Tuesday, April 1, 2014

EVERNOTE–A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE GENEALOGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE

evernote4

I have debated on writing this post for a few weeks now.  Why?  Because I am not an Evernote specialist by any stretch of the imagination.  I began using the program about 6 months ago.  What I’m going to do in this post is tell you where you can go to learn about this wonderful program.

I belong to several genealogy Facebook groups  and I kept hearing about Evernote this and Evernote that.  I’m always curious and continually strive to learn and improve my skills at all times.  So, I downloaded the FREE program onto my desktop and my iPad. 
Once I downloaded Evernote I played around with it a bit, but have to admit that I wasn’t quite “getting it.”  I didn’t do anything with it for a month or two.  Then one day I decided that I needed to take some time and really explore this program everyone seems to rave about.  I watched the tutorial online at their site.  Then I did what I usually do when wanting to learn something new, I turned to YouTube.  That is a site that can teach you about everything from composting to how to use software programs.

Here are some links I found by Googling “Evernote tutorials.”  Of course there are many more out there and you may find some that explain it better or differently, but these will get you started.

http://www.cyndislist.com/evernote/how-to/
https://evernote.com/getting_started/
http://evernote.com/video/
The following link is very informative.
http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/how-to-use-evernote-the-missing-manual-full-text

WHY USE THIS PROGRAM AT ALL?
  • Every note you put into Evernote is OCR’d and searchable.  Can’t remember where you put that note about your Grandmother’s birthplace?  Just enter her name or the place or something that might have been included in the note and Evernote will find it for you.
  • You can tag your notes.
  • You can create notebook stacks.  I have a notebook called  SURNAMES and I have several surnames notebooks under or stacked in that master notebook.
  • You can email items you’ve found or want to save, directly to your Evernote account.  You are given a specific email address just for your use.
  • You can create audio and video right from the program.  Take a picture, record a voice note.
  • You can sync to all your devices.  I have Evernote on my desktop, laptop, iPad and iPhone and they all contain the same items.
  • You can share your notebooks with others and allow them to add to them
That’s just a partial lists of the features.  Are you convinced yet?

Here is a screenshot of Evernote on my desktop:

Evernote screenshot

There are a list of my notebooks on the far left.  A snippet view of some of the posts from my Blog Post notebook in the middle and then on the right, a larger view of the note I have highlighted.

I have shared notebooks with my brother, John, who is also a genealogist.  If you look at my notebook list you will see that I have one for Gardening, Household tips, my Mom’s info (she is in assisted living and I need to keep all her paperwork, medicines, cards etc. handy at all times), one for Recipes and another for our upcoming trip to Scotland. 

Another free application offered by Evernote is their Web Clipper.  If you have ever used a screen capture program, that is what this is.  It allows you to mark up, add text, highlight etc.  And then, allows you to save that clip to a specific notebook, that you designate within Evernote.

Here’s a screen shot I captured yesterday, with Web Clipper.  Then I played around with all the features in web clipper.  I’m just learning to use this feature and needed to practice.

Evernot web clipper shot

I wrote this so that maybe you will have an idea, now, about what everyone is talking about when they mention Evernote. 

FYI:  There is a similar program offered by Microsoft that is also free.  It’s called OneNote.  Many people use it and like it.  Some people even use both programs.

I hope this post has been useful and somewhat informative. It certainly isn’t meant as a tutorial as there are many of those already available.  

Other bloggers have written about using Evernote.  One noted blogger, Thomas McEntee wrote about it and you can find his post here: EVERNOTE - Your Virtual Genealogy Assistant

Let me know if you begin using Evernote and if so, what tips can you share with me?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
FACEBOOK - How It Can Be Very Useful in Your Research
FAMILY SEARCH - Going Back & Getting Those Other Pages
SETTING GOALS, FOCUSING ORGANIZING - How do we Handle These Issues?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for this great information! I am going to give it a try.
    Denise

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    1. Let me know how it works out Denise. There is a bit of a learning curve. The YouTube and other video tutorials are very helpful in that regard. I do really enjoy the program.
      Thanks for visiting my blog.
      Diane

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  2. Great job, Diane! As usual I learned some things I had not known previously, which is why I read your blog! :-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks John. It makes me smile when people tell me they learned something new from reading my blog. And, that just keep me writing more.
      Thanks for stopping by :)

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.