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Dropbox Paper

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Re: Dropbox Paper

#181
Dropbox Paper is fantastic. You can write Markdown, or use GUI menus. Inline code and code blocks are great, just like normal Markdown. Great for meetings notes, design docs, anything you want to share and collaborate on. So much nicer to write in than Google Docs. It is designed for digital, not as an MS Word clone.

I like writing in Paper so much that I use it to write things I'm not going to share via Paper. I actual copy and paste out of Paper into email or Google Docs when I work for companies that don't use Paper. I'll write things like READMEs in Paper first, before moving them to a .md file.

The UX is so well thought out. For example, the link creation is so simple. You copy a URL, like from the URL bar, then highlight the text in Paper that you want to be a link, and Cmd+V. The highlighted text will now be hyperlink to the URL on the clipboard.

The mobile app is handy too.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#182
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously. I landed on the page, watched the intro, and the little animated wizard created a rainbow. I actually sat there waiting for the damn wizard to deliver me an "aha" moment, but he just kept creating rainbows. Hah! I scrolled down and still don't get it. I actually like the wizard, but @#$%^... why can't landing pages actually explain to me what the @#%^&ing product is, or does.

> why can't landing pages actually explain to me what the @#%^&ing product is, or does. I like landing pages with lots of screenshots, showing how a problem is solved in a few steps. However, I tried to do that for my company and conversion rates dropped. So I had to give in to the marketing guy who was telling me to just focus on the benefits of using the product and not on how it solves it. Now our landing page has…

Hah! Great anecdote. Sometimes you have to follow the numbers. Go figure indeed!

Re: Dropbox Paper

#183
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

MHTML is an archive file of a webpage and its external resources.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#184

I'm sorry but that first video is hilarious. That's the stuff Silicon Valley HBO makes fun of. I'm all for people working together to make the world a better place but I was in tears of laughter at that. I was looking for a (Made by HBO) disclaimer somewhere.

The product itself looks great. But paying some marketing firm to dress up Instagram models in outfits designed to evoke the feeling of a greek village seems like a questionable use of money.

Re: Dropbox Paper

#185
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK it's all markdown and you can export your files as markdown. There's also an API available to export your paper docs as markdown.

Only export though? I can't just edit the files in place with emacs, which is my preferred way to edit anything? I don't mind if all the collaboration stuff was only visible with whatever dropbox editing UI, I'd just like the freedom to edit with whatever tool I wish to use.

> I'd just like the freedom to edit with whatever tool I wish to use.

How should whatever tool you're using handle the case when another person is editing the document at the same time as you?

Re: Dropbox Paper

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>It's Google docs but instead of being aimed at producing documents for prints, it is aimed at producing document for online consumption (multimedia) Pretty weird to name it after a printed medium if it is not primarily meant for printed media.

Chrome, the browser, was born with the idea of reducing the amount of "chrome" (frames, controls and other UI elements) in the app. I guess developers like to have fun when naming their projects.
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