Simplenote vs Evernote + export format
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Hi,
I’m using Evernote (free tier, on Mac). I find it laggy and over-complex, so looking to move. Anyone else used both Evernote and Simplenote and got any comments?
Also can anyone tell me about the export feature? What format are exported notes, and are they plaintext or do they come with markdown that another app could read? Thanks.
Edward
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What I really want to be sure of is that my notes will survive if Simplenote doesn’t for any reason. So I want exports to be in a universal format.
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Simplenote exports notes in a zip file. It contains a json file containing all the notes, with tags and some other attributes. This file can be directly imported to Simplenote. Note that the imported notes will be new notes; they will not overwrite existing notes with the same title.
The zip file also contains each individual note as a txt file that can be copied into any document. This file contains the note text as viewed in the app.
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Thanks very much for that. Did you mean “Evernote” in one of the places you said “Simplenote”? Or did you mean to speak of an export from Simplenote then a re-import?
I’m thinking if Simplenote eventually dies the death completely, as Evernote may one day do. Sounds like all those txt files will do the job, if a bit fiddly? And do you know if they’ll have markup or is it simply the natural language text that is saved there?
Thanks again.
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I was referring only to how Simplenote exports and restores a backup. Nothing to do with Evernote. And yes, the txt files are a bit fiddly, but they are an absolutely generic format that you can use in any other app.
If a note includes Markdown codes, they will be present in both the json backup and the individual txt file. The content is exactly what you see when editing (not previewing) a note.
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