• Name: Janine Vangool
• Location: Calgary, Canada
• Profession: Publisher and Editor of independent magazine, UPPERCASE
• Website: http://www.uppercasemagazine.com
• Twitter: @uppercasemag

Bio

Janine Vangool is Calgary-based graphic designer, publisher and editor of UPPERCASE, a magazine for the creative and curious. In addition to her magazine, UPPERCASE, publishes books on design, illustration and craft. With so many projects on the go, Janine manages it all in Evernote. Janine has kindly offered Evernote users a special discount on subscription. Use the code “Evernote” for $10 off a quarterly UPPERCASE subscription starting with issue #14. Janine will also be speaking at the Evernote Trunk Conference in San Francisco on August 24th. Don’t miss it!

Watch the video to hear Janine’s story, then read about the details of her process.

I use Evernote, Everywhere

• Mac
• iPhone
• iPad

Evernote makes my magazine come to life

I use Evernote to edit, publish and distribute a magazine

I worked as a freelance designer for many years and grew tired of designing for other people’s content. I had always wanted to publish my own books and magazines and based on the success of my blog, I decided to pursue the dream. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that a small percentage of my readers would subscribe to a print publication. It took off more quickly than I ever thought it would! These days, I run the magazine full time and have “retired” from client work. Evernote is the brain that stores all my ideas.

The beginning: from collecting ideas to assigning content

• Evernote is where I can deposit all potential ideas. I use the Web Clipper all the time to capture things I see on the web, research articles, and grab inspiration.
• I manage the article submission process entirely in Evernote. Whenever someone submits an idea or article via my website, it gets automatically forwarded to my Evernote account and into specific notebooks, where I can review the text and attachments and then categorize, tag and sort the submission. Having submissions go directly into Evernote is such a time-saver! [Learn how to email to Evernote]
• Evernote helps me decide on each issue’s central theme. As ideas, photos, and articles pitches start getting filtered with various tags, I start seeing trends that help me develop themes of each new issue. For example, I had lots of notes about linocut, tools and carving and so issue 11 had a theme of labor-intensive illustration and sharp objects. Issue 13 is focused on how weather affects creativity.
• I use Evernote to assign content and find location-specific contributors. All submissions get tagged in Evernote and if someone emails me wanting to be a contributor, they get tagged as a writer and/or photographer and I write in their location as well. If I need a photographer in Boston for an upcoming issue, I know how to find them quickly by doing a quick search in my Evernote account.
• I use audio notes on my phone. If I’m walking from home to my office and I have an idea, I make an audio note in Evernote. It helps me be creative, even on the go.
• I create templates in Evernote. I have a template content list in my Evernote account that I use when planning an issue. At any given time, I’m working on several issues and this template helps make sure that all magazine columns have assigned content.
• I don’t rely on my inbox. Because everything of importance gets sent to my Evernote account, I don’t need to rely on my inbox. It’s much easier to find things in Evernote, where it’s organized and tagged. Also, as a visual person, I appreciate that Evernote is such a great repository of images. Everything is in one place and nothing is ever lost.

Creation, distribution and archiving

• I have a checklist for every magazine issue. Until recently, I was a one-woman show so I had to juggle everything from editing to designing to distribution. I have a huge checklist for every issue where I can keep track of the progress of the writing, illustration and design with colored notations for in-progress activities and Note Links to related notes inside of my account. [Learn how to create a checklist in Evernote]
• Evernote helps me clean up my desktop. When I’m working with tons of images and documents, they don’t take over my desktop. Rather, they’re all in Evernote where I can easily visually scroll through multiple PDFs. This makes it much easier to, say, plan the next issue’s cover.
• I use Evernote to collaborate. When I work with an illustrator or writer, I create a note pertaining to the assignment and drop in links and images to help communicate the project. I simply share the public note URL or email it to the contributor. I now have someone helping me with posting content to my blog and we collaborate in a shared notebook to keep track of blog post ideas and publication schedules. [Learn how to share notes in Evernote]
• I track the magazine’s distribution with Evernote. When a magazine issue is released, there are 10,000 copies and all of them need to go somewhere, often with special requirements for various shipments. All the details of where every issue is going (wholesale, subscribers, etc.) are in Evernote. When I see that all of the issues have been allocated for, I email the note to the printer and they take care of shipping.
• Evernote helps me get ahead of the game. Now that I’ve been using Evernote for three years, I’m starting to plan and ahead and categorize future issue themes rather than flying by the seat of my pants. I’ve accumulated so much content in Evernote that I’m already working on issue 16! This saves me a lot of stress because it’s much easier to assign content and keep the process moving forward. Plus, I have a strong vision of what’s going to be in the magazine by seeing it come together in Evernote.
• My entire magazine archive is in Evernote. I’ve been using Evernote since issue 2 and we just released issue 13. Every issue has an Evernote notebook filled with articles, photos, illustrations, and everything related to the creation, production and distribution of that issue. It is a searchable database to the published articles, which is very helpful now that there are so many completed issues. I have nearly 3000 notes in my account.
• I even use Evernote to plan events. I co-hosted an event at Alt Summit this past year and used Evernote to stay on top of all of to the details including room diagrams, supplies, itineraries, etc. Planning a party was a full-time job, so I created an Alt tag in my Evernote account that helped me keep track of everything related to the event. [Learn how to plan an event with Evernote]

It’s just my habit to put everything into Evernote. It’s my creative repository of ideas and the place where the magazine is conceptualized. Without Evernote, it wouldn’t be possible.

• App: Quicktate
• Platform: Any
• Price: Monthly and Pay As You Go Plans available
• Type: Transcription

For those of you who use Evernote’s audio feature to record notes, you’ll find today’s Trunk Spotlight to be very exciting. Quicktate can actually turn lengthy voice notes into text that you can easily search for and access anywhere you have Evernote installed.

An introduction to Quicktate

Unlike some transcription services, Quicktate does not use voice recognition technology but rather, employs its own team of pre-screened professionals that transcribe voice recordings. Because your audio notes are transcribed by a real human being, the accuracy of the transcription is remarkably high, and the turnaround is surprisingly quick.

Quicktate transcribes both long and short voice notes. A 60 minute voice note recorded in Evernote can be transcribed in about 4-6 hours. This means that if you attended a meeting in the morning and recorded it using the audio feature in Evernote, you’d get the transcription before the end of the day. A 30 second voice note can be transcribed in minutes.

How it works

To start using Quicktate, first create an account. As part of setting up your account, you’ll be asked to authorize Quicktate to access your Evernote account. After you’ve linked your accounts, anytime you create an audio recording in Evernote, the recording will be sent to Quicktate for transcription, and the transcribed text will go straight back into the original note in your Evernote account.

You can record an audio note in every version of Evernote. But if you’re on the go, you can also call (888) 222-NOTE and dictate your recording to Quicktate. They’ll transcribe your recording and create a new note in your Evernote account containing the results).

Why would I want to transcribe long-form audio?

There are plenty of reasons why you’d want to record and then transcribe a long audio note. Here are a few ideas:

• To capture and search everything discussed at a business meeting. There’s no better way to know what each person said at a meeting than to record and transcribe the entire meeting.
• To capture speeches and lectures. Whether you’re attending a class, or a conference, you can record a speaker and forget about having to feverishly take notes.
• To write your book. Ok, you might not be an author, but if you are writing a book, blog post, or article, you might want to speak some (or all) parts of it to capture nuanced dialogue and emotion.
• To record an important event. Whether you need to capture the scene of a car accident, or a business deal, dictating the events happening around you might be the easiest way to capture them. Transcribing these notes might be the easiest way to find and remember them later.

How would you use Quicktate and Evernote together? Tell us in the comments.

The Evernote API

Quicktate was able to do all this thanks to the open, free Evernote API. You can also create amazing Evernote-integrated apps and products. Take a look at our developer site for more information.

Bio

Daniel works at LexisNexis, where he consults with attorneys on how to be more productive and effective by using LexisNexis litigation software. He’s also an attorney and recently penned an e-book, which is for sale in the Evernote Trunk, about ways to use Evernote to be more productive.

I use Evernote, Everywhere:

• Windows (work)
• Windows & Mac (home)
• Android phone
• iPad

I use Evernote for Work

At LexisNexis, I oversee business relationships with 150 of the largest law firms in 8 states in the Southeast. I quickly found that managing this business was much more complex and challenging than practicing law, and I realized I needed a much better system to organize everything I do at work and responsibilities at home (I’m a dad to three children).

Evernote changed everything for me. It shook the very essence of how I stay organized.

• Evernote is much more than a note-taking app. To me, it’s a life management tool. It allows me to organize everything that I do in my life — from my work, to my blog, to my e-book, and my life with my wife and kids.
• I use one notebook to remember everything except shared information. I have a couple of levels of organization. I use separate tags to break out my GTD methodology (such as contexts, things I need to do today, next actions, active projects, inactive projects, etc). I have a major category for tags, such as Home, Work, Clients, Reference, Stuff, etc., and then minor categories nested underneath, such as insurance, mortgage, doctors, and so forth. I use Notebook Stacks to stay organized as well. Anything that needs to be shared with clients, colleagues or family will go into a Shared Notebook inside of the Stack. To search, I look through my tags, or do a Saved Search. Some of my tags and Saved Searches are dragged to the awesome Favorites Bar!
• When compiling content for a client, I include a lot of information in one note. I’ll include contracts, literature pieces, Powerpoint presentations, and notes where I talked to the client on the phone. I’ll use Note Links to paste a link if the information resides in a separate note within Evernote. A real bonus is that Evernote auto-populates the date and time for me with a single shortcut every time I want to add new information in the note.

• When working on new business, I send all pertinent emails to Evernote. I review those and all relevant notes. When trying to understand next steps, everything is in one central location. [Learn how to email to Evernote]
• Note Links help keep me on track when I’m running around meetings. I think Note Links are the key to success in Evernote! I use them everywhere I can.  For example, when I’m traveling for work, I create a master note with my travel itinerary. In that master note, I include all of the times of where I need to be and when. My airline confirmation is a Note Link in this master note. On my last trip, I had a meeting with a law firm, where I hyperlinked the lawyer’s name to the agenda I created in Evernote for that lawyer, which talked about three things I wanted to accomplish in that meeting. Within that agenda was a Note Link to another note that embedded a video of a client testimonial I saved in Evernote that I wanted to show him. Because I’m a Premium user, I had saved the notes in an offline folder. When it came time to meet, I brought only my iPad, and only had to access that one note to know exactly what we would talk about. I didn’t have to go fiddling around folders, notebooks, or my work laptop. I had it all there in my iPad and all I had to do was click on that Note Link. It was “magical” and the client was really impressed with my organization and professionalism! [Learn how to use Note Links]
• I use Shared Notebooks with my team. This is where I can send other members of my team to benefit from finding existing information, rather than having to spend hours doing repetitive work. For example, I’m working on travel plans with a colleague. I’ve already done the research we need and put it into a Shared Notebook, along with our itinerary. Similarly, while I prepped for a presentation on electronic discovery for a law firm’s litigation team, I did research on LexisNexis to learn more about new case law and about the law firm, created the presentation based on what I found, and then put it all into a Shared Notebook, which I shared with the marketing and branding teams, as well as other colleagues. [Learn more about sharing from Evernote]

• I scan all of my expenses while I travel, to save time later. When I’m at a hotel, I’ll scan all of my receipts for the day. It makes my life so much easier at the end of the week, when I’m back from my trip and don’t have to worry about scanning.

Evernote for Managing Family Life, and Learning

I’ve found Evernote to be an invaluable tool to not only help manage my family trips, recipes, kids’ artwork, and progress reports, but to actually help my son learn.

How I use Peek to Help my Son with Math

My son’s school gives him these 25 question speed drills in math. I wanted to create a fun and engaging way to help him learn the answers to questions, so I decided to give Peek a try. I created a new notebook called ‘Jacob’s math questions’ and took 75 of his math questions and created 75 notes in that notebook. I opened the notebook up in Peek and Jacob has been loving it. It’s so engaging for him and fun to watch him. He gets so excited to lift the cover and see he got the answer right. Evernote has basically helped Jacob turn his math speed drills into something fun!

Get Evernote Peek

Audio Notes for Demonstrating Learning Progress

My son had a reading tutor over the summer and I wanted to track his progress. I turned to the audio note feature in Evernote to record him at the beginning of the summer reading his book. At the end of the summer, I recorded him reading the same exact book. It was not only amazing for me as a parent to hear the difference before and after, but even more amazing for Jacob! Now, Jacob even asks for me to record him in Evernote.

Evernote for Everything Else

I use Evernote for everything related to organizing my family and capturing sentimental things that I might want to recall in the future. For example, I have a ScanSnap scanner which goes with me on all my travels. At home, I use it to scan in my kids’ artwork. To date, I have about 250 notes with artwork tagged with my kids’ names. They know their creations live in Evernote.

I’ve also tried to go paperless, so I scan in documents related to landscaping, pest control, everything for my dog, my kids’ progress reports, and more. [Visit our Paperless discussion]

Another great example of how I use Note Links is for planning family vacations. I was recently planning a family trip with my parents and they wanted to know where we were staying, what we’d be doing, and have directions to all of the places we’d be going. I pulled together all of the information that my wife had planned into an Evernote notebook and sent it off to them. I made it so much easier for my parents! The alternative is sending an email with multiple attachments or sending multiple emails, which can get totally overwhelming. My mom was blown away. [Learn more about sharing from Evernote]

Join the Parenting discussion and read about how our Parenting Ambassador, Carley, uses Evernote for Parenting.

Are you a father or an attorney? Share how you’re using Evernote in the comments.

Bio

Ryan Kessler is a student from Southern California who will be starting college in the Fall. Evernote helped Ryan get organized his senior year of high school and raise his GPA from a 2.9 to a 4.4 (if you’re unfamiliar with these numbers, that’s really great!). Read on to find out how he did it.

I use Evernote, Everywhere:

• Android (phone and Tablet)
• Windows
• Web Clipper (Chrome)

I love…

• The Droidscan app for scanning all of my docs using my phone
• Nozbe for giving calendar context to my Evernote notes
• tarpipe for publishing content to my various social streams with one single action

I use Evernote for…

My senior year of high school, I took 5 high school courses, 4 college classes and worked part-time, so I needed to find a tool that would help me stay organized and focused on whatever task I needed to complete. Evernote completely changed my workflow.

1. Evernote for staying focused

A big part of being a high school student is being able to switch modes extremely quickly. Within a few hours, you have to go from physics to history. Evernote lets me do this seamlessly.

I have a Notebook Stack of notebooks for various activities, including school and work. When I’m at work, I open my Work Notebook Stack and know that I won’t have any distractions because I wouldn’t see all of my extra-curricular stuff mixed into work stuff. [An introduction to Notebook Stacks]

2. Evernote for getting organized

My freshman and sophomore year, I was very disorganized. The problem wasn’t that I wasn’t managing my time well, it was that I couldn’t find the things I wanted when I needed them. I used to spend hours just sorting through my schoolwork to find one assignment. Once I started using Evernote, life became a lot more organized:

• I got into a routine of sorting everything into Evernote as soon as I got it so I could instantly access it when I needed it. I attribute my GPA boost largely to my new-found ability to find everything quickly, from any device I was working on.
• Once I get stuff in Evernote, I organize it. I have a tagging system to separate out tasks and projects.
• I scan paper documents using Droidscan, which is a fantastic app I found in the Evernote Trunk.
• I draft reports right in Evernote, where my research is close at hand.

3. Evernote for lightening my load and connecting all of my devices

I started using Evernote so much, I stopped thinking about it. I even started scanning textbook sections I needed that day in class so I’d have them on my phone. It got to the point where I would go to school with only my journal and my phone.

A lot of students bring their laptops to class because they think they need to carry around their files. With Evernote, I never had to lug around my laptop. Our school would rent out laptops from the library, so if I needed to print anything, I’d just stick it into Evernote in the morning, pop by the library at the end of the day, pull up Evernote on the Web and use the school printer. I never think of having a thumb drive anymore.

With Evernote, I can see everything I have to do, want to do, and already done. I never have to think ‘Oh, shoot, I left something in my locker!’ Maybe I forgot my phone in my locker, but because everything in Evernote syncs across every device I own (not to mention the Web), I know it’s still there and I could access it from my desktop at home, the school laptop in the library, or my tablet.

4. Evernote for group projects and class discussions

When you’re working with a group, you tend to get a lot of information passed back and forth via email. I started using Evernote to keep track of all of my group projects by giving group members my Evernote email. Everything related to the project would get sent to my Evernote account, where I could organize it accordingly and stay on top of the latest versions and conversations. [Emailing to Evernote]

We’d often have class discussions via a thread on a forum that my school subscribes to. Threads would get long and tedious and require you to login to keep track of the conversation. I would just clip it to my Evernote account and pull it up whenever I needed it.

5. Evernote for crunch time

Creating a study guide before a big test was so easy with Evernote. I would compile all of my notes from a certain time period and put them into a separate notebook. From there, I could reference only the materials I needed to study.

6. Evernote for learning a foreign language

I love Evernote’s Audio Note function to help me remember stuff, but it’s also a killer way to help you learn a language. I use audio notes to record myself pronouncing words, then play back the recording to see if my pronunciation matched my teacher’s pronunciation. When you’re learning a language, you need some way of hearing yourself to perfect your accent.

7. Evernote for building my future

I’m starting college in the Fall and will be studying entrepreneurship and design. I attended the Evernote Trunk Conference and saw Kyle Koch’s presentation about using Evernote for industrial design and was blown away. Evernote is crazy powerful for design and I’m excited to see how it fits into my ongoing studies and professional career. [Read Kyle Koch's story]

User Tip: Note Links for Creating a Study Guide in a Single Note

Note Links are an awesome way to associate two notes incredibly quickly. I use Note Links to create a study guide in a single note. I often snap a photo of the whiteboard in class and then take notes as well. With Note Links, I can link my notes to the whiteboard image, giving additional context. [Learn how to link your notes]

Join the discussion about Evernote for Schools on our forum. Learn from educators and share your own experiences, best practices and tips.