Web "Read Only" Mode

Could we have a clean Read-Only mode for the web please; for example, a way to add something e.g “?demo” to the end of the url to made it read-only. This’ll make it possible to view clean pages while you are logged in yo your own account.

Could help with:

  • Using Dynalist as a bookmark page
  • As a start page in Chrome

Thanks

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I know it’s not the same but as a workaround, you can make the chrome window into mobile size, hit the lock button and maximize the window. You’ll be unable to edit anything.

Edit: as dynalist does have a html export option, some manual fiddling, some CSS and should be able to make something.

you can make the chrome window into mobile size

@Subhinay Thanks, how can I do this?

Drag the chrome window to that size.

Another idea is use Chrome’s “Save as PDF” function in print, and the best part is you can open it with Chrome just by drag and drop.

I want to add a note here. I use this more and more on the mobile platform (During meetings or presentations to prevent keyboard from appearing) and I often find myself wanting it in the web UI. Why? Sometimes I am just reviewing notes and don’t want an edit mode.
Thanks,
Chris

@Chris_Kunicki Very true.

It could be frustrating to read or navigate when you make use of heavy markdown, while we are waiting for the promised WYSiWYG mode, we could do with a read-only mode on the web.

I wonder if this is technically challenging, or not a highly requested feature, not enough to warrant a comment from the creators.

However, we’ve come a long way from the featureless Workflowy and I continue to love Dynalist nonetheless.

Yes we have come a long way and the developers and support staff are really doing wonderful work. I am sure its difficult to balance new features, stability and of course making a profit as a small company.

We need to help them get more users so that they can afford to continue to build out staff (and keep the ones they have).

I think once they have an API along with the ability to do custom CSS, many of our needs will be easy to address without putting pressure on them.

Chris

It’s true that it’s not as highly requested as recurring tasks for example, but the reason of me not replying is that I somehow didn’t see this post when it was first posted. Sorry about that!

I agree web read-only is useful. The question is where to put it, as it’s not very often used, or at least, not very often used by the majority of users.

Maybe put it in the main menu (menu icon at the top right corner)?

Thanks, Chris.

We have been working on API for the past two months, and the first usable version should be available not too far from now. :blush:

Custom CSS is easier to implement, with lots of nuances though. We want to make it so that you can directly reuse other people’s styles, so that non-tech-savvy users don’t need to deal with CSS directly. That requires us to think about it and discuss it more, as there are potential issues with security, order of applying the added CSS, and for us, how to distinguish bugs caused by custom CSS rather than vanilla Dynalist. We’ll definitely think about it more once API is out there!

Thanks for the reply @Erica, yes, main menu (or anywhere you deem fit) should be ok, and then I can assign a shortcut to it if I need to reach it quickly.

Cheers and well done.

A clear visual indication is also necessary, now I think about it.

We’ve received multiple emails calling for help when they’ve accidentally activated the read only mode. The perceived problem, of course, would be that the user can no longer edit anything.

If there’s a shortcut, it will be empty to start with, so at least you’re aware of the existence of such a shortcut in the case you accidentally activate it.

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Agreed. Thanks.

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I know this is an old thread, but I find it easier to “manage sharing” and share with another one of my own email accounts as read only. It works as long as your not logged in to the browser with the same email address you sent it from.

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