My data bank - Shall I stick to Evernote

For as long as Evernote has been in existence, I have been adding articles, pdf files, meeting notes, just about anything I thought work keeping, in the great archive Evernote.

I scan letters, articles I see in magazines, and my trusty Moleskine pages, I take photos within Evernote of bookshelves. The OCR will, if I have taken the photo close enough, will mean it's searchable.

I use it as part of my research, as the little app I have on both safari and Google Chrome Web Browsers, shows any links in my Evernote account as well as the internet. Very usefull for my private notes.

But in the last few month, Evernote has increased the premium fee, there is a free account, but my use means I need to pay, so is the increase justified,

I sat back and wondered,t has anyone else got a similar product that does all of what Evernote does and more.

My list is simple,

• Google Doc notes
• Google Keep
• Microsoft OneNote
• Mac Pages - Spotlight

I have alway used Mac, so have a lot of notes pre Evernote in Mac format, mostly “pages”, Searching can be done via the Spotlight search button, but is not easy and only brings up the file name

Microsoft OneNote has for some time been gaining ground on Evernote, but after using it to trial its ease and sharing I find on the Mac it's not really ready yet, the iPad version has a hit and miss approach to sharing the main account, and search is therefore limited, but I like the layout and methodology.

Google Keep, has quietly, been adding features to this simple yet so easy to use product, and sharing across all my devices is very google like, easy, it just works, I like the way I can add data, even on the Mac its simple, but it can’t save PDF files, there is a simple work around involving saving the pdf to Google drive, getting the link and pasting that into Google Keep, but any search will only read the link and notes you might have made, unlike Evernote that saves a complete pdf, and makes the entire content searchable. And the search is limited to Keep, searching on my browser does not bring in my keep notes unlike Evernote.

Making notes in individual Google Doc’s is so much like Apples Pages, it is so easy to use, but searching is so limited to the file name.

So after a month of trials and frustration, I am back to Evenrnote, well I never went away, I just duplicated my notes, it took time but showed me that Evernote still has the edge, by some considerable margin, sharing is so good, across all my devices, and almost everything I do is available for the search withing my browser.

Is the extra worth it, answer, yes, will I do the same trial again, yes, but I’ll wait a year and let the other programs mentioned, try and catch up, Google Keep seems to be the one I will watch, Google's ability to both store for free and search this information is well known. However they need to up the ante on pdf and photo import.

There is so much to talk about I blog, toweet, and add notes to various places, so to clooect all of these into a readable archive, I have created an email News letter

This first newsletter. Essentially it's going to be an alternative to my blog, with the current article, plus side issues.

I have for some time wanted to add, my side research and findings, like my Twitter  uploads, but not limited to the letter limit. I want to explore this newsletter design, so it will change.

I use a Google App called “Convert Google Docs to Gmail drafts”, which as the title says, I create this as a google Doc and transferred to gmail to send out. Taking a copy to add to my blog. So if you want so recieve this, try this download link to the PDF. or alternativley fill in this google form with your name and Email and I'll send as an Email. ( This is in trial so hang in there as I sort )

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