Last year, Evernote announced they had passed ten-million registered users. I don’t know how that stacks up against active users, but I suspect the ratio is high.

What is Evernote? If you’re not familiar with Evernote, it’s an application that helps you get organized and remember everything.

Here’s a short description from the Evernote website:

“Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Did we mention that it’s free?”

In a nutshell, you can save anything to this program and access it from your computer, from the web, or even your phone. The short video below demonstrates some of the key features.

How do you get the most out of Evernote?

First, you need an account. The basic account is free and would meet the needs of many users. However, apremium account is only $45.00/year.

Once you have an account, what can you do with it?

1. Giant Inbox - This is how I started using Evernote. Everything that comes into my head goes intoEvernote. I can add things to Evernote via the iPhone client, desktop client, or on any computer usingEvernote’s web-based version.
2. Sticky Note Repository - If you have sticky notes plastered around the edge of your monitor, or scraps of paper floating around the desk, one of the simplest uses of Evernote is to store these day-to-day snippets of information in a more organized, uncluttered manner. Evernote can clean your office.
3. Web Clipping – When you come across something of interest on the web, skip the bookmarks. Instead, use the Evernote web clipper to store for later reading. If you select and capture the content, you don’t have to worry about finding the material when sites disappear or change the URL structure. You will have have captured the article once and for all.
4. Share Information – Instead of filling up everybody’s e-mail inbox with all the bits of information you feel it is important to share, store that information in Evernote. Create a shared notebook,  give access to the relevant people and they can decide when and how to view.
5. Take Notes - Taking notes in Evernote is far easier than searching for the pad of paper that’s lost or not with you. If you organize and tag your notes as you go, they will be easier to find, using Evernote’s powerful search.
6. Take Pictures – Had a car accident? Take pictures of the vehicles, the damage, license plates, driver’s license and insurance information. See a book you want to read? Take a picture of the cover. TheEvernote iPhone app makes it easy to upload these pictures directly to your account.
7. Research - Instead of bookmarking your resources when you do research online, compile the relevant information from each page into a research note in Evernote.
8. Meeting Notes - Type away as your boss drones on and before you’re back at your workstation, the notes are on your desktop. If you take hand-written notes, scan them into Evernote where the search function can recognize words in images.
9. Idea File – Ideas strike at random times, in the oddest places. Evernote gives you a capture device almost anywhere. (I’ve never used an electronic device in the shower.) ;P
10. Document Storage - When I receive a document (PowerPoint, Word, Excel, or PDF) that I’ll need again, I forward it to Evernote. Evernote provides a unique email address to send information to your account. Evernote can also monitor a designate folder on you computer. Save recognized file formatsto that folder and Evernote will upload to your account.
11. Project Planning – Create a new Stack for a project. Sort different tasks and research topics into notebooks and make good use of the tags feature. Everything you need to recall or act on regarding a project will be in one spot.
12. Store Business Cards - Instead of collecting a pile of business cards that you’ll lose, photograph or scan them send the images to Evernote. Evernote recognizes text on the card, so you can search for names such as “Staples” or “Henry” when that’s all you can remember about the person. Evernote on a mobile phone can geotag the photo. If all you can only remember you met the person in Vancouver, you can still find it. You can save trees: When someone hands you their card, take a picture and hand it back.
13. Track Expenses - When you get a business receipt, photograph or scan it, and send it to Evernote.
14. Track Personal Spending –  When you make a personal purchase, scan or photograph the receipt, and send it to Evernote. When I buy something online, I use the web clipper to send the invoice toEvernote.
15. Store Passwords and Account Information – It can be difficult to keep track of all your on-line accounts, passwords and PINs. Evernote requires a password to log on. You can also increase the security by encrypting the contents of a note, using a separate password. All the usual cautions applyto storing and encrypting sensitive information. Make sure you understand Evernote’s encryption process before setting this up.
16. Store Warranty Information – When buying a new item under warranty, store the information in a note. You can manually enter the data, scan the warranty card, photograph the serial numbers, or clip the on-line warranty page.
17. Archive Twitter - Thanks to the Evernote-Twitter integration, you can easily capture the tweets you like: your own or those showing up in your stream. Plus, as an added bonus, you can now send yourself a quick note right from Twitter –no need to do any of that pesky app switching. Here’s how…
18. Keep a Journal – I kept a daily journals for a long time. Eventually, I got to a place where I was keeping more information electronically. Now I can put journal entries directly into Evernote: things I notice, find interesting, or want to reflect on, get entered into my Evernote. Using a numerical format for the date and tagging with “Journal” makes it easy to update and to find what I have written.
19. Create Lists - Grocery lists, to-do lists, movies to watch and gift ideas, these are all lists I update regularly and like to have handy. I have a notebook called Lists. All my lists go into that notebook, and are always accessible on any of Evernote’s many platforms. Using Evernote’s checkbox feature, I can make these lists, and check things off as I do or buy them.
20. Blogging - Evernote for blogging is great because it keeps all blog-related ideas together in one place. For example, you can create a notebook to keep a list of blog post ideas, articles about blogging, and drafts of articles for use in future blog posts. Whenever you want to save something blog-related, put it in here.
21. Hand-write/Sketch Notes – One of the lesser-known features in Evernote is the ability to create a “handwritten” note, called an Ink Note. Using your mouse or a tablet, you can write text into a note. This feature comes with a full range of tools for you to use. For example, you can select the color of ink you’d like to use. You can also select the width of the pen. You can pick a pen, a pencil, or if you make a mistake you can pick the cutter tool to remove your error.
22. Go Paperless – Using an combination or permutation of the above ways to use Evernote, you can work towards being completely paperless.

Related articles

• The Secret To Evernote’s Incredible Success: ‘It’s The First Product For Work That Doesn’t Look Crappy’ (businessinsider.com)
• How Evernote Helped Me To Write My Book (deirdrebreakenridge.com)
• How To Use Evernote: 21 Creative Uses (christianpf.com)
• SocialFolders plugs into Evernote to be your social media diary (rjmarmol.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Lotus Notes is the groupware of choice for my employer. It is coupled with my BlackBerry via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This allows me to keep my e-mail in-box, calendar, to-do list, address box and journal synced between my desktop and handheld.

Lotus Notes works somewhat differently than other types of productivity software. Here are some of the tips and resources I’ve taken advantage of to enhance my usage.

1. You can quickly create a new e-mail memo by pressing Ctrl+M anywhere in Lotus Notes.
2. You can create numbered lists within lists. To do this, enter the sublist with the first list, then select it and press F8. This indents and numbers the sublist within the main list. You can also do this on the fly by pressing F8 at the line you with to indent. Pressing Shift+F8 will return you to the previous level.
3. Lotus Notes Calendar and Scheduling explained!
1. Part 1
2. Part 2
4. Here’s a great way to save space in your Notes form or memo — create a collapsible section. This feature allows you to put portions of text into sections users can expand if they want to read the whole paragraph. In Edit mode, highlight the text you want to collapse, then select Create, Section. That’s it– the text automatically collapses into a section. Clicking on the twistie (point) beside the section expands the text.
5. You can move to Notes documents while you’re still in another document without going to the view. All you have to do is click the Next icon in the SmartIcon bar or press Enter when you have the first document in read mode. You immediately go to the next document in the view.
6. The previous tip explained how to move to the next document in a view without going to the view. You can also do this to get to the next unread document in the view. With the document in read mode, just click the Next Unread icon from the SmartIcons bar. The first document closes and the next unread document in the view opens.
7. Like most programs, Lotus Notes allows you to do some things quickly by pressing certain keys or combinations of keys.
   

   Shortcut	Description
   Alt+A	Access actions from within a document
   Alt+accelerator key	Access top level menus (for example, Alt+F opens File menu)
   Alt+Down	Open drop-down controls such as the Select Names dialog box from name fields, combo boxes, date pickers, color palettes, and collapsed list box controls.
   Alt+Minus	Opens a Size menu for pane borders. Press the s key to activate the menu, move the Up or Down arrow to select the border to move, and then press the Left, Right, Up, or Down arrow to move the selected border.
   Alt+Spacebar	Opens a menu that lets you perform standard window operations such as Restore, Minimize, and Maximize. Use the Size and Move commands with the arrow keys to size or move the Lotus Notes window.
   Arrow keys	Navigate days via date picker in calendar
   Arrow keys, Left and Right	Navigate tabs or a horizontal list
   Arrow keys, Up and Down	Navigate a vertical list, such as a menu, navigator, calendar time slots, or items in a list view
   Alt+B	Access Open menu and open the applications and bookmark list
   Ctrl+F7	Access the sidebar
   Ctrl+F	Opens the Find dialog box from views
   Ctrl+F1	(Linux® only) Get Help on current feature
   Ctrl+F7, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window panel
   Ctrl+F8, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window tab
   Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down	Navigate pages in calendar
   Ctrl+Shift+L	Open list of available shortcuts
   Ctrl+Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Ctrl+W	Closes current tabbed page
   Enter	Expand or collapse a category or folder
   Esc	Closes current tabbed page, collapses current thread, or exits current element
   F1	Get Help on current feature Linux users: Use Ctrl+F1 instead.
   F6	Cycles through all panes in the open perspective. (In views such as mail and calendar list views, for example, moves focus from view navigator to list view to preview pane (if open) to mini-view and back to view navigator.)
   Minus	Collapse a category or folder
   Shift+F10	Open a context menu
   Shift+Plus	Expand a category, folder, or thread
   Shift+Tab	Navigate backward in tab order
   Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Tab	Give focus to Refresh schedule information icon in Scheduler in a meeting entry. Then, to access the Scheduler, press Tab again to give focus to entire Scheduler, and press Spacebar to give focus to the first item in Scheduler. Then do any of these: Press Tab to give focus to different items within Scheduler. Press Ctrl+Left arrow and Ctrl+Right arrow to move the time bar when it has focus. Press Esc to remove focus from the Scheduler, and then press Shift+Tab to give focus to previous items in the meeting entry.

8. For security reasons, it’s usually not a good idea to leave your Lotus Notes open when you leave your desk for any length of time. Rather than having to close and then re-open several times a day, you can just hit the F5 key – the next time you try to do anything in Notes such as opening or sending a message you will have to type in your Notes password.
9. The easiest way to get text from an e-mail message in Lotus Notes to an MS Word document… copy and paste. For example:

1. Select the text you want from the message

2. Press Ctrl-c (to copy)

3. Go to the document in Word

4. Press Ctrl-v (to paste)

10. Notes allows you to work in more than one database at the same time. When you have several databases open simultaneously, you can move between them by pressing Ctrl+Tab.

Related articles

• Updates on Lotus Notes & Domino (Lotuspehere 2012) (ebiztechs.wordpress.com)