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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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  • NeuroJoe

    The ability to draw a table on iOS would really help. I use 2 column tables all the time when teaching; left column for what I plan to do that day, right column for what I actually managed to do in that class.

  • http://jpm.cc JPM

    Great improvements! Wanted to know what happens when we’re recording something on iPhone and the phone rings. In the past, it would stop recording.

  • vv

    Problem report:
    After the update, the offline notebooks no longer can be visited offline.

  • Ej

    Worst update ever, everytime I save a note the app crashes!
    you should focus also on stability and reliability and not only on features.

    Regards.

  • http://www.netsuite.com Trevor

    While I have to agree with the style improvements, it is now very difficult to record a voice note with one hand. I use this feature a dozen times a day, and what was previously accomplished with several taps in the same general area is now an exercise designed by the Rubics cube guy. Could you add a “big smuckers fingers for voice notes while driving” option that will triple the size and locate the Record/Stop/Save buttons near each other.

    I did go the route of purchasing 2 separate partner Apps for “simple recording”. Both of these 3rd party companies unfortunately decided to record in audio formats that Voice2Note does not support. Rather frustrating, and the reason I use the native Evernote app for recording.

    I do love the podcast!

  • http://www.podcastbuddies.us JR Hughson

    I’m a huge fan of the auto title feature. I think the one tweak I would made would be to ignore all day events when choosing the title.

    Or, and I’m sure you’ve thought of this more fine a grain settings as to what to choose from and what not. For example my work calendar but not my personal etc.

    Really great feature though.

  • NYer :[

    Good work. I would like to see “Intuitive Text Styling” in my Evernote for Android too. It’s annoying editing formatted text in the current version.

  • Caroline Lee

    iPad: when will you introduce the Hierarchical Tab Index system which I find works so well on my Windows Desktop EN version?

    The iPad and iPhone EN versions are confusing to use and inefficient in comparison.

    • Nicos

      I totally agree with this request. Hierarchical tree is a must for the iPad app. You are already doing it for the iPhone, so why not the iPad.

  • Nicos

    Since the update the app crashed on the old iPhone 3G :( I shouldn’t have updated.

  • http://www.emodeshop.com apricot018

    This is a fantastic website, i really like your post, I will wait for your next post.

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