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Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

zeminary.com

31–40 of 58 posts

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#31

I really like the esthetics and color scheme. Feels like an Atari ST again. But I must agree with most comments here: You need to explain the why and show the benefits if you want to convince people to become users. It's not very evident.

Also: Alt-Q is a horrible shortcut for "Full Editor" on MacOs/Chrome.

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#32

I really like the esthetics and color scheme. Feels like an Atari ST again. But I must agree with most comments here: You need to explain the why and show the benefits if you want to convince people to become users. It's not very evident.

Also: Alt-Q is a horrible shortcut for "Full Editor" on MacOs/Chrome.

Off the top of your head, what might be a better shortcut scheme for Zeminary?

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#33
This looks like something I thought of last week! It's like I am dreaming :)

It seems to mimic how I take notes: I make sections on a blank piece of paper (ordered by subject/context) and I have never found a good way how to translate this to an editor, where everything is top to bottom. This way I can organize my screen with notes much more like I would organize a piece of paper.

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#34

This looks like something I thought of last week! It's like I am dreaming :) It seems to mimic how I take notes: I make sections on a blank piece of paper (ordered by subject/context) and I have never found a good way how to translate this to an editor, where everything is top to bottom. This way I can organize my screen with notes much more like I would organize a piece of paper.

Thanks! Glad to finally have someone have a use for this.

Can you tell me more about your usecases?

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#35
post #3
post #2

Your post and site would be far more effective with an explanation of what it is and how it works. You probably spent months or years crafting this so it's obvious to you but to the rest of us it's not and 99.99% of visitors you drive to your site are just going to move on without an explanation.

I'll make the changes inside the webpage. It's like Excel but without automatic grids. You have to add them manually. The way I write, I think things and then I think ABOUT things. Word & Excel's structures kinda work for this but not exactly. Excel didn't have enough freedom and was clearly designed for numbercrunching and all the extra features also got in the way of thinking. Word had too much freedom. Also, they…

> EDIT: my guiding philosophy and roadmap https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432571606744899587

That doesn't tell me anything other than "you need to be logged in".

Why make your project depend on twitter? I need to have a twitter account and login just to read the project help?

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don’t understand what it’s for. You think things then write about things makes no sense as an explanation to me. The fact that word/excel kinda works but not really also doesn’t help. Maybe make a video where you write something in the boxes and explain why they go where they go.

Here's my guiding philosophy (on Twitter). Zeminary to me is supposed to be an Ideamusicsheet. I didn't want to call it that in my post cause that just ... sounds a bit kooky. https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432571606744899587 Zeminary is more for artists than technologists. Artists are very concerned with relationships of meaning and time. When I write, I really only have one main line of thought, but to grasp…

What's an ideamusicsheet? What's ideamusic?

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#37
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll make the changes inside the webpage. It's like Excel but without automatic grids. You have to add them manually. The way I write, I think things and then I think ABOUT things. Word & Excel's structures kinda work for this but not exactly. Excel didn't have enough freedom and was clearly designed for numbercrunching and all the extra features also got in the way of thinking. Word had too much freedom. Also, they…

> EDIT: my guiding philosophy and roadmap https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432571606744899587 That doesn't tell me anything other than "you need to be logged in". Why make your project depend on twitter? I need to have a twitter account and login just to read the project help?

It's a bit "out there" as a guiding philosophy for a tech product. Here are the images.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-GECsGXoAEU3l6?format=png&name=...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-GEQbGWUAAmZJ5?format=png&name=...

The roadmap is on that tweet. It relates to Zeminary and what's in the images.

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's my guiding philosophy (on Twitter). Zeminary to me is supposed to be an Ideamusicsheet. I didn't want to call it that in my post cause that just ... sounds a bit kooky. https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432571606744899587 Zeminary is more for artists than technologists. Artists are very concerned with relationships of meaning and time. When I write, I really only have one main line of thought, but to grasp…

What's an ideamusicsheet? What's ideamusic?

It's just an analogy of music. Music is a succession of sounds. Ideamusic is a succession of ideas. Here's the guiding philosophy of Zeminary if you don't have a Twitter.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-GECsGXoAEU3l6?format=png&name=...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E-GEQbGWUAAmZJ5?format=png&name=...

It's kinda "out there" tbh.

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#39
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don’t understand what it’s for. You think things then write about things makes no sense as an explanation to me. The fact that word/excel kinda works but not really also doesn’t help. Maybe make a video where you write something in the boxes and explain why they go where they go.

A short video or screenshot of the old workflow in Execel vs how it improves here would be nice as well. Not having the prior context of “excel for writers”, makes the new context “better excel for writers” impossible to get.

I'll definitely make a comparison video or post.

COPYPASTE: A video would take a really long time. I'll make one when I'm done fixing everything. One thing you could try right now is making a 10x10 grid, then clearing the borders of the 2nd column from the left. Everything on the right would be inspiration or raw material. The leftmost column would be the actual draft.

Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers

#40
I feel like I'm sitting behind a control panel of a nuclear reactor. I press a button, and something (or nothing) happens...I read the text and don't understand 90% of it. I'm afraid to press any more buttons and I have no idea what I'm doing.

I quite literally feel like https://i.imgur.com/57bKUlt.jpg

However, if this works for you...then great :-)

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