Evernote in its first incarnation was simply a good Windows program for creating and managing a digital archive of notes, with a strong attitude to the capture of clippings of Web pages Version 3, launched in 2008 , however, had a dramatic leap in quality thanks to the “marriage” in the cloud, allowing you to synchronize the local database with a copy of the notes kept on the Internet server of Evernote. Copies can also be used independently, using a practical and attractive Web interface (of course, to secure access). Not only that this new approach allowed to maintain synchronized copies of Evernote automatically installed on different computers. The icing on the cake, the local client had become completely free, and free storage space was also on-line to a maximum of 40 megabytes of new notes per month (at the end of last year the limit was increased to 60 Mbytes). In this regard, we must keep in mind that the MB is not used does not accumulate: the limit is reset every month.
The version 3.5 client for Windows, released in early 2010, had introduced an avalanche of very interesting new features, at least on paper: in practice, in fact, not always worked as expected. Bugs, inconsistencies in the interface, slow startup, taking up more memory, the problems were really a lot of new releases. Even the handy “web clipper”, which is the tool to capture and import into Evernote Web page or fragment had become less efficient. It took almost a year of waiting, but Evernote 4, presented last July, seems to have finally resolved the situation. This is a program completely rewritten in native code C + + (version 3.5 was also written from scratch, but using the platform. Net and Windows Presentation Foundation). Within a few weeks you have followed various updates (the most recent release, used for testing, is 4.2.0.3616) that in addition to solving a variety of small bugs have also introduced a new and important funzionalità .Lo space available for a monthly new notes increased from 40 to 60 Mbytes (500 Mbytes to 1 Gbyte for premium members).
But first things first, for the benefit of people new to Evernote. As mentioned, this software allows you to create a digital archive of notes containing written notes with the ‘built-in editor (actually rather rudimentary), pictures, clippings of Web pages and even PDF files. Evernote offers a variety of tools including a tool to capture screens and buttons for “Web clipping”, available for major browsers, which facilitate the capture of Web pages or their portion. The notes included in PDF can be opened with a double click in Adobe Reader (or similar program) or browsed directly into Evernote. If you have a Tablet PC can even write notes by hand. The notes are collected in notebooks (laptops), which are automatically synchronized with the cloud and any other copies of Evernote used on other computers, but you can also create notebooks exclusively local. Starting from version 4.1 Evernote allows you to collect the notebooks in folders called stacks (piles), a possibility that many users have for some time.
Each note can be associated with one or more labels (tags) for easy retrieval, and in addition there is a dual function of research: the first acts of the entire archive of notes or on the stack or on the selected pad, while the second operates within the current note. Evernote indexes all the notes and to create the index makes the recognition of any text contained in images. The OCR operation is not performed locally, but on the Evernote server, after syncing with the cloud.
The client’s interface on the left shows the tree of the notebooks, while on the right there are two panels containing respectively the list of notes and the current note. To the list there are three views: List, Mixed and Preview. List is a simple text list, Mixed exhibition of each note the title and a small thumbnail-sized sets, and lets you zoom in at will preview thumbnails. Probably to save space. Evernote combines in a single line the traditional menu bar (with the traditional curtain-down File, Edit, Format, and so on) and a toolbar containing several buttons, including ones to force synchronization of the archive (which normally takes place automatically at regular intervals), start printing, create a new note, and more.
When not working at full screen, though, the buttons at the right end may not be visible and in this case there is no right way to reach them. Acting on the options the client may be required for the traditional arrangement, with the menu bar and toolbars on two separate lines. Evernote Note that starting from the Run menu in Windows, with the command Evernote.exe / debugmenu, you can access the menu [Debug], normally invisible, among many other options is the voice Optimize database. The optimization is performed automatically by the program, but when the database is large and the research seems especially slow (there is usually very quick) may be worthwhile to try to force it. The notebooks can be shared easily via the Web: just a few clicks to make it accessible to a notebook around the world, or only to specific people, through the Evernote Web interface. Unfortunately it is not currently possible to quickly activate the sharing of an entire stack.
Evernote is also offered in a premium version, which costs $ 45 the first year and offers a much higher amount of online space: it allows you to store up to 1 Gbyte of new notes per month. Its advantages are, however, other, and in our opinion fully justify the cost however the content. Premium Evernote allows you to enter notes in the files of any type, encrypt traffic during synchronization, a versioning feature that tracks changes made to the notes allowing you to retrieve previous versions and enables not only consultation but also editing shared notebooks. It also allows you to disable the small box ad in this free version.
Disclaimer:
This article is based on my knowledge and experience as Electronics and Software Tester.