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Evernote for iOS Update: Redesigned Screens, Improved Usability, New Settings, and More

Product updates | By Andrew Sinkov
 

This has been quite a week already, and it’s only Tuesday! Today, we have a major update for iOS 5 that includes redesigned note screens, improved editing, better checkboxes, new attachment options, and more. Let’s take a look.

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iOS 5 iPhone: Major note editor upgrade and redesign for iOS 5

The first thing iPhone users will notice is the completely redesigned note editor. We’ve spent the past few months exploring ways to make the interface more intuitive and easier to use, and we’re very excited about the result.

Attachments on top
All of the attachment options now run along the top of the note editor, so you can add a photo or audio recording with fewer taps.

Intuitive text styling
The text styling options are now accessible from a new tab that appears above the keyboard. When you tap on the styling tab, the keyboard is replaced with formatting options. This way you can place the cursor where you want, set the style, then flip back to the keyboard to keep typing.

Redesigned note info
Tapping the “i” in the top right corner of the note brings up the newly redesigned note info screen. Here you can quickly set the notebook, add tags and see the location of the note on a map.

iOS 5 iPhone: Better checkboxes

Making lists in Evernote is really straightforward. Create a checkbox from the formatting tab, and off you go. With this update, we made checkboxes more intuitive, and more useful to the super checkbox users out there. First, when you’re in a checkbox list and create a new line, Evernote will automatically add a checkbox to that line. Additionally, we now allow you to indent your checkboxes, great if you’re making lists within lists.

Improved attachments

Above, we mentioned the new location of the attachment options in the note editor, but that’s not all we changed. We improved how these functions work, too.

New recorder
The audio recorder has been beautifully redesigned. Now, when you tap the microphone icon, the entire top bar transforms into the recorder, showing you audio levels and recording time. When you’re finished recording, tap Done.

Your recording will appear in the body of the note. You can even play it back right away to make sure you like what you captured. If you don’t, simply delete the audio and record again.

Photo Stream
If you use iCloud to sync your images between your devices, then you have a Photo Stream group in your photo library. The new Evernote update allows you to attach these images to your notes.

More control

The latest update also adds a couple of new settings that let you better control your Evernote experience.

Auto-titling settings
In Settings, you can now turn Note Auto-titling ON or OFF. Note Auto-titling is the feature that predicts a note title based on your location, calendar events or contents of the note. The feature is on by default, but if you prefer not to get title suggestions, then simply turn it off.

Save to Camera Roll
One more feature that you can now disable is automatically adding snapshots you make in Evernote to your Camera Roll. If you would prefer not having the same image in Evernote and in your Camera Roll, then disable the function and the app will only save the snapshot in Evernote.

And more…

In addition to all the visible changes described above, there are lots of improvements and fixes that make this version of Evernote even more reliable. There’s more to come.

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  • Paul D’Auvergne

    This is a terrific improvement. Very powerful & intuitive. Well done :)

  • mike

    Really awesome, fewer clicks to attach stuff and format text… can’t complain one bit. Every time I come up with something that could be better, you guys are on it. Nice to see that a few million dollars doesn’t slow your roll.

  • http://www.vladimircampos.com.br Vladimir Campos

    Very nice update! Loved the new elements disposition on the iPhone screen and the “tap to edit” a note. This is great!

    But what happened to the iPad version of Evernote? I looks like it is abandoned by you guys. Its beginning to get unusable, when compared to the iPhone version.

  • ZeeD

    I do love the new update as well, but one thing is still missing or I am not able to find it:

    Copy and paste a link to a note like in the Mac version, so I can have a little “taste of a wiki” within my Evernote notes.

    Keep up the good work!

  • Andreas

    Hello,
    what I really need to have are stacks, where are they?????
    It is so frustrating waiting for this functionality!!! I love stacks on my MAC but Where are they in the iOS version?

  • Martin

    <3

  • Courtney

    Awesome update…still begging for the ability to collapse stacks on my iPhone though!!

  • Mark

    Stacks, stacks, stacks! The iPad version is dying for stacks. Without them it’s like having to look through a messy desktop for a note. If you started organizing with stacks on the Mac version, you can’t be without them on the iPad version. This is a great product, but to not have stacks on the iPad version is unfathomable. Why would this feature, which is a major tool to organize notes, be on every version except one?

  • Matt

    Why isn’t the Source URL field editable? Why can’t you add it when adding a new note?

  • Tim

    Add my vote (yet again) for stacks. Also, a non-thumbnail view. The lack of these 2 basic features (which exist everywhere else) makes Evernote on the iPad a clunky experience. These have been asked for up and down the forums for well over a year and Evernote’s response continues to be, “it’s on the list”. WHEN?!? you seem to be doing everything BUT this and my experience on the iPad with Evernote continues to suck! Listen to your users or I will bolt for the first viable competitor – and some are getting very, very close.

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