Pardon me if this starts to sound like a laundry list. Evernote is a fairly simple sort of app in concept; it\u2019s just aggregating text, Web links, documents, photos and sound, but \u2026holy cow, what can\u2019t you do when all that information is available to all your computing devices? Add to that encryption and sharing, and its utility reaches epic levels. I\u2019ll leave out the other Evernote integrations<\/a>, automating it with services like ifttt<\/a>, or creating searchable dictation<\/a>, lest this article become a book.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a few things which I use Evernote for, in my personal life:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a few other uses suggested to me by a self-proclaimed Evernote Fanboy who uses it quite a bit for both home and office:<\/p>\n Evernote\u2019s editor has all the abilities of a good text editor, plus a few really cool extras. If you have notes that make more sense together, you can merge them. On the mobile versions, you can add a location (you can add it on the desktop too, if you know the latitude\/longitude). If you want to have that article read to you while you\u2019re commuting, Evernote can send it to iTunes as a spoken track.<\/p>\n Once you have this incredible data repository, what keeps it from becoming another black hole? Evernote makes things very searchable and gives you a few different ways to organize your data. The two primary ways to group things is in \u201cnotebooks\u201d (like folders), and with tags. You can even assign tags and notebooks within the subject line, if you\u2019re sending content via email. If you have one notebook that has become unwieldy, or several notebooks that are related, you can put them into stacks. My recipe notebook got so big that I created a stack for recipes, and notebooks for different types such as desserts, drinks, etc.<\/p>\n Even documents and images are searchable, as Evernote has some basic OCR functionality. So, if you take a photo of a receipt or a business card, you can search through the text within that picture. PDF text searching functionality is also available in the paid version. And if there are searches you find yourself doing a lot, especially if it\u2019s a more complicated search, you might find the Saved Searches option useful.<\/p>\n And just in case you don\u2019t find enough here to solve all your life\u2019s organization issues, Evernote is kind enough to include a shared notebook called User Stories. These stories highlight different ways people in various fields make use of Evernote.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140817212416if_\/http:\/\/a2.mzstatic.com\/us\/r1000\/100\/Purple\/v4\/61\/1e\/1c\/611e1cc3-5155-5459-fee8-dfbb68e8c087\/mza_9211111569398460376.800x500-75.jpg\")
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\nI use Evernote for maintaining check box lists of content. While there are a lot of task management programs available, like OmniFocus, Evernote makes it easy to create interactive checklists for tasks. I maintain a weekly punch list and a daily punch list that allow me to keep track of items throughout my workday. This also provides me a historical trail of things I’ve accomplished throughout the week so I can identify and document what was done each day during the week.<\/li>\n
\nI have a large number of code snippets and documentation that I’ve acquired throughout the years but need every several months. Searching in Google requires me to recall specific information about the article, blog post, or documentation page I read, while Evernote allows me to easily tag information for reference later. I maintain a “code library” within Evernote that reminds me how to accomplish tasks I seldom use. For instance, what is the Unix command for encrypting a file using a 256-bit cipher? Or how do I reset MySQL’s root user password? These are pieces of information that I seldom use, but when I need them, I need them quickly.<\/li>\n
\nDuring home brewing or cooking, I am often following very long, detailed recipes. These recipes typically have large ingredients lists as well. Evernote allows me to synchronize list information to my iPhone, making it easy to check my list on the go.<\/li>\n
\nEvernote is my software of choice for recording meeting notes or researching new material. Because Evernote will synchronize across everything, I never have to worry about emailing my notes to myself later on, or transferring files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n