In a former life, I never thought I would need code blocks or math symbols (I have a Masters in English). And while better code blocks and support for math symbols may not be useful to you, they certainly wouldn't compromise the way you use Evernote (or change your interaction with it in any way), and may very well be useful to thousands (if not more) of others. In other words, it is becoming increasingly common for a service to offer these features (and as more challengers emerge, they will seek to emulate the frontrunners and perpetuate these features - which become cemented as expectations). The situation, however, is that many of the biggest kids on the block (e.g., Notion and Obsidian) have implemented all of the text features I mentioned (as well as the note navigation + note traversal features), on top of their very impressive unique/distinctive feature-sets. I agree with you in principle (re the text I bolded in your post). This, in fact, is a debate I've seen years ago on these forums: should we expect to use Evernote for everything, simplifying our tool kit, or should we accept the need for a diverse tool kit composed of programs that do specific things well? I don't need Evernote to do everything I prefer it to do a limited set of things well, and I'll use other software for other purposes, e.g., finance management. Math, symbols, and code blocks are not a feature of my life. But otherwise, I think the text editing in Evernote is quite good. The navigation ideas have been suggested here so often that Evernote must be aware of them. (That's what they said, not what I'm saying.) What is minimal for some is superfluous to others. It might be worthwhile going back and reading all the posts here about Evernote adding a Tasks function when obviously no one needed that. Scrolling through a table will never be great on a mobile-sized screen, so these features are less important. They do not need to replicate the desktop experience and should prioritize text and task features above all else. The mobile apps need to be more performant (fast and responsive). Having sorting and filtering functionality, and rudimentary auto-filling (such as dates) would also be quite useful.īONUS 2 (not part of the absolute competitive minimum) How can Evernote claim to be useful for people managing personal finance or doing any simple tracking in general without the ability to do summations and other simple arithmetic. Here is a list of feature requests that, if implemented, would dramatically raise Evernote's competitive standing:īONUS 1 (not part of the absolute competitive minimum)Įvernote loses ground because it lacks a calculation engine of any kind. More specifically, a note should be easily navigated (internal links), the note-space should be easily traversed (better linking between notes), and the text editing needs to be top notch (better markdown support, math and equation support, and better code blocks with syntax highlighting). Low-friction content creation (the main reason why I have not switched)īut Evernote sorely lacks in the critical areas of text editing and note navigation, which are the absolute competitive minimum that a player in this space needs to get right. As such, while it is easy and it feels great to get content into Evernote, it is not so great to write/edit/use Evernote.Įvernote leads or is on par with competitors in the following areas: But, in addition to expanding into other features, Evernote's competitors are refining and perfecting the text editing and note navigation experience. While its competitors are increasingly diversifying into wikis, kanban boards, spreadsheet engines, full on databases, graph networks, and AI-assisted creation spaces, Evernote keeps things straightforward and therefore achieves a very low-friction file-cabinet like experience. Evernote is content with the humble note-centric view of the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |