Other Useful Programs to use with Dynalist (AirTable, FollowUpThen, PhraseExpress, Timesnapper, etc)

[Stephen_Dewitt]

Ah yes no offline mode is a death knell for me too. After playing with these ideas in Airtable, I have brought them back to Dynalist - they can be implemented with I think only a little loss in function …

I’ve written a post on this here:

A few Dynalist project management ideas

I have recently been playing around with the spreadsheet-based project management software Airtable, and it gave me a few ideas that I've brought back to Dynalist and thought I would share (I often find this happens when playing around with other programs - new ideas that I never would have thought of in dynalist alone, anyway ...). Firstly, I've seen the benefit of adding a progress tag to my projects (a continuous percentage like you can have in Airtable doesn't work as you can't do searches…

[Vincent_Tang]

I want to use airtable but I dont like free versions…and their paid version is very expensive

I want to give it a chance later, to see if it fits me

Free version has 1000 free entries per base. $24/ month isn’t too expensive for 50,000 entries /base in my opinion, for what I get out of it it pays for itself in no time

Ah yes no offline mode is a death knell for me too. After playing with these ideas in Airtable, I have brought them back to Dynalist - they can be implemented with I think only a little loss in function …

Airtable is going to have an offline mode soon, I read it was already being made / planned already

Also, I cannot live without Imagus chrome extension + Stylish so offline Dynalist wouldn’t work for me anyhow.

Mass image processing in airtable

I’m in the middle of writing a guide on how to use airtable to stage image assets
(created in house or copied) + excelVBA / functions + EXIF data remover +AdvancedRenamer + ExtremePictureFinder + Xnview → to create locally managed digital assets pushed from airtable as a source

Super useful for massively scaling image assets

• Professional photography / Product photography → and post processing
• Ecommerce development (Magento, prestashop, woopress, etc) for staging image assets
• My own 7000 + image and gif library made purely from ShareX (bulk renaming files)
• Adobe Indesign catalogs (McMasterCarr -level catalog design)
• Anything that just needs access to huge local image libraries (Photoshop, Illustrator, Design work, etc)

I’ll probably post it on my wordpress blog and just link it on airtable later

[Stephen_Dewitt]

Just RE offline dynalist, I take dynalist offline (with Stylish extensions) all the time by just keeping it open in the web browser. This has an element of risk to if your computer suddenly broke but the web browser doesn’t allow me to accidentally close the page (it brings up a dialogue) and Dynalist loads your whole account so you can even go to e.g. other files completely offline and it all syncs back up perfectly when you get back into wifi. If I do a lot of work I’m worried about losing I tend to just flick my phone wifi hotspot on and sync that way - if I knew I was going to be offline for days I would of course just switch over to the desktop app.

[Lasse_Pedersen]

I like Airtable too, and am seeking to move more and more stuff there. I want something in the cloud rather than eg. Access. So that I can link to info posts via urls from other apps etc… And so that I can integrate via IFTTT and Zapier.
However, one big thing that I miss is the ability to make some proper forms - as in a traditional database tool - that can trigger certain changes or transactions.

For example, I am trying to make an inventory management system. Main entities being spaces, containers and objects. Containers being able to go in other containers as well. And spaces having subspaces.
When I then move some objects or containers I would like to easily point then out and do a mass change. Or at least easily change from one attribute to another.
Anyway, I keep an eager eye on their development. Having good access via Android app is also crucial for stuff like inventory changes.

[Vincent_Tang]

Just RE offline dynalist, I take dynalist offline (with Stylish extensions) all the time by just keeping it open in the web browser. This has an element of risk to if your computer suddenly broke but the web browser doesn’t allow me to accidentally close the page (it brings up a dialogue) and Dynalist loads your whole account so you can even go to e.g. other files completely offline and it all syncs back up perfectly when you get back into wifi. If I do a lot of work I’m worried about losing I tend to just flick my phone wifi hotspot on and sync that way - if I knew I was going to be offline for days I would of course just switch over to the desktop app.

Wouldn’t change the fact that I use imagus with Imgur.com, which requires an internet connection unfortunately

I feel like I always have reliable information wherever I go but if all else fails I have other ways to search for my images locally too

[Vincent_Tang]

For example, I am trying to make an inventory management system. Main entities being spaces, containers and objects. Containers being able to go in other containers as well. And spaces having subspaces.When I then move some objects or containers I would like to easily point then out and do a mass change. Or at least easily change from one attribute to another.Anyway, I keep an eager eye on their development. Having good access via Android app is also crucial for stuff like inventory changes.

I understand where your coming from, airtable doesn’t have advanced data manipulation

this is why I pair it up with excel and do all my data manipulation there instead.

In the end, airtable is this:

• It’s a staging environment for my data (Airtable). Great for cross-collaboration of data too. I’ll populate this data here manually, or through an existing excel spreadsheet, and with webscrapers (import.io), python scripts . think of it like a git-pull
• It gets pushed to excel (think of it like a git-push)
• Excel does magic (PowerQuery, PowerPivot, ASAP utilities, Excel Image Assistant plugins, ExcelVBA, python scripts, Phrase-express has some excel functions too)
• Intermediate software is used if needed (AdvancedRenamer, ExtremePictureFinder, EXIF data remover for image assets)
• Excel integrates into an ODBC connection into a SQL (MySQL, MS-SQL) environment with ETL functions (Panheto) if needed
• Or excel integrates with other software (Magento, Adobe Indesign, Quickbooks, Point of Sales, Tableau, Python data visualization graphwiz, Matlab, Filemaker, Inventory management, ERP systems, blah blah blah, etc)

In the end, Airtable is just a lazy way for me to use a relational database system (also to collaborate too) → excel does all the hard lifting. Excel does all the integrations. Because what doesn’t integrate with an excel spreadsheet?

Consequently, if something doesn’t integrate with an excel spreadsheet, that’s what Autohotkey + phraseexpress + StrokePlus + MouseRecorder macros are for

Let’s not forget Airtable has an open API integration with Zappier and IFTTT, and dynalist will have an API as well. Now you can automate even more things , like your phone’s GPS coordinates etc

I suggest reading into this guys post, about Minimal Viable airtables

http://sirupsen.com/minimum-viable-airtable/

it’s a great philosophy to follow IMO

Here, I made an outline that works in 100% of all cases out there for cross integrating anything in nature. I forgot to include a lot of software examples but you get the gist of it

[Vincent_Tang]

I started to use tabsnooze a lot more

Tab Snooze

I use this to manage my monthly bills every month and also when I post things on reddit / stackoverflow / other forums and am anticipiating a response to a question

super useful

[Vincent_Tang]

In case anyones looking for a better replacement for windows file explorer

I did a lot of testing on all file explorers out there over the last few months, and this is the one that is by far the best of all the ones out there (on the alternativeto.net page) for windows users.

Directory Opus

Directory Opus Alternatives and Similar Software - AlternativeTo.net

Its been a HUGE time saver for the following reasons

• I can navigate to a folder, and open up a command prompt to that folder path. Superuseful if you do any type of development. No need to cd folderpath anymore. Example:

• I can preview anything inside an excel, text document, etc without even opening the file up, since directoryopus has a metadata preview pane. Example:

• It has the option for FLOATING SHORTCUTS, which acts similarly to DesktopCoral software. E.g. Example: (at top).

• So many potential options for toolbars. An example here:

• PDF + Image thumbnail previewers similar to AdobeBridge + XN explorer if you do digital photography

• Batch renaming features similar to AdvancedRenamer / some regex features probably too

DirectoryOpus is by far the best file explorer I’ve ever used for windows. Its easy to pick up and use but has so many options for customization.

[Kevin_Murray]

I agree. The use of listers is handy in loading clusters of folders.

[Vincent_Tang]

I can’t believe I’ve never used this program until now directoryopus is super awesome

Plus you can even extend and add your own visualbasic/javascript code or download things to make it even more powerful

Its one of those programs like dynalist / phraseexpress where you appreciate all of its features overtime:)

Also they got a really good discourse forum too and there youtube videos sum up every feature really nicely as well

I mean just look at all the features in version 12

[pottster]

Its been a HUGE time saver for the following reasons

I can navigate to a folder, and open up a command prompt to that folder path. Superuseful if you do any type of development. No need to cd folderpath anymore.

You can get that option in the context menu with Shift + Right Click on a folder in Windows.

[pottster]

alternativeto.net

This is where I find all my alternatives to programs. All you need is a few keywords and you can find almost any software for any application you want. Text manipulation, GREP tools, screencapture software, REGEX, Grammer correctors, video recording ,etc etc etc

I keep a running log of about 300 softwares that I used or looked into organized by the order I looked at it, so I can figure out all my software setups when I reinstall my PC, etc

I use this site a lot as well. However, my favourite site for freeware recommendations has been http://www.techsupportalert.com for many years. Great community, trusted and informed opinions.

[Vincent_Tang]

I use this site a lot as well. However, my favourite site for freeware recommendations has been http://www.techsupportalert.com for many years. Great community, trusted and informed opinions.

I took a look at this though, but the website feels sluggish and outdated though

Also, this is where I source out software now in general. It changes all the time based on where all the good content is at

Software in general

1. news.ycombinator.com, to read about new startups → I have a .xml front page feed pushed to my inoreader app
2. Google search "Dynalist VS _______ " (let google fill in the blanks)
3. Google search “Notetaking software name _______” → search most recent items. Add “reddit” and “quora” and “youtube” where ____ is
4. Producthunt.com, but very very rarely (too much spam software)
5. https://alternativeto.net/platform/windows/ and alternativeto.net high profile users (https://alternativeto.net/user/ugotsta/ and https://alternativeto.net/user/shojimeguro/)
6. Slant.com → sort by productivity https://www.slant.co/tags/productivity → so I can find what powerusers agree on best software is
7. Questions about a software but don’t know name → 1. ask people on this forum, 2. https://www.reddit.com/r/software/
8. Double or triple posting questions varying stackexchange sites with different wording (1. https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ for software specific, 2. https://superuser.com/, 3. https://stackoverflow.com/3 )
9. Lynda.com → browse tutorials for well establised software. I keep a running list of 100 courses I previewed / skimmed at random to get big picture of what software/programming language capabilities are
10. Reddit r/threadkillers → search “software”
11. https://portableapps.com/ and https://ninite.com/ → curated often used software with easy click install

Custom scripting / macro’ing

• Excel VBA → if its all command prompt + excel related
• Python → if it can’t be purely done in excel VBA / math / not convenient and needs more libraries / more complex
• Autohotkey (phraseexpress) → if the task is highly repetitive in nature, and highly predictable, with some GUI applications
• Javascript → everything else - chrome API, extensions, tamperscripting

Specific software

• Google chrome extension → search store “productivity”
• Android app extension → Search store “productivity”

After I do all of this I dump it in the following

1. Alternativeto.net “Save / favorite” item so I have a running list to track down software
2. Add to google bookmarks if its not on alternativeto.net (webbased applications) or add it on alternativeto.net if I have time.
3. Search official youtube channel tutorials → add to inoreader so I can skimp on every video that content creator made in a couple of minutes, to see big picture quick. And get latest updates.
4. Search official website / forums to gauge how active community and therefore development → put this URL somewhere in dynalist on the project I’m working on
5. If its specific code → save on dynalsit + code syntax, github, or gistboxapp
6. Interesting open source / custom made software → github→ star it → look at it later maybe.

Youtube specific

• I organize all my favorite youtubers based on 1. Content frequency then by 2. Category, some are in hardware, DIY, software, etc

Other - hardware

• Some hardware solutions are better than software, so I have a running list of 3000+ items here that I slowly add over time, when it gets mentioned on reddit, this forum , elsewhere.
• Reverse image search → pinterest if I can’t find out what somethings called, or reverse image searches in general (tinyeye, or googleimage + shareX screenshot search)

[pottster]

That’s very interesting Vincent. Thanks for the detailed response.

As an old head, my priorities these days for new software, besides functionality, are longevity, active development, and offline options. I’ve had my fingers burnt by too many SAAS products which have evaporated. As a result, I have my arsenal of software in which I’ve invested a lot of time and development over a number of years and it’s served me well. So, for discovering new options, I put a lot of emphasis on trusted curation as well. I’ve been too easily seduced by the bright shiny objects of the software world in the past and these days I’ve less interest in, and time for, experimentation. Like I said, I’m old

[Vincent_Tang]

I’ve been too easily seduced by the bright shiny objects of the software world in the past and these days I’ve less interest in, and time for, experimentation. Like I said, I’m old

I don’t blame you here this is why I have a system of backups as well, and let others do the hard work researching / curating for me .

The most time consuming thing is finding / documenting which curators have more “weight” than others. E.G. which curators really know what they’re talking about?

Also I always test out every software I use and do a basic selection matrix criteria.

I almost always choose older, more established software, many times unless the features / pros of newer software outweighs this

[123]

trusted and informed opinions.

lolz jokes jokes, these jokes, ahahhahahah omg they’re so funnie thse jokes

few keywords and you can find almost any software

only when there’s already prior knowledge of the terms tho

also no ratings for the software so quality is unknown

I took a look at this though, but the website feels sluggish and outdated though

yes techsupport site is bad

[Kenneth_Aar]

Check out http://www.notion.so if you want to make a dashboard that can partially replace trello and airtable

[BigChungus]

I installed a chrome extension called Timewarp which, when I type reddit into my browser, it redirects their domain to dynalist.io. It’s like pavlovs dog training. If I am bored and seeking distraction, at least it will be productive distraction from my dynalist.

[SA]

hardikvasa/google-images-download

I used this recently for images download. just passed 3 keywords in the command line. and it made 3 folders of about 100 images each.

[anon26346057]

Isn’t phrase express a key logger tho?
I got here looking for dynalist integration w Airtable besides links. Thanks