ago and i love the capabilities of it already…It is amazing. Some things you dont know about till you browse other bloggers sites and find out what they are doing or what products they use. Great post. I dont really use it to its full capabilities yet but hopefully someday. I do agree with you that now a days we keep everything digital. So that we can have it at our fingertips, gone are the days of the old fashion file cabinet.
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It is a great tool…every client for Evernote that I have used has been excellent (Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, Win 7 and Mac OS). They just work and the service itself is phenomenal.
The browser extensions/plugins are great too…as is the Outlook integration.
Glad you like it. Would love to follow how you put it to use!
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