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At long last, Evernote takes an Incredible Journey to be broken down for parts by its new owner. Can't get any more fucked up than it already has been, it went

At long last, Evernote takes an Incredible Journey to be broken down for parts by its new owner. Can't get any more fucked up than it already has been, it went from being an important part of my daily workflow to a place of pain. The rewrite is part of why my last graphic novel ground to a halt, I was using EN to collaborate on scripts with my partner and it is just agony to use any more. I cancelled my subscription a few years back and really have not found anything to fill that hole. Every theoretical replacement is either a shitty sluggish web view, owned by a megacorporation I don't want to get involved with, or both. Personally I think the best thing the new owners could do would be to dig up the pre-EN10 codebase, get it compiling again, and make that available. I would resubscribe in a heartbeat.

reiichiroh 4y ago
“Incredible journey?”
kjs3 4y ago
Could be worse. Wait till they start selling advertisers access to data-mine your notes.
thefourthchime 4y ago
I tried a few alternatives and landed on Apple Notes. It's blinding fast, and while it's not exactly feature-rich, it does everything I need while being seamlessly synced to the cloud and my devices.
- ravenstine 4y ago
  I use Apple Notes because I realized that, for my needs, all the structure and organization that so many other note taking apps/services provide really just make things more complicated and isn't beneficial. Notes is simple, has one level of folders, and supports labeling. I'll almost never look at 95% of my notes again, but in case I do, I can just search by keyword and usually I'll find it. My one gripe with Notes is that the search function really isn't all that great. Maybe I need to force it to reindex or something. I've found many cases where it doesn't find a note by a word that I know it contains. I really don't get why it seems that nearly all search functions are terrible in any given app. It would be nice if Apple improved the search for Notes, and it shouldn't be that hard to do given that it's just using SQLite under the hood.
  - steveBK123 4y ago
    Same for me. It does about 90%+ of what I'd ever need, it has rock-solid sync across all my devices, I can share notes with my wife without her having to sign up for a service and download an app, etc. Not to mention that it avoids me onboarding to some unprofitable note taking tool that will languish until it gets stripped for parts. There was a midtwit meme about productivity hackers vs "I just use apple notes" guys like this too haha.
    - ravenstine 4y ago
      That's awesome that it syncs that well, though one of the reasons I use it is because I can specifically opt out of the syncing and keep everything offline. I use Notes to jot a lot of things down, and that can mean some very intimate/private thoughts, and I've come to distaste having those thoughts floating in the digital ether. Most note taking apps don't seem to allow you to work entirely offline, and if they do, they still phone home a lot and harass you to sign up for an account.
  - podviaznikov 4y ago
    small nit pick. Apple Notes have support for nested folders:) But agree with the rest.
  - Kye 4y ago
    The lack of export functionality without a Mac kept me from using it. edit: HN won't let me reply so... That sure is a lot of trouble just to grab a copy of my notes. This is something I do often enough that I don't want to have to go through two MFA prompts, and then another when the process is done. Not acceptable.
    - packet_pusher 4y ago
      You can bulk export all your Notes through appleid.apple.com. They can come down as text files, or a JSON, I believe. I just went through the process recently to migrate notes into Joplin.
    - 4y ago
- CharlesW 4y ago
  TIL Apple Notes supports Evernote .enex import. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205793 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205793 https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/migrate-from-evernote-to-apple-notes/ https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/migrate-from-evernote-to-ap...
- TremendousJudge 4y ago
  I have a directory of .txts on my phone. There are nicer solutions but at least I 100% will never lose access to my notes since they're just files.
  - daveidol 4y ago
    How do you quickly make a new note? Is this Android or iOS?
    - TremendousJudge 4y ago
      I'm on Andrid, I use a small file manager called MK Explorer [0] Flow is, open the app, go to bookmarks->notes (this is a shortcut I set up), choose a folder (I have a bunch for different things), then menu button->new file, enter a title, and use the file explorer's own text editor. It's not as quick as opening Google Keep and tapping plus, but at least I know I can trust it. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mkexplorer.kormateusz https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mkexplorer....
- crossroadsguy 4y ago
  Apple Notes might do a lot of things or do them well, but seamless sync is not one of those.
- egypturnash 4y ago
  I like a lot of things about it except for the part where I can't collaborate with my Windows-using collaborator. "Make them use it on iCloud.com" is a non-starter, I don't wanna inflict a shitty web-app on them after fleeing EN mostly because it turned into a shitty web-app crammed into an app container.
- alexjplant 4y ago
  Everybody on HN seems to talk about what they use to "take notes". I personally use Trello as an organization tool for things such as my to-do list, checklists (packing for a trip this weekend, for instance), random thoughts and ideas, lists of music and movies people suggest, transcriptions of phone conversations, etc. Is this the same use case as when people talk about Evernote/Apple Notes/OneNote/org-mode, and if so am I a total weirdo for using a Kanban tool for this purpose? I've used it this way for almost a decade and the abstraction of boards of stacks of cards is very flexible and intuitive to me.
- mehrzad 4y ago
  If you put multiple images in an Apple Notes note, it’s insanely slow and also it only exports as txt files so no images afaicr
dhimes 4y ago
Would some of the open-source alternatives fit the bill? Something like SimpleNote?
- bitwize 4y ago
  Org-mode, yo.
  - selykg 4y ago
    I've yet to find a reasonable mobile version of org-mode. Which is, frankly, a non-starter for me personally. 90% of the time I am probably referencing something from my notes when mobile, but I need those notes to: 1. Be accessible an up to date 2. Easily searchable, and to do so quickly 3. In the rare case that I need to take a note, it is best if I can do so easily and have those go back to my computer quickly and painlessly so I can do what needs doing to get that into the system better. Org-mode simply does not do this well in any of my experience with it. It's fine if all you're doing is taking notes on a computer, but as soon as you add a mobile device to the mix, it goes belly up for me.
    - bitwize 4y ago
      Orgzly doesn't fit the bill for you?
- egypturnash 4y ago
  I tried it and cannot recall why that one failed. It missed one of my requirements of * must be a native app, not a shitty web app * must be able to run on my Mac & iThings as well as my collaborator's Windows & Android phone * must be able to collaborate with other people * must be able to ingest a decade of Evernote gracefully * that includes attached images and PDFs, I make comics * must deal with actual rich text, markdown is nice for commenting on the internet but notes need more
  - soundnote 4y ago
    Simplenote is a web app by necessity - most Markdown ones are since Markdown is just a way to write simple HTML. I don't think there really are native notetaking apps anymore, let alone multiplatform ones. OneNote's probably the only big player left. I don't think Simplenote really handles file attachments, so it'd be a complete no go.
koliber 4y ago
I was in the same spot in January of 2021. Did some exploring, and settled on Notion. I love it.
Obscurity4340 4y ago
If you're on Mac, try DevonThink
staticman2 4y ago
I don't understand why you wouldn't just use google docs or microsoft word to collaborate on a graphic novel? Evernote is not and was never a word processor. The creators of the street angel graphic novel series said all of their ideas are in a google drive folder.
- egypturnash 4y ago
  I don't like web apps and don't want my life in Google. Also I had been a paid user of Evernote for a few years already when Google Docs came out, I had already learnt that "if you're not paying for it, you're the product". I'm not a fan of Microsoft, either. I've never had to swap Word documents around so that's not in my lie at all. Evernote was on my computer, and on my phone; it's where I'd note down an idea when I had it, and since it was there I may as well just expand on it in there. When I'm doing solo comics then most of my notes in EN were collections of vague outlines, dialogue fragments, and photographs of scribbly sketchbook pages; actual writing mostly happened in Illustrator. It was easy to expand that to have a script sitting there in EN, since we were both already used to using it. Plus since EN is about keeping notebooks rather than files it's pretty nice to just have one place that holds all the various words and pictures related to getting from "some ideas we've kicked around" to "a script that I can turn into a bunch of Illustrator files on my hard drive". This is similar to how there are a lot of programmers who do everything in Emacs. You're already there all the time, and it may not be perfectly built for this, but you can do most of what you need in it, so why not? If you want to be totally anal about doing it The Traditional Industry Way then you can use a complex word processor template adapted from screenwriting templates and deal with rigid page counts. If you are not working as part of an assembly line with distinct separations between Writers and Editors and Pencillers and Inkers and Colorists and Letterers then your script can a pretty casual thing with simple formatting, and Evernote can handle that just fine. Or at least it could before v10 threw all performance in the toilet for that shitty Electron rewrite. Lately I have been vaguely fiddling with using Scrivener for roughing out scripts of short pieces, and really need to get my partner on this long-brewing GN still kinda trapped in Evernote to give it a shot. If we can get a decent sync pathway to bring the .scriv files between our disparate devices then maybe my dusty Evernote notebook exports will turn into a handful of Scrivener projects, along with the scattered notes in Joplin and Apple Notes that have happened since I finally said "fuck this abusive relationship with New Evernote".
yukinon 4y ago
How did you feel about Dropbox Paper?

reiichiroh 4y ago

“Incredible journey?”

kjs3 4y ago

Could be worse. Wait till they start selling advertisers access to data-mine your notes.

thefourthchime 4y ago

I tried a few alternatives and landed on Apple Notes. It's blinding fast, and while it's not exactly feature-rich, it does everything I need while being seamlessly synced to the cloud and my devices.

ravenstine 4y ago
I use Apple Notes because I realized that, for my needs, all the structure and organization that so many other note taking apps/services provide really just make things more complicated and isn't beneficial. Notes is simple, has one level of folders, and supports labeling. I'll almost never look at 95% of my notes again, but in case I do, I can just search by keyword and usually I'll find it. My one gripe with Notes is that the search function really isn't all that great. Maybe I need to force it to reindex or something. I've found many cases where it doesn't find a note by a word that I know it contains. I really don't get why it seems that nearly all search functions are terrible in any given app. It would be nice if Apple improved the search for Notes, and it shouldn't be that hard to do given that it's just using SQLite under the hood.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  Same for me. It does about 90%+ of what I'd ever need, it has rock-solid sync across all my devices, I can share notes with my wife without her having to sign up for a service and download an app, etc. Not to mention that it avoids me onboarding to some unprofitable note taking tool that will languish until it gets stripped for parts. There was a midtwit meme about productivity hackers vs "I just use apple notes" guys like this too haha.
  - ravenstine 4y ago
    That's awesome that it syncs that well, though one of the reasons I use it is because I can specifically opt out of the syncing and keep everything offline. I use Notes to jot a lot of things down, and that can mean some very intimate/private thoughts, and I've come to distaste having those thoughts floating in the digital ether. Most note taking apps don't seem to allow you to work entirely offline, and if they do, they still phone home a lot and harass you to sign up for an account.
- podviaznikov 4y ago
  small nit pick. Apple Notes have support for nested folders:) But agree with the rest.
- Kye 4y ago
  The lack of export functionality without a Mac kept me from using it. edit: HN won't let me reply so... That sure is a lot of trouble just to grab a copy of my notes. This is something I do often enough that I don't want to have to go through two MFA prompts, and then another when the process is done. Not acceptable.
  - packet_pusher 4y ago
    You can bulk export all your Notes through appleid.apple.com. They can come down as text files, or a JSON, I believe. I just went through the process recently to migrate notes into Joplin.
  - 4y ago
CharlesW 4y ago
TIL Apple Notes supports Evernote .enex import. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205793 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205793 https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/migrate-from-evernote-to-apple-notes/ https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/migrate-from-evernote-to-ap...
TremendousJudge 4y ago
I have a directory of .txts on my phone. There are nicer solutions but at least I 100% will never lose access to my notes since they're just files.
- daveidol 4y ago
  How do you quickly make a new note? Is this Android or iOS?
  - TremendousJudge 4y ago
    I'm on Andrid, I use a small file manager called MK Explorer [0] Flow is, open the app, go to bookmarks->notes (this is a shortcut I set up), choose a folder (I have a bunch for different things), then menu button->new file, enter a title, and use the file explorer's own text editor. It's not as quick as opening Google Keep and tapping plus, but at least I know I can trust it. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mkexplorer.kormateusz https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mkexplorer....
crossroadsguy 4y ago
Apple Notes might do a lot of things or do them well, but seamless sync is not one of those.
egypturnash 4y ago
I like a lot of things about it except for the part where I can't collaborate with my Windows-using collaborator. "Make them use it on iCloud.com" is a non-starter, I don't wanna inflict a shitty web-app on them after fleeing EN mostly because it turned into a shitty web-app crammed into an app container.
alexjplant 4y ago
Everybody on HN seems to talk about what they use to "take notes". I personally use Trello as an organization tool for things such as my to-do list, checklists (packing for a trip this weekend, for instance), random thoughts and ideas, lists of music and movies people suggest, transcriptions of phone conversations, etc. Is this the same use case as when people talk about Evernote/Apple Notes/OneNote/org-mode, and if so am I a total weirdo for using a Kanban tool for this purpose? I've used it this way for almost a decade and the abstraction of boards of stacks of cards is very flexible and intuitive to me.
mehrzad 4y ago
If you put multiple images in an Apple Notes note, it’s insanely slow and also it only exports as txt files so no images afaicr

dhimes 4y ago

Would some of the open-source alternatives fit the bill? Something like SimpleNote?

bitwize 4y ago
Org-mode, yo.
- selykg 4y ago
  I've yet to find a reasonable mobile version of org-mode. Which is, frankly, a non-starter for me personally. 90% of the time I am probably referencing something from my notes when mobile, but I need those notes to: 1. Be accessible an up to date 2. Easily searchable, and to do so quickly 3. In the rare case that I need to take a note, it is best if I can do so easily and have those go back to my computer quickly and painlessly so I can do what needs doing to get that into the system better. Org-mode simply does not do this well in any of my experience with it. It's fine if all you're doing is taking notes on a computer, but as soon as you add a mobile device to the mix, it goes belly up for me.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    Orgzly doesn't fit the bill for you?
egypturnash 4y ago
I tried it and cannot recall why that one failed. It missed one of my requirements of * must be a native app, not a shitty web app * must be able to run on my Mac & iThings as well as my collaborator's Windows & Android phone * must be able to collaborate with other people * must be able to ingest a decade of Evernote gracefully * that includes attached images and PDFs, I make comics * must deal with actual rich text, markdown is nice for commenting on the internet but notes need more
- soundnote 4y ago
  Simplenote is a web app by necessity - most Markdown ones are since Markdown is just a way to write simple HTML. I don't think there really are native notetaking apps anymore, let alone multiplatform ones. OneNote's probably the only big player left. I don't think Simplenote really handles file attachments, so it'd be a complete no go.

koliber 4y ago

I was in the same spot in January of 2021. Did some exploring, and settled on Notion. I love it.

Obscurity4340 4y ago

If you're on Mac, try DevonThink

staticman2 4y ago

I don't understand why you wouldn't just use google docs or microsoft word to collaborate on a graphic novel? Evernote is not and was never a word processor. The creators of the street angel graphic novel series said all of their ideas are in a google drive folder.

egypturnash 4y ago
I don't like web apps and don't want my life in Google. Also I had been a paid user of Evernote for a few years already when Google Docs came out, I had already learnt that "if you're not paying for it, you're the product". I'm not a fan of Microsoft, either. I've never had to swap Word documents around so that's not in my lie at all. Evernote was on my computer, and on my phone; it's where I'd note down an idea when I had it, and since it was there I may as well just expand on it in there. When I'm doing solo comics then most of my notes in EN were collections of vague outlines, dialogue fragments, and photographs of scribbly sketchbook pages; actual writing mostly happened in Illustrator. It was easy to expand that to have a script sitting there in EN, since we were both already used to using it. Plus since EN is about keeping notebooks rather than files it's pretty nice to just have one place that holds all the various words and pictures related to getting from "some ideas we've kicked around" to "a script that I can turn into a bunch of Illustrator files on my hard drive". This is similar to how there are a lot of programmers who do everything in Emacs. You're already there all the time, and it may not be perfectly built for this, but you can do most of what you need in it, so why not? If you want to be totally anal about doing it The Traditional Industry Way then you can use a complex word processor template adapted from screenwriting templates and deal with rigid page counts. If you are not working as part of an assembly line with distinct separations between Writers and Editors and Pencillers and Inkers and Colorists and Letterers then your script can a pretty casual thing with simple formatting, and Evernote can handle that just fine. Or at least it could before v10 threw all performance in the toilet for that shitty Electron rewrite. Lately I have been vaguely fiddling with using Scrivener for roughing out scripts of short pieces, and really need to get my partner on this long-brewing GN still kinda trapped in Evernote to give it a shot. If we can get a decent sync pathway to bring the .scriv files between our disparate devices then maybe my dusty Evernote notebook exports will turn into a handful of Scrivener projects, along with the scattered notes in Joplin and Apple Notes that have happened since I finally said "fuck this abusive relationship with New Evernote".

yukinon 4y ago

How did you feel about Dropbox Paper?