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Evernote

Evernote was the very first service that introduced me to the concept of cloud computing. It was, to my feeble mind, a revelation and quickly became one of my most treasured tools.

For the uninitiated: Evernote lets you clip text from websites, or even whole pages, write notes and store images and PDFs. 

So far, so ordinary, but the killer feature is that you can then access all those assets on any computer and on any tablet or smartphone device – with an Internet or data connection, of course. Evernote is good, but it can’t perform magic.

As with all the best ideas, the real secret is how simple and straightforward it is. You write a note on your computer, check the Evernote app on your smartphone and there it is.

Make an amendment to the note on your smartphone and it will then appear updated on your computer. 

The addition of a browser extension, the Evernote Web Clipper, meant that you could clip whole web pages with a single click of the mouse. I found it invaluable for saving articles for reading offline – or just for saving articles that I wanted to use as a reference in the future.

That’s the background to Evernote. Why am I discussing this now?

Just over a week ago, Evernote’s Windows Phone application got a substantial new update. So, if you’ve never used it before, there’s no better time to download the app for your Nokia Lumia smartphone.

Getting started

First you will need register and get yourself an Evernote account. Keep in mind that your username and password will be the ‘keys’ to all your notes so make sure it is something that you can easily remember, or use a secure password manager.

You can register on your desktop computer or directly from the Evernote app on your Lumia.

Once you’re up and running within Evernote then you will notice some of the features can help to keep your notes, clippings, images and PDFs organised.

You can create different ‘Notebooks’ such as Work or Bills that will make it easier to find specific notes. You can also add tags to your notes. The more notes you create, the more useful you will find these simple features.

There is also a search function so you can quickly locate a note that way as well. Even better your searches can be saved.

Evernote app 

There is a serious case to be made that Evernote on your Lumia offers a better experience than using Evernote on a computer.

For example, within the app you can use your Lumia’s camera to take photos that can then be stored directly in Evernote. Same with voice recordings.

A further advantage of using Evernote on your Lumia is that the location of your photos and notes can be tagged. Make sure the location is enabled in the settings though.

You can swipe across different screens either looking at all your notes – the new update now presents the notes in a Windows Phone-style tile arrangement. It’s a very nice touch.

Alternatively, you can swipe across to another screen to look at your Notebooks.

Adding a note on your Lumia is easy as well. Just press the ‘+’ button and you can then type away and choose to attach photos, voice recordings or other files.

Tiles

You can pin any Notebook or a specific note to your start screen for easy access. There are four shortcuts that you can also pin that will let you quickly create a new note, a new text note, add an image or add a voice recording.

If you find yourself creating a note that follows the same pattern, for example it’s kept in the same notebook and has the same bullet-point format, then you can create a template that will save this layout. These layouts can also be saved to your start screen.

Finally, being an app on your smartphone, you can also share your notes with friends on your social networks.

Once you’ve explored the app or the desktop version for a while, Evernote really does become very simple to use. It has some superb functions and means you will never have to forget anything ever again!

Do you use Evernote on your Nokia Lumia? Let us know what you think about the app in the comments.

image credit: whatleydude