Evernote Should Learn From Yojimbo'S Tag Browser

Bare Bones Software today released Yojimbo 2.0, a popular organizing app that was once the leader in its field. However, after two years of no updates, many people started jumping ship.

Myself, I was never a Yojimbo user. Back then I was hardcore with Journler, which has since been virtually abandoned. That said, I toyed with Yojimbo often. Knowing people who used it, I wanted to like it. I just never could get into it.

Today, I use Evernote for every day collections and DevonThink Pro Office for project-based research. And while I downloaded Yojimbo 2 and took a look at it, I won’t be changing my workflow.

That said, Evernote could learn something from the fine folks at Bare Bones. Yojimbo’s new Tag Explorer is really nice. I also love the “tag collections” that the added. Considering that my biggest gripe about Evernote is the way it’s Tag section functions, I’d love to see Yojimbo-like handling of tags find it’s way to Evernote.

What I dislike about Evernote is that when you select a saved search that includes a tag, it opens up the entire Tag list in the sidebar. That’s amazingly cluttered for someone who uses lots of tags to find things.

Yojimbo puts their Tag Explorer on the right side, opposite of the sidebar that contains collections. This makes it less cluttered and easier to use. Still, it’s not enough for me to make the jump.