Quick Review: EverNote Portable 2.0 - Your Brain on a Thumbdrive

Posted by: Brandon Steili on May 09 2007

 

Have you ever spent twenty bucks and been so happy with that purchase that you wonder how you ever got along with out that particular thing before? And how many times have you spent twenty bucks and felt like you were better off having just flushed it down the toilet? Well, about a week ago I took a leap of faith (not something I typically do) and bought a piece of software that didn’t have a trial version. Well, that’s a half truth because there’s sort of a trial version in the form of the non-portable version… but you never know how something is really  going to perform until you really use it.

What is it?

EverNote is sort of like a virtual clipboard/notepad/stickypad/photo-storage thingy… I’m sure someone with a lot more verbal prowess could come up with something better, but hey I am what I am. So that’s all fine and dandy, but what does it really do? Boring list time:

• Clip and store images and text from almost anywhere including IE, Outlook, Firefox, Thunderbird, text docs and more.
• Drag and drop files directly into the program
• Create multiple categories (and sub-categories) for notes
• Create handwritten (digital ink) or text based notes
• Smart search for words in any note

In a nutshell, EverNote is sort of a brain dump location for anything you want to keep track of, be it thoughts, to-do stuff, images, knowledgebase…  you name it. Seriously, I can’t realistically explain all the things you use this program for!!!

So, what is EverNote Portable? Well, it’s all of that on a thumbdrive. No install required, just plug it into whatever (Windows) computer you’re sitting at and BAM! … there’s your brain. It is billed as the functional equivalent of the desktop version and it lives up to that billing.

Read On For More…

Doing what it does:

So here’s the basics - On the left column there’s a bunch of categories. These are used to keep all the different notes organized as you might expect. You can have as many (or as few) categories as you wish. On the right is the notes. Depending on the type of note you want you’ll find a short list of templates (things like contacts, shopping, phone message) or you can run with the basic text note and do what you want. If you feel so inclined you can also create your own templates in XML and make your notes really your own! Also somewhat important is that all notes can be in multiple categories which is especially handy if you have a single note that pertains to multiple different topic areas - like Netbackup runs on Windows, Solaris, Unix, HP-UX etc and a single command may also apply to all of them.  

The top section (notes list) doesn’t have to be there, it’s a preference of mine but one I think once you use it will be found quite handy. Basically this is a straight text version of what note titles are found in that section, when they were created and any other categories they may be assigned to.

Then there’s the scroll bars. WOOHOO!!! Just kidding. Yes, there are three scroll bars, but one scrolls really fast and is called the "Accelerator Scrollbar". It sounds really technical. It isn’t. There is however a more technical one called the Time Band that isn’t turned on by default in the portable version.

Basically, the Time Band serves as a scrollable date selector. Let’s say you remember you had a meeting last Friday but you forgot to put your notes into the "Meetings" category. Well, no big deal - just scroll to that date and take a look. The Time Band works over pretty much any timeframe so if you wrote a note during the Christmas season 2 years ago about what your wife wanted… just scroll back in time. It’s a really cool function, that you’ll just have to use sometime. Not quite so effective when you’ve only had the program week however  :) 

All notes are added to this "Endless Tape" in chronological order. So as long as you know roughly when you had a brain fart … you know roughly when you put the note in.

And it’s got smart-search…. not Google smart but still pretty cool especially if you know you’ve got notes on a specific topic but you aren’t totally sure what category you put the note into. Extremely handy for knowledgebase type stuff when you need information fast!

Moving on….

I’m not really going to go into a whole heck of a lot more than the basics of the interface. There’s a ton of information on the web about EverNote (on their website) and in a minute you’ll understand why I’m just not going to bother with the details. Anyway, There’s some MINOR limitations with the Portable version that are more important to mention.

• No Web and Email clippers built in. EverNote Portable WILL use clippers that are already installed. Like in the screenshot above… I hit that little button and the webpage (or portion of selected text) is captured into EverNote
• Linking between notes is not supported, nor is links directly to notes from external apps. (No writing to the registry poses limitations)
• You need write access to the temp directory (for some actions - to my understanding data is not stored there)
• EverNote Databases are not automatically associated with the application. I have no idea what this means … mine required one click of use this file and poof…

Anyway, That’s it. Those are only the limitations. Everything else is the same as the FREE version. Yup, you read that right. The Desktop version (which is nearly a feature complete version of the paid software) is free. The portable version unfortunately is not.

You’ll notice the little EverNote flag in the image above. One of the really strong points about EverNote is the ability to "clip" from dammed near everything. Included in the Portable version of EverNote is a "Universal Clipper" that does a pretty good job… but if you ever feel the need for a little more power you can install the "plugin" clippers and they will work with the portable version.

Outta time…. (Conclusion)

All right - it’s gotten late in my day and I’ve got a ton of things to get done. So I’m wrapping this quick look up. Overall - I’ve got to say if you move around on public computers a lot and can’t install software on then this is the program to have. If you want to keep all your thoughts with you and easily accessable anytime you sit down at a computer (no matter who it belongs to) and not leave a trace that you were there this is the program to have.

At the beginning of this short review I asked if you’ve ever spent $20 and wondered how you got along without that item … well that’s pretty much how I feel about EverNote Portable 2.0. I can’t recommend this program enough! Go give the free version a run through - I’m willing to bet once you give it a go and then think about all that power being on a thumbdrive with you all the time, you won’t be able to find a single reason not to buy it.

The ONLY MAJOR PROBLEM…. There’s not Pocket PC Version YET!!!

EverNote Portable is available for $19.95

EverNote Plus is available for $49.95

EverNote 2.0 is available for FREE

[tags] EverNote Portable, EverNote, EverNote 2.0, justanothermobilemonday.com[/tags]

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