One Note, Noteshelf, ePaper, Write, Free Note … the note taking app market has gotten pretty crowded. But cream always rises to the top, and even after the giant market gobbler Google announced their app Keep!, the announcement put note taking apps before the public eye once again and Evernote’s downloads increased as a result. The New York Times listed Evernote as one of ten must-have apps, and users listened. Why is Evernote taking both business and personal users by storm?
Evernote Integrates Business and Personal Note Taking Seamlessly
As Bring Your Own Device policies open the doors for workers to use the same devices for both work and personal business, keeping business notes secure while offering users individual privacy is increasingly important. Evernote makes it easy to share business notes with colleagues, while keeping personal contact information, financial information, family business, and other private things away from prying eyes. Simply choose the notes and notebooks you want to share with whom, and nobody can access your personal stuff. Everyone from the CEO to the mail room workers can appreciate this ability.
Evernote Offers Advanced Security Features
Many companies have tough security issues to deal with, and not all apps are as secure as IT wants them to be, especially if workers are storing company data and communications on personal devices. With Evernote Pro comes advanced security measures for even the toughest environments. This is ideal for insurance companies, medical facilities, financial institutions and other businesses that deal with sensitive consumer and corporate information. Access to Evernote Pro starts at just $45 per year, an affordable fee for most any size company or institution.
Evernote Works Among All Devices
Some apps only work on smartphones, others are limited to particular operating systems. Evernote, however, is universally compatible across all devices, an ideal solution when some workers are using the Windows phone on T-Mobile, others are working on desktop PCs, and still more depend on tablet computers or laptops running Linux. Users can share notes among their own devices, as well as with users of other devices for seamless collaboration on projects.
Evernote Offers Generous Storage Space
The latest version of Evernote added more storage space for notes, notebooks, and libraries than ever before. Now, users of the pro version can store up to 2 gigabytes per month of their own personal notes, on top of another 2 gigabytes per month for business notes. The free version of Evernote also added additional storage space, so even non-pro users have more room to create notes and organize notes into notebooks. This storage lets users keep track of websites, webpages, and documents created in Evernote, as well as items transported into Evernote from photos through the text recognition software.
Evernote Allows For Easy Searching and Browsing of Notes
Evernote allows users to tag their notes and notebooks. These tags become searchable keywords to quickly and easily find both personal and business notes and notebooks. Business users also have access to Business Libraries, which are also searchable by keyword tags. No note taking app has more features and functions to help the user find the notes they’ve stored in Evernote.
Evernote Has a Text Recognition Feature
This might be the coolest Evernote feature of all. If you’ve jotted notes on a napkin, you can use the Evernote text recognition feature to create a readable text document. Then you can tag the note, file it in a notebook, and it becomes a searchable document just like all the notes, websites, and other information you store in Evernote. The text recognition feature is only available on the pro version, however, so users of the free version don’t have this capability.
Some of the Evernote functions mentioned in this article require plug-ins. Evernote offers a variety of plug-in options for increasing the usability of the app, including:
- Web Clipper
- Trunk
- Twicca
- Right Signature
- News 360
- Eye-Fi
- Livescribe Smartpens
- Peek
- Clearly
- File This Fetch
- Hello
- Penultimate
These apps greatly increase the amount and type of files and data you can store and manage in Evernote, and add new functionality, including news feeds, handwriting capabilities, integrating with Twitter, and more. Not all plug-ins are available for all operating systems, however, so check your favorite app store to see what plug-ins are offered for your device.
Clearly, Evernote has no intention of letting other note taking app developers one-up them. It’s easy to see why users are flocking to this powerful app, even as top developers continue to offer alternatives. With the pro version and plug-ins, there are few things you can’t do with Evernote.
Image via Flickr by Heisenberg Media