Evernote for iPad saw the light

Two months ago, we were sitting at computers, afraid to take our eyes off the browser, so as not to miss any detail when Apple announced the iPad. It was not difficult to formulate our official strategy regarding the new device: we had to ensure maximum support for our application on the iPad, and we had 60 days for everything.

Now, when the device sales started in the USA, we can happily note that Evernote for iPad has managed to occupy a worthy place in the Apple AppStore. Now we are waiting for the start of sales in Russia, and we really hope that domestic users will soon be able to try what we have done.

The new version of Evernote (3.3) for mobile devices Apple is a universal application that can be run on all models of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. IPhone and iPod Touch users won't notice much change, but if you run the program on an iPad, you will find a completely new user interface.
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Something you can hold
Designing a new interface was not a trivial task. At first we made an advanced model of the device, cutting out a piece of cardboard approximately suitable in size, wrote an iPad on it and spent several days without letting it go. We took it to meetings, held it in different ways and tried to imagine what Evernote should look like for a device with such a form factor. We looked pretty stupid, and the people laughed at us mercilessly. We even printed sketches with the planned interface elements and pasted them on our “iPad” to get an idea of ​​the most suitable font size and finger position. We have learned a lot during this time.




What should it be
We tried to take the existing iPhone interface and make it bigger. This idea did not pass the cardboard test drive. Then we tried to take the current Mac application interface and reduce it. This idea also failed the cardboard test drive. Then we locked ourselves in the conference room for three days, discarding all previous sketches. After trial and error we managed to get something that we really liked.

One of the main principles we followed when creating an interface for the iPad is to help you find notes quickly. New arrangement of elements and work style drastically reduce the number of steps for navigation and search. We want every note to be reached easily and naturally, so that all your memories are literally at your fingertips. It's hard to describe, but just to feel. And of course, you can still use the search.

What is worth trying

There are some things that we would advise you to try first as soon as you have an iPad with Evernote in your hands.

View Modes

The list of all your notes is available in the “All notes” mode. “View Modes” in the upper right corner are used to switch between thumbnails and detailed view, as well as to change the way notes are grouped. If you have a lot of notes, try using the scroll bar on the right edge of the screen to quickly move from one group to another. The divisions on this line will show you how many notes in each group, so that you can easily move between the “saturated” parts of your life with one touch of a finger!

Notebooks and tags

Click the Notebooks or Tags tab to view the contents of notebooks or notes. If you display too many items, try changing the sorting method “By number of notes” using the switch at the bottom of the screen and you will automatically see the most popular tags and notebooks first.

Map


Rate the new type of maps on the tab "Place". Sketches will be automatically updated, showing only those notes that are associated with the displayed fragment of the map. You can move and zoom the map. This is a very simple and convenient way to find exactly the note you need.

Notes


If you click on any note, you will see the screen split in half with the contents of the note in one pane and the thumbnails of the notes in another. All the functionality of viewing modes, including grouping, scrolling and quick navigation through the list is also available in this mode, so that you can work in it all the time if you want. To return to the home page-screen, simply click the "Home" button in the upper right corner.

New notes and editing


You can always create a new note by clicking the corresponding button in the lower left corner of the screen. We implemented some frequently requested functions for creating notes. Now you can combine text recordings with any number of pictures or audio attachments. Simply click on the attachment buttons located along the top of the note editing window to record audio or add an image. You can even continue to enter text in the audio recording process, although in this case, you should either use an external microphone and keyboard, or type very, very quietly ... It also works for existing notes - just press the button with a pencil when viewing a specific note . These new features have also greatly expanded the types of notes available for direct editing.

Search

You can always try to search notes by simply typing a query into the search box in the top right of the screen. Of course, all pictures in Evernote are searchable, and word highlighting works for them.

The state is remembered
The new Evernote for iPad is so fast that we finally managed to make another frequent request: when you exit and restart the application, it starts exactly where you left it. If you viewed a note or search results and came out to launch another application, your note will return to the screen after restarting Evernote. If you don’t care what you’ve watched for the last time and you just need to quickly create a new note, the “New Note” button is always present in the lower left part of the screen.

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What else is not in the new version?

There are many things that we wanted to do in this version, but we could not. We will implement them soon.

Drawing
It seems to us that creating a quick drawing or writing a phone number with your finger is a great advantage of the iPad, but we decided that we should not immediately realize this possibility without first feeling the device. Handwriting requires much more tactile experience, and it cannot be developed using only a simulator.

Manage notes, tags and search
Now you can not create new notebooks on the iPad, and the ability to manage tags and search is limited. Of course, you can do all this in your application for Mac, Windows, from the Evernote web interface, and the results will be automatically synchronized with the iPad. In the next version, these functions will be available directly on the device.

IPhone and iPod Touch Updates
Despite the fact that the code has been significantly updated in version 3.3, there are no changes there yet that iPhone and iPod Touch users might notice. But the next few updates will bring many improvements that we have prepared for the owners of these devices.

Note: Some people write about problems with syncing existing accounts when upgrading to version 3.3 (3.3.1) on their iPhone or iPod Touch. Most of these problems are solved by exiting the application and restarting. If this does not help, try removing the application from your iPhone and reinstalling it from the AppStore.