You have long been able to share notebooks with Evernote, but the company has added the ability to share individual notes as a link. I have found this surprisingly handy.
Here’s an example. I tend to scan magazine articles into Evernote that I think may be useful.
Yesterday, a friend told me that he was thinking of going to Barcelona and asked if I had any tips. Now, I’ve never been to Barcelona, but I never let lack of personal knowledge stop me from offering up Cliff Clavin-style information.
I was pretty sure I had scanned a magazine article about Barcelona once, so I typed “barcelona” into Evernote’s search bar and there it was (Evernote really is becoming my external brain).
Getting The Sharing URL
I could have emailed the PDF or turned it into an attachment and extracted it, but it was just faster and easier to send him a URL.
I right-clicked on the note, chose Share, then Copy shared note URL to clipboard. I then pasted the URL to him. I could have used the Sharing menu up in the toolbar too.
(By the way, these screenshots are from the Mac version, but the Windows version works the same).
What He Sees
When he clicks the URL, he’s taken to an Evernote web page where he can download the PDF. He doesn’t have access to any of my other notes, or the other notes in this particular notebook (which is not shared).
If I had shared a note that was not a PDF, it would have just displayed the contents. Here is an example of a very important note that I’ll need to be able to pull up next time I am in Portland, Oregon.
Privacy and Stopping Sharing
It is important to note that these shared URLs are theoretically public. In the unlikely event that someone figures out the incredibly long and ugly URL, anyone on the Internet could see your note (they warn you about this too). Therefore, I recommend not sharing anything with extremely sensitive information.
If you want to stop sharing a note, that is easy. When you are looking at your note, you’ll see that it has a Shared icon with an arrow.
When you click it, you can then stop sharing.
When Evernote first announced individual-note sharing, I have to admit that I didn’t think I’d ever use it, but it has turned out to be surprisingly handy on a number of occasions. If you need to send someone a note or document out of your Evernote account, give it a try.
