Now that you know what Evernote is, and have read our tutorial on how to stay safe while using Evernote, you’re likely wanting to learn how to actually use Evernote to start making your life easier. In this article, we’ll give you a detailed explanation of every component of Evernote, and how to use the web version using your Internet browser. If you want to know how to use the Android version of Evernote, check out our tutorial on using Evernote with an Android device. If you have an Apple device, check out our iOS Evernote tutorial.
If you’re ready to get started, read each section below to learn about a specific component of Evernote, and how you can make the most of it using the browser-based version.
To sign up for Evernote using an Internet browser
1. Open your web browser of choice, and type “www.evernote.com” into the address bar.
You can choose whichever browser you like, but in this tutorial, we are using Google Chrome.
2. Click in the first highlighted box, and use your keyboard to type in your email.
Choose an email that you would like to use for Evernote updates and news!
3. Clicking in the second highlighted box, choose a password and type it in.
Select a secure password so that others will not be able to access your private notes.
4. Beneath this, click the large green “Sign up for free” button.
This will activate your account, and allow you to begin using Evernote!
Signing in to Evernote
When you use Evernote regularly (and if you want), you can have Evernote remember you for thirty days when you visit www.evernote.com. After that however, you will be required to re-renter your email and password to protect the privacy of your notes. If, however, that time has passed, you want more privacy, or you are signed out for some reason, follow these steps to learn how to sign in to Evernote online.
- Visit www.evernote.com in your web browser of choice.
- Click Sign In, either at the top right of the main page, or underneath the large green button that reads “Sign up for free.”
- Click in the highlighted boxes and enter your email address or Evernote username and password.
- Click the green Sign in button.
You are now signed in to Evernote! Scroll down to see our steps on how to sign out for when you have finished using Evernote.
To Use Evernote
To begin, make sure you have opened a web browser, and entered www.evernote.com into the address bar, and have signed in to your account. From here, you will be taken to the Evernote home page, where all of your actions will be performed using the menu bar on the left side of the page.
Click on any of the icons to perform Evernote’s main actions. You can learn about each function below, beginning with Evernote’s main use, which is how to create notes.
Create and find notes
The basis of Evernote is that it can create, organize, and store your personal notes. Anything that comes to mind, you can record and come back to later. Evernote has many note functions that allow you to optimize the way you write and store notes. To begin, go to the main page of Evernote, which you can always access by clicking on the elephant icon in the top-left corner if you have navigated away from the main page.
Create a new note
To create a new note, click on the + icon on the left menu bar.
This is an icon you will use frequently, as you need to click on it in order to add any new information to Evernote. To learn how to use the note editor and write or modify your notes, scroll down to the next section titled “Editing notes.”
View and sort your notes
To view your saved notes, click on the paper icon on the left menu bar.
Here you can scroll through all of your available notes, which are sorted by default based on what was most recently produced or updated. Click Options to open a drop-down menu to sort through your notes quickly. Choose by date or title by clicking on the available options, and choose to view images and show note text by clicking the check boxes.
Search through your notes
If you need more than a quick view to find your notes, click on the magnifying glass icon to begin an Evernote search.
Once you open a search, you simply need to type what you are looking for into the search bar and hit “Enter” on your keyboard. Evernote will either take you directly to the one note that exactly matches your search, or will provide you with a list of notes that match your search criteria on the left, highlighting the one it believes is most relevant. Click on any note to view it.
To learn some tricks to using Evernote’s search engine most efficiently to find your notes, check out our tutorial on the best tips and tricks for using Evernote effectively.
Editing and altering notes
Evernote offers many functions to its users to allow maximum efficiency and organization with their notes. Once you have created a note, give it a title. Begin typing in the first box, which is selected for you by default. Then click the section underneath to begin writing your note.
Once you click in this area, the editing toolbar will appear at the top of the page. Use this toolbar to do various actions with your note.
Use your keyboard to type anything you like. Click the first, second, and third drop-down menus to change the font type, font size, and font color – in that order. Click to pull the menu down, and then select any option based on your preference.
To change the way your text appears on the page, select any one of the type appearance options. Click the B to bold text, the I to italicize text, and the U to underline text. The S will put a strike through your text, so you can strike off items in your note. And finally, the {} will make your text appear in a block. Click on any icon to select this option for the text you are about to type, or highlight text within your note, and then click the icon to apply the effect to specific sections of your note.
The next three icons allow you to imbed lists into your note. Click the check mark to add a checkbox to your note. Click the bullets icon to add a bulleted list, and the numbers icon to add a numbered list.
The variations of text will appear in your note like this:
Checklist Bullets Numbers
To add files to your note, you can use the icons on the top tool bar, or you can simply drag a file from another location into your note and drop it. The file will upload to the note page. If you can’t drag your file, try clicking one of the file icons. The infinity symbol will insert a link in your note. The paper clip symbol will add a file from a location on your computer. And the triangle will upload files from your Google Drive.
To insert a table in your note, click the grid icon. To insert a dividing line to separate your content, click the line icon.
To change the alignment of your text, use the next section of tools. The drop-down icon will change your text from left, center, or right alignment. The arrow pointing right icon will shift the text one section over to the right. The arrow pointing left icon does the same to the left.
The last icons you can use on the toolbar are the superscript and subscript icons. Use subscript to place your text below the standard line, and superscript to place it above.
You can also click on the More drop-down menu, and click the available option, which is an icon of text crossed out. This will remove all the formatting on any section you have highlighted before clicking on it.
And that’s how you use the Evernote editing toolbar. When you are finished, click the green Done button in the top right corner. This will save your note, and take you back to your notebook (though Evernote will auto-save your work every few seconds while you work).
Share your notes
Evernote allows you to share your notes with others. To do this, simply click on the note you would like to share, and then click the Share button. This will open a drop-down menu where you can select which service you would like to use to share the note by clicking on it. Follow the directions specified by each specific service. Consider connecting your accounts to Evernote to make this process easier in the future.
You can use the additional services, or you can simply email the note to someone. If you select the Send note option, you can add an email address, and the note will be shared with them. Note that they will need to have an Evernote account of their own in order to view the note this way.
Another way you can share you note, which is also conveniently a way to get around needing an Evernote account to view it is to click the Link option. This will create a public URL for your note, which anyone can type in to their address bar, or you can copy and paste the link and share it in an email or through your own social media account.
You can click Stop sharing note to take the public URL down. You can also click Done to leave the URL up and continue working with your notebooks.
Expand your note editing window
If you want your note editing window to appear larger so you can see more of the available functions, click the expand icon in the top right corner. When you click the Done button, it will return to the normal page with a smaller window.
Add reminders
When editing your notes, another smaller action bar will appear at the top of your note. From here, you can add a reminder to your note, which will send you a notification to remind you to complete an action with this note. Click the alarm clock icon to create a reminder. You can then click the green Notify me button to specify the notification time, either by clicking Tomorrow or In a week. You can also click the calendar to specify a date, and adjust the time.
Add shortcuts
Evernote wants to make it easy for you to find the notes you refer to most frequently. To add a “shortcut” to a note that you use frequently, click the star icon. See “Access your shortcuts” below to see how to find these shortcuts easily.
Add a tag
Evernote allows users to add “tags” to their notes, which will help them find the content they are looking for easier in the future. To add a tag, click the tag icon at the beginning of the note editing toolbar.
Once you have clicked on the tag icon, begin typing a phrase you would like to use to identify the content in this note, and then press “Enter” on your keyboard. To keep adding more tags, click the + icon beside your existing tags.
Delete a note
To delete a note you no longer need, click the trash can icon. Be sure you no longer want to access this note, because unless you have an Evernote Premium subscription, you will not be able to recover this information. Evernote will prompt you after selecting the trash can, so click the green Delete button if you’re sure you want to delete your note.
Create and find notebooks
To keep your notes organized, you are going to want to create notebooks, and file your notes into them. To create a new notebook, click the notebook icon on the left menu bar.
Then click the notebook+ icon at the top right of the window that pops up.
Begin typing in the box, choosing a title for your notebook. After you have finished typing, click the green Create notebook button.
To find your notebooks in the future, click on the notebook icon on the main menu bar. From here you can click on any notebook to access it, or type in the search bar to locate a particular notebook if you have a lot of them to look through.
Access your shortcuts
To find the shortcuts you have created within your notes, click on the star icon on the left menu bar.
From there, simply click on any note to view it. To remove the shortcut, click the remove icon.
View your note tags
To find the tags you have been using in order to find notes that fit that category or keyword, click the tag icon on the left menu bar.
From there, click on any tag to view all notes that have that tag on them. Click on any note that appears to view it. The tags are sorted alphabetically, and you click in the search bar and type a phrase to find a specific tag. You can also click the tag+ icon to create new tags you would like to add to your notebooks; this will make it easier when you write notes in the future, as any past tags will pop up as suggestions when you add a new tag to a note.
Moving your notes to another notebook
If you’ve written a note in one notebook, and then decided later that it would make more sense if organized in another notebook, then you can easily move the note somewhere else. To move a note, the first step is to click on the note you want to move.
At the top of each note, Evernote tells you which notebook the note is currently organized in. To move a note, click the name of the notebook to open a drop-down menu.
When the menu pops up, you have a few choices. First, you can select a pre-existing notebook by clicking on the name of a notebook that appears. Second, you can click the box titled "Create a new notebook." This will allow you to choose a title for a new notebook, and then the note you had originally selected will be filed under it. Finally, you can also click in the search bar to look through your list of notebooks to find the one you are looking for.
To use Evernote Work Chat
Evernote has a “Work Chat” function that allows you to instantly message any user who is sharing a particular notebook with you. This way, you can both look at (and edit) the notes on your accounts, and chat instantly about its progress. To begin using Work Chat, click on the chat icon on the left menu bar.
From here, you will need to have connected to the person you want to chat with by sharing at least one of your notes with them. If you’ve already connected with them on Evernote, you can click on their name. You can also type their name into the search bar to look for them if you have many contacts.
By clicking on someone’s name, you will open up a work chat window. The first message will automatically populate with the first (or additional) notes you sent them. You can chat by clicking in the highlighted box near the bottom and typing a message. Then click Send to begin your chat!
To change your Evernote account settings
To access your Evernote account settings, click on the profile picture icon in the bottom-left corner of the page. Then click Settings from the pop-up menu.
From here, you can select from the different available options by clicking on them. Account summary allows you to upgrade your account, monitor your monthly usage, and see the details of your profile. Personal settings allows you to change aspects of your profile, including what type of notifications you would like to receive. Devices lets you manage the devices you have connected to Evernote. Profile allows you to change your profile picture, contact name, and associated email addresses. And finally, Reminders lets you choose to receive email reminders from Evernote.
Click any check box to enable or disable an account setting. Click in any highlighted box and use your keyboard to type additional information. Click the green Save button to save any changes you made to your account.
You can also access your security settings through your account settings. Selecting from the left menu, you can choose Security Summary to change your email address, password, or to enable two-step verification, which requires an additional passcode to access your account if you desire increased security. Click Applications to view the devices you have activated, and revoke their access to your Evernote account. Access History shows a log of all of your Evernote devices and when they were used. And finally, Connected Services allows you to manage your Evernote connections to Google, LinkedIn, The Wall Street Journal, and Nikkei.
Download the desktop version of Evernote
Evernote also has a desktop version you can download, to easily access it right from your computer. To download this, click on your profile picture in the bottom-left corner of the screen, and then click Download Evernote for Windows. Note that there is currently not a Mac-supported desktop version of Evernote.
From there, following the instructions given based on your operating system.
How to sign out of Evernote:
To sign out of Evernote, from any page, click your profile picture icon in the bottom-left corner. From the pop-up menu, click Log out. Do this each time you are finished using Evernote, to ensure your notes stay as safe and secure as they possibly can be. It is never a good idea to just close your browser window.
And now you know how to use Evernote on the web! To learn how to use it on other devices, check out our next two tutorials on using Evernote for Android and using Evernote on an iOS device.
