As I’ve mentioned before, notetaking applications are near and dear to our hearts here at EnquiringMimes as I spend so much time online sifting through websites I need a place to keep notes and a reliable way to keep track of what I find.
The last notebook I reviewed was UberNote which is a relatively simple web service. Today we’re going to kick it up a notch with Evernote, a notetaking application that has both web and desktop components allowing you the best of both worlds.
Evernote describes itself as your “external brain” which while an exaggeration, it would be a
ccurate to say that Evernote can be your external memory. You can store everything in Evernote of which you want to keep track and there are several useful ways to get your information into Evernote. Evernote also have a couple of unique features that makes it very powerful way to keep your information.
To get started with Evernote create an account and download the application for your desktop, Mac or Windows and install. Press the New option on the toolbar and you can type information directly into the note. That’s the most basic way to get information into Evernote.
You can send graphics to Evernote and then search the text within the graphic. This is very powerful, it means you can take a picture of business card with the camera in your mobile phone email the picture to your Evernote notebook and poof — when it gets to your account it’s searchable. If you’re using a Mac laptop, you can use the built-in iSight camera and the application Photo Booth to take a picture of any document or card and send it to Evernote. Evernote also interprets and index handwritten notes — very useful if you’re using a tablet computer or again, take a picture and send it to Evernote.
Web clippers are available for Firefox that allow you to “clip” portions of web pages or entire pages to add to your notebook. The clippers are also available as Firefox add-ins.
As you send your clip to Evernote you are given the opportunity to add tags to the note to make it easier to find later.
When you’re finished adding information on your Evernote on your desktop, you can synchronize the new information to your account which is visible from the web so it’s available to you wherever you are. You can synchronize your home computer and then have it available at the office by synching again.
Evernote accounts have their own email address that can be used for emailing into your Evernote notebook. Evernote is also available on your mobile phone so you can send your grocery or todo list to Evernote and have it with you when you leave home.
There is, of course, the ability to upgrade. If you find yourself a heavy user of Evernote, for $5 a month you can upgrade your account to allow 500 MB of uploading each month rather than the free 40 MB.
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