UPDATE – the May/June photo scavenger hunt has been added to the files below. Also, there may be another option just for iPhone somewhere down the line… we’ll update you if it pans out.

Julie (liriel) recently mentioned to me that she wanted to add the current Photo Scavenger Hunt to an iPhone app. Unfortunately the app wasn’t really set up to allow customization, but it got me thinking how nice it would be to have some sort of mechanism to share the list out to your smart phones. The ideal solution would be to have an app that works for both iPhone and Android – I tried out a number of apps on both platforms but didn’t find an ideal fit for either (let alone both). I did, however, find a solution that will work for us until something better comes along. It is free and should work for not only iPhone and Android, but also with Blackberry and Windows phones.

Introducing  

Evernote is packed with a number of handy features, but what we mostly care about is its ability to make lists and share them with other people. Some of the key terms to know are:

“Note” – just a virtual memo – you might start a note for your next trip to the grocery store, or start a note to keep track of songs you want to buy. It can have text and/or images. We are going to use these notes like a ‘to do’ list.

“Notebook” – a collection of notes. You might make a notebook called ‘Packing Lists’ and have one note for WDW/DL and another note for DCL.

“Sync” – Evernote actually has 3 different ways to access your notes: 1) mobile device, 2) PC/Mac, and 3) Internet browser. In order to view/update your notes from all three you must ‘sync’ (i.e. synchronize) them.

SETUP

STEP 1: Install Mobile App

Download the app for your phone. Open the appropriate appstore from your phone and search for “Evernote” and install it (I will refer to this as the ‘mobile app’)

STEP 2: Install desktop app

Download and install the Evernote program for your computer.  You can download it at http://evernote.com/evernote/index.php (I will refer to this as the ‘desktop app’).

Windows – click the green button that says “Get Evernote for Windows”
Mac – hover over the green text that says “Get Evernote for mobile, tablet, and other devices” and select “Mac OS X”

Install the program you just downloaded

STEP 3: Create an Evernote account

There are a few ways you can create an account. One way would be to fill out the form at https://www.evernote.com/Registration.action. As an alternative you can start up the desktop app, click on “New to Evernote” on the right side of the screen and fill out the form.

STEP 4: Import the MouseScrappers Notebook(s).

I put the current scavenger hunt (#15) into two different Notebooks. You won’t need to use both but you might want to download both and try each one and see which format you prefer.

Check box style notebook: In this notebook, all items from the March/April scavenger hunt are listed inside a single note. It is concise and has check boxes so you can check things off once you’ve found them. In theory, I can add an additional note for each new scavenger hunt which might be nice for people who like playing old challenges just for fun even when the challenge is over. To illustrate, I’ve loaded both Jan/Feb and Mar/Apr hunts into this notebook. Click here to download this notebook

Thumbnail style notebook: In this notebook, each scavenger hunt item is listed on a separate note. This format is suitable for those who want to use their phone to take photos – it takes a few extra clicks to start up your camera but it is still more convenient than minimizing the app, starting the camera, then restarting the app. It will add a thumbnail of the photo to the list and save your image in your gallery as normal. Click here to download a zip file containing both hunt #15 and hunt #16

Start the desktop app on your computer and sign in. Go to “File” > “Import” > “Evernote Export Files” and select one of the .enex files you downloaded above (unzip it first).

You will then see this screen asking if you want to sync it (i.e. share the notebook with your phone). click “Yes”

On the left side of the screen you will now notice a new item that says “Imported Notes”. Rename this to something more descriptive. To rename right click and click ‘Rename”.

On the right side of the screen you will see items in the Notebook I created. Here is how my screen looks after I’ve imported the file “MS scavenger hunts – checklists only.enex“

Here is how the left pane of my window looks after I’ve imported both files and renamed them.

STEP 5: View the lists from your mobile phone

Open the mobile app from your phone and login to Evernote. It should sync automatically but if it doesn’t look for the sync icon (two arrows forming a circle) and click on it. On the main screen, you will see “Notebook” toward the bottom. Click on “Notebook” and you should see the Notebook(s) you imported in step 3. You will then see a list of all your notebooks.

You may wish to sort the items in the list for easier reading. For my Android phone, I clicked on the little triangle in the green bar at the top of the mobile app. I clicked on “Snippet” in the “View As” section, and I clicked on “Title” in the “Sort by” section. FYI, On my phone, the elephant icon acts as a back button.

Check box style notebook

When you click on this option, you will see multiple scavenger hunts. Click on #15 March 1- April30

Here is how the scavenger hunt list looks on my phone.  Notice how I can checkoff any item on the list by touching the check box (here I’ve checked off #1).

Notebook 2 – thumbnail style notebook

Here is how the scavenger hunt list looks on my phone.  To add a photo, click on a list item you want to photograph

Click the pencil to edit the note

Click the camera icon to start your phone’s camera

 Take a picture.  If you like the image click ‘Save’.  If you want to take the picture again click “Discard”.  Note: It will save the photo in your phone’s gallery whether you choose ‘Save’ or ‘Discard’. It appears as though the image is the same quality whether you take it through the Evernote app or through your camera app, but you may want to try this out and make sure on your phone.

Once you press ‘Save’ you will see the image appear in your note (to delete this hold your finger on the image for a few seconds and it will give you an option to ‘Remove’).  You can write a note here if you want, I chose not to for this example. Be sure to use the check mark in the upper left corner.  I made the mistake of hitting my Android ‘back’ button and it didn’t save.

You will now see your photo as a thumbnail for that item.  You may see a message at the top – this indicates that it has uploaded it so you will be able to access it from the web/desktop app.

That’s pretty much it! It will take a little while to familiarize yourself with the app but it is pretty intuitive for the most part. You will want to import the list before you head to the parks as a computer is needed for that feature.

Let me know what you think!

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