I recently discovered a new note taking tool called EverNote and I just love it. I’m starting work on a book and needed a way to manage my notes. 3×5 index cards weren’t going to cut it this time.
It needed it to be electronic, so I could just cut and paste when it comes time to write the book. But I didn’t want to give up the feature of the old index cards where I could create discreet little notes and assign them categories. And being able to keyword search content would also be a big plus.
EverNote met all my needs and more. Plus it’s free! Here’s what it says on the Web site:
EverNote 1.0 is designed to give users a single place for all types of notes and information and to make them instantly accessible at anytime, in any place. EverNote makes it easy to store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more.
You take notes on what appears to be an endless digital roll of paper, thereby keeping all your notes in one place. You can create plain text notes or hand (actually mouse) written notes/drawings. Plus, you can clip Web content (either the whole page or just a highlighted portion) and Evernote automatically inserts a link back to the original content. Or drag and drop other documents into EverNote thereby creating a link to the document on your computer.
Each note can be assigned multiple categories (of your choosing) which you can use to filter the notes. Keyword searching the full text of notes is also available. Additional features include encryption, printing & emailing notes, import/export, locking notes and more.
For users of pen-enabled devices, EverNote Plus is available for purchase. It includes Handwriting Recognition, Shape Correction, Advanced Note Recognition (ANR) and Ink-Note Search.
For more information, see the review of Evernote in SearchEngineWatch.