How To Backlink Notes In Evernote

[@Ditispeter]

A new feature in Evernote that I think you didn't mention in this video is, that you can now directly drag and drop a note into another one (in the viewer). Evernote wil make a direct link in the note to the one you've dropped on it. So you don't need to copy and paste an internal link from one note to another note anymore. Just search for a note where you want to paste a link in. Then search for the note you want to link to. Drop that note on the other. After that, Evernote makes a link for you. If you also want to link back: do the reverse. ;-)

[@ibraimpinto7376]

Whenever I think of quitting Evernote, a video of yours shows me something nice that I did not know and makes me go back and enjoy the app even more. Thanks for a great video

[@Carl_Pullein]

Glad to be of service, Ibraim.

[@timbushell8640]

"... Evernote not dead..." kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIWyZIx-hNRoZ6s

[@j3jenkins]

I really appreciate your videos and your advice. Thank you for sharing. You're very intelligent and you make great content. Thank you for your effort. I love Evernote, and have been using it for years now. The idea of switching to Obsidian seems like a huge pain and I don't want to go through the effort. But Obsidian's linking is so far beyond anything in Evernote and anything you've shown here. What you showed aren't actually backlinks, you simply made a direct link from one note to another. In Obsidian, and even in Notion, you get a true backlink. A backlink is a link auto generated by a direct link from one note to another in the note that was linked to. This saves you from making two direct links. I am constantly making two direct links between notes and it's very annoying and cumbersome when done over and over. In the video you said, "It isn't as elegant as Obsidian," but really it isn't a backlink at all. It's just two direct links. The backlink in Obsidian is way more than the unique graph view. The graph view is cool, but that graph view is not a backlink. Unfortunately this video didn't give me the backlinks I've desperately desired in Evernote since learning about Obsidian. I have made multiple comments in the Evernote feature request forum for better linking. I seriously hope they implement true backinks. Having true backlinks in Evernote would be amazing. Once again, thank you for the time you took to make this video. Please continue producing great content.

[@victorarantes]

I read your message as if it was mine. I think the same way. Another thought is: it dependes on what you plan on using the tool for. If I decide to use obsidian, it will be for specific things such as Books note taking. I think evernote is great and I am not considering moving all my notes from it. But connecting ideas... that is someting else. I remember evernote use to have something like this "related notes" in the bottom. But can't find it. I think they removed it. That was closer to some sort of automatically linking ideas (without the actual link).

[@BungsViet]

Thanks for this!

[@moniqueschroeder344]

Thank you Carl, I think many of us get FOMO and try to see the new for automatically better, yet when we really look at it as you have done in this video we see we had it all along just in a different package.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Agree with you there, Monique. It's surprising what you can do when you dig a little deeper.

[@meeluanistyn1644]

Evernote tags works for me; can’t see any value in a map I wouldn’t use. Great explanation. Looks like you have a Licence to Link.

[@LisaMarli]

Tags have always been my friend. Search is also good. Trick is to put something in the note that will help search. For those who wonder, I still find useful things in notes I stored years ago.

[@Claire_Multipassion_Creative]

Came for Evernote tips, got hit in the feels with Sean Connery mention 😭😭😭 RIP but great video as always thank you!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thanks, Claire.

[@IAmSam_TheMan]

👏👏👏 Brovo!! well said! Evernote needs more videos like these. there is so much evernote can do and its quick and easy to use. i like to create links of my notes and build a index for related notes in what i call an "Index Note (topic)". thanks for the video!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you, Sam. Glad you found this useful.

[@jamesf.jordan2683]

I have been an Evernote user since the very beginning. I still use it but for storage and archive versus creation. Roam and Obsidian are about building new, accretive thoughts from existing content. The Block Reference feature in Roam is particularly useful as it is like a content management system. It would be great with all of your experience in Evernote to share your thoughts on how you would write a James Bond article in a separate note and have the links back to the sub-notes from which the content came. I cannot conceive of how to do it but thought you might. Very appreciative of your expertise.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi James, that would be far too complicated for my brain. If I were to write an article or even a continuation James Bond novel, I would take inspiration from Ian Fleming and have a single notebook with my thoughts, copies of menus that have inspired me as well as interesting character names and locations I come across. Plus, of course, photos of products I could liberally add to the story.

[@fernandovaldivia8334]

Always liked your videos on Evernote. I've been using since 2015. And only because you taught well. Thanks Carl.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Glad you like tham, Fernando.

[@stephenchan5579]

Great tip on finding a group notes and putting them under the same tag. That’s very helpful when I am gathering my notes for one project.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you, Stephen. Glad you found it useful

[@BarneyLeith]

Many thanks for this. Most helpful. I've used Evernote for years and like the new version. I keep learning new things about it.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Glad it was helpful, Barney.

[@jape2116]

I don’t mind the visualization as much. For me, it’s how quickly I can see relationships within the context of my note writing. I don’t have to leave the context of the note to link another note. The reversal of work flow from thinking of relationships primarily after taking a note to relationships as I’m making notes has been a game changer for me. Evernote is so close with that CMD+J shortcut. I would love to be able to just copy the link from there. I think they’ll add it soon with the new editor. It’ll be something akin to Craft (my new favorite) or Notion. Great video, and the ability to watch videos in line is so wonderful.

[@Carl_Pullein]

I think that's what I like about the Evernote way. It forces me to think. I know I would soon ignore what Obsidian gave me. I didn't generate it and while I was testing Obsidian I became frustrated at the number of times it created rabbit holes I didn't want to go down.

[@jape2116]

@@Carl_Pullein totally get it. It’s so interesting how our brains work differently. I have found if I don’t capture it right away, it’s gone. I used filterize help with this process. Half the management got done for me, which allowed my reviews to be more beneficial. I do love and miss the templates and tables of Evernote. The preplanning is more beneficial to me than the reflection.

[@maikeru86]

To simple navigation we can use "back" and "forward" on the top left corner of Evernote app. I know that is loosely tied with this topic but maybe someone hasn't notice that 😜

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you for pointing it out. I hadn't noticed.

[@timbushell8640]

... but that is just browser read order type of function... the '2nd' half might get created a whole week after the 1st part... and any other reading just spoils the option... ... but, yes, an underused feature.

[@ChristopherRosche]

Great tips. Glad the back-linking is back in EN, I think it disappeared during the transition. Thanks!

[@graminator10b32]

To cross link notes you can just drag the video note from the center list to the article note, and vice versa, and the links will be automatically inserted. No need to do all the clicking and pasteing.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thank you for sharing that.

[@YourDigitalMakeover]

That thumbnail of this video is just awesome 😀

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hahaha, thanks Jerry. I'm doing a refresh of my thumbnails at the moment.

[@pierrecuomo9207]

Hi, thanks a lot again for your sharing. In order to speed up the creations of links between note, I recently discovered by accident that if you click on "copy internal link" and then past in a note ; it directly creates a link with the name of the note.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Thanks, for sharing that, Pierre.

[@GrahamSGott]

Does the system still fall down when you merge any or all of the notes?

[@meeluanistyn1644]

Following the series, will there be a feature film? 😎

[@CaptainTodger69]

it's a nice workaround. I'd still prefer it if you could just do it in a markdown type manner - using double brackets or something - instead of having to mess around with going into the notebook area. it can kind of break up the flow when you're thinking/working. looking forward to them bringing a split screen option, too. fingers crossed

[@Carl_Pullein]

The problem with Markdown is nobody outside of the power users (and perhaps software engineers) knows anything about it. I remember hearing Evernote mention that 0.5% of their users would use anything like that. So, I guess it's going to be very low down on their product pipeline list.

[@CaptainTodger69]

@@Carl_Pullein yeah, a lot of markdown can be a real pain in the ass, especially from a beginner's point of view. I just wish there was a way I could link to other internal pages through some kind of keyboard shortcut, and have that drop-down menu thing that comes up like in obsidian. so many times, I find myself wanting to link to another bit of research or another note, and in order to do so I have to break my train of thought, find the note I want, drag it into the note I'm working with, and then start up again. Which totally kills my flow state. Or, i have to make some kind of note in the document to come back and add that link later, which then requires extra work at the end, and is something i don't always remember to do, or feel like doing after a long work session

[@rorilee9791]

Holy shiznit. THANK YOU!

[@Carl_Pullein]

You're welcome.

[@meeluanistyn1644]

It’s a spider map. Mind maps, as invented by Tony Buzan are different and more powerful.

[@DemetriPanici]

I think I need to take a stab at Evernote! It’s one that seems to be really improving recently.

[@Carl_Pullein]

It's certainly getting there, Demetri.

[@louiseh7302]

Hey Carl what plan is that you are using, for the filtered notes

[@Carl_Pullein]

I'm using the personal account.

[@gotbordercollies]

For those of us who don't use Apple products, could you give the name of the command so we can find the similar command on our operating system ?

[@Carl_Pullein]

Unfortunately, I've never owned a Windows machine and Evernote's keyboard shortcuts for Windows is different. Here's a link that should help: help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209004807-Keyboard-shortcuts-in-Evernote-for-Windows

[@Ditispeter]

What Evernote link do you use when adding an Evernote note to a task in Todoist? The internal link or the web link?

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi Peter, I always use the Internal link.

[@Ditispeter]

@@Carl_Pullein It's too bad that Todoist is changing the link formatting. Before you could just paste an url and a description between brackets. Now you have to put also the url between square brackets.

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@Ditispeter Yeah, I noticed that. We'll be fine once we get used to the new formatting.

[@Ditispeter]

@@Carl_Pullein I hope they will change it back. We'll see.😉

[@kslaoui]

Explicitly linking a note to another is not back-linking. Back-linking is when you are in one note and being able to see all the notes or articles that are referring to it. In other words, if you have notes A, B and C that each contain a link to a note Z, FROM note Z you can find which notes are referring to it (i.e, A, B & C). In your video, you are creating a link to a note but, from that (destination) note, you cannot find the note that's referring to it (and that's back-linking).

[@Carl_Pullein]

Ah, that depends on how each company defines the word "backlink". You only need to watch Apple WWDC Conference last week to see how Apple is defining it, and Evernote has a similar definition. How companies like Obsidian and Roam Research define it is another definition. But it's not the definitive definition.

[@kslaoui]

@Carl Pullein it's all about perspective, isn't it? 👍 Other than my comment (which I am happy to see that you didn't see it as an attempt to undermine your video 🙃), I think this video is a tribute to your expertise on Evernote. Well done!

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@kslaoui You're right there, Karim. It is about perspective.

[@MosesGTC]

If u move one note from one notebook to another notebook, will the link still work?

[@Carl_Pullein]

Yes. Each note will have it's own unique link.

[@xm_tech]

Search is powerful I agree. But connecting notes together for reference and ease of navigation is a must also. Right now copying a link from one note to paste it into another in Evernote is a slow process. Evernote needs to step up its game and make linking option faster, something similar to Obsidian, Notion, Roam.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Interesting. I think you will find the vast majority of people don't care about a few extra seconds linking notes together. Indeed, since recording this video, Evernote has made this process even easier with some elegant drag and drop features. New apps such as Roam and Obsidian are great apps if you like the latest, shiniest options. Ultimately, everyday people are looking for a simple, easy-to-use app. Evernote, in general, ticks those boxes.

[@xm_tech]

@@Carl_Pullein I generate a lot of tutorials using Evernote. Looking for the scattered notes to link them can become messy. Am just saying if they can make the linking part easier I would be grateful. With the amount of data I have in Evernote, it seems impossible for me to relocate my notes and start over.

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@xm_tech It's funny, but over the last two or three years, I've stopped trying to look for my notes in the traditional way. Now I just use COMMAND + J and type in a keyword and all my related notes are there. No backlinking or anything. Just a simple list of notes all connected together.

[@kencleveland1762]

Evernote has simply become a repository of my notes over the years. I will slowly but surely process them and move them into Obsidian which is a far better thinking tool. This last price increase was a step too far. I've been a paid subscriber for a good number of years. So it isn't like I expect anything for free. I stayed with them through their giant change when most of the usability was affected quite significantly and didn't complain about the price. Now they try to add a few more features and try to boost the price. Really, I've had enough. I may keep them at the free tier or the lowest paid tier. Had they just added more features to the program at the paid level, that would've been fine. And before this last change I had the highest level. But I won't keep playing the game. Still Carl, I enjoy your videos and I always find something new. My subscription renewed just after this latest debacle of price increases. So I have most of the year left. Maybe in that time I will learn more from you and they will continue to improve their service. In the meantime, for me, there are far better tools for what I really want to do. And I do know that many will find a lot of value with Evernote.

[@AnarchySane]

Tags it is not back links.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Correct. (I did point that out in the video)

[@frankmanno6207]

Hi thanks for the video. Do you know any way in Evernote to backlink sections of a note rather than the entire note. ? Tags and internal links will link entire notes only.. I have a lot of documents in Evernote. I would love to be able to link a paragraph of one document to another paragraph of another document rather than the entire document via tags.. I have tried using #tags at the end of paragraphs but it seems cumbersome somewhat and then to search the #tags I still have to scroll entire documents to find where the #tags are located.. Roam and Obsidian [[backlinks]] are a godsend but the Evernote 'filing system' layout better suites my workflow.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Interesting point, Frank. I don't know of any way to do that yet. Although, I did think of using keywords, but again that would show the entire note.

[@timbushell8640]

No, as a note is a note - whereas those 'others' work on implied or explicit blocks of content... so until you have more than simple headers and body text EN is 'stuck' with note level only reference... But, doesn't stop you from putting multiple links in the different places of the larger note. Or, make the note atomic - and string together Obsidian like, (or in EB once the ToC feature returns) but that means many many more notes but also very easy to 'mess up' and creating unintentional multiple reading pathways within the larger 'super note'...

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@timbushell8640 To be honest, Tim, in the many, many years of taking notes, I have never once wished I could go that deep with a note or group of notes. I can see academics possibly finding that level useful, but for the vast majority of people: M'eh.

[@timbushell8640]

@@Carl_Pulleinwell that is the point... most of my professional works need the pseudo-academic //bi-directional// link to ensure that the relationship of the common minimum number of 80 documents referenced, used, summarised or just a clipped quote needs the links. A single direction - excluding tags - link is fine - but then having to make the return link, manually - painful to flow of work. For the current focused project - filtered not might become useful...

[@sonthep]

😊😊😊😊

[@on_the_same_page]

Tagging is not the same as backlinks.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Correct. But what's the outcome you desire? Tagging almost brings the same result.

[@MyOrangeString]

Tbh the tags are not nearly as practical as the backlinking... reducing backlinking to the "map" is a bit disingenuous. The map is gimmicky, but it's not really the merit of backlinking, it's just an extra. Tags take 30 seconds to set up, you think that's fast? Sorry it's not :D But thanks for the video anyway, very informative!! I think it's good for people already on Evernote who are worried they are missing out and considering moving over.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Since this video, Evernote have made adding tags even better. Drag and dropping notes on similar notes, drag and drop tags on notes direct from the note list and a lot more I haven'r explored yet. (I should say, to add a tag, it takes me around half a second. There's no need to type out the how word)

[@MyOrangeString]

@@Carl_Pullein I see, thank you for the input!

[@GregRippetoe]

Obsidian is just hype and a bunch of fancy features that don't even help you improve your learning.

[@zxcvo611yt]

Sorry this is not backlinking. You perhaps make an argument of what "backlinking" really means, but this title of this video seems pretty clearly designed to catch viewers who are looking for "backlinking" features as seen in such tools as Roam, Obsidian and about a dozen other apps.

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi Craig, I think we need to step back and ask who defined the current idea of what "backlinking" means? With Evernote, We've been "backlinking" for over twelve years, and then some new app came along and decided to link notes together differently and call it "backlinking". How you connect different notes together may be different with different apps, but the end result is the same. You've got a note backlinked to another note.

[@simstander5471]

Nah!!!

[@ashishbhateja]

This video is not about backlinks at all. Backlink is not searching. Besides, the new versions of Evernote are pathetically slow and sync takes ages. Sorry not to agree with your positive pitch on evernote.

[@Carl_Pullein]

I guess that depends on how you define "backlinks" and what you expect them to do. And for the record, I am using that latest version of Evernote and the speed is excellent and sync is instantaneous and that's with Evernote running through Rosetta 2 on an M1 MacBook Pro which compared to other apps I use is quite impressive.