Best Evernote Tips and Tricks to Use It Like a Pro

Evernote is a popular note-taking and task-management app used by millions worldwide. It can help you remember things, create to-dos for important tasks, save web pages for later, scan important documents to have them handy when you need them, and more.

Additionally, Evernote also supports integration with third-party apps and services and offers several other features that extend its functionality further. As such, knowing these features and how to use them can prove to be quite useful and come in handy if you use Evernote regularly.

Here’s a look at all such Evernote tips and tricks you must know to master Evernote and use it effectively and efficiently. Some of these features and tips work on both the desktop and mobile versions of Evernote, while others are limited to the web version only.

1. Use Evernote Web Clipper to Save Things to Your Evernote Account

One of the best Evernote features is the ability to save things from the internet directly to your Evernote account. This allows you to use Evernote as sort of a read-it-later app, where you can save everything from web pages to articles and PDFs with a simple click.

All you need to use this feature is the Evernote Web Clipper. Download and install the Web Clipper browser extension to your browser. Then, anytime you need to save something interesting on the internet, simply click on its extension icon and hit Save.

Web Clipper even lets you take screenshots, so you never miss out on anything important. Once captured, you can also annotate the screenshots and save them.

2. Search Effectively Using Advanced Search

In the upper section of the Evernote app, you have the search bar where you can define and add filters to your search. If you write in front of your search the word “tag:,” it will only show the notes with that specific tag, and if you precede it with the minus sign (“-tag:“), it will exclude all the compatible findings.

Also, the asterisk character (“*”) is used as a wildcard. For example, if you search for “tag:*”, it will find all your tagged notes. Want to check the notes from the last 30 days? Just type “created: day-30” in the search bar, and there you have it.

Some other operators you can use include:

• intitle: Search within the title of the note
• updated: Search for notes updated on or after the date specified
• todo: Search for notes containing one or more checkboxes
• contains: Search for notes by type of content they contain

Learn more about Evernote advanced here.

3. Merge Multiple Notes Into a Single Note

If you’ve got a bunch of similar notes in your Evernote notebook, you can merge them into a single note. Doing so not only brings similar notes together but also declutters your notebook, which makes managing it easier.

Evernote supports the merge feature in the desktop version. And it’s pretty easy to merge your notes. Select two or more notes you want to merge and tap the merge button (combined arrows icon) in the blue box at the bottom of the page.

Now, in the pop-up menu, click on the drag handle (to the left of a note) and drag and drop the note in the order in which you want the notes to appear. Check the Keep a copy of original notes option and select Merge notes.

4. Create Tasks

Alongside using Evernote to note-down things, you can also use it to keep track of your to-dos. If you’re looking for a one-stop solution for all your note-taking and task-management needs, this is the perfect way to go about it.

Evernote lets you create tasks across all its apps as well as the web. To add a new task, open a new note or an existing one and click on the Insert button. Choose Task and fill out the entries appropriately.

Alternatively, you can also hit the New button, select Task from the options, and enter details for the task to create a task.

5. Use Templates to Work More Efficiently

Templates are pre-formatted notes that let you create notes instantly so you can start adding content to them immediately. Evernote offers a collection of note templates for different use cases, which you can choose based on your preference.

For instance, if you want to plan a travel itinerary, there are templates for travel calendars that can come in handy. Similarly, Evernote also has templates for project overviews, meeting agendas, and getting things done, among other categories, that you can check out.

6. Save Emails to Evernote

Similar to saving items from the web, you can also use Evernote to save important emails, such as those for travel reservations, announcements, or others you receive in your email, to access them conveniently from anywhere. However, note that you need a paid subscription to Evernote to use this feature.

Email saving in Evernote involves your Evernote email address, which you can find under your account settings. Evernote’s current email saving limit stands at 200 (daily).

Once you’ve found your Evernote email address, open the email you want to save and forward it to your Evernote address. After it’s saved, you can find it as a new note with the email subject as the title. You can also use certain extensions at the end of the subject line to specify the notebook to which you’d like to save an email.

• !Reminder: To set a reminder for the email
• @Notebook name: To save the email to a specific notebook

7. Create a Notebook Stack

A stack in Evernote is essentially a collection of notebooks that you can use to keep your notebooks organized. One of the best ways to create stacks by category, i.e., purpose. For instance, you can create stacks for personal notes, work notes, journals, or even blogs.

To create a notebook stack, open Notebooks, click on the More actions button next to the notebook you want to add to a stack, and select Add to stack from the menu. Select New stack to create a new stack and give an appropriate name to it. Subsequently, you can add new notebooks to the stack by choosing More action and selecting Add to stack from the options.

8. Export Notes as a PDF

Occasionally, there’ll be times when you’d want to save a note to your computer—perhaps to share it with others or enable easy access to it even when you’re offline. With Evernote, you can do this by exporting your notes as a PDF.

Depending on whether you want to export a single note or multiple notes, open, open the note or select them, respectively, click the More actions button next to the note, and select Export as PDF. Choose page options based on your preference and click Export.

9. View Note History

Note history is a feature available only for premium Evernote users. It takes snapshots of notes and copies all their contents to a secured server. It’s very handy because normally if you upload a newer version of your note, you’ll be able to access only the last one. Meanwhile, with this feature, you can gain unlimited access to all past versions.

The note history feature checks the Evernote account several times a day. If there are any changes, it will upload them to the server. Note that this will not automatically capture documents at every change.

If you have a shared notebook, this is the best way to keep track of changes made by others. You will be able to access your previous versions to see how the note has progressed and if you decide to permanently delete it, remember that versions will be wiped too.

10. Merge the Contents of Two Evernote Accounts

It’s not really possible to merge different accounts, but it’s possible to export notebooks from one to another. Select the desired notebook and right-click on it. Select Export Notes from when a menu pops up.

Now, choose the location where you want to save them and the type of exportation. Moreover, it’s very important to choose the ENEX file type for the exported notebooks to be sure that you’ll not have further problems.

All you need to do now is to import these files to another account. Again, it’s a very simple process. Just log in and click File and select Import notes. Browse to the location where you have saved the ENEX files and select the desired ones. Evernote will automatically create a new notebook named Imported Notes with these files, which you can organize and move to the preferred location.

11. Record Your Notes

For times when you don’t feel like typing, Evernote offers the ability to record and store an audio recording in your Evernote account. If you’re on a free account, you can record up to 25MB per note, whereas a paid Evernote account lets you record notes up to 500 MB.

To add a voice note, open a new note, click on the Insert button, and select Audio Recording. Record your note, and hit the Stop button once it’s done. Evernote will then save the note and save it to your notebook.

12. Share a Note With Someone

Evernote lets you quickly and easily share a note with someone to get their thoughts on the same or have them collaborate on it. This even works when you want to share the note with someone who’s not on Evernote since each note in Evernote has its own link.

For sharing a note with someone, open the note you want to share and hit the Share button. Enter the email address of the person with whom you want to share the note/bring to collaborate, and hit Send Invitation.

Alternatively, if you want to share the note with a non-Evernote user, click the toggle button next to the Shareable link to enable the link. Then, click Copy link to copy the link and send it across via any messaging app or email.

13. Simplify Interactions with Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re always in a hurry or you want to run Evernote more efficiently, you can take advantage of some keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts will help you work more quickly and save time by making use of the keyboard. The most common keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac computers are:

• Create a new note: Ctrl + N / Command + N
• New notebook: Ctrl + Shift + N / CMD + Shift + N
• New tag: Ctrl + Shift + T / Control + Command + N
• Send notes by email: Ctrl + Shift + E
• Insert the date and time: Alt + Shift + D / Control + Command + D
• Sync: F9 / Control + Command + S
• Jump to search bar: Ctrl + Alt + F / Command + Option + F

If you can’t settle with the default shortcuts, Evernote lets you configure your own shortcuts. All you have to do is go into the desktop application and select Help > Keyboard Shortcuts. Double-click on a shortcut you want to customize and type a new combination.

Evernote Tips and Tricks Make Evernote More Effective and Powerful

As you’ve seen above, knowing Evernote tips and tricks and familiarizing yourself with some useful Evernote features can help you use Evernote more effectively and help you get more out of it. So no matter whether you use it to take notes, manage tasks, as a read-it-later app, or for anything else, you’ll be able to do it efficiently.

Note: The article was originally published in April 2013 by Alex Serban and republished by Yash Wate in November 2022.