Editor’s Rating:

Price at Press Time: $1.99
Category: Productivity
Version: 1.0.1.b
Developer: Ignition Soft Limited
Website: www.clip.ignition.hk
iTunes: EverClip for iPhone

Are you an Evernote user? If you answered yes, I’d be willing to bet you have used their Web Clipper App at one time or another from your desktop computer. If I bet incorrectly, and you are somehow unfamiliar, Web Clipper allows you to clip full articles and web pages right from the internet to a default notebook in Evernote, such as your inbox.It is a powerful tool that replaces the need [mostly] for bookmarking material online.

Are you an iPhone user as well? If so, it’s no secret that the Evernote application for iOS is fantastic. Like its desktop counterpart, it makes the process of creating and referencing notes fast and simple with the added benefit of being available to you at all times on-the-go. However, until now the iPhone application has been lacking the ability to capture and process a web clipping. As a result, saving information from a web page (or any other app for that matter) could be rather cumbersome; long-tap,copy text, fast-switch, paste, fast-switch, long-tap, copy etc. Heaven forbid you needed to copy multiple selections of text from several applications. Well, problems only exist so that smart people can find their solutions. Ignition Soft has done just that with EverClip.

EverClip, the 2012 Devcup Gold winner, was developed with ease of use, productivity and a greatly simplified “clipping” workflow in mind. It works in the background as you browse the web or navigate applications and effortlessly collects the text and images that you copy to your clipboard. Behind the scenes, it organizes your clippings into individual items for you to curate before sending them to your Evernote account. Each item can be sent as an individual note, or multiple clippings can be combined to create one note.

Clipping Content

To begin using EverClip, simply launch the app and return to whatever task you were performing prior to. EverClip is now working in the background, out of your way. As you select and copy content to your clipboard, you will receive audible feedback confirming that your content has been clipped and placed in EverClip. Clip as little or as much content as you’d like, returning to EverClip when you are ready to curate your content before publishing to Evernote.

So you’ve finished clipping articles, images and links and have launched EverClip to review your content. What now? It’s pretty simple actually. EverClip arranges each item that was placed on your clipboard into individual cells that appear within a srollable feed of clippings. Those items can be reviewed by simply tapping them. From there, you can title your note by tapping the text field above your content. Tags can be added as well by tapping the tag field and typing. There is no need for commas to dliniate your tags, as the return key takes care of that task for you. Once your note is complete you can send it to Evernote or return to your feed of clips.

The real power of EverClip is made evident when you are copying multiple entries from several sources for a project or related material. For example, you have text messages, emails, web articles and images all relating to a particular subject matter and you need to get them all into the same note. EverClip, from the main content feed, allows you to do that. Just tap the pencil icon in the upper right-hand corner to reveal the option to select more than one item. Tap each item you wish to merge together and then tap the arrow that is now dispayed where the pencil icon once was. You will see all of your selected items together, ready for export. Alternatively, once in the ‘multiple selection’ mode, you can delete several clippings at once and/or add entries manually via text input, taking a photograph or selecting an image from your camera roll.

Items sent to Evernote, individually, will appear in your chosen default notebook immediately as separate notes. Items having been merged and sent to Evernote will appear together as one note.

Settings

EverClip’s settings are not at all overwhelming. In fact, they are very straight forward. From the settings page you can, most importantly, select the default notebook for export as well as default tags to include in every export. You can choose to turn off sound effects, whether or not to delete clips after export and contact the EverClip team as well. Surprisingly, there is also a log of all sent items kept in plain text format for you to access. Though I am uncertain how this may be helpful to me in my quest for productivity, I am sure someone will make good use of the feature.

Wishlist

Sortable Clips

Though the clips feed is efficient as-is, I would like to see one feature added; the ability to sort clips. This would allow me to clip at will and sort before export for items requiring sequence.

Improved Editing in Preview Mode

Currently, you can edit/append the title and tags from the preview screen. I would love to see the actual clips themselves capable of accepting text input as well. Upon reviewing material I have clipped to EverClip, I find that there are times I do not need all of the text from the article. In those moments, I find myself poking and prodding my screen looking for a way to edit those clips and delete unwanted content.I do realize that not everyone will have the same needs and for most users the current setup is fine. But it would definitely be a welcomed addition.

Control Over Operable Time

EverClip is designed to run in the background, and so long as you are using its features, the app will remain running. However, if EverClip senses inactivity, the clock starts ticking. Eventually, after 10 minutes, you will receive a notification that “EverClip’s background session has ended… Please relaunch the app.” Though this is not an issue for me personally, I can see it being an issue of contention among users. It would be nice if the amount of time EverClip is able to operate in the background could be determined by its user. To be perfectly clear, I do not even know if Apple would allow for such a feature. However, if so, it would allow users not only to extend the time in runs in the background but also decrease its run time if desired. In a perfect world, it would be nice to have the option.

Conclusion

Well, you don’t win DevCup Gold awards for making bad apps; that’s for sure. EverClip is superb. Aside from the very few gripes I was able to generate, the app works flawlessly and performs a task long missing from the Evernote experience on iPhone. It is one of those apps that sneaks up on you; I was unaware how much I needed the app until I began using it. Now, I don’t think my workflow would survive without it. Bravo to the EverClip team of developers on a job very well done. I am a huge fan and look forward to future updates… which will hopefully include one or more items on my wishlist.

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