Beta Testing Evernote for Windows and Web

Evernote is a new note taking program similar to Google Notebooks. It's still in closed beta testing, but it's pretty easy to get an invite to this amazing little program.

Once signed up, you are faced with two choices : Download the client software(available for Mac OS X and Windows Vista/XP or set up the web client. Being a native Linux user, I went for the web interface first. If you are familiar with Google Notebooks, this set up is not so different. You can set up 'notebooks' that are public or private. These notebooks can then be written in, drawn in, or copy/pasted into. The first thing you are going to want to do is set up the bookmarklet, which is as easy as dragging a link to your links toolbar in your web browser.

Now that you have the bookmarklet, try it out. Go to a web page and then click the bookmarklet. Evernote brings up a screen with a variety of options, notebook preference, privacy, and so on. Now when you do this, the entire web page is saved in your notebook. Another handy thing is that you can highlight anything on the web page, then click the bookmarklet and it will only add what you have highlighted to your notebooks. This makes web research a breeze!

Now, I swapped over to my Vista computer to try out the client software. Quick and easy download and set up. The first thing you may notice is that it looks very similar to the web interface. But you've got some more options here. You can do everything you could normally do from the web client, I.e. create a new note or notebook, add tags to notes, change privacy settings, e-mail a note, etc. But yiou can now also print notes or sets of notes, as well as synchronize your desktop notebooks with your web notebooks. The client makes serious writing a little easier, in that it opens a word processor for a note with a simple click of the square in the right hand corner. Other than that, the functions are essentially the same.

In summary, although Evernote is still in beta testing, it's very stable, makes an excellent tool for web researchers and bloggers, and is possibly the closest thing a Windows or Mac user can get to the Linux only, Holy Grail of note taking applications, TomBoy Notes. Check out http://www.evernote.com for more info or to sign up for the beta test.

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By: Jack Lhasa
Published: 06/19/08

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2 Posted Comments:

@ 12:26 pm 07/15/08 by Mr. U

Good review of an interesting product. I may download it and give it a try sometime.

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@ 6:24 am 07/18/08 by Nikolai

My favorite application for note taking is the Microsoft Office OneNote. It is fast, full of features and very easy to use. I will try the one you described though. Thanks.

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