As Jon said, whether you prefer Notebooks or Tags seems to be because of the way your brain is wired. I prefer Tags. Here's why. Take the example that Jon used, where you have a Note for your monthly Evernote invoice. If Ii were using Notebooks, my brain often hurts trying to decide which Notebook the Note should go in. I could put the Note in multiple Notebooks, but that's more work, and then I have duplicate Notes.
For me, using Tags is much simpler. I use whatever Tags seem appropriate for a Note. The good news is, if there are multiple Tags that seem appropriate, I can add them all. I don't have to duplicate the Note to do this. If no Tags seem appropriate, then that's OK too. Every Note does not have to have a Tag.
My "system" for this is always changing. I don't worry about having it all defined in advance. Whenever a new Tag seems to help, I use it. I don't have to remember it later. If I do, I use it. If not, it doesn't matter. Over time, I see which Tags I'm using more and can delete the ones that I haven't used often. And over time I can add Tags that now seem appropriate, but didn't in the first place.
Evernote search, especially using Boolean, is so powerful that you usually find that Notes you want pretty easily, regardless of whatever organization you chose to use.
I've been using Evernote for many years. I have 4 Notebooks and 1,895 Tags.
As Jon said, use whatever works for you. That's the beauty of Evernote - you can use it how you want.
I've found that I'm using both tags and notebooks less and less over time. This is due to the improved note functionalities available now (table of contents, collapsible headings etc). So increasingly I just have one large note for a given topic, organized using the functionalities mentioned above. Given that such large notes tend to be almost indexes in themselves, I place a top ⬆️ link throughout so can easily jump back to the table of contents whenever needed
That's been the question since Evernote first appeared.
The main thing, as others have said, you can do what you want and change along the way. You're not locked in to anything.
I use both. Today after more than 10 years of use, I have 84 notebooks and over 500 tags. I even have tags that are the same name is as some notebooks.
I occasionally go through my tags and delete those that no longer really mean anything to me as categories.
Just do what feels right for you at the moment, you can later come back and change things around to something that suits you better as your use evolves.
Changing tags is really easy, you can select several notes and change tags on all of them
Technically, Evernote's search is so powerful, that you could have just one notebook and no tags and still find what you are looking for.
Your Evernote usage will definitely continually evolve over time, so don't let it overwhelm you.
I'm a minimalist when it comes to tags. I have no more than 20 representing main areas of focus, including Finance, Hobbies, House&Garden, Tech, Personal (Health, etc) and Family&Friends.
I'd worry that if I created more tags, they'd become unmanageable and I's likely likely end up creating more than one tag for essentially the same instance.
I know that you can nest tags, effectively having sub-levels to a main tag level - and I'm not sure how many levels of nesting you can generate (It seems EN allows multiple levels of tag nests!)
To me, it seems like tagging everything is much like creating an index of your content, but why do that when Evernote's search function is so effective? And if you forget to tag a note, it won't appear if you search for the tag...
Do tags function if a Note is shared?
As Jon says, it depends on how your brain is wired and how you want to find content within EN. Different people will have different requirements and ways of organising - and that's one of the key benefits of Evernote - it's very flexible, allowing you to structure and organise the content based on how individual users want to manage it.
I went through phases of all notebooks, then I got rid of them and replaced them with tags. Now I’m back to all notebooks again and have 7 tags, purely for statuses to make things easier to find. I think I’ve found my comfort zone now.
I did similar. Had a bright idea once to move all my notes into one notebook and spend days tagging them all only to hate it and move everything back again 😂
"Should I use tags or should I use notebooks"? My answer is "yes." I love tags, but you have to think through a good system. For me, it's an easy way to subdivide notebooks.
I like the idea of subdivinding notebooks and you're right about a good system. One reason I don't use tags for orgainsation is my naming convention is so tight I can usually find anything.
As Jon said, whether you prefer Notebooks or Tags seems to be because of the way your brain is wired. I prefer Tags. Here's why. Take the example that Jon used, where you have a Note for your monthly Evernote invoice. If Ii were using Notebooks, my brain often hurts trying to decide which Notebook the Note should go in. I could put the Note in multiple Notebooks, but that's more work, and then I have duplicate Notes.
For me, using Tags is much simpler. I use whatever Tags seem appropriate for a Note. The good news is, if there are multiple Tags that seem appropriate, I can add them all. I don't have to duplicate the Note to do this. If no Tags seem appropriate, then that's OK too. Every Note does not have to have a Tag.
My "system" for this is always changing. I don't worry about having it all defined in advance. Whenever a new Tag seems to help, I use it. I don't have to remember it later. If I do, I use it. If not, it doesn't matter. Over time, I see which Tags I'm using more and can delete the ones that I haven't used often. And over time I can add Tags that now seem appropriate, but didn't in the first place.
Evernote search, especially using Boolean, is so powerful that you usually find that Notes you want pretty easily, regardless of whatever organization you chose to use.
I've been using Evernote for many years. I have 4 Notebooks and 1,895 Tags.
As Jon said, use whatever works for you. That's the beauty of Evernote - you can use it how you want.
Thanks for sharing Gene, pretty sure that will help a lot of folk. I love how brains are so different.
I've found that I'm using both tags and notebooks less and less over time. This is due to the improved note functionalities available now (table of contents, collapsible headings etc). So increasingly I just have one large note for a given topic, organized using the functionalities mentioned above. Given that such large notes tend to be almost indexes in themselves, I place a top ⬆️ link throughout so can easily jump back to the table of contents whenever needed
Nice. Do you have a strict or descriptive naming convention for your notes and headers so its easy to search for things?
I like the idea of the Top link to get back to the top... very useful.
That's been the question since Evernote first appeared.
The main thing, as others have said, you can do what you want and change along the way. You're not locked in to anything.
I use both. Today after more than 10 years of use, I have 84 notebooks and over 500 tags. I even have tags that are the same name is as some notebooks.
I occasionally go through my tags and delete those that no longer really mean anything to me as categories.
Just do what feels right for you at the moment, you can later come back and change things around to something that suits you better as your use evolves.
Changing tags is really easy, you can select several notes and change tags on all of them
Technically, Evernote's search is so powerful, that you could have just one notebook and no tags and still find what you are looking for.
Your Evernote usage will definitely continually evolve over time, so don't let it overwhelm you.
Welcome to the Herd!
Here is one example of tags that I use...
Recipes
Sub-tags to recipes are thinks like: Fish, Beef, Pork, Chicken, Pasta, Rice, Potato, vegetable, soup...
So then, if I'm looking for a beef vegetable soup, I filter for those tags. Easy-peasy.
I like that idea. Might try it with my recipe notebook.
I'm a minimalist when it comes to tags. I have no more than 20 representing main areas of focus, including Finance, Hobbies, House&Garden, Tech, Personal (Health, etc) and Family&Friends.
I'd worry that if I created more tags, they'd become unmanageable and I's likely likely end up creating more than one tag for essentially the same instance.
I know that you can nest tags, effectively having sub-levels to a main tag level - and I'm not sure how many levels of nesting you can generate (It seems EN allows multiple levels of tag nests!)
To me, it seems like tagging everything is much like creating an index of your content, but why do that when Evernote's search function is so effective? And if you forget to tag a note, it won't appear if you search for the tag...
Do tags function if a Note is shared?
As Jon says, it depends on how your brain is wired and how you want to find content within EN. Different people will have different requirements and ways of organising - and that's one of the key benefits of Evernote - it's very flexible, allowing you to structure and organise the content based on how individual users want to manage it.
Tags don't work if a note is shared on individual accounts but they do on team accounts.
20 seems manageable to me. I seem to be able to remember my naming convention better that lots of tags so I can find things pretty quickly.
My daughter can spend hours organising things and it drives me mad as I'd of done it before she finished organising 😂
I went through phases of all notebooks, then I got rid of them and replaced them with tags. Now I’m back to all notebooks again and have 7 tags, purely for statuses to make things easier to find. I think I’ve found my comfort zone now.
I did similar. Had a bright idea once to move all my notes into one notebook and spend days tagging them all only to hate it and move everything back again 😂
"Should I use tags or should I use notebooks"? My answer is "yes." I love tags, but you have to think through a good system. For me, it's an easy way to subdivide notebooks.
I like the idea of subdivinding notebooks and you're right about a good system. One reason I don't use tags for orgainsation is my naming convention is so tight I can usually find anything.