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Friday 14 December 2012

Revision Tips: Evernote

The first instalment of this blog was written using the free software, Evernote. So I thought it appropriate that I should kick off a series of articles on revision tips with one of my favourite tools. For those of you that don't know, Evernote is a word processor that stores your writing as separate 'notes' inside folders known as 'notebooks'. These notebooks can then be put into larger folders called 'stacks'. In addition to this each note can be given a tag which similar to a twitter hash tag that can help you group together notes that you have placed in different notebooks. 


I currently have this installed on my phone, tablet and laptop and the files synchronise flawlessly between the devices. It means I can type up my notes on a proper keyboard on the laptop and read them anywhere I like using my phone and tablet. The app doesn't merely stop at word processing though. Evernote Trunk is like an App Store for Evernote, where you can find all sorts of programmes to help you with a myriad of tasks. From electronically signing your documents to reading the news. One of my personal favourites is Evernote Peek, which turns your phone or tablet into flashcards. It is perfect for memorising lists of differential diagnoses or drug side effects on the go.

Another fantastic function is the ability to upload photos. It means I can take pictures of all of my handwritten notes or textbooks and store them in one place. They have recently introduced two new features related to this. They have updated the mobile app to include document scanning capabilities, meaning you get a box on the camera to tell you whether you've lined up the page straight, an auto cropping feature and an auto brightness adjuster. This means my handwritten notes come out looking crisp and clear. It doesn't end there though, I can now search for text inside my handwritten notes. This feature isn't perfect, though that is probably more to do with my handwriting than the app. 

So "what are the negative points?" I hear you cry or "I bet Evernote are paying him for this" might be what you are thinking. Well with the free version you get a monthly upload limit of 60MB although that is usually plenty for including 20 odd photos and a lot of text. The app doesn't let you access notebooks offline which can be a pain, although my tablet seems to store most of my recently read notes for offline reading. It doesn't stop you from writing notes whilst offline though. 

All in all a very good app and I've already given it five stars in the app store and would recommend it to anyone. It is the only word processor I use on my tablet and really helps me with revision.

If you have had any experience using Evernote, let me know what you think of it below.

1 comment:

  1. The two features that I use in Evernote alot are the email or forward to Evernote and the web clipper.

    I typically use the email to Evernote feature in the morning while I'm going through my email inbox. The second feature comes in quite handy while browsing the web. When I see something that is interesting, I simply click or tap on the Evernote web clipper bookmark and the page is saved in Evernote.

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