Evernote for OS X updated w/ Yosemite design, performance improvements, more

Evernote this afternoon has released a major update to its OS X desktop app, making both major design enhancements for Yosemite and under-the-hood performance improvements. The update, which the company says is a total rewrite of the app, adds an entirely redesigned interface with a new, lighter color scheme, as well as new icons.

At Evernote, we believe that speed and stability are essential for productivity. That’s why we’ve completely rewritten Evernote for Mac. Everenote is significantly faster, more reliable and consumes less energy than ever before. We’ve also added a number of new features!

In addition to the design improvements, Evernote also touts a variety of new features.

First, users can now resize tables they create and customize the background colors and border styles. Images can also now be redesigned from directly within the editor. The update also displays search results by relevance, in addition to adding the ability to search for notes via Spotlight. Presentation mode has also been refreshed, with new screen-edge to screen-edge images and redesigned tables. Finally, users can now send messages to share their created notes without ever leaving the Evernote app.

For premium users, the app now supports Context, a feature Evernote says displays notes, articles, and people related to what you’re working.

Evernote says that the speed and stability of the OS X app has also been greatly improved with today’s update. Sync is three times faster, according to the company, while users can also now share notes without waiting for the sync to finish. Energy consumption by the app has been dramatically reduced, as have launch and quit times.

Evernote 6.0 is available for free on the Mac App Store now. The full changelog is below:

New features:
• Sleek new design inspired by OS X Yosemite.
• Tables can now be resized, and have configurable background colors and border styles.
• Images can be resized right in the note editor. Just click an image and drag the handle in the bottom right corner.
• Search results are now ordered by relevance.
• Faster notebook selector at the top of the note list remembers your recently used notebooks.
• Redesigned checkboxes in the note editor are easier to click.
• Evernote will now stay logged in by default.
• Search your notes with Spotlight.
• Send messages to share notes and discuss things you’re working on without leaving Evernote.

Speed:
• Sync is more than 3x faster. Users with lots of shared notebooks and Evernote Business users will see the biggest improvements.
• New notes sync instantly so they’re immediately accessible on your other devices.
• Share notes without waiting for a sync to complete.
• Launch and quit times have been reduced dramatically.
• New keyboard shortcuts have been added to jump to the note list for easy navigation (CMD + |) and you can now tab between the search field, the note list, current note title and note body.
• Energy consumption when the app is idle has been significantly reduced.

Stability:
• We’ve closed over 500 bugs including more than 200 types of crashes.
• Our crash reporting system has been completely rebuilt.

New Premium feature: Context
• Context displays notes, articles, and people related to what you’re working on.
• View related articles from The Wall Street Journal and other sources and related people from LinkedIn and your business.

Presentation Mode has been improved with a fresh look and new features
• Use the layout panel to navigate your presentation and add dividers.
• Images are now presented from screen-edge to screen-edge.
• Beautifully styled tables make your information stand out.