As anyone who has read DocumentSnap for any length of time knows, I’m a bit of a fan of Evernote.
Recently Brett Kelly at Bridging The Nerd Gap has released an 80+ page guide to Evernote called Evernote Essentials.
At first you might think that Evernote is a pretty simple application (you put stuff in, and search when you want to find something), but Brett does a good job of shining light on little known corners of the application and taking the reader through some use-cases.
I like to think of myself as somewhat of an Evernote ninja, but I was a bit ashamed at some of the stuff I didn’t know or had long forgotten. I’ll be implementing some of the tips (cough, global keystrokes, cough) into my workflow immediately.
It has some good points on how to use tagging effectively, setting up email filters (brilliant!), and using Evernote as a task management system.
Also, I wholeheartedly approve of any writing style that encompasses the use of the phrase “here’s your huckleberry”.
One minor nitpick I have is that when describing Evernote’s auto-import folder, it could have mentioned that that feature is Windows only so that Mac users don’t go hunting for it. That’s the only gap I could find however.
If you’re an advanced user that has been using Evernote for quite some time, there is a good chapter called “Regaining Control of Your Evernote Database”, something I personally could benefit from.
The price of Evernote Essentials is $25. For some that will be reasonable, for some it might seem high. Only you can make that determination.
One funny point. When Brett was 95% done writing the guide, he was actually hired by Evernote. In the Evernote Podcast, the guys were joking that in order to get a job at the company, you have to write a book about it first.
If Evernote Essentials is something that seems right for you, you can pick it up here. I’m off to re-factor my tags.
