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Activity Stream

Evernote is great for working with your friends and colleagues. To keep you in the loop on all the things that are happening in the notebooks you share and the ones that you have access to, we’ve added Activity Stream.

Click the new satellite dish icon in the toolbar to view your Activity Stream. You’ll see a bunch of useful information:

• Usernames or email addresses of new people that join your shared notebooks
• Updates relating to added, edited and deleted notes
• A record of individual notes that you share

If there’s a new notification, you’ll see a badge appear on the icon.

It’s important to keep in mind that the Activity View displays the most recent change that has occurred since the last time Evernote synched. This means that if you have a note which was updated 10 times since the last sync, only the most recent change will appear in the Activity View.

To make notebook sharing a seamless experience, we now automatically sync notebooks that you join to your Mac, eliminating the several clicks it used to take to see your friends’ notes.

Discover and learn
The Activity Stream popup also includes Evernote tips geared at all types of users. The tips will disappear once you’ve clicked on them. New items will periodically appear including information about newly added features.

Retina!

Our design team has been hard at work upgrading every button, texture, shadow, and image inside of Evernote for Mac to look sharp and beautiful on the new drool-worthy MacBook Retina displays.

Much more…

This update also includes a host of bug fixes and improvements, including more reliable sync, faster sharing and a number of stability enhancements.

• Name: Jeanine Hays
• Profession: Creative Director & Founder
• Company: AphroChic
• Location: Philadelphia, PA

Did you know that May is National Home Improvement month? It’s a great time to think about ways to spruce up your home and garden, so we thought we’d ask an expert to share some tips for ways that Evernote helps her keep track of inspiration and organize projects.

Bio

Jeanine Hays is the Creative Director & Founder of AphroChic, a home decor and design brand that includes a popular blog and shop that sells textiles and home accessories. A policy attorney, Jeanine founded AphroChic three years ago as an interior design blog, and quickly expanded into a business that allowed her to create designs of her own. Jeanine has a weekly feature on color and textiles on HGTV’s interior design blog, Design Happens. She has also participated as an online guest judge for the 2010 season of HGTV’s Design Star, and is a featured blogger for Houzz. After being introduced to Evernote by a home owner she was working with, Jeanine became hooked on using the tool for everything from planning her travels to coordinating with her team, and working on her book.

Jeanine’s Stylish Tips for Home Projects

Above: capture inspiration on the Web, using the Evernote Web Clipper. Select tags and notebooks. All of your web clips automatically sync across all of your devices.

I am a huge fan of Evernote. As a textile designer, blogger, and soon-to-be author it’s extremely important for me to be as organized as possible, and Evernote helps me to stay organized at all times. Part of my job is focused on styling. I’ve been styling several interiors for our home decor book, and use Evernote to stay on top of the numerous projects that have to be done for each interior. Evernote is fantastic for:

1. Keeping track of a list of different projects. Our team spent time shooting and styling interiors in Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. I created a separate notebook for each interior, and then collected a list of items I wanted to bring into each room in the space. Whether a pillow, a new piece of lighting, or flowers, it was all neatly collected in my Evernote notebook.
2. Evernote is also great way to communicate with others who are involved in your home decor project. For me, it was my styling team. I needed to easily be able to send them the items I was thinking of using in a particular interior. It can be just as handy when sending ideas for your next renovation project to your significant other, designer, and even your contractor. [Evernote Tip: share notes via email or add them to a Shared Notebook, then invite individuals to view what you've shared.]
3. The sync function is also integral to any interior project you’re working on. You can keep track of ideas on your computer, and voila, the project you’re working on is ready and synced on your iPhone. This is fantastic when you’re on a purchasing trip, and need to access your notes quickly. [Learn how Sync works]
4. The great thing about Evernote for interiors projects is that you can keep absolutely everything on file — measurements, store and contact information, vendor names, and even color palettes. It can all be kept and organized to help you achieve your project goals easily. [Learn how to capture multiple types of media in a single note]

Just getting started with Evernote? Check out our Getting Started Guide.

Want more inspiration for ways you can use Evernote for home decorating? Check out how home and design blogger Erin Souder uses Evernote for decorating her home.

Do you have tips to share for ways you’re using Evernote for styling and sprucing up your home? Share them in the comments!

Bio

Aubrey McGowan is a singer/songwriter and the co-founder of Song & Story, a company that helps people tell their stories through  song. Launched in January 2011, Song & Story is made up of Aubrey, his wife, and several collaborators who write and produce songs for individuals and organizations. Aubrey shares how Evernote helps him with his creative process as well as managing his business and home life. He even wrote a song about it!

Download the MP3

I use Evernote, Everywhere

• iPad
• Windows
• iPhone
• Mac

I use Evernote for…

As a songwriter, I spent a lot of time looking for a way to manage my songwriting ideas. I’ve tried everything from software to paper notebooks, but couldn’t find anything that really clicked until I began to use Evernote. The flexibility of the app, it’s various features, and the many locations from which you can access your information really made it the perfect tool for me to manage my business and my life. I use Evernote religiously. Here’s a look at how it helps me:

1. My wife and I share multiple notebooks which are divided into two Notebook Stacks. I organize notes into everything related to songwriting or the business. That way, virtually everything I need access to on any given day can be found in my Evernote account. Sharing notebooks with my wife means if she records a melody at home, it syncs and I’m able to listen to it even if I’m at the office. It makes working together a much more seamless process, especially since we’re not always in the same place at the same time.
2. I draft and organize songs in Evernote. I create various drafts of songs in Evernote and organize songs in separate, Stacked notebooks that include songs in progress and completed songs. The completed songs notebook also serves as a portfolio.
3. We manage our business in Evernote. We have several notebooks under the Notebook Stack ‘Business’ which includes everything related to running our business: from invoices to web graphics, my wife and I always have access to documents, websites, expenses, and more.
4. Evernote helps us maintain a paperless lifestyle. Whether it’s a scribbled note on a napkin or a document, Evernote lets me manage my paperwork without the paper stack. I can snap a photo of an item, or scan in a document. Once it’s in Evernote, I can tag and file into appropriate notebooks so I’m always able to find what I’m looking for. [Learn more about paperless lifestyle from our Paperless Living Ambassador]
5. I use my Evernote email address hourly. My Evernote email helps me manage the things outside of my Evernote account, organize them, and find them later. I forward important emails, articles I want to read, invoices, and more from my email to my Evernote account, where I sort them into notebooks. [Learn how to send emails to your Evernote account.]
6. I keep track of my favorite products in Evernote. I have a songwriting notebook that I love. When I run out of room, I know exactly where to order a new one because I have the ISBN of that notebook and vendor’s website saved in my Evernote account.
7. I use Evernote as a reader. I have a notebook called ‘Enrichment’— it’s where I keep things I don’t have time to read, or always want to go back to. Before I started clipping and emailing articles to my Evernote account, my reader was a mass of things and I’d never know where to even start. Now, if someone has 10 blog posts and I know I only want to read one of them, I can just clip the article using the Evernote Web Clipper, or email it from my inbox to my Evernote account.

Evernote in the collaborative song writing process

When we work with a client on creating a song, we take a very collaborative approach. The first step is always having them fill out a survey about the kind of story they want the song to tell and the sorts of emotions they think it should evoke (Should the recipient feel happy? Should he/she be called to action?). From there, we engage in a lot of back and forth before we get to the final delivery stage. We are excited about engaging people in the storytelling process, not just being recipients of a finished project. Evernote helps us work with our customers every step of the way.

Evernote is our jumping off point to collecting ideas and also for working through rough drafts with the customer. We used Shared Notes to get customers involved in the storytelling process.They’re able to see our progress, as we record ideas and scratch tracks by simply clicking on the Shared Note Link. If it’s not hitting the right spot, we continue to work back and forth.

Evernote for everything else

In addition to using Evernote to manage my business and songwriting, I also use it as a catchall for pieces of information that would normally have no proper place. I have a notebook called ‘misc/personal/docs.’ I use it to save account numbers and things I always forget. For example, I have a photo of a sticky note with the dimensions of our countertop and another with the account number of my Internet service. I have the size of my tires on my car, the model number for the lightbulb in my car and serial numbers for pieces of equipment I have, all handy in Evernote, instead of sitting in a junk drawer, where I’d inevitably never find them. Lastly, I’m working through some online courses to finish my degree and everything I do, I keep in Evernote. When it comes time to take an open book test, I’m able to search through my Evernote account at lightning speed.

The song that I wrote for Evernote really captures what Evernote is for me. I chose to personalize the tool because it’s truly my constant companion.

Your photos are now on a beautiful dark background, which really showcases the meal. Notes are placed at the top of the meal and captions are right below each image. Friends that receive your link can save the meal to their own Evernote accounts, see where the meal occurred and re-share it to their social networks.

Here’s an example of a shared meal that I created on a recent trip to the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

How to share a meal

There are two options for sharing a meal. You can either do it inside Evernote Food or from Evernote.

• From Evernote Food: Open the meal and tap on the share icon in the lower right. Choose a sharing option and you’re done.
• From Evernote: Open the meal and share it as you would any individual note.

More to come

We have lots more to come from Evernote Food, including new features and new platforms. Stay tuned.

Get Evernote Food from the iTunes App Store »

Get Evernote for Android from the Android Market »

Note sharing improvements

Evernote for Android makes it easy to share select memories with whomever you like. In this update, we’ve increased the control you have over shared notes and also made sharing options more accessible.

We’ve redesigned the sharing screen completely. Now, when you share a single note, the URL appears at the top of the sharing screen. If at any point you decide to stop sharing, tap on the Disable URL option. Once you deactivate a shared note, the link will stop working for everyone that you shared with.

There are now several ways to access the sharing menu:

• Tap and hold the note in the note list
• When viewing a note, tap the Menu button
• When viewing a note, tap on the down arrow in the note title bar

Notebook type icons

We’re always looking for ways to give you as much information at-a-glace as possible. In this update, we’ve added icons that indicate notebook type. When you view your notebook list, you’ll see whether a notebook has been shared with an individual, the world, or not at all. It’s a great way to quickly know the state of each notebook.

Faster access to editing and options

We’ve added a pencil icon to the note title bar when you’re viewing a note. Tap this icon to edit note content. Tap the arrow next to the edit icon to view a bunch of additional note-related options.

And more…

We’ve also improved our login and registration flows, fixed lots of bugs and made the app just plain better. Stay tuned, we have lots more in store.

Get Evernote for Android from the Android Market »

Giveaway time: Win an HTC Sensation XL [CLOSED}

It’s been a while since our last giveaway, and we’re excited to revive the tradition with the excellent HTC Sensation XL!

The HTC Sensation XL is a great Android phone with a 4.7 inch screen, awesome camera and audio from Beats by Dre, including an in-box customized Beats headset. It also comes with the HTC’s own Sense user interface which has Evernote built right into the Notes application. Every note and scribble is automatically sent into your Evernote account. Learn more about Evernote on HTC phones and tablets »

This giveaway is over

Rules

• We will give away four (4) HTC Sensation XL Android phones
• This is a worldwide giveaway (certain shipping restrictions may apply)
• One entry per person
• To be considered, individuals must submit their entry by 9 am PT on Friday December, 23rd
• Winners will be randomly selected and contacted directly via email or Twitter Direct Message

Good luck!

Get Evernote for iOS from the iTunes App Store »

Share…or don’t

Evernote for iOS lets you easily share individual notes with friends and colleagues over Twitter, Facebook and email. As great as sharing notes is, sometimes you want take a shared note and make it private again. Now, Evernote for iOS lets you do that. To stop sharing a note, tap on the Share icon at the bottom of the note and select Stop Sharing. This shared note will no longer be accessible to anyone but you.

You can now revoke sharing of any individual notes shared from any version of Evernote. You will not be able to stop sharing notes that were shared prior to this update.

Much better editing on iPad

We’ve made significant improvements to our note editor in iOS 5 on iPad. You can now edit anything. No more simplifying notes. No more appending. Just go in and edit whatever you like. Add an image to a note, and it appears right inline. We’re also now allow indenting, multi-level lists and the app does a much better job of preserving styles.

We’ve also made a number of improvements to the iPhone text editor. iPhone does not yet have the full editing capabilities of the iPad. We’re working on it.

And much more

This update also includes lots of bug fixes and stability improvements. We have a lot more in store. Stay tuned.

Get Evernote for iOS from the iTunes App Store »

Bio

Jennifer Lathop is a graphic designer and hobbyist knitter who lives in Minneapolis. She began knitting with her mother. Today, she uses Evernote to not only manage her patterns, but to organize her family life, do her taxes, and keep track of work projects.

I use Evernote, Everywhere

• Mac
• Android
• Web Clipper (Chrome)

I use Evernote for…

After I had initially discovered Evernote, I really wanted to figure out how it could fit into my lifestyle. I started following the Evernote blog and also Michael Hyatt’s blog and taking note of ideas. I started using Evernote by scanning in cartoons that I kept in a desk drawer, and since, my use has evolved beyond what I ever imagined.

Evernote for Knitting

I started knitting with my mom years ago. I’ve knit hats, mittens, scarves, blankets, sweaters and socks. Right now, I’m working on a baby blanket. Here are some of the ways Evernote has become an invaluable companion for me:

• When my mom passed away, I got all of her knitting stuff and was immediately overwhelmed. My mom never knew what needles she had, and was always buying more. I’ve taken all of her needles and organized them entirely in Evernote, noting the type (double point, circular). Now, if I’m at the craft store, I know exactly what needles I have because I can pull up my list on my phone.
• You knit where you are, so you take your projects with you. I used to take my pattern, fold it, and stuff it in my bag; after a while, it would start to crease and rip. Now, my patterns are saved in Evernote, so I have them with me no matter where I go, and they’re protected…for life!*
• I find a lot of free patterns online, so I clip the patterns or new knitting techniques that I come across. Recently, I came across a video about a difficult join (it’s where you stop one yarn color and start another). I clipped the screenshot to my Evernote account so that I’d have it for reference  (it’s complicated!). You can also scan in hard copies of patterns and save them in your Evernote account.
• I love having local notebooks on my phone, so even if I don’t have an Internet connection, I’m still able to pull up my pattern. [Learn more about Offline Notebooks; this is a Premium feature]
• One of the things I’m starting to do is chronicle my knitting projects: taking pictures of finished projects, scanning in the labels of the yarn I used, and attaching the image of the yarn type to the note.

Evernote for work and life:

These days, I use Evernote for much more than knitting:

• I have 16 main notebooks, many of which are Notebook Stacks. I love having my notes separated into appropriate categories. I have notebooks for graphic design, health, my kids, knitting, productivity, taxes, etc. Each notebook, like my ‘kids’ notebook, has a sub-notebook (ie – each kid has their own notebook). [Learn more about Notebook Stacks]
• I’m a graphic designer and I’ve started to collect samples of things I see and like. I’ve also been doing more social media work for my job, so I’ve been saving tips, tricks and ideas for best practices.
• I really like being able to share notebooks. I share them with my husband, especially when they have to do with the kids, the house, or gift ideas. For example, we went school shopping this weekend and I had scanned in the supply list. We both had it, so we could both scan the list. If he needs to pick some things up when I’m not around, he can. I’ve recently started sharing project-related notes with my boss. They get updated everywhere automatically, so we’re always on the same page. [Learn more about Shared Notebooks]

User Tip:

I love the new Android widget that shows my most-recently used notes: it allows me to pull up my most-recently used pattern in a snap.

*I only scan in patterns I have purchased (or are free) and I do not share or distribute any patterns I have loaded into Evernote.