What do you do with all your good ideas? If you see something of interest on a website or sketch an idea during a meeting, what do you do with it? How do you save it? Where do you file it? Will you be able to find it again?
Evernote is an application that captures ideas you want to save and allows you to access them from anywhere at any time. The Evernote website sums it up best: Remember everything.
You can save almost anything in this application, and it works with nearly every computer and mobile device. Plus, it is free up to 100,000 notes and 250 synchronized notebooks.
Here are a few terms you’ll need to know as you get started:
- Note: A single item stored in Evernote.
- Notebook: A container or folder for organizing your notes.
- Sync: The process by which your notes and notebooks are kept up to date across all of your computers, phones, devices and the Web.
To get started, visit evernote.com and install the software on your computer, phone and other devices you regularly use. It works on both Windows and Mac platforms, and is available for iPad and iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones.
To create your first note, click “new note,” enter a title and start typing. You can also create a note by snapping a picture, recording an audio, firing up your webcam, uploading a file from your computer, or choosing an “ink note” where you write using your mouse (on your PC) or your finger (on a touch screen). When you’re finished, you can select the notebook to file it in, add tags for easier searching later or just save it to the default notebook until you decide where it should go. You can access your notes from anywhere by logging in to your account through Evernote’s website.
Here are just a few additional features:
- The Web Clipper tool saves content from the Internet to your Evernote account quickly and easily. As you browse websites, you can right click or highlight text on a page and click a button on your browser’s toolbar to save a note.
- Collaborate on projects by easily sharing notebooks with multiple users. You set the privileges, allowing users to view or edit specific notebooks.
- Every Evernote account comes with a personalized email address. Email notes directly to your account and designate the title of the note, the target notebook and the tags in the email subject line.
- Social media compatibility is built in so you can post items to Facebook or Twitter from Evernote. You can also send notes by email.
As you capture articles, ideas, links, resources, photos and whatever else you come across in Evernote, you can search for it again later by keywords or tags. Even handwritten text inside images is searchable. You never have to worry about not being able to find something. Your file pile is significantly reduced. You don’t have to rack your brain trying to remember that bright idea you had. You’ll be able to instantly recall with a simple search that will make everyone wonder how in the world you “remember everything.”
© 2012 by McMurray
Originally appeared in The Office Professional Newsletter in May 2012. Reprinted with permission.
