Evernote is a program that takes notes and it won't cost you a penny.

Just to be clear, I don't get a penny for plugging Evernote. I've been using it for 6 months now and I can't do without it. I think it is a great program and can be essential to every retailer, restaurant owner, student, and anyone else using a computer. It's just great.

(By the way, Cash Register Express and Restaurant Pro Express are my favorite programs. Evernote is my favorite software program not developed by pcAmerica.)

Evernote is a note taking software program. That doesn't sound so great, but read on.

My life (and the life of business owners, managers, students, politicians, and just about everyone else) is pretty complicated. On a daily basis, I need to remember just too many things. I'm always hearing good ideas for future articles. I need to keep and retain information related to various family medical problems and insurance policies. I need to remember information related to various appointments that I have made. Students need to remember lots of information related to the courses they are taking in school. We all need to remember what needs to be picked up at the supermarket. Do you remember that stock pick you just heard over the radio? How about those promises you made to various different customers? Did you forget to order that special product your customer wanted? Did you order extra restaurant food for the large party coming in next Wednesday evening?

OK. You get it. Our heads are filled with all types of miscellaneous information.

Evernote can help organize your entire life.

With Evernote, you can add, edit, delete and organize everything that you need to remember.

Let's say you have a customer named Alice Smith who enters your business. Alice is looking for a specific type of kitchen table that she wants to purchase for her house.

You can place this information on a piece of paper that you will inevitably lose. Or you can use Evernote to help you organize this specific task.

Make a note called Alice Smith. Under this note, you can add Alice's contact information and more information related to her needs. Later, when you are home and have more time, you can go back to this note and surf catalogs or the Internet for photos and prices of tables that may satisfy Alice's needs. You can add photos, Internet links, and an infinite amount of quick notes related to your project. When Alice enters your store next week, you can access the project (or Alice's Note Area), and you have all the information at your fingertips including links and photos.

Evernote can take care and organize all of your notes. You can add documents, photos, and other information to your notes. You can format your notes in a manner that you can eventually cut and paste into another document. You can import and export all sorts of files.

Now here is what makes Evernote so great.

All of your notes are stored in the Cloud. You can access your notes at home, at your office, at a hotel, or anywhere else with access to a computer. All you need is your user name and password.

You don't need Internet Access to use Evernote. You can optionally add a small program to your computer. This program let's you use Evernote without any access to the Internet. Once you have Internet access, Evernotewill automatically synchronize your computer with the files that Evernote stores in the Cloud.

All of your computers are always synchronized. If you add some notes at your business, those notes are synchronized with your Evernote account in the Cloud. When you turn on your computer at home, those notes automatically get synchronized with the information in the Cloud.

In other words, no matter where you are, you can useEvernote and your files are automatically transferred to your work computer, home computer, laptop, or any other computer.

It gets better. Do you use an iPad? Any other tablet device? A Blackberry? Other types of cell phones?

  

Evernote works with and Synch's with almost any type of device (computer, laptop, iPad, phones, tablets).

I haven't even begun to tell you about all of Evernote'sfeatures. You need to try it.

Evernote won't cost you a penny for storing up to 60 MB's of information in the Cloud. The premium version will cost you $45 per year and will give you a full GB of information transfers per month plus some additional features. I'm happy with my no cost version and don't believe I'll ever have to update to the premium version. However, I'd gladly pay $45 per year for what I am getting at no cost (but don't tell the Evernote people).

Evernote has become my favorite free program. It is great for every retailer, anyone who works, anyone who doesn't work, and can really help students to organize their tasks and studying.

Here's a little advice to new Evernote users. It does an awful lot of things. Start by using it for notes. The more you use it, the more you will find it to be indispensable. Lots of online help is available to learn all of its features. Take your time digesting all of the features. Just start by taking and organizing some notes.