Today is a big day for updates. We’re doing a coordinated release of both Evernote for Windows and Evernote for Mac to introduce a bunch of powerful new capabilities that our users have been asking for. Unless noted, the features below are available on both platforms.

Get the latest:

• Check for updates in your desktop version
• Get Evernote for Mac from the Mac App Store or from Evernote
• Get Evernote for Windows

Introducing: Note Links

It’s not often that a single feature has the potential to dramatically improve Evernote for all users. It may not seem like much at first, but Note Links is exactly that kind of addition. As the name suggests, Note Links are links to individual notes that can be placed almost anywhere. Create a note link by right clicking on a note and choosing the Copy Note Link option, or choose it from the Note Menu. The link is then placed into your clipboard.

You can paste that link into just about anything—other notes, calendars, to-do lists, third party apps, etc. Whenever you click on the link, it’ll open the note. If you Shift+Click (Windows) or CMD+Click (Mac), it will open the linked note in its own window. We’ve already updated the Web, iOS and Android versions of Evernote to support this feature, so if you click a note link in those environments, it’ll take you to the right place.

Note Links also work in Shared notebooks, allowing notebooks authors to guide visitors through their notebooks.

Multiple Note Links
Select multiple notes, then right click and select Copy Note Links. When you paste them, you’ll get a list of links. This is great for building bibliographies, tables of contents and citations when doing research.

The power of Note Links
Have you ever wanted to create a reminder for a note? Now you can, simply paste the note link into your calendar application. When the reminder pops up, click on the note link and you’re taken to the note. But that’s not all, we expect Note Links to usher in exciting, new applications from our developer community, perfect for our Developer Competition.

Copying notes

You can now make a copy of any of your notes and place those copies wherever you like. You can duplicate a note in a given notebook, you can copy a note into another notebook, you can copy a note from a shared notebook into your account, and vice versa (if the notebook owner allows that).

To copy a note, right click on it, then choose Copy Note (Windows) or Copy to Notebook (Mac).

Create note templates
Note copying gives you the ability to create templates for notes. If you have a specific note layout that’s ideal for, say, gardening or accounting, then make a copy of it. We also give you the option of applying the tags and created date of the original note to the copy.

To do this:

• Windows: Right click the note, mouse over Copy Note, then choose Notebook…
• Mac: Right click the note, go to the bottom of the notebook list, mouse over Options

Snippet View

If you use Mixed View in your note list, the most obvious change you’ll see is the new Snippet View. Snippets are designed to provide the most useful information possible at a glance. If your note contains only text, then the Snippet will display the text at full width. If the note contains both images and text, then it will show text and a thumbnail. If it’s just an image, then the snippet will show the note title and a larger thumbnail. Not only does this view give you more information about the content of the notes, but it also makes browsing through your notes easier.

Note Browsing History: Back and Forward Buttons

Navigating through your Evernote account just got easier. We’ve added handy forward and back buttons to let you go through your recent note browsing history. It’ll take you to notes you viewed and searches you performed.

Just like in your web browser, if you click and hold on the back or forward arrows, you’ll see a list of things you can jump to, saving you the hassle of extra clicks.

Back and Forward also make navigating through note links a breeze. If you’re in a single note window and click on a note link, the linked note will appear in the same window. To return to the previous note simply click on the back button.

Note Menu

All note-related functions are now neatly displayed in the new Note Menu. Go there to share, copy, move, and more.

Windows: Other enhancements

Here are some Windows-only updates. Mac-only updates follow.

New Exporting Options
By combining Note Links with our HTML export option, we now let you export your notes as separate web pages with a table of contents page all in HTML. It’s like exporting your notes as a compete website. To do this, select the notes you wish to export, then right click and choose Export Notes. Then, select the Export as Multiple Web Pages option.

Additional improvements

• Drag and drop: Drag and drop text and images inside a note, to the desktop and to other notes
• Disable PDF preview: Right click on a PDF to view it as an attachment instead of a preview
• Improved handling of text styles: We’ve improved the way the app handles font styling

Mac: VoiceOver Accessibility Support

We have improved Evernote’s compatibility with Apple’s VoiceOver accessibility features. You can activate VoiceOver via System Preferences > Universal Access.

More to come

These updates to Evernote for Windows and Evernote for Mac add a ton of great functionality that makes Evernote better for users and provides new capabilities for API developers. Let us know what you think.