Evernote Smart Notebook By Moleskine Review

Evernote Smart Notebook By Moleskine Review

Evernote ETC: Evernote Smart Moleskine NotebookPaperless is one of those annoying words that means different things to different people. Does it mean having absolutely no paper around? Does it mean just using less paper? Does it mean keeping no paper?

At the Evernote Trunk Conference, the company’s CEO Phil Libin said Evernote’s main competitor is not another software product, but pen and paper. I believe it.

Some people seem to think that paper is binary: you either use it or you use a digital device. In my opinion, it is more nuanced than that – it is not the use of paper that can become a problem, it is what we do with it after we use it.

Tablet apps have come a long way, but many people are most comfortable jotting things down or sketching on pen and paper first, and then digitizing. At the ETC event, Evernote and Moleskine’s CEOs reported that their research has found the same thing – there are a lot of people whose ideas start on paper but then transition to digital.[1]

This led to the most surprising outcome from the conference: the Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine.[2] Each attendee was given one (thank you Evernote), so I thought I would take this opportunity to run through it for you.

The Notebook

Like all Moleskine products, the notebook itself is gorgeous.

Evernote Smart Notebook

They’ve made the page marker “Evernote green” and have the Evernote logo and other designs on the front.

Inside is high-quality paper, and you can order it in either lined or squared. The one I received at ETC is lined. It comes in either a 3.5“ x 5” version or a 5“ x 8.5” version.

Moleskine notebooks typically have a pocket at the back, and inside the pocket of the Evernote Smart Notebook are four pages of stickers and some instructions for how to “go digital”.

On the back page of the notebook, there is a code for 3 months of Evernote Premium. Not bad – that’s $15 right there.

Evernote Smart Notebook

If you look closely at the paper, you will see that the lines are actually little dots. This will come into play in the next section when we get into page scanning.

Evernote Smart Notebook

Page Scanning

An Evernote-branded Moleskine notebook is pretty cool, but it would be a missed opportunity if they had stopped there. In the latest version of their iOS app, they have added Page Scanning functionality that is specifically built to support their Moleskine. Don’t worry Android fans, apparently Android support is in the works.

Now, Evernote did not invent smartphone page scanning. You’ve been able to use your phone to scan to Evernote for quite some time, and I have written about some iPhone document scanning apps and Android document scanning apps that can do just that. What Evernote has done is put their resources behind making something extremely easy.

As with most of my smartphone scanning tests, I am writing this at Starbucks to simulate a real-world environment. I am also drinking a free Americano with the card that I received for my birthday, so it is extra delicious.

Testing the Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine at Starbucks

To use Page Scanning, fire up the Evernote app, create a new note, and hit the Camera button as before. Now there will be a new option up at the top for Page Scanning mode.

Enable Page Scanning
Enable Page Scanning

To enable it, tap it and choose On.

Then you will want to fill up the rectangle in the middle of the screen with the text on your page and hit the Camera button to take the picture.

After you have taken the picture, it will say Processing, and then you will see a little number down in the bottom-right. That will show you how many pages you have captured. You can keep capturing away until you are done.

Smart Notebook Upload
Smart Notebook Upload

When you are done, hit the blue checkmark and it will attach your captures to your new Evernote note and upload it.

I have to admit, I didn’t find the process quite as smart as I had hoped. Maybe I am spoiled by straight-up document scanning apps, but I found I really had to mess around with the angle that I was scanning at.

A contributing factor may be that the lighting in this Starbucks isn’t the greatest. What I would advise is if you are going to use it, tap on the screen to focus the camera before snapping. Either way, I found that it captured more than I had expected.

Stickers

Page capturing isn’t anything too revolutionary, but what about these stickers that come with the Evernote Smart Notebook? What’s up with them?

This is pretty cool: they give you the ability to automatically move your notes to a specific notebook and tag them (!). Now things get interesting.

Evernote Smart Stickers

The app has built-in tags for these, but they are pretty generic. You can see the list here. We want to customize the list, so here is how to do it:

In the Evernote app, go to Settings, and then go to Smart Stickers.

Smart Stickers Setting
Smart Stickers Setting

You will see the stickers that you want to customize. In our case, let’s do the Work one, and I am going to do it to automatically tag DocumentSnap blog ideas.

Smart Stickers Setting
Smart Stickers Setting

I tap Work, and then I will set the Notebook and Tags that I want.

Smart Stickers Setting
Smart Stickers Setting

Now let’s throw a sticker on my page and see if this works.

Evernote Smart Sticker Test

Here is the resulting note.

Sure enough, it worked. Yeah! You can tell that it is tagged with the correct tag, and you’ll have to take my word for it that it is in the right notebook.

Should You Buy The Evernote Smart Notebook?

If you are a “notebook person” and capture to Evernote a lot, you might like this. The notebook itself is gorgeous and the auto-tagging with the stickers is very cool.

I have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed with the camera capture. It would be nice to be able to adjust the capture area and enhancements like you can with most document scanning apps, but that is something that Evernote can improve over time in the software and doesn’t have anything to do with the notebook itself.

While $24.95 – 29.95 is pricey for a notebook, remember that it comes with 3 months of Evernote Premium, which doesn’t make it too much more than a “normal” Moleskine.

If you are someone that is all-digital or is cool with a $1.99 notebook from the drug store, the Evernote Smart Notebook is probably not for you. If you like nice notebooks and use Evernote, it might be worth checking out at least once.

The notebooks will be available in October but can be pre-ordered now.


  1. Myself included. Even though I am “Mr. Paperless”, I carry around a notebook and pen.  ↩

  2. For more context on the announcement, see my Evernote Trunk Conference 2012 post.  ↩

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 11 comments

Chinarut - March 6, 2015 Reply

hey thanks for passing this on – i forgot to mention I like how you focus on not making paper “bad” – you present a very balanced perspective here and from your most recent webinar!

so you mention the “lines as dots” coming into play when scanning – could you elaborate on this a bit more?

glad to hear the scanning technology has since improved since 2012 🙂

Martin - October 8, 2012 Reply

Well I think it's a step in the right direction for Evernote. I'm using Evernote more and more and I think if your like me you will be interested in getting this. However I'm not well off financially yet so I think I may still just scan and add things to my Evernote account. But I will be interested when this system if less flawed. I'm sure they'll fix it after all the responses this has been getting. This is a very exciting company to follow and they have many other interesting applications.

robin h - September 6, 2012 Reply

I dont understand, apart from the stickers, what the notebook gives you over just using the page scanning on a normal moleskime (or other) notebook – is there error correction? background removal? – your review is great but it doesn't make this clear?

I'm willing to give it a go but it appears to be a lot of money for some stickers and a different cover – what am I missing?

Thanks

Babs - August 30, 2012 Reply

This seems a little cumbersome to me…also, is the page reusable or do you discard after you scan? Think for now, even as much as I enjoy EN, I'll wait until they have something for IPhone that says…New Note, Auto Scan to XXX notebook…

@sparrowlight - August 29, 2012 Reply

I like this idea…and the notebook is pretty. But my workflow using Genius Scan + is perfect for me right now, and I can't justify using this approach.

minty95 - August 29, 2012 Reply

Interesting and well written article, many thanks

have ordered the notebook and look forward to testing it myself and adding it to my 'analog' post http://wp.me/pc5vi-pv

T. Brookes (with an 'e') 🙂

Sheffner - August 28, 2012 Reply

Brooks, how to get screenshots of your iPhone?

    Brooks Duncan - August 28, 2012 Reply

    Hold down the power and home button and you'll hear the shutter click. The screenshot will then be in your Camera Roll.

10 Awesome OneNote Tips You Should Be Using All The Time [Windows] - August 28, 2012 Reply

[…] for at http://www.DocumentSnap.com. You can also subscribe to his blog (which today introduces the amazing Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine) and his YouTube channel (latest video is storing handwritten notes in […]

George Chase - August 28, 2012 Reply

I may have got these from you, but I've had luck with FASTERSCAN HD & DOC SCAN. You can adjust the size and quality of the scan before shooting the scan. I'm beginning to think you are actually a Starbucks Barista, sneaking your laptop or iPad into work for updates. – George

    Brooks Duncan - August 28, 2012 Reply

    Cool, thanks George. As for me being a barista, given how clumsy I am, allowing me to be near anything that produces steam and hot water is just a bad idea for everyone concerned.

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