DROE Tool now supports EverNote, and much more!
I just released a new version of the Daily Record of Events (DROE) note taking tool. This release adds support for EverNote and text-based DROE files, as well as enhancements for the OneNote DROE.
From the README file, here is a summary of what changed in v0.4 (Beta). For complete details, download the README file. To get your own copy of the tool, see the Downloads page.
- NEW FEATURE: Added support for a completely text-based DROE without the need for OneNote. This includes a quick edit window.
- NEW FEATURE: Added support for EverNote… DROE Tool can send text notes to EverNote using EverNote’s auto-import feature
- NEW FEATURE: The amount of white space between notes is now configurable in the INI file.
- NEW FEATURE: “Clip Mode” causes any selected text to be clipped and included in the DROE entry. For OneNote DROE files, selected images are also sent to the DROE.
- NEW FEATURE: WIN+LeftArrow now summons a new control panel that makes it easy to update settings in the INI file and reload the tool.
- Bug fix: Fixed issue with cursor being stranded 3-4 lines below the date stamp.
- Bug fix: The CTRL-SHIFT-K and CTRL-SHIFT-M shortcuts were not working when the Outlook window was active. This is fixed.
- Updated and re-organized this README file. Switched to PDF format to significantly reduce the download size.
DROE Tool 0.5 Alpha01
December 4, 2010 - 1:28 am
Tags: DROE_Tool
Posted in Productivity | 34 comments
As promised, here is an update to the DROE Tool. I am calling this an alpha release since there may still be some rough edges, and this includes only about half the list of planned fixes and improvements. Here is the summary of what is included in 0.5 alpha 01:
Hopefully fixed all compatibility issues with [...]
Updated DROE Tool In the Works
November 27, 2010 - 9:04 am
Tags: DROE_Tool
Posted in Productivity | 2 comments
I am finally working on a major update to the DROE Tool (stealing time over the holiday weekend). I hope to have an alpha test version posted within the coming week. I have already fixed the compatibility issue with OneNote 2010, and am working on some other enhancements such as configurable hotkey definitions.
I have pulled [...]
The Triple Hat Trick
February 7, 2010 - 5:18 pm
Tags: Management, Productivity, Templates
Posted in Misc | 6 comments
Here is something I am trying for 2010… I hesitate to call it a new year’s resolution, so let’s just call it an “experiment”. Sometimes it is tough to get focus with my big fancy fiddly collection of GTD lists. There are just too many items on the lists, and even when [...]
Configuring Google Voice as a Jott / reQall Replacement
July 23, 2009 - 11:17 pm
Tags: Google_Voice, Jott, Tips, Tools
Posted in Productivity | 25 comments
I’m a big fan of reQall, Jott, and the various other voice-to-text services out there. I currently have a reQall Pro account and use it on a daily basis. Naturally, the first thing that came to mind when I heard that Google Voice was going to have voice transcription capabilities was using it to augment [...]
Evernote CEO Discusses App (SXSW Video)
March 22, 2009 - 8:16 pm
Tags: EverNote
Posted in Productivity | No comments
Phil Libin, Evernote CEO, discusses the current state of the app in this video from the SXSW ‘09 conference (courtesy of Arik Hesseldahl). One of the interesting notes is that the company is now “net margin profitable”, meaning that they are turning a profit even when you consider all of their overhead expenses. [...]
Strip Outlook Attachments and Replace with Links
February 22, 2009 - 8:55 pm
Tags: Outlook, Productivity, Tools
Posted in Productivity | 78 comments
UPDATE OCT 2009: Reader jumpjack has created a Google Code project for this macro. You can download the latest source code on the project page.
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There are many good reasons to strip attachments from your email messages. The main reason for me is that I often embed email messages into my Outlook tasks for [...]
Backup All Outlook Contacts to VCard in 3 Easy Steps
January 18, 2009 - 4:20 pm
Tags: Outlook, Tips
Posted in Productivity | 26 comments
For some reason, the Microsoft Outlook developers never really embraced the vCard format, and did not provide adequate ways to import/export to this format. The “File > Import and Export…” menu only has ways to import vCards, and no options to export them. Because of this, various tools and add-ins have appeared that allow you [...]
Handy Outlook Attachment Reminder Macro
September 17, 2008 - 10:44 pm
Tags: Outlook, Tips, VBA
Posted in Productivity | 60 comments
Have you ever had one of those “oh shit” moments where two seconds after sending an email you realized something was missing? And you know, by using the Outlook “Recall Message” feature, you’re just going to draw even more attention to your mistake. It’s like a highway accident… people will open recalled messages before anything [...]
ClearContext and My Quest for an Empty Inbox
July 20, 2008 - 9:02 pm
Tags: ClearContext, GTD, Outlook, Productivity, Taglocity, Tools
Posted in Productivity | 14 comments
In a previous post I talked about my quest for an empty inbox and all the tools I tried along the way. Well, I’m at it again. My previous tool of choice, Taglocity, has taken a turn toward online social/collaborative email in their 2.0 release. I’m afraid that 99% of the email I [...]
Handwriting Recognition in OneNote 2007? Well, kinda…
March 29, 2008 - 10:36 pm
Tags: OneNote, Tips, Tools
Posted in Productivity | 5 comments
In my post on EverNote vs. OneNote, I mentioned handwriting recognition as one of the shortcomings in OneNote. I also mentioned that the implementation in EverNote is a bit disappointing as well because it uses a “shotgun” word approach. By that I mean that EverNote sets up an XML database of sorts where [...]
November 4, 2009 - 12:47 pm
I guess this is a change with the Evernote 3.5 beta, but my DROE entries are getting imported each as an attachment to an evernote note rather than as an evernote note. This is very inconvenient. Are you or anyone else using the Evernote Beta and have a suggestion as to how to fix this?
November 4, 2009 - 9:29 pm
Chris – Thanks for the heads-up! I haven’t had a chance to try the tool with the EN3.5 Beta yet. I had 3.5 installed for a while, but it was a little buggy and the lack of a clipper for Firefox was driving me nuts.
Anyway, it sounds like the Evernote team must have changed the way that AutoImport works. The only suggestion I have is to run the DROE Tool in text mode, and then paste the contents into Evernote one a week or once a month. Sorry I don’t have a better solution right now. I’ll look at this for the next version of the tool.
-Carl
April 6, 2010 - 10:14 am
Just confirming that this is still the case with the latest version of EverNote 3.5. Hoping you’re able to get it to work as as it did previously since copying the text files is somewhat inconvenient.
April 13, 2010 - 11:28 pm
Hi Todd – I just had a chance to try this again… Unfortunately EN3.5 does indeed behave this way. All of the text-based files brought in through AutoImport just have the file attached in the note. In previous versions, the content of the text file became the content of the note, which makes more sense. I tried other file extensions (such as .html) but the behavior was the same. I’ll try a few other things, but I don’t see a solution at the moment.
April 26, 2010 - 4:16 pm
Thanks for following up Carl. To be honest, I find that I’m using OneNote more than EverNote to take notes, so I don’t mind that it doesn’t work well with EN.
November 19, 2009 - 11:32 am
Hi! First I would like to thank you for this piece of software. It was really helped me to make a quick notes through OneNote.
I tested you DROE tool with Office 2010 Technical Preview edition and it worked very well. However since I installed new Office 2010 Beta, it stopped working properly. When I try to make new note through Win+N shortcut, it creates new Section with new page in my notebook instead of create new note in my Daily Record page.
I checked all the settings in INI file, but it didn’t help.
Do you have any idea how could I fix this?
Thanks
November 22, 2009 - 9:11 pm
Hi Aleš – I don’t have access to any of the Office 2010 Beta software, so I can’t be sure what is causing this behavior. It could be that the Office 2010 software uses the Win+N setting for something else. Can you try disabling this shortcut in OneNote?
-Carl
November 23, 2009 - 5:30 am
Hi Carl, thank you for your concern. As far as I know, Win+N is standard shortcut for Open New Side Note as it was in 2007 version.
Unfortunately I can’t find a way how to disable shortcuts in OneNote.
The big mystery for me is fact, that DROE tool worked perfectly with Office 2010 Technical Preview. And when I upgraded to new public Office 2010 Beta it begin to behave this strange way.
If you like, you could download Office 2010 Beta for free: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx
Anyway, thanks for trying to help.
Aleš
November 29, 2009 - 3:49 pm
Hi Aleš – I think to disable to the shortcuts, you probably have to disable/close the OneNote tray icon (near the clock). Note that the setting is remembered, so if you want the icon back you have to re-enable it through the OneNote settings.
Not sure if that will help, just a guess at this point. Maybe when I get my PC set up again at home I can try the Office 2010 Beta. My work PC is locked down, so they keep track of what we install.
-Carl
November 30, 2009 - 5:48 pm
Hi Carl, thank you for your tip. I tried to disable shortcuts this way. Shortcuts was really disabled but it didn’t solve my problem. Anyway thanks again for your concern.
I wonder if somebody else experiencing the same strange behaviour. I think unfortunately there is not much people using your tool together with Office 2010 Beta.
November 27, 2010 - 11:40 pm
Quick update for those reading the comments: I installed OneNote 2010 and was able to track down the compatibility issue. I will have a new version of the tool posted soon.
-Carl
March 22, 2010 - 12:06 pm
Hi Carl. This tool looks interesting… I am running 64 bit Win 7 and Outlook / One Note Beta 2010. Just wondering if I should try to install available version or wait until you update software. Thanks,
Debbie
March 28, 2010 - 2:54 pm
Debbie – I’m afraid that’s the case. I think the Outlook shortcuts will still work, and you can use the tool to manage a text-based DROE, but it looks like there is a compatibility issue with the Office 2010 Beta version of OneNote.
-Carl
October 14, 2010 - 11:06 am
Hi Carl. i have yet to communicate with you directly but have used the tool for years and very dependent on it. any plans on updating to 2010 or can you send the ahk file so i can mess with it. i have used autohotkey on other things. thanks again for your killer little tool.
September 21, 2010 - 5:13 am
Hi Carl
Thanks for this awsome tool! Unfortunately, I’m experiencing the similar problems as #6 Aleš Bartoš. I can’t get it to work with Office 2010.
If you press ALT+N, it opens the right DROE page, but it then goes and creates a new section where it pastes de date info. Anyone knows a fix?
October 14, 2010 - 10:27 am
wow, just upgraded to office2010 and its nice with sharepoint, etc… oh but how i have become dependent on your DROE for onenote. i am using the default new note page and just using win–> to time stamp… but how i miss it… any word on getting it to work with the new onenote (which also rocks pretty hard.)… thanks again for keeping my last 4 years organized.
October 14, 2010 - 10:36 am
Here too. Wouldn’t mind paying a small fee to aid in the development!
October 14, 2010 - 11:04 am
Ditto to the small fee. i have used auto hot key many times with simpler functions, but if i could get the ahk file i might be able to play with it. thanks again.
October 28, 2010 - 4:45 pm
Same here – I just came back to OneNote for a Windows based project and found your DROE Tool incredibly useful, but alas, I am running the 2010 Office version now. I’d pay money to get it working again!
November 28, 2010 - 1:16 am
All – Thanks for your recent comments… I’m glad to hear that the DROE Tool has been useful to you. I will try to get an evaluation (alpha) version out in the next week that works with OneNote 2010.
-Carl