Evernote and Genealogy

Courtesy of Julia Mosman, here are the handout notes from our September meeting on Evernote and Genealogy:

What is Evernote?

• An online website that stores your information
• It’s a note-taking and note-filing system
• Only limited by your imagination, and your needs

Features

• Allows you to import & save all kinds of information
  • Create a research-workbook log and plan (start or add to it)
    • Research notes, to-do lists, photos, e-mails, timelines
    • Images from Ancestry and Family Search, state & library websites
    •  Pages from Google books, magazines, maps, receipts, business cards
• In all sorts of formats
  • Typed or handwritten notes
  • Photographs
  • Video and/or audio recordings
  • E-mails
• To all types of devices
  • Windows & Apple computers, tablets, iPad, iPhone, & Android smart phones
• Which are synchronized between all your devices (if you have internet access) in the most current version (for your Operating System & browser)
• Your files are automatically backed up to your computer and the Evernote servers
• Includes OCR technology, which makes your notes searchable without manual indexing

Easy to obtain

• Decide if you want a Free, Plus, or Premium Account
  • Free has smaller notes, lower monthly maximum import;Premium may not be needed
• Go to the evernote website, EVERNOTE.COM to confirm the differences
  • Step 1 – obtain an account, and set up a password
    • Allows you to synchronize files
    • Email your account directly (you’ll be given an Evernote email address)
  • Step 2 – download Evernote
    • The system will adapt to your operating system
  • Step 3 – download Evernote Webclipper to your browser
    • Google Chrome offers the most flexibility and features, but it works with all platforms
  • Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all other devices, as needed
  • Steps 1 through 3 took 6 minutes
• If you want, check the “help” guides and videos on the Evernote site; they’re useful
• Over 100 apps are on the Evernote site alone; recommend wait to add them for at least a week,
  • But be aware there may be extremely good ways to accomplish something, such as webclipping for Mac and iPhone users.

Using Evernote

Home page is divided into 4 parts – top, left column, center column, and right column

• Top has orientatation
  • Email account it’s linked to, SEARCH window
  • Action choices similar to other Word or Open Office choices
• Left –
  • Work Chat – share immediate messages with other people you’ve invited
  • Favorites –  easy, quick access to particular Notebooks
  • Notebooks – may be individual, or grouped into subject
• Center – all notes in the current workbook OR notes fulfilling your search conditions
• Right – Latest note you are working on, or creating/ check Info icon for documentation
  •  Click on the note to open it fully

Note- taking 101 –                                         

• Notes are the basis of the system – all data is stored in Note format
• Create New note – click on File, then New Note – or use Shortcut <Cntrl + N >
  • Can create a “link” note to files in Dropbox, Google Plus, SkyDrive, etc. as an Index
• Evernote will automatically save notes instantly, and using OCR will index them
• You can manually “sync: notes, speeding up the system timing; valuable if you’re sharing the note with another person

Tagging –                                                       

• Tags are one of the mechanisms by which  Evernote searches for & retrieves Notes
• Can build them separately, or as each note is entered
• After creating tags, simply attach the Tag[s] to each note –
• Click on Index at the top of the note to add more tags, or remove them later
• To use, enter one or more Tags into search – the center column will fill with all notes containing those tags

Web Clipping –                                             

• System which enables you to capture documents, quotes from books, images, etc., from the Web using any digital device, and store the data in Evernote
• Use Evernote Webclipper or EverClip for iOS devices
  • If using Evernote Webclipper – once you’ve gone online and found something
    • Click on the small elephant symbol found on your top “address” bar (far right)
    • Make choices regarding format, if you want to share, if you want to “markup” clip
    • Clip will be sent to your “default” notebook,or added to any designated notebook
  • Evernote automatically tracks when you clipped the resource, the last date you modified the clip, and the URL from which you clipped the material
  • For iPad or iPhone users, obtain EverClip***, as it makes clipping much easier

Annotating –                                             

• Method to emphasize or add information in a Note; can be used with images, as well as any note
• Can Highlight, add captions, identify persons, etc.
• Annotate before or after clipping; when creating a Note, or adding at a later time
• Can be easily removed

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http://evernote.com        

http://evernote.com/evernote/guide/web

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p_7snQhdLI   

for an overview; look at other videos as well at your own peril!! (there are tons)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaHFnBM_4_A    using evernote for genealogy organization

https://plus.google.com/communities/100137928695553299006    Google group on evernote for genealogy