Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
zeminary.com
Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#2Your 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.
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#3Your 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 were really slow after a certain size.
So I made Zeminary.
EDIT: my guiding philosophy and roadmap https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432571606744899587
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#4Your 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…
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.
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#5Your 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…
The indentation of submenus is too small. You should try something more similar to usual menus.
It would be nice to be able to export this as a docx, xlsx and pdf file. Importing is perhaps impossible, but exporting should be doable.
> The way I write, I think things and then I think ABOUT things.
I don't understand. You are talking about writing a book? About writing an internal memo for your team?
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#6What is this? Virtual index cards?
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#7You need a high-speed 15 second GIF/mp4 screencast with keypresses visible (maybe use a trial of Camtasia) if you think all the hotkeys should be used a lot. At least a screenshot or two of a "document" in progress! (Screenshots here apparently: https://twitter.com/Zeminary/status/1432195697449766921, though it would be cool to show a complex document.)
Also, set the title attribute on your navbar item divs and modal editor toolbar buttons, otherwise there is no idea what each does. Clicking the '?' for help is useful, but I still don't have any idea what menu icons do even after looking at the source for some of the function names. I don't even see the Unicode characters for the file & modal editor, they are just the U+25A1, white square (representing a missing ideograph). I doubt many first-time visitors / potential users will even click to view the modal editor, it seems great.
I think I get the idea of each square being a cell, not showing empty cells like Excel does for a blank page. Then you fill in each cell in the grid and add/remove rows/columns as desired. So it could wind up looking like a Trello board if you wanted to use it that way.
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#8Your 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…
This makes a ton of sense. I've heard it said that there are those that spread and those that stack when organizing. This is an example of a spread, where Word is made for stackers.
When I work on stuff it drives some people nuts because the idea I have is to spread all the pieces spatially so I can see all the parts at all times as I take things apart, and then condense it in as I finish. So when taking things apart, it uses a larger area. People like my dad will take things apart and all the parts get mixed into a place I find it hard to remember where they went, my short-term memory is shit.
For writing, I've always felt there hasn't been tools that allow writers that need to scatter parts/ideas and be able to drag them around and arrange them. Sometimes on writing papers and long-form works I write the bits, then later on 'stitch' them together. I can't remember if I just file in a note software, doesn't work super well.
Needs some UX work to better explain this, I hope I'm describing something along the lines of what you're trying to create, but that's how I'd use this.
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#9Earlier 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…
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.
Re: Show HN: A spreadsheet for writers
#10Intriguing, interesting idea but I have no clue how to use it. You might want to create a video showing how to solve a problem.