If Evernote is in your productivity toolbox, you're in for a treat.
Today, I'd like to share three hidden Evernote features that can make your life easier. I know they've certainly helped me.
A few weeks ago– when Evernote released a brand new logo but not new features– I got a bit annoyed. You may have seen that.
The whole affair got me thinking about the reasons Evernote plays such a big role in my productivity system and the specific Evernote features that make it so powerful.
That train of thought inspired this post. Let's dive in.
1. The Evernote camera's secret ability
The Evernote mobile app takes your phone's native camera and transforms it into a portable scanner. Let's see how it works.
To take a photo, press and hold the green plus button in the bottom menu and then select Photo from the pop-up menu.
At this point, Evernote will take over your camera and turn it into an on-the-go scanner.
When the Auto Mode in the top right-hand corner is on, Evernote will automatically search for any piece of text and try to scan it, like in the screenshot above.
If you prefer, you can turn automatic search off and take the pictures yourself.
You can use your camera to capture a variety of documents including:
- Whiteboards
- Handwritten notes
- Business cards
- Magazine articles
- Post-its
- Your personal journal pages
Once Evernote has captured the document, you can select the document type.
Evernote will use this information to make some adjustments and improve the image quality.
And now we are getting to the best part.
Evernote doesn't just let you scan documents.
It renders each image into searchable text.
The application potential is huge. If you take a lot of handwritten notes (or you journal) you can regularly scan your notes, add them to an Evernote notebook, and then search through them when you need to find something fast.
How nifty and futuristic is that!?
It can take Evernote a few minutes to prep a photo. To check whether an image is searchable yet, open up the Evernote app on your desktop, head over to your note, and click on the “i” in the top right-hand corner.
Under Image Status, Evernote will let you know if the image has been indexed yet. As soon as it's indexed, it's searchable.
2. The organizational power of Anchor notes
An Anchor note is a dynamic Evernote note that has key information on a specific topic.
For example, I use Anchor notes to keep all the DottoTech affiliate links in the same place.
I've also got an Anchor note with all the appliances information for household goods– like the type of lightbulbs on the nightlight and the type of air filters we use.
This style of note helps me organize key information in one place.
You can use Anchor notes to store any information you need to access quickly or use often. You can make a list of your go-to recipes and the key ingredients you need or keep a note of all the supplies you need for a hobby.
What information do you need to access regularly?
Storing it in an Anchor note that's synced across all your devices can make it far easier to access in a hurry.
3. Research like a pro with the Evernote web clipper
The Evernote web clipper is a browser extension that lets you clip articles and online sources and save them directly to Evernote.
To get started with the Evernote Clipper just add it to your browser.
To save an article you're reading to Evernote, just click on the Evernote extension in your browser extension bar.
From here, you can choose the format you'd like to save the article in, the notebook you'd like to save it to, and add any tags or extra information.
When you are ready, just click on Save clip. You can also set a timed reminder to remind you to look at your new note at a specific time.
This is, to me, the most powerful tool in Evernote and a fantastic research tool.
Using Evernote to make your life easier
A tool like Evernote can be a powerful organizational partner.
And now, with these three features, you can get more out of Evernote.
Is there a less well-known Evernote feature you turn to? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Have fun storming the castle!
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Extra resources
Looking for some more things Evernote?
Here are some extra resources to help you make the most of this tool.
- The Evernote Quickstart. A free mini-training that will teach you everything you need to know to get started with Evernote
- Evernote 8 for iOS: The 2017 Edition
- My Favorite Evernote Features. A webinar replay of one of our most popular Evernote webinars
