Evernote for Mac version 1.1 just came out, and it’s full of the most requested features and improvements.

PDF Support

You asked for it and now it’s here: Evernote supports PDF files! You can now drag a PDF into an open note, onto the dock icon, or into a notebook. You can also combine multiple PDFs, text, and images in a single note. Notes with PDFs will get synced like any other notes (unless you specifically put them into a local-only notebook, of course), so you can access them from any computer or device capable of viewing a PDF. The Mac version will even search the text within PDF notes.

You can also “print” right into Evernote from any Mac application, just go to the File>Print menu, push the PDF button, and select “Save PDF to Evernote.” A fully-formatted copy of your web page or document will automatically be added to Evernote. This works great with Safari, Firefox, iWork, MS Office, whatever. Try it with this blog post!

Our image-recognition technology won’t work on images within PDFs yet, and the Windows and Web clients will currently display PDFs as attachments, and will not automatically search within them. We’re working on it…

Spotlight

Evernote is now fully integrated with Spotlight. Now, you can search through all of your files and all of your memories in one place. You can also make Finder “smart folders” that include Evernote content. Just set the “kind” drop down to “other” and type “Evernote” into the field that opens up. Neat!

New “Mixed View” Mode

Evernote for the Mac now has three views: List, Mixed, and Thumbnail. The new “mixed view” mode shows you a single column of small thumbnails and metadata for each note. Now there’s a view that’s perfect for any set of notes, monitor sizes, and user styles. Try them out and find the one the works best for you.

Vertical Preview Pane

The Mixed and and Thumbnail views now offer a resizable and collapsable vertical preview pane on the right.

The currently selected note is displayed in the preview pane and is fully editable, scrollable, and shows live search results. If you have the screen real estate, try opening the preview pane to a generous size and you’ll never need to leave your favorite viewing mode again. Hitting “New Note” in Thumbnail or Mixed view will no longer force you into List view. You can still open a note in a separate window by double clicking on it. Of course, if the preview pane is taking up too much room, just drag it closed and it’ll stay that way.

The List mode keeps the preview pane on the bottom of the screen to accommodate more horizontal columns in the list.

Encryption

Ok, technically we rolled this out in the last build, but for some reason the announcement fell through the cracks, so let’s pretend that encryption is a brand new feature. Just select any portion of text in a note, right-click on it, and select “Encrypt Selected Text.” If you haven’t selected a password yet, you’ll be prompted to do so. To decrypt text, just click on it. Notes with encrypted text can be synced just like any other notes, and are fully interoperable between the Mac and Windows clients; you can encrypt stuff on a PC at work and decrypt it on your Mac at home, or vice-versa.

There’s currently no way to decrypt stuff on our web or mobile versions. You’ll see that a note has encrypted information, and you’ll be able to see any unencrypted content, but you won’t be able to decrypt it yet. We do this because we don’t ever want you to transmit your password over the network and we never want to see it on our servers. There are ways we could work around this restriction, but they’re not trivial to implement so we just haven’t had the time to work on them. We’ll get to it sooner or later, but in the meantime just keep your secret spy stuff to the Mac and Windows versions.

Don’t forget your encryption password! We never see it or store it anywhere on the service, so if you lose it, you won’t be able to decrypt your secrets. Seriously.

Bug Fixes

Version 1.1 also has many bug fixes and stability improvements: you can now drag-n-drop images, text, html, and supported audio into a note, thumbnails look better, and everything is just a bit smoother. Of course, this is still beta software, so if you find any bugs or issues, please send them to us.

If you’re already using the Mac client, just select “Check for Upgrades” from the “Evernote” menu to upgrade to version 1.1. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can always get the latest version here. If you need an Evernote account, just sign up.

Thanks to everyone who’s tested our Mac client. It may be the newest addition to the Evernote software lineup, but it’s really starting to look pretty good. Keep the comments coming!

Last night we released the latest versions of Evernote for Windows and Evernote Web. Here are some of the user-facing enhancements (there are a lot of behind-the-scenes improvements). We’ve also added a ton of new hardware in response to our fast user growth.

Bonus: We’ve given everyone more invitations!

Evernote for Windows [Download Now]

• Search: Searching is now significantly faster, especially over large notebooks and databases
• Synchronization: Sync now works through password-protected proxies
• Stability: Major improvements in stability and overall performance

Evernote Web

• Multi-select checkbox: Now you can move, delete, and tag multiple notes at once
• iPhone: iPhone users are now automatically redirected to the iPhone-optimized web version
• Search: Note searching is now faster

Thank you beta testers. You’re helping us make a better product.

We asked our Twitter followers to tell us how they use Evernote. Here are some of the responses. Many thanks to everyone that tweeted!

Work

• jvmoore1: Evernote has been great for IT work. I research something at my house or in the office and am able to access it on the web.
• blloyd: Snapping photos of whiteboards at meetings with my phone.
• PhoneTrips: My friend and I run a weekly podcast at whatsnewisold.blogspot.com. I put items in Evernote all week tagged “podcast.”
• ajfortin: Recently put screenshots of a health care conference live-tweets in public notebook so people can search for speaker comments.
• juliegomoll: Using it for planning new business - notes on vendors, products, ideas, etc. and for fodder for future blog posts.
• mmaslowski: I use it for collecting scraps ideas and outline specification of new apps I’ve been working on.
• RuudHein: Clipping, maintaining database of information retrieval knowledge for www.searchenginepeople.com.
• okwichu: Keeping track of work tasks, notes, and rough time tracking.
• WickedGood : I’m using it to create and manage show notes for my podcast: http://www.extra-points.com/.
• normc: Evernote has cleaned my office, my desk is no longer full of scraps of paper.
• bhugh36: I use it mainly for work stuff because I can easily sync between my Mac at home & my PC at work.

Personal

• aimeeisdrawing: I’ve been using it for collecting things I need to return to on the web, better than bookmarks. My boyfriend uses it for school.
• BobQ: For clipping recipes, doing research for projects, keeping multiple project-related lists, and for snapping images on my cellphone.
• kevinfrey: Using Evernote gloriously to be a smarter wine consumer. I can’t remember yesterday, let alone the name of the last wine bottle I drank.
• gcmandrake: I use Evernote for keeping track of photography ideas and notes. (I also use it for work & home.)
• shaneblyth: I use it for gathering info at home on tech topics, storing business cards, etc.
• xstealx: I use it as a note-to-self and reminders mostly but I intend to use it for work.
• zemote: I am using Evernote for work & personal. It has become my bucket for clipping everything!!!
• mjohnson16: I’m using Evernote for work notes, church projects, research, reminders, and general mayhem moments.

School

• LtFielding: I’m using it for school.
• lrei: I’m using Evernote for college notes, personal projects, planning trips, notes for writing my blog and general personal notes.
• iamhannah: School and work. I use it for my radio show to be organized.
• richgould: Using Evernote to help with my son’s 3rd grade project on chickens. Finding everything we can: pics, info, facts, etc. It’s great!
• whoisvince: I’ve been primarily using Evernote to store any and all info about scholarships.

Travel

• molgar: I am using Evernote to collect info for my next trip: New Zealand!!
• barron: I am using Evernote to plan our summer vacation. It keeps all my notes in one convenient place.

Organization and productivity

• ChrisWarren: I use it as my mobile @rnd folder for GTD. Marvelous!! I now have ink notes too.
• levibethune: I track my paystubs, tax forms and bills in Evernote, as well a separate notebook of beer and wine bottle labels.
• androvski: I use it for all my geeky stuff, reminders, ideas, to-do lists, bookmarks, school stuff, etc. All my life is within Evernote.
• lbcapt: Really loving the app - using it on Mac, PC, and web to keep track of reminders, future blog posts, etc… Great job!!
• Kforbriger: EVERYTHING… keeping my online world organized on Evernote now.

Research

• SherylSisk: I’m using it to collect, research, and process “blog fodder” for my blogs.
• joeyinteractive: We are the developers of Desktoptopia (http://www.desktoptopia.com), we use Evernote to capture new ideas and artists we discover.
• shaneblyth: I use it for gathering info at home on tech topics, storing business cards, etc.
• leanda: I use Evernote for keeping scrap books of design ideas and inspiration - type, colour, pattern, shape etc.
• sharpstick: Keeping political news articles to refer to later on in the year.

Shopping

• pattyman: I keep track of things I want to follow up on Craigslist, and also comics I see in the shop that I want to pick up next time.
• duncanmike: My wife takes cell phone pics of fashions in mags/stores > Evernote to create a “looks to recreate” reference.

We are huge (HUGE) fans of the Apple iPhone. While the current Evernote mobile web interface works well on iPhones, it’s just not the same as having an application that’s tailored to the device.

Today, we’re unveiling the new Evernote iPhone web interface at:

http://preview.evernote.com/iphone

We’re still testing and improving it, but we didn’t want to wait to give you access

In creating the Evernote iPhone web interface, we were able to rethink our mobile user experience. Whereas our standard mobile web application allows users to find notes by performing text searches, the iPhone version adds the ability quickly filter notes by navigating through lists of tags, notebooks, and note attributes to construct complex searches without typing. We think users are really going to like the ability to search and filter on their phone just as they can on the web or desktop applications.

One challenge we faced when designing the iPhone web interface was how to deal with large, complex notes. We decided that although the iPhone UI makes it easy to zoom and pan a web page, for Evernote the best experience should be more like reading email. Also, as in the standard mobile web version, we scale all the images on our servers, so you don’t have to download your 12MP images to your phone’s small screen. In addition to being able to email and delete notes, you can also zoom into a note, which will open it up in a separate browser tab with the full size images.

We know you’re going to ask, so here are the answers to some questions:

• Yes, we will begin auto-detecting iPhones soon. For now, iPhone users will need to go to the URL above
• You can use the two-finger gesture to pan around large images

The new Evernote closed beta is about two months old and we’ve just passed an important milestone: our first one million notes!  During this time, we’ve made lots of improvements to the service and we’ll be announcing a few more big things in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned.

To celebrate (and to do some stress testing on our registration servers), we’re giving away instant beta accounts to everyone who clicks on this secret url (http://preview.evernote.com/Registration.action?code=1MN0tes) from 6 am to 9 pm, California time, today.  If you miss the time window but want an account, just sign up using the normal beta application and we’ll send you an invitation soon.

Big thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to test Evernote and send us feedback!  We couldn’t do it without you.

Say you’re using Evernote to plan a trip. You’ve been clipping webpages of hotels and restaurants, typing itineraries, snapping photos of your travel documents (just in case). Now, you want to give all of your travel buddies access to this information. Evernote lets you do that.

By default, everything you create in Evernote is private, but you can easily publish any notebook to the web. Here are instructions for how to do this using the web and Mac clients. This is coming very soon to Windows. For now, Windows users can publish their notebooks using Evernote Web.

1. Select the notebook you want to publish
2.
- Web: Click on the Actions dropdown and select Settings
- Mac: Cmd + click on the notebook and select Notebook Settings
3. Click Publish
Optional step: Add a description
4. Copy the URL (don’t click the URL yet, the notebook isn’t saved)
5. Click OK or Save
6. Mac only: Click Sync

That’s it. That URL is now publicly available, so send it to anyone, even subscribe to the RSS feed. Stay tuned for more publishing and sharing options in the very near future.

Here’s a notebook I made during a recent trip to the Napa Valley.

Do you have an interesting public notebook? Post a link in the comments.

Visual step-by-step: Evernote Web

Visual step-by-step: Evernote for Mac

Security and privacy are extremely important topics for Evernote users, and for good reason. Evernote would like to provide a single service to manage your memories for many years. To achieve this, we must provide a very high level of system and data security while offering users a variety of choices to manage their own privacy requirements. Here is a high-level overview of some of the ways in which your data is protected by Evernote.

When you add a note to the service, it is secured like your email would be at a high-end email provider. This means that your notes are stored in a private, locked cage at a guarded data center that can only be accessed by a small number of Evernote operations personnel. Administrative maintenance on these servers can only be performed through secure, encrypted communications by the same set of people. All network access to these servers is similarly protected by a set of firewalls and hardened servers. Your login information is only transmitted to the servers in encrypted form over SSL, and your passwords are not directly stored on any of our systems.

We also offer enhanced privacy options that would not be available from services like email:

If you have sensitive text that you would like to remember (passwords, PINs, credit card numbers), you can encrypt that text in our Windows client (Mac coming soon) using a passphrase that is never transmitted to Evernote. This encrypted text can only be decrypted and read on one of your computers after you’ve re-entered the encryption passphrase. The sensitive text is not readable on our servers or on your computer by anyone who does not know the passphrase.

If you have some notes that you only want to access from a single computer, you can place these into a “Local Notebook” on our Windows or Mac client. Notes in a Local Notebook are never transmitted to our service, so they aren’t accessible from the web, or from your other computers. This may allow a greater level of privacy for some notes, at the expense of the accessibility and reliability you would get from a private note on the service.

Evernote recognizes that user choice is an important component of privacy and security. We believe that no single option is going to meet the needs of all users, so we aim to offer a set of tools that let people balance their needs for accessibility, privacy and control.

Lots of Mac users out there love Skitch. It’s a great application for image editing, screen grabbing, and annotations. In this short video, we show how easy it is to use Skitch with Evernote. Plus, you get to see the Evernote recognition technology in action.

If you’re in the mood for some takeout in San Francisco, here’s the public notebook of take out menus that we showed in the video.

Sign up for an invitation to the Evernote Beta.

History

In the early stages of the Evernote Service development the Web Clipper was just an easy way for developers to get content into the development notebooks quickly. It also helped us test our HTML sanitizer which makes sure no nefarious javascript makes it into users notebooks. First there was a command-line version, then a little clipper that just sent the URL’s to Evernote but didn’t work on secure sites. As we approached the final weeks before the beta launch we decided that the Javascript Web clipper was going to be part of the core service offering. We debated a little, each of the native clients support clipping and screen shots so it wasn’t clear that we really needed another way to clip content, but there was a strong lobby for not wanting to leave the web when you’re capturing web content.

Ultimately we decided that we needed a really good browser based clipper because a key part of the service launch was letting users capture from anywhere.

The version we released did a lot of what we wanted: one click capture, easy install, instant feedback, image and HTML document capture, capture selections of text and images or the whole page. We also support clipping from password protected sites like web-based email clients (which turns out to be kind of tricky).

Launch
Probably 15 minutes after we launched we realized the Web clipper was going to get a lot more use than we planned. In many ways it was just what we’d hoped for, users merged their personal photos and notes with information they gathered from around the web; Evernote helped them bring it all together. The Javascript clipper isn’t entirely bug free, each browser is different and mileage still varies. Also, there are a lot of really bad HTML pages out there and cleaning them up into our own internal variant on XHTML can be tough. For the first month or so I’d get a list of errors logged when the clipper could not save the clipped content from remote web pages. This list of different sites has provided a great source for testing and bug fixing.

Clipper Revisited
With this release the Web clipper has finally become really useful (at least for me and I hope for you).

Tagging and filing the clips as you clip them makes it so much easier to find pages later. I’ll clip sample code from articles, blog posts from Google Reader, recipes and put them straight into the correct notebook.

Some older features also seem more useful. Whenever you clip content, Evernote sets an attribute so you can view all your web clips and then filter by tags, notebooks or other criteria. If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, you may want to try filtering based on source URL. In the search box type: sourceURL:http://www.nytimes and you’ll be able to see all the notes you’ve clipped from the New York Times.

If you put clipped pages into public notebooks or email a note from a clipped page, your friends will also be able to access the source URL.

More to do

I’ve still got more features to add to the web clipper. At the top of the list is “search as you type” tags. Clipping from sites with frames is still a little flaky espacially on Safari. Lastly, I’ve been toying with the idea of recommending tags based on the clipped document’s similarity with other documents you have.

Ever wanted to dictate a quick message into your cell phone and have it magically appear in your Evernote account? I did. As did astute beta tester Drew Vogel, who sent in a brilliantly simple way to get this done by plugging together Jott and Evernote.

Just as I was sitting down to blog about this today, we were scooped by Brad Isacc at Lifehacker: Jott Your Way To Evernote Bliss.

Always feels good to be scooped by Lifehacker!