Ubuntu has some very nice note taking/keeping programs (my favorite being BasKet). However, they all lack one important feature for many people… The ability to sync with other devices (netbooks, iPhones, etc.) and/or the web.

Evernote is a very nice note taking/keeping service that has free programs for Windows and Mac, but not Linux… They allow web access, but that’s not convenient for offline use… So what to do?

The good news is you can run Evernote 3.1 for Windows on Ubuntu, with a little help.

Step 1: Get Wine

If you don’t already have it, make sure you install Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator)… in your terminal enter:

sudo apt-get install wine

Step 2: Get Evernote Installer

Download Evernote 3.1 for Windows. Direct link here: http://www.evernote.com/about/download/get.php?file=EvernoteWin

Step 3: Install

To install Evernote 3.1 with Wine, you should be able to simply double-click the installer (when I did it the filename was: Evernote_3.1.0.1225.exe). It may take a second or two (while Wine fires up), but you should see an installer GUI. If you do not, then right-click on the installer and go to “Open with other Application” and look for “Wine Windows Program Loader”.

Step 4: Done! (or are you?)

If you’ve made it this far, you should be able to go to “Applications->Wine->Programs->Evernote->Evernote” and test it out. It should be working just fine! (if not please email me and I’ll try to help you out (use the “request an antidote page“).

But you may have noticed that the icon for the “shortcut” (or program launcher in Linux terms) is a bit ugly (default/generic wine glass icon)… If you are interested in changing this, keep reading, if not you’re done!

Fixing the Program Launcher Icon for Evernote in Wine

Step 1: Find and Download a nice icon

This process is mildly “advanced”, but actually quite easy. For whatever reason, Wine is not able to grab the icon from the Evernote executable for use with the program launcher. While it may be possible to mess around with various programs to find one that will properly extract it, this is a faster/easier process:

First, download a nice icon to use. I found a very nice one here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iconaholic/2756594163/ with a quick search on Sprixi.
The icon’s creator posted a direct download link to the windows and mac versions of the icon, we need the one for windows: http://www.iconaholic.com/downloads/icons/evernote/evernote_icons_win.zip
(note he has some other nice stuff on his webpage too).

Step 2: Convert the Icon from (Windows format) .ico to .xpm (Linux format)

Extract the icons to a location you are comfortable with. I will make things really basic here so I’ll extract the whole archive to the Desktop. Once they are extracted you will need to find the icon you like (there are 4 to choose from) and convert it using an ImageMagick command (if you’re using Ubuntu you should already have ImageMagick installed). I like the green icon with the elephant on it (called “Evernote Icon Green.ico”), but you may substitute for your preference, just use some common sense when following below.

(note: you can use the GUI method of extracting the archive by right-clicking the archive file and then clicking “extract here”, but I’m a command line junkie, so I’m going to use the terminal… which we’ll need either way)

Open your terminal and enter the following commands:

cd Desktop
unzip evernote_icons_win.zip
cd "Evernote Icons - Windows"/"The Icons"/
convert "Evernote Icon Green.ico" evernote_green.xpm

(note: you can name the newly converted icons whatever you want, I just like to avoid spaces when naming files… just make sure it has the .xpm extension)

Now, you should have about 7 new icons in that directory (and if you open the directory in Nautilus the icons will now display properly).

Step 3: Copy the Icon (.xpm) to a safe place

You want to copy one in particular (number 0) to a location where it is easily accessible to the program launcher. We will be using /home/usr/.local/share/icons/ because that is where Wine puts icons for its program launchers.

In your terminal (it should still be open as I never told you to close it haha):

cp evernote_green-0.xpm /home/alex/.local/share/icons/
exit

(be sure to make sure you have the correct file name and substitute your user name for “alex”)

Step 4: Change the icon for the Evernote Program Launcher

Now, you need to find the program launcher. It should be located at: “Applications->Wine->Programs->Evernote->Evernote” as I mentioned before.

In order to change the icon we need to open the menu editor. Right-click on the Applications Menu and select “Edit Menus” from the options. A window should pop open that looks like this:

Navigate to Wine->Programs->Evernote and you should see this:

Now select “Evernote” to the right, then click on the “Properties” button. This should open a small window as follows:

Now, for whatever reason, simply changing the icon here will not work (I’m still looking into it). It will show up correctly if you go to edit the properties again, but it will not display correctly in the Menu or if you add it to the Panel. So we are going to make a “new” Launcher and to do so we need to copy everything in the “Command” box.

Close the properties menu after you’ve copied the “Command” info. Now you should be back to the Menu Editor so click “New Item” and it should look as follows:

Go ahead and enter “Evernote” as the Name, then under Command paste the code you copied from the old launcher. It should look like this:

env WINEPREFIX="/home/alex/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Evernote\Evernote3\Evernote.exe"

Now you should be seeing this:

Now click on the icon on the left (Looks kind of like a board on a spring) and you’ll be prompted to select an Icon and should look like this:

The only problem with this is your icon is not in there… so browse (or enter the path directly if you’re comfortable doing that) to the directory where we copied over your icon from before. (Do not use the one on your desktop because you’re likely to move or delete that anytime if you haven’t already). It should look like this:

Click OK and you’ll see you’re nice shiny new icon in the Launcher Properties:

Click Close and you’re back to the Menu Editor. Only one thing left to do! Uncheck the old “Evernote” Launcher (for some reason it wont let you delete it, probably need to be root or open menu editor with gksudo *shrugh*).

Click Close and you’re done! Go check out your shiny new icon in your Applications menu!

Bonus Step:

If you want an easier way to access Evernote, you can create a Launcher for your Panel. Just go to “Applications->Wine->Programs->Evernote” and then right click on the Evernote Launcher and then click “Add to this launcher to panel”. (There are other was to do this, but this is easy enough).

References:
I got (a much appreciated) confirmation that Evernote would work in Wine from this page: http://abbysays.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/how-to-install-evernote-30-on-ubuntu/
Although that guide is for 3.0 and does not include how to customize the program launcher icon…