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Mike Parrott's avatar

Here's a more radical suggestion. Create your own field within the body of the note by prefixing it with an emoji. So a search for "📌 the" finds only a note containing the phrase "📌 the thing" despite the fact that the word "the" is in most of my notes!

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Jon Tromans's avatar

I like that idea... I sometimes use a code block at the top of a note to list specific data.

Something like:

Category:

Year:

Something Else:

Like metadata at the top of the note.

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Allan Palmer's avatar

I've tended to look at tags as a system-wide tool, and have kept my use of them to a bare minimum in order not to let them become too complex and difficult to remember. This AMA, however, has got me thinking about using tags for a specific notebook (or stack?) where the content might be something like the suggested movie database. I'll have to think about are there sections of my Evernote system that would be fit from this approach. Thanks as usual for an informative AMA

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Jon Tromans's avatar

I tend to use tags just for a status these days but may dip into them more...

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Mike Parrott's avatar

I agree that tags are probably the way to go. To make them easier to use I would definitely have a hierarchy. For example in your example a tag of decade with subtags of 70s, 80s and 90s - so you could choose one. I have an number of tags which are not assigned to notes but are just "root tags" for different options. A naming convention can also be really useful. So the advanced search syntax tag:genre* would find all notes with a tag beginning genre.

Its also worth remembering that you can search the content of the title only using intitle: So you could possibly use this in some way.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Thanks for the insight. I know you use a lot of tags so useful to hear.

Using the title is a good idea and setting a naming convention which is how I tend to work these days.

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Dany Pelletier's avatar

Tags are great! I use them all the time. But it's also quite easy to get out of control...

I have 532 tags :-( Way to many... a lot of one-offs that just seemed appropriate at the time of creating the notes, but really bring no added value and it's easy to get lost in them. Then I have to go in every once in a while and do some cleaning up. Obviously, with 532 tags, the cleanup hasn't happened in a while.

Best approach would be to create your tags ahead of time in an organized fashion and try to stick with it.

You can also nest sub-tags as deep as you want, but again, best if you plan ahead.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Totally agree about them getting out of control.

I tried a one notebook/many tags approach a few years ago and it ended badly with too many tags. I couldn't remember what I had to tag stuff with!

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Phil Gibson's avatar

Jon - I really do appreciate your blog, learn a lot from it but just wondering if it's possible sometimes to show Android info as well as Mac & Windows? This isn't a complaint about AMA but Evernote itself - it does seem as though Android development is being left behind in the way of shortcuts etc.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Yes. Totally agree and its something I'm conscious of but haven't got sorted yet.

I've made a mental note to slot in mobile screens.

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