Over the years, I’ve accumulated thousands of notes and a personalized GTD system (with tags and notebooks) in Evernote. I use my own flavor of the Zen to Done method, where I capture pretty much everything (from recipes to articles to read, and from project notes to grant deadlines). I’ve come to heavily rely on this second brain, both professionally and personally.
Evernote has served me well for almost a decade. However, the latest update is so annoying (app is super slow, note export to html gone, ) I’m planning to abandon ship. For now, I’ve downgraded to the last useable version on my devices (thanks, reddit!). Getting some great advice from Twitter, I decided that this is the time to invest in a note-taking solution that’s sustainable for the future.
Taking a step back, these are must-have features for me:
- Sustainable format, i.e. avoid locking myself into another app that may break or change in ways I don’t like. I’d like to avoid repeating this ordeal in a few years from now.
- Import from Evernote (.enex or .html) – I have way too many notes to manually port them
- Quick capture across devices
- Single text note for brain dumps should be very quick on phone and laptop
- Web clipping
- Email forwarding
- Organizing with tags and notebooks (and ideally cross-linking notes)
- Shortcuts or saved searches to different combinations of tags
- Embedding figures (and other attachments)
- Good search
- Some additional features (e.g. Kanban-style project management, reminders) would be a plus, not a must
Based on excellent advice from a number of people on Twitter (thanks!), I looked at a couple of apps. Here’s a quick comparison:
Dynalist Evernote 同期
Dynalist is a smaller, geeky notetaking app that builds upon the idea of a outliner. A outliner is basically a text-editor where every piece of text is represented as a bullet-point. A outliner is basically a text-editor where every piece of text is represented as a bullet-point.
- Basically, I think Evernote is good for static reference material. Dynalist is more agile and easy to onboard.
- Continue with Apple. Remember me for 30 days.
- I would be happy with Dynalist linking public or private Evernote urls just like it can do with Dropbox. This would be achievable in the short term. JozsefHegedus 2019-05-14 03:24:50 UTC #7.
While Notion, Roam and Bear all look very beautiful, I decided against these to avoid future vendor lock-in. Dynalist lacks Evernote import, making it a no-go for me. I reviewed Joplin, an open-source replacement for Evernote. It has the same look and feel, and allows for seamless import of .enex files. However, the interface is pretty bare-bones and I was curious to use this opportunity to explore less linear kinds of note-taking.
Which brought me to the Zettelkasten method, and the Obsidian and Zettlr apps. Both are essentially a layer on top of a folder of Markdown files. Markdown is unlikely to go anywhere soon, and the notes can be synced in any way you like: I put them in my Dropbox folder.
First step: export my Evernote files to Markdown
Dynalist Vs Evernote
- Downgrade to Evernote 6 (the newer, awful v10 doesn’t allow export of more than 50 notes as a time)
- Export each notebook as a .enex file, making sure to click the ‘export tags’ checkbox
- Use this excellent converter to export all of these notes to Markdown: https://github.com/akosbalasko/yarle
- See here https://github.com/anne-urai/yarle for the template and config settings I used
- This worked beautifully, and converted all my notes (but took a while for ~7GB worth of .enex files)
Web clipping to Markdown
The Markdownload plugin https://github.com/deathau/markdownload clips webpages to a Markdown file, which should go into the Inbox folder with notes. I used the following settings on the plugin, to ensure that clipped and exported notes have the same structure:
I also turned off image downloads – Obsidian beautifully renders web images, and I figured this would reduce note size considerably. It does come at the risk of breaking in the future, but for most images that I clip from the web that’s OK.
Organize Obsidian
Between Zettlr and Obsidian, I picked the latter (but they seem very similar and can both access the same structure of files).
To rebuild some of my Evernote workflow, I enabled the ‘Zetttelkasten prefixer’ and ‘Calendar’ plugins. The former allows creating a quick note with a Zettelkasten prefix (YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS) and a template structure (e.g. date created and updated), and the latter launches a daily/weekly/monthly note from a template (with goals, projects worked on, habit tracker).
To create a simple Kanban list, I used the following useful template https://github.com/masonlr/obsidian-starter-templates#kanban-with-embeded-queries which organizes notes (by tags) in a table.
I also starred some important ‘meta’ notes and saved searches.
Email forwarding: IFTTT + Automator
I have a habit of forwarding important reference emails, or emails containing tasks to do, to my GTD inbox for both safekeeping and project management. Obsidian doesn’t have an email forwarding setup, but I hacked together the following:
- on IFTTT, select ’email’ as trigger, and pick ‘Send IFTTT any email’. This will give you the trigger@applet.ifttt.com email address, to which you can forward emails.
- warning: if you have multiple inboxes (home, work, etc) this will only work when you send from the email address associated with your IFTTT account. In my case, this is my gmail. I could probably add an IFTTT account for each of my email inboxes, like my work email.
- this email will trigger Dropbox (where I keep my Obsidian Markdown database) to create a text file. I used the following Markdown syntax
Dynalist Evernote 連携
- Unfortunately, this will append a
.txtextension to the file you’ve just created (which is not recognized by Obsidian). On Mac, we can build an automator workflow: it will monitor the Inbox folder for files called .md.txt, and remove the .txt extension.
Missing features
Obsidian doesn’t have a mobile app, so ubiquitous capture (for quick ideas) is tricky. For now, I’m going to use Google Keep as an inbox on my phone, and process that one daily.
tl;dr Turns out, the structure of all of my second brain is rather pretty!
Downplay the share button
Tom Taste replied to Scott Souchock's question in General Feature Requests
Yes, second that. Please remove that share-button / make it optional / at least not green please Especially in dark mode it is very distracting..Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
New update, it seems to be gone... Finally... it... really seems to be gone! Even after restart! Can anyone confirm?Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, after new update still the subtle orange push... 6.15.4.7934 (307934) Public (CE Build ce-53.4.6770) I really believe you dconnet, that you want to remove this annoyance. So thank you for your work. But this situation overall is very strange.Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, thank you for your reply. Yes, just tested it (6.15.3.7881 (307881) Public (CE Build ce-53.2.6641)). Customizing the toolbar. Rearranging it. Syncing before closing. Closing before syncing. Still there after restart, shouting in my face: UpgradeUpgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, I really believed it was fixed this time After testing it, it seemed so to me. But it is there again now. I don't use evernote so often anymore, just for legacy projects so I didn't notice. You need to restart the application, instead of only pressing sync at the moment to make the button reappear.- Tom Taste changed their profile photo
Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
While turning it orange, it also seems, that no 'hack' is needed anymore to remove that Upgrade-Button. So case closed at this moment I guess :)Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Yep... My Upgrade Button reappeared again... Will not ask again this time how to remove it... Probably the workaround still works That and finding more minor problems in formatting when writing in evernote is making it more and more frustrating for me to use it. That's no good mindset, writing an idea... I found another alternative (yeahi) that works regarding structuring ideas and more things like a charm. You might want to check out dynalist. Evernote is still great, when it comes to capturing webpages. I think I will restructure my workflow to accommodate that. Any tips/adviUpgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
The workaround works, the upgrade button is gone with this specific way of removing it, thanks AustinUpgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
I don't seem to have this issue anymore. Is it fixed for everyone else? If someone else could confirm, this topic might be finally solved ^^Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
I just changed the title. I let the *solved* there because, in my thinking, all that could be done from the user end, was done and the topic had the latest information. The 'solution' is to wait for an update. Thanks for pointing out that it can be understood differently and indeed, the issue itself hasn't been solved yet.Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, I also updated and are using the most current one 6.5.4.4720 (304720) Public and the problem still persists... I will write support again.Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
I talked with support. And this is a known issue that should be resolved in the next update! Thank you all for your support, best TomUpgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, thank you for your suggestion and insight. I tried that and also made a gif http://imgur.com/i8SuTGX (unfortunately I was only able to upload it here once, deleted that test-post but couldn't upload it again. If someone can show me how to insert gif in the forum directly, via upload or inserting a direct link, I'd appreciate it a lot ) But even changing the order made it reappear. I found out though, that syncing triggers the upgrade button to re-appear.Upgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Thank you so much! I've tried restarting/reopening a few times - no success I've contacted support and will get back as soon as I have a solution or know if it is a intended featureUpgrade Button keeps reappearing *solved*
Tom Taste replied to Tom Taste's topic in Evernote for Windows Issues (Versions 6.25.1 and under)
Hi, thank you so much for your quick reply I made screenshots in which order what happens. I hope they appear right..