The other day I stumbled on a tip about Evernote. It was a snippet of information in a bigger post on the Evernote blog so I saved it to Evernote (obviously) to take a look at later.

The tip was that Ctrl-Cmd-B in Evernote (on the Mac) will format a body of text as source code. While I'm not in the habit of using Evernote to store code, not even snippets of code (that's something far better served by Gist), it seemed like something worth committing to memory.

This morning, while finally in front of a suitable machine, I took a look. Sure enough, there's the menu option.

Handy! So I created a test note with some code in it so that I could see how it formatted it. I was curious to see if it just did simple fixed text or if it offered options to highlight various languages (I didn't hold out much hope for the latter, but it was worth a look).

That's when it got odd.

After I created a note and went to format some code, the menu option disappeared!

From what I can tell, once it's gone, there's no way to get it back. At least, not until you actually close down Evernote and start it up again.

Frustratingly, none of this is the case in the Windows version. While the key combination is different there, the menu option is available and stays available.

The version of Evernote I have (on my iMac and my Macbook) is 6.9.2. The version number on Windows is 6.4.2 (after checking for updates -- I'm going to guess that the Mac and Windows version numbers don't match on purpose).

Goodness knows what's going on here. All I can imagine is that it has something to do with a thread I found on Evernote's support forum that suggests that code block formatting is some sort of test/beta feature and can only be enabled via a settings option that isn't available via the version downloaded from the Apple App Store.

So, at some point, I guess I'm going to have to uninstall Evernote from the Macbook and the iMac, reinstall from the Evernote website itself, and try this again. All of which seems a bit silly when the menu option is there and visible when I run Evernote up!

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Edit to add: Sure enough, removing the App Store version and installing the version from Evernote's own website, and then going into preferences and enabling the option, sorted it. It's still really odd they'd promote the facility via the blog and not mention it, and also very odd that the option would always show until the first time you're in a position to use it, and then it'd disappear.

By the looks of things, with the recent updates to their desktop applications, Evernote have discovered the joys of pop-ups for advertising purposes. I'm finding it just as annoying as it was back in the days when people thought it was the smart way to make you buy things on the web.

Now, to be fair, the pop-up you see above is the one on my iMac and that at least has the good taste to only pop up within the application itself (although the Evernote icon in the dock at the bottom of the screen kept jumping around like it really wanted attention when this happened). The Windows one, however, is much worse.

I've actually not had a chance to capture a copy yet as it normally has the habit of getting in the way while I'm actually trying to do something; but the Windows version has the bad taste to actually pop up over my desktop. Yes, that's right, over my bloody desktop!

In both cases it's advertising Evernote's paid-for tiers in a way that it never has before. It's seriously annoying.

Now, before anyone pipes up that it's a company that needs money to keep things going... I know. I don't mind that. I don't mind the odd nag here and there. More to the point I actually don't mind paying for software and services. I actually do pay for software and services. There's a handful of different tools and the like that I make good use of every month which I pay for because they're worth paying for.

Evernote is one that I've been considering paying for too. The problem is, what they offer in the paid versions isn't really anything I need. Everything I use Evernote for can be done in the free version; I have no need to pay for it.

There is, of course, a good argument to be made in favour of the idea that if you benefit from a service you should pay for it anyway so that it doesn't go away. Having watched the likes of Catch and Springpad disappear I think that's a very compelling argument and one that has had me, in recent months, thinking I should buy some paid-for Evernote tier.

The problem I face now though is this: this move by Evernote to go with a pop-up nagware model, especially one that's willing to pop up nagging windows on my desktop, gives me the feeling that the company is struggling and getting desperate. While this should have me thinking that now is a really good time to pay for something I appreciate it's actually having the opposite effect. It's having me wonder if, in fact, I should be looking for an alternative that isn't giving this impression.

Yes, even one that I'd need to pay for.