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Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

omniflow.io

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Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#11

Post by jamessb »

make4433 wrote: post #2

As one of the first users, all I can say about Omniflow is AMAZING. I believe that most of us who frequently use our computers to take notes were forced to adjust our tastes and habits to the weird sometime-large-some-time-small bullets style in MS word and the tedious/complicated process of creating tree structures. Omniflow saved us, it is incredibly user friendly, with a simple TAB, now I can organize my thoughts…

Of course outliners are better tools for making indented lists and trees than are word processors.

But could you explain in what ways Omniflow improves on the many existing outliners, such as those listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliner#Browser-based_outline...

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#12

Post by ericax »

ildfrost wrote: post #10

I don't like it. First, you had titled this Show HN "structure for your thoughts", and I was expecting exactly that. Instead of what I had expected, I have just seen another linear TODO list which I can use maybe for shopping list, at most. Second, honestly, how is it better than Google Docs or any other collaborative text-editing tool?

It's better than Google Docs when you have 10 levels of things, which would be unmanageable with most text editors.

Also it's not linear, as you can close/open items and zoom in on an item, so that you're looking at the right context, which I personally find really helpful.

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#13

Post by ildfrost »

ericax wrote: post #12
ildfrost wrote: post #10

I don't like it. First, you had titled this Show HN "structure for your thoughts", and I was expecting exactly that. Instead of what I had expected, I have just seen another linear TODO list which I can use maybe for shopping list, at most. Second, honestly, how is it better than Google Docs or any other collaborative text-editing tool?

It's better than Google Docs when you have 10 levels of things, which would be unmanageable with most text editors. Also it's not linear, as you can close/open items and zoom in on an item, so that you're looking at the right context, which I personally find really helpful.

Well, it is "spatially linear". Maybe if you could reference one part of text in some other parts it would be better. What I mean is that context you are saying about is linear, which doesn't happen often in thoughts. If you have several deep bullet hierarchies and your context happens to contain some items in their leaves, there is nothing that will help you see this context at once without destroying current structure...

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#14

Post by ericax »

ildfrost wrote: post #13
ericax wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better than Google Docs when you have 10 levels of things, which would be unmanageable with most text editors. Also it's not linear, as you can close/open items and zoom in on an item, so that you're looking at the right context, which I personally find really helpful.

Well, it is "spatially linear". Maybe if you could reference one part of text in some other parts it would be better. What I mean is that context you are saying about is linear, which doesn't happen often in thoughts. If you have several deep bullet hierarchies and your context happens to contain some items in their leaves, there is nothing that will help you see this context at once without destroying current struct…

Ah, I got what you mean. We've thought about the idea of linking a list item to another and may implement it in the future.

Another way to solve this problem is to have tags, like #project, and when you click on the tag all list items that don't contain this tag will be filtered out.

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#15

Post by ildfrost »

ericax wrote: post #14
ildfrost wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it is "spatially linear". Maybe if you could reference one part of text in some other parts it would be better. What I mean is that context you are saying about is linear, which doesn't happen often in thoughts. If you have several deep bullet hierarchies and your context happens to contain some items in their leaves, there is nothing that will help you see this context at once without destroying current struct…

Ah, I got what you mean. We've thought about the idea of linking a list item to another and may implement it in the future. Another way to solve this problem is to have tags, like #project, and when you click on the tag all list items that don't contain this tag will be filtered out.

Yep, but it is not easy problem, I don't know any existing app that does it well. The thing is that really useful tool would implement several types of referencing, because there are several equally important ways for doing it, i.e. sometimes I need to have just an arrow pointing from reference to destination, sometimes I want a tag, which after clicking on will embed destination in reference place, sometimes I want just some kind of preview.

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#18

Post by indytechcook »

This seems nice. I'm a fan of outliners.

I like your font and the general feel of the application. It does feel like Workflowy.

It's missing some of the features of https://checkvist.com which is a more fully functional outliner tool then Workflowy. Checkvist is also focused on being 100% keyboard driven.

Also checkout http://www.moo.do/. It's a more innovate approach then the other solutions.

I'd recommend adding some inline help for the keyboard shortcuts.

Re: Show HN: Omniflow – Structure for your thoughts

#19

Post by ericax »

indytechcook wrote: post #18

This seems nice. I'm a fan of outliners. I like your font and the general feel of the application. It does feel like Workflowy. It's missing some of the features of https://checkvist.com which is a more fully functional outliner tool then Workflowy. Checkvist is also focused on being 100% keyboard driven. Also checkout http://www.moo.do/ . It's a more innovate approach then the other solutions. I'd recommend adding s…

moo.do is cool, never heard of them. I agree it's more innovative, and it would be even more powerful when Gmail integration arrives.

By inline help do you mean a shortcut cheatsheet like the one Workflowy has? Or a tooltip-like bubbles that appear next to the note?

You're really a fan of outliners. Which one do you use?

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