Last evening, I updated TeamViewer and Evernote applications on my primary PC to their latest versions to make sure that all installed applications are up-to-date. This morning, while working on a couple of notes in the Evernote I noticed a new but annoying feature that shows “Related to what you’re working on” message in a small dialog at the bottom of Evernote’s window.
A quick search on the web helped me to understand that Evernote recently rolled out a new feature called Context, and Related to what you’re working dialog is part of this feature.
According to Evernote’s blog, this Context feature displays information related to the work you’re doing at the bottom of your note to make you more productive! The relevant information comes from many sources including your previously created notes, notes shared by your friends, and also articles from trusted web sources.
Well, relevant information from our previous posts and notes shared by our friends and colleagues might help some users to get the work done swiftly.
However, the idea of showing relevant information from trusted web sources sounds like an idea introduced to generate some revenue for Evernote. As of now, Evernote gets related information from The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Pando Daily, Fast Company, and Inc.
Although Evernote has clearly stated that it will note share any information about your account or notes with those publishers, users who are concerned about their privacy might want to turn off this Context feature.
Luckily, users can turn off this Related to what you’re working on dialog (Context feature) with a few mouse clicks. You can either completely disable the Context feature or simply prevent Evernote from sourcing relevant information from the web.
Method 1: Disable Evernote’s context feature in Windows
Method 2: Turn off context feature in Mac OS X
Method 1
Turn off Context (Related to what you’re working on)
Step 1: Run Evernote application.
Step 2: Navigate to Tools menu and then click Options to open Options dialog.
Step 3: Here, click on the newly added Context tab.
Step 4: Now, uncheck the option titled Show Context and then click OK button.
As you can see, users who love this feature but don’t want to get relevant information from the web can do so by simply unchecking the Articles option. Unchecking the Articles option will stop Evernote from showing related information from its trusted web partners.
Disable Related to what you’re working on in Mac
Step 1: Open Evernote app on your Mac.
Step 2: Navigate to Evernote’s Preferences.
Step 3: Switch to the Context tab.
Step 4: Uncheck Show Context to completely turn off the Context feature as well as Related to what you’re working on.
Just like the Windows version, if you are here to stop Evernote from showing related information from the web, please uncheck the Articles option without unchecking Show Context option. Good luck!
Hope this helps!
Laura Doliner says
It’s now October 2016 and I am having the same problem as Kunlei Lian had in December 2014. I do not have a way of getting rid of the huge, space-eating Context box.
To make matters worse, Evernote Support has no way of submitting a question that is not pre-loaded onto the Support page. If I didn’t have a ton of notes in Evernote, that would make me delete it forever.
cabji says
Yes I can’t turn this off either as a free user. It is as annoying as the Word paperclip. Working away and suddenly a box appears over the top of something I’m doing and no way to disable it.
I don’t care if they want to look at my data and get paid by some other company, give me an option to not be annoyed by popups.
admin says
@ Kunlei Lian
May you you’re right.
Kunlei Lian says
I have the same problem, and it is really annoying. But there is no ‘Context’ tab in my up-to-date Evenote Tools -> Options. Maybe only premium users can turn it off now.