I’ve been spending a lot of time lately trying to position Evernote as the core of my information system. I think I’m finally there. Let me explain my needs and then I’ll explain what I did to make it work for me. As many people I have a very “portable” life. I am always on the go and need to capture information as well as retrieve it many times a day. The trick with this has been efficiency and consistency in capture. I carry a Samsung Blackjack II with me at all times so it just seemed natural to use it as the center of my capture tools when I am mobile. The Evernote Windows Mobile client was going to be my tool of choice until I discovered a fatal flaw…or so I thought.
Here was the idea. Using the mobile client I could capture text, photos, and audio notes and upload them to the sync’d Evernote space for later reference. It was here I hit the stumbling block. It seemed that the only time I could capture something was when I was in a place with a good network connection so it could be uploaded immediately. But many times I’m in places (like basement conference rooms) that don’t have connectivity. So much for that idea.
Not one to give up I contacted Evernote about the functionality (since it seemed so logical and it was also shown on their screenshots) and behold, in one quick response they told me to go into the Activity option and press Pause. That holds all the sync activity from the handheld to the cloud (great function…but needs to be easier to find, guys.) I was there…I had my solution…but yet again I was foiled. I created a text note with the mobile application paused. Smooth as silk. Then…wait…how do I edit it? I poked around in the application and finally found by going back into Activity and looking at the list of things queued to be sent at the next sync I could edit one by clicking on it. Saved! So now I have a tool that I can keep with me all the time, enter text or capture pictures, and when I have a chance upload them to the Evernote databfor reference and recall. Pretty sweet.
Part 2 – How it all works in the field…
and yes…that’s a Twitter hashtag in the title. It’s intentional because when this is published it goes to Twitter automatically. 
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