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**** A transcription follows. Other transcriptions can be found at www.marblejar.net. ****
Hello everyone! This is Lara Hammock from Marble Jar and in today's video I'm going to show you how I use Evernote to "attach" files to calendar events on my iPhone.
I use Google Calendar to keep track of personal and family appointments. And I access Google Calendar from a variety of places, but most of the time I view my calendar from my iPhone or iPad. Until this week, I used the built-in iPhone Calendar app. I decided to try the Google Calendar app, which I like so far, but this video really applies to either mobile app.
Just a quick technical note before I jump in: between the web-based Google Calendar and the native iPhone calendar app, most fields translate perfectly. Like date, time and location. But some areas have no equivalent. For example, the URL field in the iPhone Calendar app doesn't have a corresponding field in Google Calendar, so if you fill it out on your phone, it doesn't appear on Google Calendar in a browser. For this reason I try to avoid using it. End of technical note.
I want to be able to attach files to my events for 2 reasons: 1) I'm mostly paperless and don't want to have to remember where I put a flyer or agenda for a meeting and 2) I shares my calendar with my family, so if it's attached to the event, each family member has immediate access to it. You can see my previous video which explains how I do this.
Here's a real-life example: My daughter's choir participated in the National Cherry Blossom Parade last year. She was actually taking a tour with a friend's family, but all the details of the events were on this flyer, including things she needed to know like what to wear, where to meet, times, etc. I wanted to attach this flyer to the event in the calendar so that she would immediately have access to it from her phone as well.
As far as I know, there is no easy way to do this that is also accessible from the built-in iPhone calendar app. If you access Google Calendar from a computer browser, you can attach a document from Google Drive like this. When you open this event on your mobile device, you can see it, but you can't actually open it. Frustrating. Additionally, there is no way to attach files directly from the iPhone calendar app.
So here's how to get around this problem.
1. Scan or Photograph – I first scan the flyer using Adobe Scan. Or maybe I just take a photo.
2. Save to Evernote – Then I save it to Evernote using the Share button in Adobe Scan or in Camera Roll in Photos. I save it in my Lara's Brain notebook, which is my default note repository, and generally tag it /"Temporary/". I assume this is a flyer or important document just for this event. I make it a point to clean out my temporary notes several times a year. If I want to keep it longer, I can use another tag.
3. Copy link to Evernote – Okay, I open the Evernote app, find my note – it should be the very first one in the All Notes list since it's the last one I added/edited . Now I choose the Share button and click Copy Link. I have to choose whether to make it a public link or a private link. Public links are available to anyone who knows the URL. Private links can only be viewed by those who have express access to this Evernote notebook. Since I don't share my notebooks with my kids, I almost always choose Public. If I frequently attach files with sensitive information, I may want to create a new shared notebook in Evernote just for this purpose, but I haven't had to do that yet.
4. Add the link to the event – Now I go back into my event in the calendar and scroll down to the notes section. Remember that I'm not going to use the URL field because it doesn't translate across all of my interfaces. I paste the link into the Notes field and save the event.
Now when I go to my event in the iPad calendar and click on this link, it takes me directly to this note on Evernote for web in a browser. Also, if I watch this event on my computer's browser, I can access this file from there as well.
You can obviously also use it for Google Drive documents or anything else stored in the cloud that has an accessible link.
Let me know how it works for you! Feedback is always appreciated and thanks for watching!
Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.
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