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Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

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Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#71

Post by wahnfrieden »

moe wrote: post #27

I keep trying new tools when they come out, but find myself always snapping back to Notational Velocity. Workflowy reminds me of OmniOutliner, they share a very similar, hierarchical approach. Sadly they also share similar problems; a GUI that's too slow for my fingers and too complex for my little brain. The GUI-complexity stems from the enforced hierarchy. Indenting stuff seems nice at first, and makes it look tidy…

Thanks for the Notational Velocity suggestion, it looks nice (link: http://notational.net/).

The extraneous Japanese writing on their page is unbelievably tacky though. I can't figure out what they were thinking. Was it supposed to look cool? It just says mundane things like "Download" or "How to use the program." Not a good impression...

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#72

Post by moe »

abalashov wrote: post #65
moe wrote: post #27

I keep trying new tools when they come out, but find myself always snapping back to Notational Velocity. Workflowy reminds me of OmniOutliner, they share a very similar, hierarchical approach. Sadly they also share similar problems; a GUI that's too slow for my fingers and too complex for my little brain. The GUI-complexity stems from the enforced hierarchy. Indenting stuff seems nice at first, and makes it look tidy…

What do you recommend for those of us that run Linux on the desktop, not MacOS?

On linux and before discovering NV I was always snapping back to plain old vim (one big text-file).

It's been years since I switched to OSX, though. Perhaps there are worthwhile dedicated apps on linux now (back then I didn't find any).

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#73

Post by scotth »

moe wrote: post #27

I keep trying new tools when they come out, but find myself always snapping back to Notational Velocity. Workflowy reminds me of OmniOutliner, they share a very similar, hierarchical approach. Sadly they also share similar problems; a GUI that's too slow for my fingers and too complex for my little brain. The GUI-complexity stems from the enforced hierarchy. Indenting stuff seems nice at first, and makes it look tidy…

Have you tried Evernote? How does it compare?

I've been using Evernote for the past few weeks, and it's becoming a regular part of my day. I can read, write and search notes through both my computers and my phone (Nexus). Aside from some UI strangeness/ugliness I'm very happy with it.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#74

Post by boskone »

Very much looks like a nicely done but nevertheless small subset of emacs org-mode for the web.

I'll stay with org-mode: - I'm in emacs all day anyway. - Much more feature rich: priorites, dates, coloration, etc. - Full editing (duh) capabilities. Cut&paste to shuffle things around. Key combos for everything. Fingers never leave the keyboard.

Since I maintain the file in git I check it in and out from anywhere on any system. Full version history as well.

Still Workflowy is nicely done for what it is.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#75

Post by chrisgoodrich »

jessep wrote: post #57
chrisgoodrich wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I echo this worry. I wish I could pay for this. Not sure if investors are going to be interested in this given the fairly narrow focus of the feature set and potential market. That being said, I think these are the things that make the service so great. Adding much in the way of features in order to increase potential market could ruin its awesomeness.

Hi Chris. We have simple export working now and we're working on regular, automated exports of your whole document.

Thanks. I'm not so much worried about my data as I know that can be easily exported already.

I'm more worried about becoming reliant on the interface and product as there really isn't anything else like it out there.

Totally rooting for you guys and will love to follow your success.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#76

Post by abalashov »

moe wrote: post #72
abalashov wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you recommend for those of us that run Linux on the desktop, not MacOS?

On linux and before discovering NV I was always snapping back to plain old vim (one big text-file). It's been years since I switched to OSX, though. Perhaps there are worthwhile dedicated apps on linux now (back then I didn't find any).

I'm hearing that 'zim' is the thing, but am trying to figure out how it can be made to easily sync across machines.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#77

Post by tremendo »

abalashov wrote: post #76
moe wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On linux and before discovering NV I was always snapping back to plain old vim (one big text-file). It's been years since I switched to OSX, though. Perhaps there are worthwhile dedicated apps on linux now (back then I didn't find any).

I'm hearing that 'zim' is the thing, but am trying to figure out how it can be made to easily sync across machines.

Haven't used Zim, but looks at least a little like Tomboy, which has several options for synchronization, using a local folder (Dropbox?), SSH, WebDAV and something they call Tomboy Web. I don't love Tomboy, but it's easy and functional enough that I actually use it.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#78

Post by mkramlich »

Historically I'm not a guy who likes "fancy" note-taking or TODO-tracking tools. I tend to prefer things like vi or TextMate. That said, I played with WorkFlowy last night and I really liked it. I think it provides a very useful kind of tool experience. Scratchs a useful itch. I was surprised. The only thing that I don't like is I'm uncomfortable with it being a webapp hosted by some company. I'd much much much prefer it if I could run a native app version of WorkFlowy, with my data stored in a file on my own computer. And if it's stored in a file(s) that I control, then I could, say, use something like DropBox or git or rsynch or TimeMachine or TrueCrypt or whatever to make sure that data is shared or backed up or encrypted exactly how I want or need. Right now if the WF company goes away or I have no connectivity, I can't access my data. (I'm aware of their "copy-and-paste out" feature but that doesn't address this particular problem, and is hacky and will be prone to having out-of-date data stored in your backup cache. And it's too manual.) This is my only negative with it so far. Otherwise, I think the UI is great and I think it's really useful for certain cases. Possibly a killer app for those use cases. Turn this into a native app for Mac with all my data stored locally wherever I wish, with no connectivity requirements, and you can put me down for a purchase. Great work!

I also want to throw a shout out to Notational Velocity. First time I've heard of it was in this discussion thread. Just played with it now. Also like it. Nice use cases supported. I can see this really being useful. It's a different beast than WorkFlowy so I don't think they compete, they are complementary or orthogonal tools, at best. I could see using both. Couple advantages I see with NV are (1) native app, (2) open source, and (3) it stores your data locally where you control it and own it. NV does not have the cool collapsible hierarchical bullet point UI mechanism that WorkFlowy has, however, so again they don't really compete directly or scratch the same itch. The 100%-keyboard-drivability aspect is awesome and very useful. I wish I could control the font size, the default is uncomfortably small.

Anyway, glad I discovered this thread, and I'll be adding both of these tools to my toolbox going forward. Kudos to the folks behind both.

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#79

Post by [deleted] »

abalashov wrote: post #66
astrofinch wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I switched to Linux, I found that Zim http://zim-wiki.org/ came close enough to Notational Velocity for my purposes. The key feature both share is giving me the ability to very quickly jump to a note by typing its name in. (With Zim you do this by typing cntrl-j.) I'm reluctant to try any note manager that doesn't have that feature.

Does it allow for easy syncing between multiple machines?

[deleted]

Re: Workflowy is to TODO as git is to svn

#80

Post by astrofinch »

abalashov wrote: post #66
astrofinch wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I switched to Linux, I found that Zim http://zim-wiki.org/ came close enough to Notational Velocity for my purposes. The key feature both share is giving me the ability to very quickly jump to a note by typing its name in. (With Zim you do this by typing cntrl-j.) I'm reluctant to try any note manager that doesn't have that feature.

Does it allow for easy syncing between multiple machines?

It works on formatted text files. So you could use Dropbox, version control, rsync, etc.
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