Evernote - All file types for all users

Evernote have recently announced that they have lifted the file type restrictions for free accounts. Previously free users had been limited to putting only text, image, audio and PDF files into their notes. If you wanted to store Microsoft Office files in Evernote for instance you needed to upgrade to a Premium account. That restriction is now gone, so both free and premium service users can attach any type of file they like to a note!

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can get the most out of Evernote

Significant Additional Value

In my opinion this is a significant increase to the value of the free account.  To me it is critical given that as I am choosing Evernote to be my Knowledge/Information/Reference store that I can add productivity application documents that I generate or collect.  So to add this capability to the free account really improves tha capability of the Evernote platform for those users.

There is no additional increase in the upload allowance for free users however.  Attaching a lot of documents to notes will quickly use up the free allowance so be careful.  One tip is to initially store files in a local notebook (one that doesn't get synced with the cloud) unless you are sure you will need access to a document from anywhere.  You can always move a file to a synced notebook later. 

Use Live Update to maintain documents

One really nice Evernote feature, that removing the file restrictions really opens up for free account users, is Live Update!  Using Live Update means that you can reflect any changes made to a file that is attached to a note.  So for instance you might store a draft presentation in Powerpoint, and whenever you do some more work on the presentation, Evernote will always have the latest updated version.  

To use the Live Update feature, all you need to do is right-click on a file within a note and choose "Open With", then choose the application you want to use to view or modify that file. Once you've made the desired changes to the file, just save it using the application's "Save" option and Evernote will automatically be updated with the latest version of the file.

This works for images, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets - the works - great huh!

What file types do you store in Evernote?

Evernote - Well positioned for the Future?

Is Evernote well postioned for the future?

I know that this blog seems to be turning into a bit of Evernote specific blog at the moment.  This isn't the intention, but this reality is a result of my growing understanding of the potential of the product to help transform the how we use and percieve the digital cloud in the future. Hence my current interest. 

We are now at a time in history were we are able as individuals to start recording significant portions of our lives into a digital store. Why would we want to? That is a seperate, but very important question that is worthy of lots of thought and discussion. However Evernote has the potential to become that digital store.

thenextweb.com has a very interesting article on the future of Evernote, which provides an overview of the product, its history, its current very rapid growth and where it is going in the near future.  Evernote in my opnion is really beginning to get there as a store, but the challenge will be in eventually providing effective and innovative tools for finding and displaying the captured content.  This is an area that if Evernote is ever going to become the 100 year company that it aspires to be, will need significant investment. 

The good news is that with an effective and profitable business model, partnership model and significant capital it looks well placed to manage this!  What do you think?

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can really start getting the most out of Evernote

Get Evernote Essentials 2.0

Evernote Essentials second edition is out!

Evernote is an extremely powerful and flexable tool that provides the capability for an individual to capture, manage, find and share their personal information.  But just like any software package, power and flexability often comes with a bit of a price tag.  Often there is a steep learning curve to get over before you get to the point where you truly understand how things work and you can start geting the real value from the package.

Evernote Essentials

While Evernote is very easy and intuitive to use, to get to the real power there is still a learning curve hurdle to get over.  So if you are new to Evernote, I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials . Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time.  The ebook will help you quickly get to the point where you can really start getting the most out of Evernote

Although I was mostly self taught, this ebook was one of the resources that I used myself when I began to explore the power of the Evernote platform.  As Evernote has developed repidly it was getting time for an updated version which has now duly arrived.  The book will also provide a useful reference once you really start using Evernote, as it describes a number of use cases and provides a lot tips and tricks.

Thinking of using Evernote? I strongly recommend that if you do you also get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, saving a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can really start getting the most out of Evernote

Evernote use case for students!

Evernote for students

Evernote have their own excellent blog, which I always read from time to time, as it is an excellent place to pick up tips on using Evernote. This post by high school student Ryan Kessler really caught my eye.  Ryan demonstrates how he uses Evernote as an extremely effective research tool, note taker and organiser for all his school work.

Evernote as a platform

You will note that it is not just the use of the Evernote client that is important to his particular use case. It is how well the client combines via the digital cloud with both the Evernote web client and his Android Evernote app, and how these in turn are used with other useful mobile apps to create a total system. 

This is where the power of Evernote really resides. Evernote is not just a note taking application it is actually a platform for generating effective,  working personal information management systems for all sorts of people, in many different ways.  I plan to explore  this capability more in future posts.

Does Evernote work as a platform for you, or is it just a note taking app?  Add a comment and let me know!

Using Docscanner with Evernote

I have been looking for a solution to allow easy scanning while travelling.  Here I am talking about things like receipts,  business cards and the odd document. Obviously I do not want to carry a scanner about, so I was looking for an app for my iPhone.  In addition I was looking for specific functionality that allowed me to easily move any scanned document to Evernote.

After a bit of research I have decided on Docscanner and my experience with it so far is great. It provides good accurate scans either as a pdf document or as a jpeg image and will let me save the resulting scan direct to my Evernote account.   I can also directly email a scan to any of my email accounts or also again to my Evernote email address.

I haven't fully explored all the possibilities of this tool, especially the OCR, but already out of the box it has given me  what I need. The integration with Evernote works really well.

Anyone else use this app?

Just started using Evernote? Then I strongly recommend that you get Evernote Essentials. Brett Kelly’s excellent ebook is a great way to get started, and will save you a lot of time. It will quickly get you to the point where you can really start getting the most out of Evernote