I love Evernote and have blogged about it before. I turned on the beta version of Evernote when they released it back in October. I want to pass on my thoughts about the new versions so you can decide if it’s worth trying it for yourself.

The New, Beautiful Evernote Web is what Evernote is calling the Beta version. Evernote CEO Phil Libin said “It’s built for focus”. Let’s find out if that is indeed the case.

Released in early October and adopted by me soon after, the new beta is a leap for the company. They took some chances here. With a huge fan base making sweeping changes can be challenging. I’m going to focus on the user interface changes. There are some other features they are introducing but I’m going to save that for another post.

Some key changes to the user interface:

• Evernote Beta is now a very clean, almost an austere interface.
• It has a simple white background and simple easy to read fonts.
• Evernote Beta opens to new note. Just start typing.

What I like:

• I find it easier to read my notes and tags.
• I use tags as my filing system  I like how easy it is to scroll through my tags.
• I like opening to a blank note page. Evernote is about notes.
• It’s mostly all white, the fonts are black and only the icons on the side bar are green. This feel more like a filing cabinet to me, which is what Evernote really is to me.

What needs improvement: (Keep in mind this is still in Beta and I expect these will be addressed)

• I find it impossible to edit tags. You can create new tags when you create a new notebook but you can’t delete or rename a tag.
• There is no tag hierarchy. I didn’t have a very complicated system so this was really not an issue for me.
• Notes with reminders are not visible like they used to be. You can still set them but you used to be able to see all the notes with reminders. This is an issue for some.

I find as I grow older I’m more adaptable and flexible. Billion dollar companies like Evernote aren’t going to change something without a lot of research. I really want to explore all the possibilities that might be possible with something new.

If you don’t like Beta turn it off. Go setting and under account summary click on go back to old version. But overall I love the clean, simple and easy to read display. I’m looking forward to this version leaving the beta phase, which should happen before the year is up.

Have you tried the new Evernote Beta?