If you’re an Evernote user, a significant enhancement is coming your way. In fact, you may already have it and not even know it.

The ability to share notes and even entire notebooks with other people is a well-known feature. Each person can edit, and everyone has the latest version. The limitation has been that no two people could be editing the same note at the same time. Evernote real-time editing provides exactly that opportunity.

What exactly is Evernote real-time editing?

Imagine two friends are taking the same college class and want to keep their notes for the class in Evernote. One friend creates the notebook and “shares” that notebook with the other. Each sees the same notes, photos, PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and anything else added to the notes in that notebook.

With the addition of real-time editing, one person creates a note at the start of the lecture. The other person sees the note in their Evernote account. With real-time editing, the two friends can both take notes at the same time in the same note. If one person misses something important the professor said, the other person is able to enter it.

Implications for business

Imagine a meeting where the agenda has been shared ahead of time in the form of an Evernote note. If the note has been shared with everyone, then during the meeting, each person can add ideas and next steps to that note. There’s no need to distribute minutes later; everyone already has the information via that shared note.

Do I already have it?

Evernote is rolling out the enhancement now. Some people have it; others will soon get it. The easiest way to see if you have it is to open your own Evernote account on two different devices. Pick a note and open that same note on both devices.

Look in the upper-right corner of the note. If you see your profile picture inside a circle, you’ve got real-time editing.

If you’ve got the capability, take the opportunity to experiment. Start typing in the note on one device. Watch the text appear on the other device. You even see the name of the person who is entering information. This feature is especially useful when multiple people are collaborating on the same note. Everyone knows exactly who is making any edit.

For the knowledge worker in an “information age,” the ability to easily trap information, retrieve it, share it, and do so from any connected device is essential. The added ability to collaborate on information simultaneously is a significant improvement.

If you use Evernote, go see if you already have it. If you don’t use Evernote, now is a great time to try out the free plan and see how it can make your life easier…with techniques such as the one we’ve just discussed. Here are a seven ways you could use it. Here are seven more.

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