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Artists use Melodyne for corrective or creative pitch adjustments in nearly every genre of music. When using Melodyne for pitch correction, you may not hear the effect. However, when using Melodyne creatively, the idea is to hear the effect. Regardless of the application, the Pitch tool and its related subtools are often the tools of choice to create pitch alterations in Melodyne.

The main Pitch tool moves notes up or down. You can do this in three ways:

1. by semi-tone (click and drag the note)
2. by cents, or 1/100^th of a semi-tone, for finer tuning (press the Option or Alt key and then click and drag), or
3. by double-clicking on the note to snap it to the exact pitch center

The overarching idea is to move the note either up or down in pitch, depending if the note was originally flat or sharp.

The Pitch Modulation tool is used to flatten or exaggerate the curve of a note’s pitch. Flattening out a note’s curve reduces vibrato, scoops, or pitch bends, or, in contrast, increasing the modulation exaggerates those effects. You can also use the Pitch Modulation tool to create an Auto-Tune effect where all pitches are strictly conformed to the pitch centers, resulting in a tuned robot-like sound.

The Pitch Drift tool enables you to edit the drift of a pitch from the start to the end of a note without altering the modulation. For instance, if a note starts a little sharp and ends a little flat, the Pitch Drift tool will fix the pitch but keep the natural vibrato in tact, thus effectively tilting the pitch curve of a note to flatten out or exaggerate the curve of a pitch.

The Pitch Transition tool is used to edit the transition between two notes. You can exaggerate the transition, creating a long slide between two notes, or you can minimize the transition, making the transition between two pitches very short and more robotic sounding.

After applying all of these pitch adjustments to a number of notes on a track, what if you want to go back to the original performance on one or more notes? Instead of using the undo command, try selecting the notes you want to return to their original states, then going to the Edit pulldown menu and selecting Edit > Edit Pitch > Reset All Pitch Related Changes to Original. This command resets the pitch of a note back to its original performance state, regardless of when the edit on that note was performed in the undo queue. I find this to be a very handy feature.

In Melodyne Essential Training, Emmy-nominated author Skye Lewin shows us how to use all of the Pitch tools. In this video from chapter three of the course, Sky introduces the Pitch tool and its subtools:

 

Interested in more? • All audio courses on lynda.com • All courses by Skye Lewin on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next: • Pro Tools Projects: Pitch Correction with Auto-Tune Evo • Audio Mixing Bootcamp • Foundations of Audio: Compressors and Dynamic Processors

One question I encounter a lot is whether it’s best for a developer to dabble in a lot of new technologies like SASS, Node, and Rails, or if it’s a better route to specialize in a smaller number of technologies to the point of perfection. Sometimes it feels like the vast number of front- and back-end technologies make it impossible to keep up. This feeling can be especially daunting when you’re looking for a job and it seems like potential employers only want to hire Web Sifus who, on top of having mastered both front-end and back-end technologies, also come with design, video editing, and page layout skills. (If you know that person, or if you’ve encountered a job description like this that only wants to hire Superman—comment below.)

Like all extremes, trying to learn too much, and focusing on too little, are both wrong approaches. Plain and simple, trying to keep up with every language and library is impossible. The goal is not to be miserable trying to learn everything, but to focus on your core and then cross train on skills rather than languages.

Building your Core

For a web developer, a good foundational group of skills to start with are: 1. Setting up and managing a server 2. Building a semantic page structure 3. Mastering page styles 4. Building interaction with the front end 5. Using databases to customize a visitor’s experience

It doesn’t matter wether you’re learning PHP, Python, Ruby, or any other  language you prefer. Learning that some problems are better solved by languages on the server and some on the client is essential. In the end, it’s more important to be proficient at solving problems than slightly more fluent in a specific development language.

After building on your core, it’s essential to make sure you approach projects with a cross-language attitude that stays focused on using the languages you’re comfortable with, and also learning to use different technologies when they make the most sense—not because you feel like you “have to.”

Cross-Language Cross-Training

Cross training in web development means that no one language is an island. You almost never use PHP by itself, or try to solve every problem on a page with JavaScript. Sometimes, the best solution is figuring out how you can combine languages together, and how to decide which language is right for the task at hand.

Recently while working on a Facebook application, I noticed that although there is an SDK (Software Development Kit) for PHP and JavaScript, trying to use just one SDK is silly. It’s better to use both since every language has strengths and weaknesses. For me, web development cross training means taking advantage of that balance and using the best tool for the job.

In the latest episode of View Source, I show you how to use HTML, PHP, and jQuery to upload images to a server and display them on a page as they are loaded. This is a good example of cross training, or, using a combination of skills to accomplish a task. In the video, I use HTML to allow people to upload files, then I use PHP to read the files uploaded to a directory, and jQuery to update the page as soon as a new photo is uploaded so the image uploader can see whether the upload was successful.

Remember, balance is critical to any job. Don’t spread yourself too thin, but also don’t limit your learning so you find yourself struggling with cross-language development. Build your core, then work on your cross-training. While this exercise routine won’t bring you any closer to having six-pack abs, it will make you a better problem solver, and a stronger developer, which will bring you two steps closer to landing your dream job.

 

Interested in more? • The full View Source weekly series on lynda.com • All web + interactive courses on lynda.com • All courses from Ray Villalobos on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next: • Create an HTML5 Video Gallery with jQuery • PHP with MySQL Essential Training• Dreamweaver CS5 with PHP and MySQL

After watching our popular Photoshop CS5 Essential Training course, and hearing all about the photo-developing power of Adobe Camera Raw, one of our members wanted to know how to open her JPEG files in Adobe Camera Raw directly from within iPhoto. With a few Preference-setting hoops to jump through, it is entirely possible to set up iPhoto and Photoshop so that you can use iPhoto as your Photo organizing database of choice and still use Camera Raw in Photoshop to edit your JPEGs. Here’s a quick video tutorial that shows you the path of least resistance:

Note that for quick one-way edits (meaning you don’t have any need to go back to iPhoto with your newly edited image), you can set the Photoshop preferences as shown in the video, then simply drag an image from your iPhoto preview window onto the Photoshop icon in your dock (if you’re working on a Mac) and the image will open in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Also note, while I recorded this in Photoshop CS5, the preference settings are identical in Photoshop CS6. As a bonus, if you’re already using Photoshop CS6, expect to see some improvements to ACR developing, too.

Please keep the feedback and the thoughtful questions coming, we appreciate it. Do you have any follow-up questions you’ve noted after completing a lynda.com course? We’d love to hear them!

 

Interested in more? • All Design courses on lynda.com • All Photoshop courses on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next: • Photoshop CS6 Essential Training • Photoshop CS5 Essential Training • Photoshop and Bridge CS5 for Photographers New Features• Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: Camera Raw 7

If you find it impossible to get anything done, start with the 18-minute cure.

In this week’s free InDesign FX video, I demonstrate how to simulate a hole or rip in the background of a design. It’s a quick, fun effect that opens up creative possibilities as you imagine what might lurk beneath the page.

The three key ingredients of the rip effect are the Pencil tool, Inner Shadow, and Paste Into. The first step is to draw a jagged shape with the Pencil tool (and drawing jagged shapes are the Pencil tool’s forte). Next, apply an inner shadow to make the shape seem like it’s under, rather than over, the other objects in your design. Finally, paste a photo or another text frame into the jagged shape, and, Voila, a rip!

For lynda.com members, I also have another new video this week in the lynda.com library called Creating a Breakthrough Effect. In that video, I show you how to take the rip effect one step further by adding an element that looks like it’s coming through the hole in the page.

Watch out, those tusks are sharp!

See you here again in two weeks with another InDesign effect!

Efficiency and flexibility are not just marketing terms, they’re what make motion graphics achievable. Creating moving images is incredibly labor intensive, and once all that labor is done, you still have to hit the render button and wait to preview the result. Being efficient is crucial to meeting deadlines.

Creating a workflow that allows you to swap and modify key elements at any point in the production process is what XRefs are all about. An XRef is a special object that points to a scene file much in the same way a print program, like Illustrator, points back to a master image and uses the original file from the hard drive for printing. Visually, the XRef appears to you as a single object, but it actually represents all the objects in the scene that it’s pointing back to. This means that you can make changes to that scene file, and any XRef that points back to it will automatically update. This also means, since R13 XRef objects allow you to reference a CINEMA 4D file as a single object, that you can manipulate an XRef from an entirely different scene, thus allowing for distributed workflows where one person is modeling while another person animates. This makes for a very flexible way to work.

In this week’s Design in Motion video, I’ll show you how to add an XRef into your animation, and I’ll show you a real-life scenario where having XRefs set up allows me to easily swap two cars in a chase scene, with two completely different cars—all without having to update my animation. If you’re new to XRefs, this tutorial quickly breaks the process down to help you get started. XRefs have made last-minute director swaps quick and easy for me many times, and they can save you, too!

The overall XRef experience has been significantly improved in CINEMA 4D R13. To learn more about those improvements, check out my full CINEMA 4D R13 New Features course on lynda.com. If you are a lynda.com member, make sure to check out chapter five, where I discuss R13 workflow additions, including a specific video on the Xrefs format rewrite.

 

Interested in more? • The full Design in Motion weekly series on lynda.com • All CINEMA 4D courses on lynda.com • Courses by Rob Garrott on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next: • CINEMA 4D R12 Essential Training • CINEMA 4D R13 New Features • After Effects CS5 Essential Training • CINEMA 4D: Rendering Motion Graphics for After Effects

This week’s Deke’s Techniques tutorial demonstrates how to take an otherwise land-locked model and make her appear to emerge from water. The key to this deceptively simple technique is to create a properly aligned, reflected version of the model’s image, that is based on a common smart object so that any changes to the original are reflected in the duplicate.

After you flip the duplicate upside down, your first step is to create a soft transition between the two images. In this video, Deke shows you how to set up a gradient transition in the intersection between the rightside-up and upside-down versions, so that no seams are visible between the two. Once you reduce the opacity of the reflection and add a water layer (adjusted to taste with a color overlay), you’ll arrive at the refreshing effect on the left below.

See you back here next week when Deke will return with another versatile, reflective technique.

 

Interested in more? • The entire Deke’s Techniques weekly series on lynda.com • Courses by Deke McClelland on lynda.com • All Photoshop courses on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next:• Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals• Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals• Photoshop CS6 Essential Training

A recent article on sbomagazine.com, the web site for School Band & Orchestra magazine, featured lynda.com in an article on distance learning, and the role technology plays in education today. The article begins by stating that “technology is changing how we deliver education,” and continues to identify and discuss three models for technology-based distance learning. Read the whole article, Distance Learning: Music Technology Courses & Workshops, at www.sbomagazine.com.

 

For this week’s featured five new tutorials, I have a sampling of movies from five different Photoshop courses we offer in the lynda.com library, each with a slightly different approach, scope, or focus. With the announcement of CS6, we’ve updated three of our mainstay Photoshop training courses, and when you combine that with our existing content, it can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start or which course is right for your needs. Here are some quick descriptions and free movie samples of five of our Photoshop offerings, from the encyclopedic to the specific, to help you figure out which one is right for you in your current state of expertise and interest.

Are you looking for more direction on where to start with Photoshop? Let us know what you’re looking to accomplish below in the comments section, and we’ll share our ideas about where to begin.

 

1. Photoshop CS6 Essential TrainingIn general, Essential Training courses at lynda.com are designed to give you comprehensive knowledge of a software application and a solid foundational overview of the product from a real-world perspective. In the case of Photoshop CS6 Essential Training, this means author Julieanne Kost stays focused on the most important tools for photo editing and compositing, with just the right pairing of ‘how does this tool work’ and ‘why you want to use it and when.’ Essential Training courses are great for watching start-to-finish for the big overview, or if you need focused instruction on a tool, or set of tools, you don’t quite understand. For example, in this excerpt, you’ll see how Photoshop’s Liquify tool can be used judiciously in a variety of different real-world portrait retouching scenarios:

Note, if you’re working with an earlier version of Photoshop, there are Photoshop CS5 and CS4 essential training courses available in the library as well.

 

2.  Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals The fundamentals course from the Photoshop One-on-One series also covers the core concepts of working in Photoshop, but veteran Photoshop instructor Deke McClelland approaches his training as though he were your private one-to-one tutor. Photoshop CS6 One-on-One: Fundamentals is great if you’re looking for more insight into how tools integrate with one another, or if you prefer to learn through “mini-project” examples that develop over the course of a movie or a chapter. In this excerpt from chapter four of the course, you’ll see a six-minute lesson on blending, and, specifically, how to work with three distinct features: Opacity, the History panel, and blend modes:

Deke has been creating a version of the One-on-One Fundamentals course in the lynda.com library for several years, so if you’re working with an earlier version you can find this specifically tailored instruction for Photoshop CS3, CS4, and CS5 as well.

 

3. Photoshop CS6 for Photographers Using Photoshop can mean different things to different people and this course is notable for it’s focus on the needs of a particular set of Photoshop students—photographers. In this course, Chris Orwig, a noted photographer and photography teacher, details the features and techniques surrounding photo enhancement and retouching, preparation for print and online publishing, and much more. He also teaches some of the foundational science behind digital photography, including this discussion of pixels and bit depth:

Chris has been teaching this photography-centric Photoshop course for several versions of Photoshop, including Photoshop CS3 for Photographers, Photoshop CS4 for Photographers, and Photoshop CS5 for Photographers. He has also created several in-depth courses on photography-critical topics including portrait retouching and creative effects.

 

4. Photoshop for Designers In the Photoshop for Designers series, talented designer Nigel French digs deep into Photoshop with a specific focus on the needs of graphic designers. The series is broken up into five full-length courses, each exploring a particular aspect of Photoshop including textures, colors, type essentials, Shape layers, and layer effects. Often, when you’re using Photoshop for graphic design, you’re starting with a blank canvas and creating artwork out of pure pixels, which is the case in this excerpt from chapter one of the Photoshop for Designers: Color course which covers how to create a color wheel using Photoshop’s blend modes and layer effects.

 

5. Photo Restoration with Photoshop In this course, professional photo restorer Janine Smith describes how to use Photoshop specifically to restore, retouch, and enhance old or damaged photos. In addition to covering methods for fixing everything from exposure, to stains, colorcast, scratches, and tears, Janine also shares how to evaluate damaged photos before beginning the restoration process. A course that offers lessons through exploration of an example project, this course includes a hands-on photo restoration that takes an image from a damaged start to a restored finish. In this video from chapter nine of the course, you’ll see a before and after of the course project restoration, and a run-down of the improvements Janine will help you tackle, including, the restoration of a major crack through the subject’s face, color alteration, and the removal of several major damage spots:

The course was recorded in CS5 but it’s real strength is the best-practices approach that Janine takes to photo restoration, so you should find valuable information here even if you’re still working in CS4, or if you’ve just forayed into the brave new world of Photoshop CS6.

Photoshop is a complicated program that can be used in infinite ways for a variety of creative endeavors. The team at lynda.com is dedicated to making sure you can find a course (or maybe three) that really provides the depth of coverage, level of context, and variety of specific interest that you need. Are you looking for a place to start with Photoshop? Let us know here, and we’ll share our ideas about where to begin.

 

Earlier in my design career I read an insightful book by Roger Black called Websites that Work. One of his rules of design was that after black and white, red was the third color. White is the brightest color, and black has the most contrast to white, but red is the color that gives you the most bang for the buck if you’re looking to get your text noticed. That three-color premise makes me think back to development languages—specifically, which are important, why they are important, and in what order they should be approached.

I’m a big fan of PHP, and much like red, I think it’s the language that will give you the biggest bang for your learning buck. I propose that after you learn HTML/CSS, the next thing you should learn is JavaScript, and the third thing you should learn is PHP. You might argue that HTML and CSS are two different things, but I see them as the key semantic and layout combination of the web, so I consider them one item bundled together.

So what is PHP, and why should I learn it third?

PHP is a server-side language with files that are processed before they are sent to a client computer. It’s easily available in even the cheapest shared hosting servers and runs some of the biggest web sites on the Internet including Facebook. PHP also serves as the engine for most blogging platforms, including WordPress.

Some may argue that learning something like node.js is an easier transition from JavaScript, and I will admit, the superior object-oriented structure of Python and the MVC frameworks like Rails might be tempting, but to me, PHP is a the language for getting things done. If you already know JavaScript, the syntax is eerily similar so you can get going quickly.

If you’re into an MVC structure, there are plenty of frameworks available for the PHP language. To get started, I’d recommend checking out Drew Flakman‘s PHP frameworks course, MVC Frameworks for Building PHP Web Applications.

Using PHP hands-on

In this week’s episode of View Source, I wanted to show you a technique that I use often with PHP—creating a folder where people can drop photos, and then using PHP with jQuery to build a slideshow of the photos dropped into that folder. When it’s done, all you have to do is drop a new photo into a folder to update your slideshow, and your site will automatically update with the new content. It’s how I update the photos on the blog for View Source, and I’ve used the same technique to add elements like audio and PDF links to web sites before. With this technique, you can easily teach someone how to update a web site by simply dropping files into a folder.

 

Interested in more? • The full View Source weekly series on lynda.com • All web + interactive courses on lynda.com • All courses from Ray Villalobos on lynda.com

Suggested courses to watch next: • Create an Interactive Video Gallery with jQuery • PHP with MySQL Essential Training• Dreamweaver CS5 with PHP and MySQL

Silence is the sound of finality. And that was all I heard when I received the news that Hillman Curtis was gone. Hillman was a huge inspiration to me and many of you know him from his films, books, or conference talks. He had a stunning visual sensibility, thoughtful eyes, and a kind and creative heart. I like how one of my good friends put it, “Hillman had a gentle and quiet side to him in which he allowed his work to pass through to become much bigger.”

By any yardstick, Hillman was a big success. Yet, to be successful it typically requires talking loudly or at least talking a lot. Hillman proved that wrong in his own quiet way. He forged a path that many of us in the creative arts community follow today. And this wasn’t a passive act—Hillman was a fighter. In one of his books he wrote about the experience of feeling a bit old and tired and then going to a boxing gym for a lesson. After attempting to box, a trainer came up and said, “I can tell that you’ve boxed before, but you have a couple of fundamentals wrong.”

The trainer continued, “First, you’re crouched over, all covered up. You have to use your God-given gifts. You’re tall. Stand up straight. You’re also facing the bag sideways. Square off on your opponent; otherwise you can’t throw the right.”

Hillman reflected, “That was a pretty standard boxing lesson. But that morning I took more from it. First, I should stop covering up and stop hiding from the world. Second, I should acknowledge my blessings, stand up straight, and face my opponents. This could be anything—a client situation, a creative challenge, or a career shift. And finally, and most important, I should ‘throw the right.’ The right is the knockout punch, but by throwing it you leave yourself vulnerable to getting hit, perhaps even knocked out yourself. But you have to throw it to win—even to compete.”

Throughout his career and life, Hillman wasn’t afraid to “throw the right” and to reinvent himself. And he did so, not with ego-filled abandon, but with inspiring calm. In this way, he charted a unique and inspiring course for others to follow.

With Hillman gone, who now will lead the way?

In the silence of trying to make sense of this loss, I started to dig through my archives. I came across photos from different conferences like Flash on the Beach (above) and Flashforward (below) from a few years back. The photo below was actually a mistake at the time – I’m surprised I didn’t delete it. I only focused on Hillman and not the rest of the crew—Lynda and Bruce Weinman, and Brendan Dawes. Now in retrospect the mistake seems to be fitting. Hillman brought such clarity and simplicity to his work. He stood apart and in sharp focus. And by his example, he provided inspiration to others with details of how he created his work in books or presentations. Hillman seemed to never have anything to hide.

That was of course until he started to show his acclaimed work. He always preferred to let it speak on its own. That’s why I love this photo of him ducking down and out of the way while his film played above. The work was his voice.

Hillman’s voice wasn’t something that just appeared—he intentionally developed it over time. He enjoyed being with other artists and friends like in the photo below.

Recently, while interviewing Hillman, I asked, “What character qualities should an artist nurture and develop?” He responded, “Curiosity. I think this is key… at least for me. I go into every shoot open eyed, expecting to be challenged, and expecting to be surprised. I fully expect that whatever preconceptions I might have about the shoot will get blown out of the water and something far cooler will replace it.”

Hillman was curious and kind. I think the two went hand in hand. When he travelled, he would often bring his son or family on the trip. Below are a few pictures of Hillman and his son Jasper. You get the idea. He wasn’t just a great musician/designer/filmmaker. He was a great husband, and friend, and Dad.

Later in my interview, I asked, “What’s your advice to the aspiring artist?” He responded, “Well, first maybe lose the ‘aspiring’ part. Be an artist. Period. I also think that this year could hold some real opportunities for the person who has neglected their desire to do art. Some will be confronted with less work and more free time. Embrace it. Embrace your ideas.”

Stand up straight. Throw the right. Be an artist today.

I keep thinking about how I want to do something to keep Hillman’s spirit alive. Perhaps it’s our turn to make that project we’ve been burying inside? If you have any of your own plans, ideas or memories, we would all be grateful to hear your thoughts. And thank you for taking the time to read and to collectively share in this loss.

Finally, I just wanted to say thank you to Lynda and Bruce, as I knew Hillman because of them.

 

Humbly Yours, Chris Orwig

 

Understanding the “five levels of leadership” helps you climb “the pyramid of success”

Understanding the “five levels of leadership” helps you climb “the pyramid of success”

Managing virtual workers requires deft leadership.

Managing virtual workers requires deft leadership.

In this week’s free InDesign Secrets episode, Anne-Marie Concepcion shows you how to place Excel spreadsheets into your InDesign documents as tables, and walks you through the process of linking your table and your original Excel spreadsheet to avoid having to manually update and reformat every time a colleague updates the spreadsheet in Excel.

I have to admit I find this tip vitally compelling, particularly because tables in InDesign are still a bit of a mystery to me. (I have Diane Burns’ InDesign Tables in Depth course in my queue for this very reason.) Once I establish how I want the formatting to work in a given table, the last thing I want is to have to re-establish said formatting on an entirely new table. Of course, the second to last thing I want is to painstakingly make manual data changes to an existing InDesign table (no matter how pretty I made it.)

In this video, Anne-Marie explains the process for creating linked tables that save you from the hassle of manual updating or reformatting. Your first step is to set the Preferences so that InDesign knows you want spreadsheets to come in as linked files. In the File Handling portion of the Preferences dialogue box, you’ll select the Create Links When Placing Text and Spreadsheet Files option in the Links section.

With this option selected, when data in your native Excel sheet is updated,  you will see a notification in the Links panel letting you know that your spreadsheet has been modified. Just double-click on that notification, and the data elements of your table that have been modified will update automatically, with no need for you to reformat your table. (OK, sometimes you may need to reestablish the header row or adjust cell size.)

If you are looking for more consistent table results, Anne Marie recommends creating a table style before placing your Excel file, and then applying that table style when you are placing your Excel table into InDesign. If you are new to table styles, I recommend checking out Michael Murphy’s InDesign Styles in Depth, in this case, specifically chapter six which covers table and cell styles.

Note that you may not always want every single spreadsheet table you place to update automatically, so remember to uncheck the Create Links option as soon as you are done working with the table you want linked, or find yourself facing updates where you don’t expect them.

Meanwhile, exclusively for members of lynda.com, Anne-Marie’s partner in InDesign secrecy, David Blatner, has a movie that shows you how to create electronic sticky notes in InDesign.

Stay tuned, Anne-Marie and David will be back in two weeks with more InDesign Secrets.

Interested in more? • The entire InDesign Secrets bi-weekly series • Courses by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion on lynda.com • All lynda.com InDesign courses

Suggested courses to watch next: • InDesign Tables in Depth • InDesign Styles in Depth • InDesign CS6 New Features • InDesign CS6 Essential Training

Evernote is a Cloud productivity tool and digital notebook that allows you to store various types of content, and access your content seamlessly from various devices—whether it be a smartphone, a PC, or a tablet. If you’ve ever wished you could quickly capture, store, or categorize all your conference business cards, or share your brainstorming notes with a team before meeting, Evernote may be the business solution for you.

In our new set of Evernote courses, Up and Running with Evernote for Mac and Up and Running with Evernote for Windows,  author David Rivers teaches you how to use the application’s productivity tools to become more productive yourself.

In this video from chapter X of the Up and Running with Evernote for Windows course, David introduces Evernote, and gives an overview of its functionality to help you get a feel for how you might see yourself using the digital notebook.

Evernote has a very extensive list of features, and applications. Here are a few stand-out functions:

1. You can sync your Evernote account across multiple devices, including your PC, Mac, tablet, and smartphone, and have complete access to all your stored data, notes, and other items from all places.
2. You can create notebooks to share collections of notes with certain teams. For example, your Marketing Ideas notebook can be a joint collaboration with the marketing team while your Recipes to Try notebook might just be one you share with your spouse so you’re both inspired when it’s time to plan meals.
3. Thanks to Evernote’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, you can snap a picture that includes text, signage, or other lettering, and Evernote will recognize and store that data along with your picture, making it easy for you to search a keyword term and find the photo you’re looking for later.
4. Advanced tagging features let you associate data with each note and notebook, so you can easily create a personal library of well-tagged notes that can be searched by keyword.
5. Evernote’s Web Clipper, a new alternative to bookmarks in your browser, lets you save your favorite links easily for later perusal.

Evernote has made it easy for me to collect business course requests, jot and tag notes about inspiring business people, and keep running lists of multiple tasks. I also love being able to snap a quick photo of a white board with planning notes knowing I will be able to search for the image with keywords later on.

What do you use Evernote for? Please share with us in the comments section.

 

Do you think you’re taking too much blame or not getting enough credit? Don’t get caught up in a game you can’t win.

Do you think you’re taking too much blame or not getting enough credit? Don’t get caught up in a game you can’t win.

Are the feminine aspects of Warren Buffett’s temperament the reason he’s the world’s greatest investor?