Migrating from Evernote to Google Drive & Google Keep

2/24/2017

I've been a loyal Evernote fan for years. I hung in even when Android and Windows users were consistently treated less as less than prime compared to Apple Mac fans. I encouraged friends and colleagues to do the same.

As well, I cheered on the technophobes who found Evernote daunting, assuring them they’d figure it out and love it if they’d just dive in and take it for a few test drives. Lots of them did, and lots loved it as much as I hoped they would.

There wasn’t anything to really not love about Evernote. It's only THE best all-in-one note-taking, organizing and development app ever made. It allowed for sharing content and easy collaboration with other users. It even has a chat feature.

Instead of a bunch of apps and tools for individual processes, I used Evernote. Once upon a time, I kept blog posts in it, even entire book chapters and all the notes that went with them. I used it during interviews, to mark up images used in tutorials, articles and blog posts. I used it for reminders, to-do lists--just alllll sorts of stuff!

All the years I used it, Evernote had a free version, perfect for personal use, school and small businesses, even if folks wanted to collaborate on projects, chat, message and share documents in the process.

To my disappointment, last year (2016), the tide turned. Evernote began implementing changes which included charging for several program aspects that had always been free before. Their price tier didn't provide an option I could manage but their free plan was still very helpful so, I continued to work with it.

Recently, that changed too.

With a heavy heart, I emailed my friend and colleague, Vicki Warner of WarnerWords, to advise her that whatever notes and other content we've been collaborating with, via Evernote, needed to be migrated to Google Drive and Google Keep, which we were already using, but it would now become our only note-taking app for use in our collaborative business works.

The block that tumbled the tower was when I opened Evernote, last week on my Android tablet, (which is only one of two devices I can use it on now, since more devices put it in the pro category) and saw a notice that my Evernote content was no longer available offline.

That’s a problem. I write from all sorts of places, often making notes when I don’t have access to the internet. That wasn’t gonna be something I could work around.

All’s not lost--not even a little bit

On the bright side, Google has been a growing, powerful contender with both Evernote and Windows OneNote. Although I love OneNote’s layout and options for an Evernote replacement, Google has it beat with Google Keep. Whether you use Windows, Android or iOS, it functions without hiccups.

As for synchronizing content across multiple devices, Google sets no limits. My content syncs across all of my devices. So, I can make a note in Google Keep from my smartphone, either of my two tablets and my laptop, on or offline. Soon as the device I used is back on the net...whoop! There it is!

Add to that, any documents kept in Google Drive that are in Google format (such as a Google doc, slide, sheet or other types of Google documenting tools) don’t count against the 15GB limit. This allows any of us to keep vast amounts of content in Google for free.

Works for me!

It isn’t that I don’t want to pay for a great product. I don’t mind paying a fee for a product that meets a need. A good example for that is, that I recently purchased Scrivener. I’ve wanted it for ages but my pockets weren’t deep enough. Then, my need for it lessened when I began writing all of my work in Google Drive, where my colleagues and I can edit it, leave comments and even chat within documents as we’re working simultaneously.

I wanted Scrivener for something to write the bulk of my books’ content in, as well as for its virtual corkboard, to keep story development notes. I’m very dependent on that sort of thing when writing a book. Scrivener has it, Evernote has something similar, and Google Keep functions in much the same fashion, but I can’t narrow Google Keep (which is STILL awesome and I use it every day) for single projects with multiple corkboard-style notes.

So, when I saw Scrivener listed on sale via Android Central, for $20 USD, I bought it with an all-encompassing, one-time fee.

I’ve purchased several other programs that I often use for work on my Android tablet, and of course, Scrivener can also be downloaded to my Windows Stream tablet. I use both for work but in different capacities.

So, my issue isn’t with not paying for a product, it’s the ongoing fees that I’m not comfortable with, especially when it’s something I might put a great deal of work into and if I suddenly couldn’t afford to maintain it, my data would all be lost.

If you find yourself needing a viable alternative to Evernote as well, I recommend considering, at least investigating GDrive and GKeep.

It really is an awesome system that’s easy to work with for yourself or when collaborating with others.

If you’re not familiar with Google Drive and Google Keep, there are loads of vids about them on YouTube. Here are a few you may find helpful.

“Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 (WMB)

If you have any questions about working with GDrive and GKeep, hit me up in the comments on this post or shoot me an email. I’m happy to help when I can.

Thank you for your visit today!

Your support and interaction with the blogging community are always sincerely appreciated!

Shalom

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