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Dropbox Paper

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Re: Dropbox Paper

#51

Post by tekacs »

I'll throw Notion (https://notion.so/) into the mix here, as an (as far as I can tell far more full-featured) alternative to this.

I've used Paper a number of times, starting from long before Notion was a thing, having been a happy Etherpad and Hackpad user in the past. Somehow Paper managed to inspire less in my collaborators than either the latter services (where perhaps plain text was the factor) or than Notion (the reaction of almost everyone I've shown it to has been amazement and excitement).

Since this is the second time I'm mentioning Notion here, I'll reiterate that I'm not affiliated - just a happy customer.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#52

Post by wodenokoto »

akeck wrote: post #41
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 fi…

For the longest time (5 or 6 years, way longer than Electron) I have been puzzled as to why there didn't exist a document format for offline websites/apps, that are basically a zip file of HTML+CSS+images+javascript.

That way you could build simple, easily distributable multimedia documents and web apps.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#54

Post by fiatjaf »

fiatjaf wrote: post #53

What about that office suite that does the same and much more, in a much prettier way, which even includes full-featured embedded spreadsheets in the documents? I mean Quip: https://quip.com/

I thought Quip was a relatively small company and I liked them for that. But now somehow they have a SALESFORCE brand.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#55

Post by Scriptor »

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…

The functionality was polished and sexy.

The UI was clunky and the epitome of what happens when programmers design. Everything was jam packed into the screen so that it was immediately obvious what kinds of things you could do or how to go about what you wanted to do. It introduced a lot of concepts all at once, causing an unnecessary learning curve.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#56

Post by wodenokoto »

raam86 wrote: post #34
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…

are you talking about HTML? w3c got it figured out, or do you mean LaTeX?

There is no HTML-container format, so you cannot create a multimedia HTML document (singular)

Re: Dropbox Paper

#57

Post by isarat »

Initially when Paper was launched I tried and left the product quickly. I was using Quip a lot for my work as it's more developer friendly and easy to manage.

I use Paper more and more these days with my team though we are into Google for Work. Google Docs is a tough cookie and an office replica.

Those who are in to markdown, they would hardly go back to anything else for formatting. The only catch with markdown is about creating tables Dropbox paper has nailed it pretty well.

The product is more pleasing for eyes with better typography, cleaner design and user experience. There's no friction to write. The people who collaborates are more productive easily review and feedback. Also it's more developer friendly with quick emojis with ":" shortcut.

Finally nothing beats the simplicity of Dropbox Sharing.

The product has lot more opportunities to grow. Expecting more integrations in the coming days.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#58

Post by Angostura »

All these lovely services in the comments that I would love to use at work, but I can't because, I'm in the UK, working with somewhat sensitive personal data and there is no way we can commit that stuff to a data centre in the U.S somewhere these days. I'm not sure what the solution is, other than letting people self-host.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#60

Post by primitivesuave »

tekacs wrote: post #51

I'll throw Notion ( https://notion.so/ ) into the mix here, as an (as far as I can tell far more full-featured) alternative to this. I've used Paper a number of times, starting from long before Notion was a thing, having been a happy Etherpad and Hackpad user in the past. Somehow Paper managed to inspire less in my collaborators than either the latter services (where perhaps plain text was the factor) or than Notion…

I second the recommendation for Notion - such a beautiful and fast interface. It is lacking some Trello features needed in my workplace, but it's really great for personal note-taking.
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