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If you’re looking for a way to organize your life, or for a powerful note app, or for a way to access your content across multiple devices, check out Evernote. Evernote is available as an app for your computer, smartphone and tablet; as a website; and as an extension for your browser. No matter what device you’re reading this article on, Evernote is probably available on it. 
Evernote will help you organize your notes, favorite websites, photos, audio recordings, video clips, shopping lists and, well, your life. Using Evernote you can save these items in different notebooks which you can sync between all of your devices.
Here’s a video from Evernote showing what it can do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pjn6YkCY2yA
Using Evernote
Adding Evernote to Your Computer
You can add Evernote to your Windows computer by downloading an application from the Evernote website or, on a Mac, getting the Evernote App from the Mac OS App Store. When you right-click on a highlighted term, adding to Evernote will appear as a selection.
Clipping Websites
If you find a website that’s particularly helpful, clip it to Evernote using a browser extension. Evernote now has browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
After you add the extension, you can save text, images and links from a website and have them handy across all platforms. Your clips are saved even if the web page expires.
Here’s a video from Evernote showing how web clipping works on Chrome (this also applies to other browsers as well as to Chrome):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oFOiCOmgXmc
Photos
You can add photos to your notes, either by taking a photo from within the app or adding a photo from your photo library.
Audio Recordings
You can use Evernote as a voice recording app to help you organize your audio files.
Searching with Tags
Evernote lets you tag your notebooks so you can search for items easily.
Image Scanning
When you add a picture to a notebook, Evernote can scan the image to read the text shown in that image. You can then search your notebooks for terms used in the image.
Emailing a Note
When you sign up for Evernote, you get an email address for sending information to your notebooks. Send an email to that address and add the content of your email to your Evernote notebook automatically.
Sharing Notebooks
Evernote lets you share your Notebooks with other Evernote users.
Syncing with IFTTT
By using IFTTT with Evernote, you can have emails, Twitter favorites, Instagram posts, Flickr favorites, Facebook status updates and Foursquare checkins saved to an Evernote notebook automatically. Check out sample IFTTT recipes here: IFTTT Evernote recipes. You can even archive your IFTTT recipes in Evernote.
Syncing with Other Apps
Evernote syncs with lots of other apps to help make your creative works available wherever you are. Apps that sync with Evernote include Notability, Instapaper, AP Mobile, Pocket, Quick Office Pro HD, and lots of other desktop and mobile apps.
Geotagging with Evernote
You can use Evernote to geotag your notes, keeping a record of where you were when you created the note. On your mobile device, allow location services for the Evernote app, either when you set up the app, or in Settings.
Evernote + Moleskine
If you’re a fan of taking notes with pen and paper, Evernote can be a useful tool. Evernote is partnering with Moleskine to bring you Smart Notebooks. You can write notes in your Smart Notebook, take a picture of them with your Evernote Camera app and have the notes appear digitally in your Evernote online notebook. This feature is scheduled to be launched later this month. You can find out more and pre-order your Smart Notebook from the website: Moleskine Smart Notebook.
Getting Started with Evernote
With all the different platforms and ways to use Evernote, explaining each here would be a challenge. Instead, I suggest you head to Evernote’s Getting Started web page.
Ideas for Using Evernote
Photos
Organize your photos in tagged notebooks so you can have them with you wherever you are and can share and search for them easily. If you’re on the hunt for the perfect dress, keep a notebook of photos of your favorites and share them with your friends to get their opinions. If you’re house hunting, keep a notebook of photos, floor plans and specs of your favorite homes for handy reference.
Recipes
Create a notebook of your favorite recipes into Evernote and tag them so you can search them and have them handy wherever you are. At the grocery store and can’t remember the ingredients for your favorite recipe? Open your Evernote app and search for the recipes. Share your recipe notebooks easily with friends and family.
Gift Lists
Use web clips, photos and notes to keep track of gift ideas for the holidays, birthdays, weddings or other events.
Grocery Lists
Make grocery lists from your computer and have them available on your smartphone when you shop. Add pictures to make sure you get the right brand or size. Share your notebook with your significant other easily.
Receipts
Keep track of your purchases by taking pictures of them and storing them in a notebook. The images are searchable for text and tags so you can find your receipts easily later. You can also save online receipts to your Evernote notebook for online purchases.
Instruction Manuals
If you’ve ever struggled to find an instruction manual long after you’ve purchased a product, use Evernote to keep them handy whenever you need them. Scan or take pictures of your manuals for a notebook and toss the paper ones away. After you get rid of the product, you can delete the manual notebook from Evernote.
Travel
Keep itineraries, conference schedules, travel receipts, confirmations, reservation information, sightseeing ideas, addresses and packing lists in Evernote. If you travel on business, keep a record of your travel plans, people you met with, restaurants where you ate and other helpful information. Next time you visit that location, check your notebook to remember the details of your trip.
Packing Lists
Whether you travel a lot or rarely, it can be handy to keep a packing list handy. You can have different packing lists for business, personal and family travel.
Meeting Notes
Keep notes from a meeting handy to refer back to or have accessible if you’re called into a last-minute meeting on the same subject.
Evernote Premium
Evernote is free, but power users may want to upgrade to Evernote Premium, which gets rid of ads and gives you more storage space, ability to password lock your iOS and Android apps, access to offline notebooks (Android and iOS), edit shared notebooks with other Evernote users, and more. Evernote Premium is available for $5/month or $45/year from Evernote.
Getting Evernote
You can sign up for Evernote at their website. The Evernote app is available free for:
- iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store
- Android devices from Google Play
- BlackBerry phones from App World
- Windows phones from the Windows Phone Store
- Kindle Fire and other Android devices from the Amazon Appstore
Bottom Line
Check out Evernote for a powerful organization and note taking tool. Are you looking for a versatile organizational tool to keep your content available anywhere? Have you used Evernote? What are the ways you use Evernote? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Gift image by Premier Packaging
Wonderful extension or app indeed!
I’ve heard a lot about Evernote and read a little about it too, but never really learnt so much about it as I just did here. 🙂
You explain things so well Carolyn, that it makes it easy to understand things. I like how Evernote literally stores up all the older web pages you might have browsed through while visiting a particular site in one place itself. It’s kind of a bookmark, though with many more features in it. And as the video showed, you can use it for searching too – so it does have everything in one place. 🙂
Thanks for sharing – would head over and give it a look. 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, Evernote is a staple. I hadn’t written about it before because, well, it’s just so powerful that it’s hard to included everything people should know about it. But everyone should know about it because Evernote offers so much for free.
Yes, you can make notebooks of all kinds of things. I like to make notebooks for blog ideas, then add web clips when I do my research. I also have a notebook of positive mentions where I clip pages from blogs that give me a shoutout. That way I have them even if the blog shuts down.
If you’re planning a project like a move or a wedding, Evernote can help you keep track of the details. Adding pictures is a big help tool
You can even bookmark a favorite notebook in your browser toolbar so you can reference it easily on your computer.
See? It’s difficult not to gush about Evernote!
I hope you enjoy using it, Harleena. I think the blog ideas notebook would be a very handy one for you. 🙂
Hey little girl, want to see the size of my fonts………oh wait, that was the last post.
I’ve heard of it and the question for me would be, would I actually take the time to learn how to use it effectively if I downloaded it; I guess there is only one way to find out, huh?
I will check out the Getting Started page to see what it has to offer; thanks for sharing.
Hi Bill, Lol, yes, it would put diet companies out of business if we could all be a size smaller by reducing our font! 😉
Evernote is very easy to learn. Just start with one notebook, like Blog Ideas. Add to it when you get inspired. You can even dictate into it on your iPhone. I like it because I always have my iPhone with me so when someone suggests a blog topic for me to cover, I can add it to my Blog Ideas notebook.
After you sign up for the service, you start with your first notebook. You can title it, tag it and then start typing. Or you can click on the photo icon if you want to add a photo. I promise, it’s easy peasy! 🙂
If I’m not mistaken Carolyn, I think Benny was the one that introduced me to Evernote last year. I still use it but not as much as I use to. I do use it though when wanting to do more then just bookmark a site. We all get carried away with that but I love how we can type notes and remind ourselves why we bookmarked a particular site.
It’s come a long way and has so many other cool features now. Leave it to you to share them all with us. Great job!
Thanks Carolyn…
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, I still remember that amazing video you did showing how to clip web pages using Evernote. I didn’t know about that feature until you introduced me to it. Now I’m so glad I know about that because often I come across websites that I want to clip. Bookmarking doesn’t work if the website closes down but web clipping on Evernote does!
Thanks for schooling me on Evernote, Adrienne!
I have been using Evernote for a long time (the free version), and it was one of the best tools I had ever used, and it probably still is. But, now I am using Day One (diary) to take notes and sync between all my different devices. It’s not free, but it’s fairly cheap and it works great. Evernote is still more advanced, but the reason I “switched” was that the design of Day One is just close to perfect and it’s so much more fun to use. I write all the time, because what I write looks good no matter what I write 🙂
I’m looking forward to see more of the partnership with Moleskin to see what will come out of it. Moleskin is my favorite notebooks, and if you combine Moleskin and Evernote it’s going to be really powerful.
Hi Jens, it’s great to hear from another fan of Evernote. You’re right, you have to work with what’s a good fit for you. Even though Day One costs money and isn’t as powerful as Evernote, if it is a good fit for you, then you made the right decision to use it. :-bd
I love the IDEA of Evernote. I’ve watched the videos; I’ve downloaded Evernote on to my laptop and my iPhone. But when it comes down to it, I never use it. Ever. I should call it Nevernote.
I’m not sure why. I think I find it a bit too cumbersome. I haven’t really taken the time to familiarize myself with all of the features and applications. And I doubt I will.
Right now, we are exploring different CRM and Project management tools for our business – it’s really hard to find a solution that integrates both. Know of any?
I did the same thing. I downloaded the software into my laptop but i use it only in that first day. After that, it lays in my files with no use..
Hi Radu, I hope this article has inspired you to give Evernote a try. Sometimes we don’t realize how we can use a tool until we see how others are using it! 🙂
Hi Ruth, You may want to give Evernote another look. What I love about it is that even though it’s powerful and versatile, Evernote very simple to use. Creating a notebook, adding pictures and audio clips are intuitive. Searching through notebooks is easy too, especially if you have tagged them.
I also like how easy it is to share notebooks. Something as basic as sharing a recipe or a shopping list can be an easy task when you’re using Evernote.
Hey Carolyn
I discovered Evernote only last week and downloaded it to my PC and iPhone.
Since then it’s been lingering there not doing anything. So I’m going to take the time to look at it tomorrow as it does sound a really useful app.
Hi Tim, Yes, I think you’ll really enjoy using Evernote. The app is very powerful, yet simple to use. Once you start using it, you may wonder how you managed without it!
Let us know how you like it, Tim!
Hi Carolyn,
I’ll have to check out Evernote. I’m not usually very good with programs like this though. I should try to use one to keep track of my photos though, there are thousands now. I am thinking of taking photos. We have had high winds, low temperatures, rain and warm sunshine. That’s just today! The dreaded school run will start soon, then the rush hour. I never know when the best time is to go out and try to take photos, except on a Sunday! I’m actually thinking of going to an art exhibition if the weather is bad next Sunday. It’s unlike the galleries here to open on a Sunday, but they have a fairly major exhibition on now.
I hope you like this week’s pictures. 🙂
Hi Mike, I think that Evernote could be very useful to you in keeping track of your pictures. You could save them in notebooks and then tag the notebooks for easy searching later.
I look forward to seeing your pictures, Mike! 🙂
I am still trying to understand Evernote, Carolyn (Well, the fact is that I haven’t tried that much to learn how it works).
Two-three days ago, I was looking for a tool to manage my plan for the new blog that I am working on (well, that’s when I decided to go back to Evernote and tried to make sense of it). Didn’t have enough motivation to do it, so I switched to Mindmeister to draw it all out (can we use charts in Evernote?)
Thanks for the article, Carolyn 😀
Hi Jeevan, Yes, you can use charts in Evernote. You can create a spreadsheet and save it to Evernote. You can’t, however create a chart in Evernote.
Another blogger recommended Evernote to me some months back and since it’s available on the Kindle Fire, I signed up. For a free app, it’s pretty comprehensive and feature rich. My favorite part of Evernote is the synching feature across all devices and the fact that it’s relatively easy to use.
Excellent review, Carolyn. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Hi Missy, Thanks, it’s great to hear from another Evernote fan! Yes, I also love that Evernote is feature-rich but free and easy to use! :-bd
Evernote is a brilliant app beyond explanation. The founder, Phil Libin, is a brilliant entrepreneur, who is one of the smartest product guys on mobile app products. The product he has created is so sleek, so useful, that they don’t (need to) spend a dime on publicity. Every Evernote user is like a publicity hoarding.
Evernote’s one of the useful features is its open APIs other developers can use. Talking of which, you earlier wrote about EasySign, which is also integrated with Evernote. After signing a document, you can save it directly to your Evernote. And talking of recipes, another friend of mine, Brian, runs a recipe site SayMMM which also integrates with Evernote (http://blog.saymmm.com/post/14919862312/say-mmm-on-evernote).
More power to Phil Libin and Evernote!
Hi iRewardChart, So great to read your endorsement of Evernote and the developer. Having Evernote sync with so many other apps makes Evernote even more powerful. It’s a lot like Dropbox in how many other apps you can use it with very easily.
I can see why Evernote doesn’t have to spend a dime on marketing. It can rely on word of mouth and its popularity with other apps to let others know of its many great qualities.
Hi Carolyn
Evernote is for sure a nice app. I use it most for Gift and Grocery Lists, but I can see that it can do so much more. I use DropBox to bring my files available online, but that is only for files. I can see that Evernote can be useful in many other ways.
Hi Thomas, Yes, I’m a fan both of Evernote and Dropbox. Both are accessible from a lot of other apps which makes them very useful tools.
When I think I will have to modify my content from multiple sites, I use Evernote. When I just want to access content from different sites, I use Dropbox. I really appreciate having my content anywhere and everywhere! 🙂
Thanks for the great explanation of Evernote. I have recently began to “dabble” with it, from another app I use called ShopAdvisor, but I hadn’t realized the full extent to which Evernote can be used. Looking forward to better maximizing my use of Evernote!
Hi Carol, Good point, even if you’ve been using Evernote, it’s always helpful to learn about how others use this tool. I got a lot of creative ideas doing research for this article!
Awesome tool and a wonderful explanation of its features and benefits by you.
I had heard about this tool before, but never read something so much in detail that made me download the app. Now I really have to check it out, I think i can really use it for my blogging notes and website bookmarking for sure.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Praveen, I’m so glad you will be using Evernote. I think you’ll really find it useful, especially for blog ideas. If you get an idea for an article, you can jot it down in Evernote and clip photos, webpages and links as you research your articles! :-bd
Yea, that was the first thing that came to my mind when I was reading through your article…i am sure it will be useful, maybe i will try out the free version first and see how much I use it 🙂
Hi Praveen, Yes, I think you’ll be fine with the free version. But if you find you’re a power user, the subscription doesn’t cost much at all.
Carolyn,
Thanks for sharing the wonderful information. I did hear about Evernote but never use it. The features looks really awesome and handy. I like the concept since it helps to organize everything right from search,clip,scan,record and so on at one place. Awesome tool. Let me surely try Carolyn. 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Manickam, How wonderful to see you back at The Wonder of Tech! I was thinking about you recently, wondering how you are doing.
Yes, I think you’ll really find Evernote useful, Manickam. You’re right, there are so many ways to use Evernote that you will be able keep all of your important information in one place.
I hope you do give Evernote a try and please let us know what you think after you try it.
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for remembering me 🙂
We are doing good and moved from Baltimore to Iowa with family. Working at John Deere now.
Indeed, I miss your blog and your great postings. Let me surely stop by from now on and pass my comments. Yes. I am going to try Ever note and get back with updates.
Again, Thanks for the nice post Carolyn.
Of course, I remember you, Manickam. I have thought about you often in your absence. It’s great to hear that you are doing so well. I have never been to Iowa but one of my best friends is from there and she is totally awesome, so it must be a great place!
Yes, you are always welcome here, it’s wonderful to have you back. Let us know how you like Evernote. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Evernote seems to be on every single gadget one can imagine and the services it is providing is the best one can imagine.I wonder,will managing all the stuff in just one place could be effective or not?? I have to look around the site to understand more about what it can do.Thanks for sharing about this awesome app Carolyn. 🙂
Hi Aditya, Excellent point. With so many gadgets and computers in the home, it can be difficult to remember which device you were using when you took a note. With Evernote, it really doesn’t matter which device you were using because your note will show up on all of your devices and computers.
I find Evernote especially helpful for blog ideas, which occur to me at all times of the day and night.
I hope you find Evernote useful as well, Aditya!
Hi Carolyn,I have downloaded penultimate from Evernote site and the way it represents the writing style is amazing.I wish i could get it earlier.Loving the Evernote. 🙂
What a great informative post, Carolyn, thanks so much. I have installed Evernote on all of my devices but never got around really using it, but thanks to you I will now go ahead.
I have not been commenting much lately but I read (and save) your posts, you make this technically challenged person understand the most complicated thingies.
I wonder whether I am the only one to shy away from studying some new tools or app, although I know that in the end I would be better organised and save time on top of it?
Congrats on the Sisterhood award, I have just been over at Sam’s! 🙂
Hi Barbara, Thanks for your kind words and congratulations. I am very flattered to have received the award from Samantha, she is a very special person!
You are not alone in shying away from new tech. In fact, that’s exactly why I write this blog. People shy away from tech because of the fear that they won’t understand it and get frustrated when they try to use it. But there’s a lot of useful and fun tech that isn’t complicated so I want to share that with my readers. Using tech can make life so much easier, if the tech itself is effective and easy to use. If it isn’t, well then I won’t be writing about it.
Evernote could be very useful for you to keep your beautiful photos and tag them so you can easily find them later. I’m sure you will find many other uses for Evernote too, Barbara! 🙂
Wow Carolyn! I’m a regular user of Evernote, but I haven’t used it “this much”, really. I use Evernote to clip websites, capture (save) blog post ideas, and write blog posts (not all but some) – great for distraction free writing, especially if I have all the reference sites within Evernote – I can see the full blog post without leaving Evernote and potentially getting distracted!)
Hi Jane, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so sorry I missed your comment earlier. It’s so great to see you here.
That’s a great use for Evernote. You’re right, it’s easy to get distracted when writing a blog post. You’re doing research and then suddenly you’re lost on a web page. I will have to remember your idea and use it in the future! :-bd
You know, I had a stint of trying to use Evernote. I installed the Google Chrome extension and everything. Maybe I just didn’t dedicate enough time to learning it and I had too many organizational tools already. =P I really believe in the app’s value though! It’s just so extensive! And even better if I get my husband on board. =)
Hi Samantha, Yes, sometimes tech needs a second try before you see how useful it can be. That has happened with me with quite a few apps, but then they become essential tech tools.
I hope you enjoy Evernote on your second time out!
Evernote is awesome! I installed it also on my Android phone use it every single day. The cool thing is that it reads my calendar and automatically adds appropriate tags to the notes, for example “note from a meeting with…”. This makes it very efficient and easy to later organize the notes. There are plenty of uses for Evernote and the longer you use it the more useful it becomes.
Hi Photography Blog, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! It’s wonderful to hear from another Evernote fan. It sounds as if you’re using Evernote very effectively to stay organized. Thanks for sharing your ideas with us! 🙂
Carolyn, yes I think I am making a good use of Evernote 🙂 But I did not know about IFTTT – and I am so glad I learned something new!
I use the desktop version on two of my computers and also access my notes from anywhere with the web interface. I love the Clip to Evernote extension for the Chrome browser. And I take snapshots with my phone: timetables, price tags, and whatever I want to memorize and have it later automatically available on my desktop. At first I could not believe that Evernote actually managed to search through the text on these photographs! I know you mentioned this feature in your post above – it is an impressive feature. I also record and sync voice notes. Very, very useful indeed.
I wish I had some kind of electrode implanted in my brain and directly connected to Evernote (uhm, just kidding!). It’s a great program!
Greetings,
Tom
Wow, Tom, if you are that big of a fan of Evernote before you use it with IFTTT, I can only imagine how excited you’ll be about it after you start using it with IFTTT. You are quite the power user of Evernote and I hope that pairing it with triggers will help you enjoy Evernote even more, though please try to resist the urge for brain implants. 😉
Carolyn:
You have put together a great and easy tutorial to follow. I have been using Evernote for a while now but you have shown me that I haven’t been using it to half of its capabilities. The instruction manual tip was something I had never thought of and as I am in the process of moving your tip on adding measurements and floor plan notes to my photos will come in very handy when instructing the movers.
Thanks for your help, I will be sure to toot as I pass through Philadelphia!
Hi Annaliz, I’m so happy that this was a helpful post for you. Moving can be exciting but very stressful. You’re right, using Evernote can help keep your information organized and accessible. Add pictures to your new home information to help you remember what rooms look like, where outlets are, etc. You can also use Evernote to keep information handy such as the contact information and account numbers for old and new utility companies. You can make to do lists and share them with others.
Good luck on your move. I will be waving as you pass by Philadelphia! :-h
Hi Carolyn,
By coincidence I was told of Evernote last night so this post has come in really handy for letting me know what I can do with it.
Having just got myself a smart phone this will be a handy tool to have 🙂
Thanks Carolyn.
Barry
Hi Carolyn,
Thank you for sharing this. Evernote can be very useful for a such type of person like me. I’m very scatter-brained when I have to much to do. I think it also can be helpful for those who are not able to remember people’s names correctly.
Hi Monica, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, it’s very easy to keep your notes organized with Evernote, plus you can keep them handy wherever you go! I hope you enjoy using Evernote, Monica. 🙂
Carolyn,
I have started using Evernote several times but have never really used it for very long.
I have always thought that Evernote would be a great resource. I think that I just need to get into the habit of using it.
After reading your post I am re-energized to use Evernote.
Thanks for all of the information.
Dee Ann Rice