Two months ago, we sat glued to our browsers as details of the iPad started streaming out of Apple’s launch event. It didn’t take us very long to formulate our official strategy for the new device: we were going to support the hell out of it, and we had 60 days to do it. Today is iPad launch day and as long lines start to form outside of Apple stores and UPS-Santa makes his rounds to sleepless geek households, we’re happy to say that Evernote for the iPad is live in the Apple AppStore!
The new Evernote version (3.3) for Apple’s mobile devices is a universal binary that will run on all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. There aren’t many changes for iPhone / iPod Touch users in this version, but if you run it on an iPad you get a completely new user experience.
Something to hold
Designing the new interface was a daunting task. First, we made an advanced prototype by cutting out a roughly-tablet-sized piece of cardboard, writing “iPad” on it, and carrying it around for a few days. We would bring it to meetings, hold it in different ways, and try to imagine what Evernote would feel like on this form factor. We looked pretty stupid and people made fun of us mercilessly. We printed out Photoshopped UI screens and taped them to the “iPad” to get an idea of font sizes and finger placement. We learned a lot.
What should it be?
We tried taking our existing iPhone UI and making it bigger. That failed the cardboard-poke test. We tried taking our existing Mac UI and making it smaller. That failed the cardboard-poke test. We locked ourselves into a conference room for three days and threw away all of our previous designs. After some trial and error, we got something that we fell in love with.
One major design principle of our iPad interface is to get you to your notes quickly. The new layout and interactions dramatically reduce the amount of navigating and searching you have to do. The idea is that it should be easy and pleasant to just get to any note you want in a very tactile way. We want you to have the feeling of running your fingers directly through your memories. It’s hard to describe but easy to experience. Of course, you can still search.
Things to try
We’ll post a complete tutorial of all the features soon, but in the meantime here are some things you should try:
Views
Scroll through all your notes in the “All notes” screen. Try the “View options” in the upper righthand corner to toggle between thumbnail and detail display and to change how your notes are grouped. If you have a lot of notes, try using the quick-scroll bar on the right side of the screen to quickly jump from group to group. The tick marks on this bar show you how many notes you have in each group, so it’s easy to jump to the “busy” parts of your life with just one tap!
Notebooks and tags
Tap on the “Notebooks” or “Tags” tab to view and browse your notebooks and tags. If you have many items displayed, try changing the sort order to “Note count” using the switch at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll automatically see your most popular tags or notebooks first.
Places
Try the new map display in the “Places” tab. The thumbnails will automatically update to show only those that relate to what you’re seeing on the map. So, as you scroll and zoom the map, it’s easier than ever to find exactly the note your looking for.
Notes
If you tap any note, you’ll see a split screen with the note contents in one panel and thumbnails in the other. All of the “View options”, grouping, scrolling and quick-scroll functionality is available in this view as well, so you can pretty much spend all of your time in the screen if you want. Just hit the “Home” arrow in the upper right to get back.
New notes and editing
You can always make a new note by hitting the “New note” button on the bottom left corner of the screen. We’ve implemented the most requested feature for note creation: You can now combine text notes with any number of image or audio attachments. Just tap the attachment buttons located along the top of the note editing window to record audio or add an image. You can even continue to type while you record, although if you try this you should either use an external mic, external keyboard, or tap very very softly… All of this works when editing an existing note as well, just hit the pencil button when viewing a single note. These new capabilities have also greatly expanded the types of notes that you can directly edit.
Searching
You can always search through your notes by tapping on the search bar in the upper right. All of Evernote’s image searching and highlighting works as well, of course.
Remembers your place
The new Evernote for iPad is so fast that we were finally able to implement another frequent request: when you quit and relaunch the app, it starts exactly where you left it. If you were viewing a particular note or search result and quit to run another app, your note will be right back on the screen when you restart Evernote. If you don’t care about what you were last looking at and just want to make a new note quickly, the “New note” button is always in the lower left side.
What’s not in the new version (yet)?
There are a bunch of things that we wanted to get into this version but couldn’t. These will be coming soon:
Drawing
We think that making a quick sketch or jotting down a phone number with your finger will be a great experience on the iPad, but we didn’t want to try to put in this functionality until we’d actually spent some quality time with the hardware. Handwriting is just too much of a tactile-based experience to develop purely on a simulator.
Notebook, tag and search management
Notebook, tag and search management: You can’t currently make new notebooks on the iPad, and tag and search management options are limited. Of course, you can do all of this from the Mac, Windows and Web versions of Evernote and the results will be automatically synced to the iPad. The next version will include this functionality directly on the device.
iPhone / iPod Touch upgrades
Even though much of the under-the-hood code was updated in version 3.3, there are no user-visible changes in this version for iPhone / iPod Touch users. The next few updates will bring many of the improvements that we developed for the iPad to our iPhone / iPod Touch users.
Many other upgrades and improvements are coming soon as well. Getting our iPad app from zero to public availability in 60 days was a giant effort, but we’re not slowing down anytime soon. If the first version on the iPad is this good, just imagine what we’ll be able to do once we, you know, actually get some iPads.
A giant thanks to everyone who worked on this version: Steve, Gabe, Andrew, Dave, (the other) Phil, Alex, Ken, and Larry!
Note: A few people have reported a problem synchronizing existing accounts when upgrading to version 3.3 on their iPhone or iPod Touch. Most of these problems are solved by quitting and restarting the app. If this doesn’t work for you, then you should delete the app from your iPhone (by holding the icon until it wiggles and tapping the ‘x’) and reinstall it from the AppStore. We’ve already submitted a new version to Apple (3.3.1) that fixes this problem, so hopefully this won’t be an issue for long.
401 Comments
super
is there a way to type that “to do” box when making a new note on iPad? would be great.
Jay S
Can’t wait for rich text editing/input on the ipad – I am using Evernote w/ the bluetooth keyboard + ipad to take notes on radiology topics. I desperately need outlining and picture adding ability to notes, and also ability to edit the notes I’ve created on my PC.
Abakehouse
Awesome application, I just wish there was a way to create to do lists when editing a note, and then manage them all from one location.
Looking forward to the drawing addition though…
Jeff
Agreed. We need a way to turn “notes” into action items better and integrate with project/task management. This would be a great feature.
Steve
Agreed, I’d like to suggest omnifocus integration, would work great with GTD project and context tags! Just imagine writing notes and being able to insert an action that goes into your task manager. Id pay for an Evernote add on, this would save me hours every month.
Chelostoma
Agreed! Integration with omnifocus, a web clipper for ipad, simple to-do-list as part of a note, rich txt editing and sketching/handwriting would be a dream come true!
Daniel
Please have rich text (for the iphone as well!) It’s really a critical feature for me
Dave
Hi, love the iPad layout for evernote…and the attachment function works great too. But is there a way to edit the location information in the notes I have created on the iPad..
Thanks!
Erwan
Is sketching or jotting coming soon. I’m a heavy Evernote user and have recently bought an iFinger stylus for a few bucks. It makes me wanna sketch new notes so bad
Nancy
I would really like for the iPad version to add a list display. Many of us use Evernote for GTD and this view would be very helpful.
Scott matthews
Please please please, rich text editing/ to do list boxes for the iPad!
And am I missing something? I would like to use web clipping too!
Rico
Web clipper please!
Justine Collins
I am new to evernote, and thus far I really love it. But it would be worlds better if there was a web clipper for the iPad. I feel that I’m crippled without it, since I do so much web surfing on the iPad and not on my actually computer. I agree that a save to evernote option in all apps would be sweet as well.
Peter
Ditto, web clipper please.
Debbie
Is there a way to add security/passcode sensitive notes (e.g., credit card numbers), which would be stored only on my iPad (never to be synced, emailed, or sent to any clouds, drop boxes, etc)?
Andrew Sinkov
Debbie, at this time you cannot store notes only on the iPad. You can create Local-only notebooks in the desktop versions of Evernote.
Rickard Sundin
What you are looking for is 1Password and Dropbox. Se instructions at http://help.agile.ws/1Password3/dropbox_syncing.html
I use it and it works like a charm!
Simon Lambert
Is there a way that I can add the web clipping bookmark to safari on my ipad like I can on my macbook?
George
firefox type web/url save capability, probably same thing Rico is asking for.
peter
Rich text note editing on iPad would be very,very useful
Brenda
I sure would like to be able to clip from the web on my iPad like I do on my laptop and desktop.
Andrew
I hep web clipper comes next
Chris Petrie
Will we ever be able to use double tap on the document “open with” functionality that other apps offer.
I use IAnnotate to mark up PDF’s, and Documents to Go, to write Documents from scratch.
I would like to be able to save back into Evernote, an annotated document or a new document made in Documents to do. I have to use Dropbox for these Docs now.
These are my wish list items, I think Evernote on the Ipad is fabulous.
Joris
Evernote 3.5.6.2848.exe gets stuck downloading at 37Mb in Firefox, Chrome, and IE. I even tried downloading from CNET.com with the same results.
Niels
Pleace make it possible to make a hand drawing note, inside the document. That way you can easily make ex a mathematic note with greak symbols..
james nicholson
A web clipper for the iPad version would be SO helpful! Great app. Have recently come back to Evernote having tried various other apps – and Evernote is definitely the best! Nice work.
Emma
My friends were raving about this product, but despite the handy synchronization and ability to add text and audio, without the ability to format text (bullets, bold, italics, indents, etc), this product is not useful enough for me. I don’t want to have to make fake bullets with dashes because it’s tedious and I don’t want to have to go into Word at a later date to clean up my notes, because that’s contrary to the efficiency that Evernote is supposed to be providing. Please get text formatting!
Kate Quinn
Please, please add the Web clip feature for productivity AND ability to use sketching apps with Evernote!
A Project Manager
Love the product, one of my most used tools. IPad version is replacing paper in many ways for me, but I miss the rich text functionality in the windows version, especially bullets/ordered lists and ability to add bold type. Look forward to seeing this in a near version. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Rod
Could you at least let us know when a web clipper for the iPad might be coming?????
Bill crawford
WEB CLIPPER!!!!!!!
Scott Hendrickson
A web clipper would be really helpful. But maybe you can build a iPad desktop clipper that could clip text and/or images from any ipad app? That would be even better…
Zameema
Web clipper pleaseeee…..I love Evernote!
Chris
Would be nice is the web sight explained stuff like web clipper is not available for iPad… So that fols lie me brand new to evernote don’t think they are losing it looking for thrndang thing.
Also can we get web clipper for iPad?
Chris
David Mussington
It would be great if a web clipper could be added to the iPad version of this program.
Jen
Really, really need a web clipper, please!! I use it constantly on my laptop.
patrick
rich text editing iphone/ipad, rich text editing iphone/ipad, rich text editing iphone/ipad, rich text editing iphone/ipad,
John
Is a web clipper not available because it isn’t ready or because apple is blocking somehow?
Lori H
My wish list: a) Web clipper please; b) todo lists; c) way to do a full sync with Note Shelf.
Lori H
To clarify, need web clipper in iPad browser.
Raquel
I am trying to use Evernote to organize my homeschooling schedule. I created a calendar for each subject as a table in Evernote on my Mac and need to let my Kids enter their daily work to the calendar on their iPad or IPods. I can view the calendar and check the checkboxes I had added on the iPad, but cannot add text. I was hoping to see the work each child completes after they edit and sync. Is there a workaround to this? If we could implement this to use as I planned, the time savings and happiness factor would be tremendous!
Andrew
Where is the web clipper? Nothing says it is not available for the iPad but I wasted a lot of time looking for it.
Julie
I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but if I have a note with checkboxes on my desktop, then I go to the iPad (or iPhone) and check off items…the next time it syncs, the boxes are all unchecked again! (It’s very demoralizing to think I got through none of my todo list!)
Is there a fix for this?
David
Regarding iPad web clipping, I installed the Evernote bookmarklet in iPad Safari and it works fine. Plan to do same for iPhone.
James
How did you install the web clipper in Safari? Instapaper had great directions but nothing on the Evernote site I can find for iPad.
Jeff N
How do you install the bookmarklet in iPad Safari?
Rob
Would you please tell us how you installed the clipper? I can’t get it to install. Thank you!
David
On computer:
- Go to Evernote web clipper page- Find “Drag To Your Link Bar”, right click, copy link.
- Paste somewhere you can get to the link text from on your iPad. An Evernote note or an email to yourself for example.
On iPad:
- Copy link text. For an Evernote note, choose to edit the note so you can copy the link text.
- Safari, add a bookmark for any page.
- Make title of bookmark Evernote what you want. You can’t paste the URL yet. Save.
- Open bookmark editor, Edit, choose the bookmark you created in previous step.
- Delete URL content, paste URL you copied.
- Done. The clipper overlay is a little slow to display on some sites.
Kristin
This worked great – thank you for sharing!
DlomVT
How did you right click and get a link? When I right click I get Java script. If you get a link, can you paste it here? Thanks.
doonyakka
@DlomVT: David meant you should copy the link on a computer, not the iPad, then transfer it to the iPad somehow (e.g. email it to yourself as plain text). You will then be able to copy the link on your iPad and create the bookmarklet.
HTH,
doonyakka
Marc Weinstein
@David – Thanks for sharing this. I’m still a bit clumsy when it comes to cutting and pasting on iPad, but despite this, the work around is exactly what I was looking for (short of Evernote for iPad already having this functionality.
Rick Schrager
It seems that the home screen icons when sorting by notebooks or tags do not refresh to show current content. Mine shows items that I’ve deleted. Minor annoyance in an otherwise fantastic product. Thanks Evernote!
Oh yeah, web clipping please!
Andri
The ipad version is missing a LOT of stuff. I really love the synchronization but how little you can manipulate the text on the evernote is sad.
JohnF
Web clipper fix for iPad/iPhone.
The solution is to add the web clipping bookmark function to Safari (or other browser) on your laptop/desktop, then sync bookmarks with your iPad/iPhone. This is easily done on the evernote web clipper page by bookmarking the clip link or dragging it to the bookmark bar. This link is then replicated on the mobile version of Safari and works fine. You can also add the bookmark to other mobile browsers – I’ve done it to Perfect Browser on the iPad by re-importing all my bookmarks from Safari on my Mac once I’d added the clip bookmark.
Seattle Tom
@David, I had tried to make that work without success until your instructions put me over the top (I kept trying to do it all within the iPad…never thought of emailing myself the link).
Thanks for making this iPad app perfect by adding that web clipper as a bookmark in Safari. Genius!
@Evernote: Thanks for not responding to any of the dozens of requests your customers made for this feature or even saying it was “under consideration” or offering a workaround like was figured out here. Really inspiring customer service.
Lars Daniel
On iphone we have the star (favorite) that you add to an note and thereby make it readable offline. It seems to be gone on iPad. Bad for me.
Alex Galindo
I use EN on my Ipad with OS 4.2.1 …recently the “search” field is not showed. I turn the Ipad off and ON and it gets fixed, but soon the “search” field is hidden again.
Still loving EN !
Mr Picasso
Where is the search field? I saw it this morning when i first accessed EN on my iPad, but now it’s not there no matter what screen I select.
Dan
I’m seeing a similar problem, but for me the search field is only partially visible and appears half off the top left hand side of the screen. I can see it but I can highlight it to enter text. Seems to be a bug. It just remains there regardless of what screen i’m on.
Garfield Southall
Yes, I have the same problem – Search box partially off the screen in the very top left, whichever way round I have the screen. Really frustrating because Evernote is my key app when on the move.
pedram
does ipad support middle east fonts for writing and viewing the notes like arabic & persian fonts?
John Madden
Sorry Guys,
I guess I’m being really stupid but I can’t find the ‘evernote web clipper page’ in order to find and copy the link to the ipad.
thanks,
John
craig d
John – link for evernote webclipper page – look at bottom of page http://www.evernote.com/about/download/web_clipper.php
Tom Sharp
For working on a set of long notes, I spend a lot of my time scrolling to where I had been in each note I turn to. In addition to returning to the note that I had left, when the note appears, it should show the text that had been visible, and when I edit a note, Evernote should return the caret to where it had been when the note was last saved.
ghassan
Dear Evernote
Could you please advice me how to add an icon or a picture next to note title without that picture or icon showing in the text box if possible.
Thanks
Ghassan
Anony
Web clipper please
waitm
I also agree on the necessity of rich text for the iPad/iPhone?
Is there an issue with the iPad that it can’t support it?
TONGCC8
Still no rich text editing?