Evernote Mac 1.1: Big Improvements
May 13th, 2008 (8:00am) Mike Gunderloy 6 Comments
The last time we looked at multiplatform note-storage application Evernote, they supported Windows and Mac and had a web version. That’s still the case, but with the release of Evernote for Mac 1.1 this week, their Mac support is much improved. The new version adds support for PDF files (though it doesn’t yet recognize text in images in PDFs). Better yet, they’ve tied it much more deeply to OS X, resulting in “Save PDF to Evernote” in the standard Mac print dialog so you can send content from just about anything to Evernote. Other improvements include integration with Spotlight, a three-pane view, and encryption.
The new additions make Evernote for Mac feel much more like a native application, and less like ported software. If you’re on a Mac, this is a great time to register for their beta.
6 Comments Post your own comment
Todd Sieling says: May 13th, 2008 8:48am
I was totally underwhelmed by Evernote for the mac, and I don’t think that getting into my print menu is a big cause for celebration. Save a pdf with no pdf indexing? Where’s the value when saving to a folder and Spotlight does more?
They need to decide if they’re really going to support the mac or not, and stop doing half-measures. Also, it would have been nice to get a response when I spent a half hour letting them know what I look for in note-taking/archiving applications and what would make me consider moving away from Yojimbo. But I guess that’s setting expectations too high.
Tarique Naseem says: May 13th, 2008 10:05am
Evernote has the potential to be one of the best note taking apps on the Mac. However, there’s quite a few problems with the current version.
I know it’s still in beta and under development, but I have reported quite a number of bugs over time, none of which have been addressed.
For instance, Evernote has a tendency to reduce the font size on any notes I enter! 12pt text will invariably become 10pt when I sync with the server… An issue I was hoping would be resolved in 1.1, but alas no.
New features are all well and good, but let’s get the basics like font selection working first!!!
Like I said, this has the potential to be one great app if they at least prioritise the bug fixes.
I’m currently trying my best to like it, having switched from the excellent Journler some time ago, mainly due to it’s great tagging and search facilities.
Mike Gunderloy says: May 13th, 2008 10:30am
Todd: Evernote 1.1 does index PDFs. What it doesn’t do is apply its text-recognition algorithms to images embedded in PDF files. But it does just as good a job on the raw text (including Spotlight integration) as other applications I’ve tried like EagleFiler.
For me, the main attractions of Evernote are twofold: availability of information across multiple platforms and machines, and the ability to recognize text in images. To the extent that you work on only a single computer, or deal with purely textual information, there are probably better solutions.
Jason Glaspey says: May 13th, 2008 11:45am
I’ve used several note-taking applications over the past few years (pretty much every major one available, actually), and the one thing that has me using Evernote is simple, no nonsense online syncing across multiple machines. No matter where I’m at, what type of machine I’m on, I have access to my notes. Also, the visual representation of my notes, the 3-pane workflow, tags, attributes, and other features make it as good as other apps I’ve tried. I’m very happy with it, and LOVE the iPhone version that makes me feel constantly in touch with any information I’ve seen fit to save.
Todd Sieling says: May 13th, 2008 3:26pm
Thanks for the correction about PDF indexing, Mike. That is an important piece to know about.
Chris Messina says: May 20th, 2008 9:44am
It might also be interesting if they offered syncing/opening of Google Docs documents — so that I wouldn’t necessarily have to stay within the Evernotes silo, especially if I want to collaborate with others who are not Evernote users.