Skim any must-have-apps list, and you're likely to find Evernote. The note-making and organizing application has certainly won praise from smartphone users, productivity experts, and highly organized individuals. And let's not exclude those highly disorganized people, who love Evernote for its incredible search engine that helps them find exactly the right note without having to remember where they put them. If you're interested in getting organized, Evernote will knock your socks off.

A newly released version 5 of Evernote for Windows (free to $45 per year for a Premium account) catches up Windows users to the Mac crowd, who have had some of the new features included in version 5 since their platform got it last year. A flat and less cluttered design lighten the eyes from the emerald green in previous versions. And a few other notable improvements make the experience of using Evernote on a desktop that much more efficient.

What's New in Evernote 5 for Windows?

The visual change is probably the most obvious, with the Windows app now sporting a slightly more minimalistic and flat design. There's also now a very handy shortcut area on the left rail, where you can drag and drop your most frequently accessed notes, notebooks, tags, and search terms. The shortcuts section may be my favorite of the new features.

Another design change: You have more choice over your Evernote window layout, with options for list view, card view, and snippet view. Again, Mac users have had these choices since Evernote 5 for Mac came out late last year.

Other new features are pretty subtle, like new keyboard shortcuts for power users (Shift-Alt-N lets you jump to notebooks, for example).

Getting Into Evernote: The Basics

If you're unfamiliar with Evernote, here's a summary in a nutshell: Evernote lets you create electronic files, such as text files, images and photos, and audio memos (i.e., voice memos, but really any audio recording). Everything you create can be sorted and tagged in a number of ways, and everything is searchable, including the text that appears in an image. It's all saved to the cloud, which explains how you can access and edit all your files from a multitude of devices. There's an Evernote app for just about every platform, including an iPhone app, iPad app, Android app, as well as an Evernote Web app for accessing your notes when you don't have one of your own devices on hand.

The desktop version is a spacious application to finish up all those ideas you assembled (perhaps sloppily) on the go. If an idea strikes me while I'm away from my home or office, I'll quickly draft it in Evernote, not worrying too much about typos and disorganization. But back on a full-sized computer, with a comfortable keyboard and monitor, I usually want to further develop what I started, clean it up, and fill in missing ideas. The beauty of doing this all within your Evernote account is that it's saved centrally. The next time I'm remote and have an idea for something I want to change or add, I can access the latest version of my file from whatever device I happen to have—a smartphone, an iPad, or Web browser.

For more of my personal tips, see "Get Organized: 5 Tips for Evernote."

Evernote syncs the latest version of all your notes across all versions of the software. If you forget to download a file in advance, Evernote even gives you the option to work on the most recent stored version or work on a blank canvas and append the changes to the file later. You can also always see the activity that has taken place in your account, such as synchronizing successes and failures, changes to notes, and so on, in an activity tab in the app. You can also see changes to any note in question in a history area if you click the information button at the top of any note.

When syncing goes awry, as it sometimes does if you're working offline a lot from multiple devices, you'll see a "conflicting changes" message. You'll also see a new notebook for "conflicts" appear. Fixing the conflicting changes, however, requires your own effort. You have to manually compare the two notes and figure out what kind of copy-and-paste extravaganza will set the whole thing square again.