It's the Intermission
A Creative Coffee Break

UPDATE 5/22/2008:  All Evernote invitations have been passed out. Enjoy!

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An easy way to share and collaborate on notes are drool-able software features. Years ago, when I worked in computer technical support, one group I was in used Tornado Notes. I’m talking MS-DOS time, folks. TN was not a collaborative product, yet we pushed the envelope to make it so.

What I want out of any note keeping software:

• a way to easily clip texts, image, urls, from any application
• quick, unencumbered ability to type a note
• fast, comprehensive search features (including pdfs and images)
• the ability to store whatever I want (pdfs, images, text, handwritten notes)
• an ability to easily share notes, and allow others to add or modify notes
• to be able to access my notes anywhere there’s a wi-fi connection, from any  wi-fi device
• uh, and really, really cheap (you can’t get what you don’t ask for, ya know)

Evernote is very close to all those personal requirements. I’m not sure where I’ll end up with Evernote. Ultimately, a writer, out on my own, it will come down to cost.

I do like the idea of Evernote very much. The image recognition features, which can only improve over time, are very powerful. I value the platform and location independence of the product.

I have four Evernote invitations left, if anyone wants to try it out for his or her self.

(Send me a email if you want one.)

I did fix my SoHo Notes problems satisfactorily. That wasn’t pretty, as it ultimately involved doing a OS X “archive and install,” and reinstalling SoHo Notes. I guess there are only so many upgrades any one laptop can bear over a handful of years.

Evernote allows you to publish notebooks. Aqua Minds Notetaker also allows you to publish notebooks. (I still use Notetaker in conjunction with SoHo Notes.) MBH and I tried using this Notetaker feature, some time ago, for a collaborative venture. It was not very effective. Since then Aqua Minds has created a collaborative NoteShare application that I have not tried. Can’t afford it.

MBH and I settled on a private Typepad blog for keeping notes on our joint project. It works, although as our notes have grown, the blog requires more organization, and has become a bit unwieldy.

From SoHo Notes, you can email a note, and that’s about it for sharing.

I’ve published an Evernote test notebook, with four notes, to see how it works. Future features (months and months away, from what I’ve read) will include collaborative notebooks, and the ability to share notebooks with specific users.