So I am sitting here thinking about a .NET framework for MVVM and MEF that I read about at work the other day. For the life of me I cannot remember its name. IF I ONLY CLIPPED IT INTO EVERNOTE! Based on the positive feedback from my last Evernote article I thought this would be a good time to show everyone how to use the web clipper feature so that you can learn how to avoid this fate.
Once you register for Evernote you will need to download the Evernote Web Clipper. The web clipper is an extension for your browser. If you are using Internet Explorer and install the Windows client for Evernote then web clipper is automatically installed for you. My example will assume that the functionality of the web clipper extension for your browser is the same as in Chrome. Using Chrome (or FireFox or Safari) you’ll need to head over to Evernote and download the extension. Most likely you’ll have to close and open your browser to get it to show up.
So now let’s assume you’ve found an awesome page you want to make into a note. You’ll notice in your browser this little icon:
Clicking it will open up the clipping interface:
The view seen when you clip a web page.
The web clipper will automatically try to guess the content area that you’re interested in clipping. If you need to expand or contract the selection area use your up and down arrows. To move the selection about use the left or right arrow keys.
In the Evernote menu you can select the notebook you wish to have the clipped page to be saved. A powerful feature called tags enables you to associate keywords with what you clipped. Distinctive and descriptive keywords will make searching for your note easier in the future. An additional text field for comments is also shown. Here you can add any additional notes about your content.
Now when you go into Evernote, via the web, your phone, or in the app you can view the web page. You can easily add additional information to the clipped content; it’s editable! Once you open your other Evernote applications this note will be automatically sync’d to that app’s local storage.
If you’re on your laptop without Internet connection as long as you sync’d your Evernote application recently you’ll be able to view all the content without needing to have connection!
Hopefully this gives a good and quick overview of how to use this very powerful tool. The team over at Evernote has a slew of other awesome tools. I’ve received some great feedback about my first Evernote article so I’ll probably put together a little piece on each of the more popular tools. If you see a tool that you’d like me to review or explain please let me know in the comments!
