Evernote 5 is here

Posted by Garland Coulson
Oct 11, 2013 at 09:54 PM

I am a lover of outline software and a very happy user of Evernote but Evernote is NOT an outliner. There is no hierarchical structure and Evernote actively discourages organizing this way. Even people that try to use tags in a hierarchical way are just doing work arounds - the tags aren’t really in hierarchies.

Instead, all the data is dumped into various notebooks and then retrieved via tag search. Some people even use only ONE notebook to hold everything.

At first, I resisted this and kept thinking I needed more structure, but I have become a believer over time. I can now find things faster with smart use of tags than I can by drilling down through a hierarchical structure. And, best of all, with tagging a note can be found with every possible use for it instead of only being in one place in a rigid structure.

For what I use Evernote for, it is fantastic and I don’t miss the lack of structure. But there are some things that an outliner works better for and then I use other products.