Notes on Your Desk and in the Cloud: Comparing Evernote and Onenote
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Resource reviews and colleagues. How do you keep track of all this material so that you can find it again when and where you need it? When you come back from a conference, consult with colleagues about a problem, attend multiple meetings, or research an issue, how do you store that infor- mation so that you can retrieve it next week, next month, or next year? Enter note-taking applications, which are designed to consolidate many types of information into a single, searchable tool. Of these appli- cations, two of the best known are Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Microsoft OneNote debuted in 2003 as part of Microsoft Office 2003 [1]; it is now part of Office 2013 but is also available as a free download. Most features are free, including 7 giga- bytes (GBs) of storage on OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage platform. A few premium features are available only with an Office 365 subscription: the ability to store notebooks locally rather than in the cloud, syncing to OneDrive for Business, password protection for notebooks, and more. Desktop applications are available for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks), plus mobile apps for Notes on your desk and in the iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. cloud: comparing Evernote and A web-based application is also avail- OneNote able, so you can use OneNote without Evernote. Evernote Corporation, installing anything on your computer. 305 Walnut Street, Redwood City, OneNote is often available as part of CA 94063; http://www.evernote an organization’s Microsoft Office .com; basic version: free; premium suite, so you may have access to the version: $5 per month or $45 per year. premium version at work. Evernote is a standalone product Microsoft OneNote. Microsoft, that debuted in 2008 [2] and is One Microsoft Way, Redmond, available as a free download with WA 98052-6399; http://www.onenote premium features available for pur- .com; basic version: free; premium chase. Premium features include col- version available with Microsoft laboration tools, additional upload Office 365; various pricing options allowance, and ability to search in- for individuals and businesses, side stored portable document format including educator discounts. files (PDFs). Evernote also offers Health information professionals Evernote Business, a shared Evernote help users find and manage all sorts environment for an entire company of information so that they can do or unit for $10 per month per user. their jobs better or, for patients, Evernote offers desktop applications make informed decisions about their for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac health. But how do you manage the OS 10.6.6 or higher, plus mobile apps information that you need to do your for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, job better and make informed deci- Blackberry, and HP WebOS. sions? In an average day, the average In this review, I introduce the health information professional may functions and features of both prod- gather information from meetings, ucts, summarize the differences be- websites, books, journals, emails, tween the two, and suggest some 306 J Med Lib Assoc 102(4) October 2014 Resource reviews reasons why you might want to begin content from web pages. The Ever- to Outlook calendar appointments using one. For this review, I evaluat- note Web Clipper—a browser exten- and create Outlook tasks within a ed the desktop applications for PCs sion available for Chrome, Firefox, note. Both features are especially with Windows 7 and for Macs with Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safa- useful for taking notes at meetings. OS X Mavericks, along with the ri—allows you to clip an entire page mobile apps for the iPad. I used the or a section of a page, preserving text Look and feel. OneNote offers a premium version of Evernote and the and image formatting. Exact func- cleaner look and more closely mimics paid version of OneNote included tions and features vary from browser a paper notebook than Evernote does. with Microsoft Office 2010. I did not to browser. Microsoft provides a OneNote also allows you to arrange evaluate the Android apps for either bookmarklet called Clip to OneNote, information in a notebook in a non- product. Please note that both prod- which will save an image of an entire linear way (e.g., placing a picture or ucts offer too many features to cover page to a note. With OneNote for table to the right of a chunk of text). in a single review of this length, so I Windows—but not Mac—you can You can drag snippets of information have focused on the features that are also print a page from any applica- around to create the desired arrange- most likely to be useful to informa- tion to a note using the standard ment, similar to a stripped-down tion professionals. Table 1 provides a Print command. In addition, both desktop publisher. Evernote provides summary of functions and features tools also allow you to capture standard editing tools but only allows by product and platform. information from various websites a linear arrangement of content. automatically by integrating with Living in the cloud: accessing and Organizing, tagging, and search- IFTTT ,http://ifttt.com., a site that sharing from anywhere. The big- ing. Both Evernote and OneNote are facilitates communication between gest advantage that both of these designed to organize information popular sites and services. For ex- in multiple formats from multiple ample, IFTTT allows you to send tools offer is the ability to access sources in ways that mimic paper material posted to sites like Twitter, notes anywhere, anytime. You can notebooks. Individual notes can be Facebook, and LinkedIn to a note in search all of your notes from any- consolidated into sections and note- Evernote or OneNote automatically, where too, so it is easy to find the books (OneNote) or notebooks and so you can keep track of the content exact snippet you need. You can also notebook stacks (Evernote). You can you share online. share notebooks, making it easy to assign tags to notes in both products, collaborate on projects and share making it easier to find related notes Storing documents and media. information with colleagues. In ad- across notebooks. Both store your Both applications allow you to attach dition, OneNote allows you to share notes online, so they are accessible files to notes: word processing docu- notes to a network drive or Share- anywhere from multiple devices. ments, spreadsheets, presentations, point site to facilitate collaboration images, PDFs, and so on. Evernote within your organization. Gathering and storing informa- also displays PDFs within the body of tion from the web. Both tools notes and, with the premium version, Using Evernote and OneNote provide a variety of ways to capture makes them searchable. PDFs of for information professionals. So, and store information. The simplest handwritten notes, however, are not how can the busy information pro- and most common way to input searchable. Both products allow you fessional get the most out of one or information is to type it in or copy to capture and store photos and both of these applications? Both and paste it from another source. In multimedia, including from mobile applications are excellent for storing Windows, both products track the devices. With either mobile app, you meeting notes, and OneNote’s inte- source of copied or pasted informa- can add photos from the camera roll gration with Microsoft Outlook con- tion automatically—a very useful on the mobile device, or you can take nects meeting information with the feature for a busy information pro- a picture and add it directly to a note. Outlook calendar and to-do list seam- fessional—but OneNote does it best. Table 1 shows additional ways to add lessly. Similarly, these applications Evernote records the uniform re- content to notes. are great tools for storing materials source locator (URL) for the first bit from conferences, workshops, and of text pasted into a note, but if you Integrating with email, especially webinars. You can use a mobile paste content from other sources, it Microsoft Outlook. One of the more device to take notes and then store does not record those. OneNote for useful features of both products is those notes with accompanying Windows records the URL for every their integration with email. You can handouts and downloaded presenta- snippet you paste from a web page, email content to both products, and tion files, or you can take notes with making it easy to link various bits of the content of the message plus any pen and paper, then scan and store information to their sources. Unfor- attachments will be stored in a note. them with other conference materials. tunately, neither product for the Mac Both products also integrate with You can also organize all your travel records URLs when copying text Outlook for Windows email, with information for a conference: reserva- from web pages. extensions that let you send a mes- tion confirmations, itineraries, and so In addition to copying and past- sage to a specific note with a couple of on. Either of these applications is also ing, both products provide other, clicks. Paid versions of OneNote for helpful for organizing research notes more powerful options for grabbing Windows also allow you to link notes for reference questions, projects, pre- J Med Lib Assoc 102(4) October 2014 307 Resource reviews Table 1 Feature comparison by product and platform Evernote Microsoft OneNote Features Web app Mac PC iOS Web app Mac PC iOS Adding content Import web pages Yes Yes Yes Only via Yes Yes Yes Requires email Mac