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Dropbox Paper

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Re: Dropbox Paper

#41

Post by akeck »

ktta wrote: post #30

Another closed file format. I think we're are in need of a lightweight document format, which is more complex than markdown, but needn't be as complex as docx. A quick google shows some results which look like pet projects of small business which have obviously failed (since I've never heard of them before) All of these new document formats that are pushed by big companies (some are really great I actually love using…

I've been playing with passing markdown+css file+image tree to: pandoc {options} -H file.css --self-contained. It base64 encodes the images directly into the HTML5. The css in file.css is wrapped in and is inlined in the header. The result is a fat HTML file with all the basic bits to make an article included. Exact line: pandoc --standalone --toc -V "toctitle:'Title'" --self-contained --to html5 -H article.css -o file.html file.markdown. Image links in code: ![Some Server](images/some_server.png)\ <-- escaped space to force inline image.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#42

Post by ende »

I don't know if this replaces google docs for me (for any serious document editing), but it may possibly replace Evernote as a simple jot pad.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#43

Post by phalangion »

ktta wrote: post #30

Another closed file format. I think we're are in need of a lightweight document format, which is more complex than markdown, but needn't be as complex as docx. A quick google shows some results which look like pet projects of small business which have obviously failed (since I've never heard of them before) All of these new document formats that are pushed by big companies (some are really great I actually love using…

I use AsciiDoc for my more complicated documents. It's a lot like Markdown, but with more options when I need them to do specific things with formatting my documents.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#45

Post by petetnt »

coleifer wrote: post #20

Nobody's going to use this. Seriously, Dropbox.

We are using it all day every day at our offices, it's a superb shared Notepad that combines speed, simplicity, robust media features (such as embed, code blocks...), notification system, Dropbox integration and share-ability into a tight little package. Haven't looked back to Google Docs ever since.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#46

Post by wodenokoto »

ungzd wrote: post #21

After looking at landing page, it's completely unclear what it is. Powerpoint with comments? Pinterest for enterprise? Google Wave with Material design? "Create, review, organize" — but even Quake level editor is about creating, reviewing and organizing.

It's Google docs but instead of being aimed at producing documents for prints, it is aimed at producing document for online consumption (multimedia)

These documents can be used for notes about ideas, documentation, business plans, etc., etc.

Kinda like webpages, but with an easy-to-write interface, collaborative chat, and easy user access management.

Honestly, I thought the landing page showed that quite well.

It did leave me questions about if documents are interlinked like a wiki, and where and how they drew data for the graphs.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#48

Post by asidiali »

ukd1 wrote: post #10
hackcrafter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were those not acquisitions that withered as opposed to Dropbox new product ventures? To be honest, I read through that whole page and I really am not sure I understand what "Paper" is. I'm guessing it's like slack + specialized components (lists/document snippets) and file sharing designed around collaborating on a product or more generally a project...

Paper is a cross between a wiki and a google doc. It was based on https://hackpad.com/ from what I heard!

Dropbox actually bought Hackpad and this is the fruit of that acquisition.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#49

Post by petetnt »

thepumpkin1979 wrote: post #39

I can't believe they spent 3 years on this, I can do all this and more with Quip as a super performant native Mobile and native Desktop. The killing feature of Quip is it's ability to Mix, in a single document, an spreadsheet(most of what you'd use in Excel), formatted source code, images, todo-list, mentions & collaboration, version control and rich formatting. The desktop app is a mix of web and native, but is not…

Everything that you said in that post also applies to Dropbox Paper, sans the desktop app which Dropbox doesn't (AFAIK) offer.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#50

Post by Angostura »

brianpgordon wrote: post #33
ungzd wrote: post #21

After looking at landing page, it's completely unclear what it is. Powerpoint with comments? Pinterest for enterprise? Google Wave with Material design? "Create, review, organize" — but even Quake level editor is about creating, reviewing and organizing.

Google Wave is exactly what I thought of. Like Wave, this is a polished, high-quality, sexy solution for a problem that simply doesn't exist. People are going to ooh and aah over it, and then keep using Slack and Google Docs. s/Wave/Paper in this Wave obituary from 2010: > Wave brought together elements of instant messaging, e-mail, microblogging, and collaborative editing in a single service that strongly emphasized…

I used Wave extensively with an international team for project management and we found it extremely useful. The main problem was i) Yes, you had to get around a new way of working that merbed previously seperate paradigms - ii) (the killer) performance in the browser was completely horrendous.

It was the cumbersome Web interface that was the main problem, rather (the execution) rather than the concept.

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