Evernote vs. OneNote - arcdev/engram404 GitHub Wiki
originally posted 2016-05-09 at https://engram404.net/evernote-vs-onenote/
Let's start at the end β I'm back to Evernote.
I originally started with OneNote a number of years ago when I wanted to take and organize a collection of semi-random, well, notes. It worked fine.
After I switched to an Android phone, I tried Evernote. Then I found a plugin for Chrome that allowed me to capture all (or part of) a webpage and save it for later. I used it to grab recipes online that I'd used or wanted to try. (It was especially good for the ones that I liked, but could never seem to keep around on paper or a good link or moved out from under the link I did keep.) That's when I got hooked.
Beyond the random cluster of relatively unrelated notes, I've been using it for about 5 years to store and organize recipes (collected from online, friends, family, and my own). And, I use it for organizing receipts and serial numbers. The recipes is a fairly obvious. The receipts & serial numbers may not be.
We all have '"stuff'" that we buy: tools, electronics, appliances, even furniture. All of these things (usually) have serial numbers and usually have warranties. For the longest time, I tried to keep this information in a box for when I needed to get something fixed under warranty or (when my car was broken into) for proving that I had actually purchased some items. So I started migrating that box (with lots of receipts for items I no longer owned) into Evernote. That part was rather painful, but I managed. Now, I basically have an inventory of everything we own of value and a receipt for it and a serial number and a model number_._ Should some disaster befall us, I can pull up Evernote on my phone or tablet or a borrowed computer and show the insurance company a fairly complete list of the more valuable stuff that we own(ed). Of course, this information also helps for moving (being able to value the contents of your home) and for keeping track of warranties, and sometimes even other information like online manuals or specs. Plus, you can search through it easily without rummaging through a box of long-forgotten items and you're not lugging that box around when you move. The list of reasons to do this goes on, but I think you get the drift. For me, the initial effort wasn't terrible, but was time-consuming. But, going forward is easy. When you get something new, scan the receipt (or print to PDF if possible), then add a quite note with:
- purchase date
- store
- value
- model number
- serial number
- purchase price
- any other info you wan to keep about the item
- the digital copy of the receipt
Done. Once Evernote (or your organization-tool-of-choice) has sychronized to The Cloud, throw the receipt away. No need to clutter your abode or file it or anything.
Back to the storyβ¦
Evernote has 2 big downsides that bother me:
- The editor is just terrible. It would almost be better if it were simply a plain-text editor. Instead, it has some formatting features that mostly get in the way more than they help. (The table format is horrendous.)
- The free version limits the amount of data you can add to your collection in a given month. (Though, the only time I've come close is when I initially moved my box of stuff online.)
By themselves these weren't enough to make me consider switching. But recently, Evernote has taken to nagging me (seemingly nonstop) to upgrade or to use some new feature that I don't want.
So I decided to give OneNote another try.
The migration from Evernote to OneNote wasn't terrible, but I actually had to go through it three or four times until I finally got everything imported into OneNote in a reasonably organized fashion. (Evernote and OneNote use slightly different organizational paradigms.) I used the OneNote Importer tool, if you're interested.
OneNote's editor is hands-down waaaay better than Evernote which makes some sense since Microsoft has Word to use as a starting point.
After getting a handle on the organization, the next hurdle with OneNote was sorting. There's no built-in way to sort your notes. Seriously!? Yup, seriously. There's a set of macros that you can get for free (somehow related to Microsoft) called Onetastic that adds some nice features (like sorting), but it's not exactly simple. There are lots of times I want to resort my notes (like I do with files) to look for something I just recently added or to search for something by name, but not easily with OneNote. Ok, well, not the end of the world. I've still go my sights on that dreamy editor.
One feature, I really liked about OneNote is the OCR of images. I've actually fired up OneNote just for that β pull the text out of an image for me.
It turns out that you can have attachments in OneNote, but viewing embedded PDFs? Not really a '"thing.'" Ok, fine. That was a nice-to-have that Evernote gave me: open the note, see the PDF visible there embedded with everything else, scroll through said PDF looking for whatever information might be important. Usually my embedded PDFs are the receipts I scan or '"print'" from my browser for online purchases. Oh, well β still not the end of the world.
Let's fire up OneNote on my tablet. I do this quite frequently when looking up recipes. '"Hold please, we're reorganizing your notes or opening them up again or parsing them again or pretending this is the first time you've used OneNote or some such nonsense.'" Ok β I'm done.
It seems that every time OneNote gets updated on my tablet (or phone), it has to do something-er-other with the cached notes or get them off the server again or something. Plus, their search has to index more and where you store the files isn't nearly as seamless. Either way β that's the final straw. I'm back to Evernote.
When I open Evernote on my mobile device it just works β which is exactly how this type of thing should behave: just work.
So I guess I'll just put up with Evernote nagging me about their services, and their less-than-exemplary editor and call it good. Who knows. I use the tool enough, maybe I'll pay for it and see if the nagging stops. For goodness sake, it's only $25/year or $50/year for their upgrade plans. I've been know to spend that on coffee in a week. (Starbucks addiction, anyone?)
I still think OneNote has its place β but not for my personal stuff and not for the type of organizing I do with Evernote. (In a business setting, OneNote is probably the better choice and let's you keep your data locally β if this is an issue for your company.)