Congrats on the launch. This looks super cool.
Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
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Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
True! That's a great idea! We tried with Airtable for a proof of concept, but Airtable is not issuing metadata API tokens anymore..should try with Office 365
Thought I could hop on here and plug my YC company, hotglue. We help people building products offer native integrations much more quickly, just thought it would be worth mentioning if you’re exploring building more integrations.
Checking it out now!
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#43Super cool tool! I noticed the Twitter template for example was only for your own account. Is there a plan in the future to create one for tracking lists or hashtags?
Yes! You can track public hashtags, URLs, and even handles using the "social listening" block on the Twitter integrations.
Check out this template which has an example – https://livedocs.com/templates/4cc353b1-f771-4e07-ae68-2f3d8...
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#44Congrats on the launch. This looks super cool.
Thanks!
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#45Great idea! Since you're already integrated with Google sign on, you should consider building a Workspace app and get into the marketplace: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace You could integrate directly into Drive so customers can create LiveDocs from Drive, and get marketing exposure in the marketplace.
We’re already working on this! It’s our goal to reduce the barrier to entry to using Livedocs by taking the docs to where your work already happens :)
Awesome, good luck! Consider Microsoft's ecosystem too, large market.
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#46You chose to call them live documents and seem to veer away from dashboard idea. It's cool to export 'reports' to whatever channel I'm interested in communicating over, but I wonder if you plan to offer a more Dashboard type view as well? I could see building a custom dashboard with your tools and have it look less 'documenty' for lack of a better word.
We did consider that, and have something in the works although it’s not top priority right now. I’m curious what would the distinction be? What would differentiate it from a document with only graphs etc and no text?
I haven't tested the product, but watching you work with it felt like a document editor in terms of layout. It felt like you were constrained to that view and it seemed designed around delivering documents in that view. A dashboard I feel has a different layout and I would be logged in to see/manipulate it to get what I want.
Prebuilt reports vs interactive custom data exploration
Does that make sense?
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#47Looks great! Integration with Excel seems to be missing and is what I’d need to use it. Do you have any plans to integrate Excel soonish? Beyond that, integrations with CRMs like Salesforce could also be really powerful for a too like this. Also, have you considered integrating with a tool like Zapier rather than integrating directly with each app to accelerate the number of apps you’re integrated with?
Hi! I’m trying to nail the UX of excel. We already support Google sheets, but excel IIRC is a file-based format? Do you imagine re-uploading the latest version of the spreadsheet in order to update the document? Re: CRMs, we currently work with smaller teams who use CRMs like Hubspot (we have a Hubspot integration), but salesforce could be interesting too. Zapier I believe doesn’t give you data in a structured format…
Hi, I wouldn’t want to have to upload the latest version every time. For it to be a livedoc, I would expect your system to be able to automatically update from an Excel file saved online in OneDrive for Business. This is what the apps integrated with Excel on Zapier seem to do as well - see https://zapier.com/apps/excel/integrations
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#48I am utterly shocked it has taken this long for something like this to come around. Direct integration of data flows into document processing has been an obvious next-step-up for any kind of scalable document production/management framework for at least the past few years. The amount of time I have to spend on a regular basis inputting, updating, and managing information that is presented in documents but compiled in…
Agree! The horrors of updating documents at a previous role is what led me to build Livedocs! We're trying to work with Google Docs currently. We're aware of the huge switching cost that comes with adopting a new editor, and we're trying to integrate with Drive/Gdocs. Will keep you in the loop!
Thanks much. I'd love to roll something like this out across both my 9-to-5 and a couple of the consulting gigs I do. I see immediate applications in proposal/RFP management (where there are numerous existing solutions, all of which have some critical flaw), contracting (to ensure contract docs align with references and data sources), legal briefing management (which is, to me, the ultimate use case for any system intending to refine the integration between documents and other documents, or documents and data) and obviously academia. If you are looking for early product-market fit, designing to serve one of those markets extraordinarily well could get you some traction.
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#49I am utterly shocked it has taken this long for something like this to come around. Direct integration of data flows into document processing has been an obvious next-step-up for any kind of scalable document production/management framework for at least the past few years. The amount of time I have to spend on a regular basis inputting, updating, and managing information that is presented in documents but compiled in…
This is also being worked on in other areas with varying degrees of focus: - https://coda.io/ - https://patera.io/ - https://grid.is/
Thanks!
I've tried Coda a couple times, but have always ended up at the same roadblock encountered with Airtable / Smartsheet / etc. - any "power user" type integrations require learning entirely new workflows that don't translate to any other system. Put another way, these systems should obviate the need for dedicated "Rev Ops" headcount, but the narrow scope of applicability of Coda knowledge (traditional stack knowledge translates poorly into Coda; Coda knowledge translates poorly into any other system) has always meant it's felt like more work than upside, at least in my use cases.
The other two are new. Patera is gorgeous, and the very definition of elegant, based on what I can see. I could easily see myself running proposal documents through something like this to make them much more scalable.
Grid is even more interesting, though I'll have to dig in. A huge crop of dynamic forecasting tools (effectively masks over spreadsheet backends) seem to have sprung up in the past 18mo - I'm most familiar with Causal, but this goes a meaningful step further. Will be digging into it this week.
Appreciate the reccs.
Re: Launch HN: Livedocs (YC W22) – Live data in your documents, without code
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also being worked on in other areas with varying degrees of focus: - https://coda.io/ - https://patera.io/ - https://grid.is/
Thanks! I've tried Coda a couple times, but have always ended up at the same roadblock encountered with Airtable / Smartsheet / etc. - any "power user" type integrations require learning entirely new workflows that don't translate to any other system. Put another way, these systems should obviate the need for dedicated "Rev Ops" headcount, but the narrow scope of applicability of Coda knowledge (traditional stack kno…
While this seems like a relevant thread, I’ll drop in our app too. Our approach is wide enough that “reactive rich text” like Patera is a subset of our functionality. See our Twitter feed for recent examples: https://twitter.com/InflexHQ
Our documentation and discoverability is currently zero, and the rich text feature is in development, but another space to watch if you’re into this kind of thing.
I also added a bibliography page, so you can see other apps in this space: https://inflex.io/blog/bibliography (“Vaguely similar market products”)