I believe Nicholas is referring to the Drafts app for iOS which would likely require a mature iOS specialized Dynalist app.
I did Google up the Drafts app, Iâm just not sure how they would work with each other. Like use the Drafts app to capture things to input into Dynalist?
I have my guesses but his description was pretty vague. Just want to get a more clear version, thatâs all!
Sorry, yes, Drafts app is ideally a one stop shop for all data entry. Think of something you need to write down, open drafts, write it, then think where you are going to send it to - a specific note in Evernote, the clipboard etc.
Workflowy doesnât have any Drafts app function, although they DO have Memoflowy, which works a bit like Drafts and will add text, with various additions and processing specified by you, to a specific bullet in workflowy.
So for example I have a note in Evernote where I track my weight. I write the weight it in drafts, press the appropriate button in drafts and it gets appended in the Evernote weight note, with the date prepended etc. Iâd just started using Memoflowy in the same way in Workflowy when I found dynalist.
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I second the drafts idea. I guess it doesnât have to share the content to another app, since Iâm ok with Dynalist holding it (although having a share option in the per/line menu would be useful for those who need it).
The Drafts idea excels in that:
- No scrolling is required on startup.
- Literally the least amount of steps required, as all I have to do is open the app.
- You can format text easily with a WYSIWYG editor that is stuck to the top.
- Once youâre done, Dynalist syncs it. (autosave would be a plus, in case the draft can be easily exited out of for whatever reason)
- The document it syncs to could be pinned at the topâŚ
- Set it to save at a certain document, which could be changed later.
Which brings me to my other idea that might not require as much development, which is merely adding a sort by recent files option (or having that as the default) for the file manager, along with pinning files and folders, so that way I can jump to things quickly. Either that, or swap it with the bookmarks tab and have that appear first. But in case I didnât want to bookmark everything, having recently edited files at top would be great. (Making this a pro exclusive feature may or may not cause headaches, since it could devalue bookmarks.)
âFirst screenâ could be a preferences setting, defaulting to last visited document/item.
Otherwise Keith_Crone idea is interesting too.
Maybe a better suggestion is to first support Share Extensions in the iOS app so that Drafts, Editorial and [name your fav app here] can get content into Dynalist.
I think a lot of us have unique ways of using Dynalist, and this is an important thing to keep as an option.
Personally, I want my home view to be the topmost item of a document which I choose.
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Like an Inbox list?
Right now it looks like this:
And it is basically my homepage.
I donât use the file or bookmark pane. I prefer to think of everything as being within this tree, or else it gets too confusing for me.
But after rereading your post I think I misunderstood and was making too big of a deal out of this. I realized that this would only affect me when the app first opens, but I will probably keep it running in the background all day anyway. So I take back what I said about needing a setting for this.
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Thanks, I see!
You mentioned that you donât use documents or bookmarks at all, how do you get around in Dynalist then?
I think I tried showing that off a little bit when I made that âUsages of Taggingâ document (which I need to update with my current system). Tags allow me to put an item into multiple groups, whereas trees only allow you to have a single parent.
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Yes, an input box as an opening screen. Maybe an icon/widget to add stuff directly into this inbox document as well.
bellow the input âblank boxâ some links to recently visited documents and bookmarks.
I really like this idea.
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Also, you can bookmark items so that way you can quickly find them via Ctrl+Oâs bookmark and document search. (Which is obviously easier on the desktop.)
I can also just search for them in the normal search box. Iâve got so much different stuff in my lists its not worth it to remember what is a bookmark or document and what is an item in the list. So I just keep everything in one document as items.
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Thatâs a good point. Most of my documents and folders are for content shared with other people. And stuff that Iâm too lazy to replace into the main document.
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Micheal
Totally agree that willl be the best solutions for the future I used drafts in the past to brain dumps my thought to an GTD tool.
I donât know how much effort it cost for the devs to make an extensions which dropped captured text to an default document. In my case âInboxâ
Cheers
Dimitry
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I wouldnât want this to be the default screen when you open the app personally - there are two things we might want to do with any system like this: retrieve information or enter it - this assumes that you more often want to enter it than retrieve it which isnât true for all.
I think a todoist-like approach would be ideal where you have some kind of quick add button (either from notification or a widget shortcut or whatever) for entering information quickly while the main app would then become the place you go for information retrieval or more nuanced / large scale information entry - the default for the app should therefore be the quickest way to get to the information you want (e.g. file pane with easily accessible search bar, or ideally a user-defined default page (for example I have an âoperationsâ page /list which has my own links / tag clouds to everything I want laid out in the way I want) - this approach I think provides the best of both worlds
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True enough, this would be a great idea for a native iOS app but thatâs not in the cards for some time. Whatever is created in the web app will be what is available for the hybrid iOS app too.
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Hi Michael, sorry Iâm not sure if youâre a developer but can I ask why you think it isnât on the cards? Due to technical difficulty? I do understand quick add is more tricky for an outliner than a task app like todoist, but the third party app memoflowy provides a very nice quick add service (additionally, it would be wonderful if their âstock phraseâ feature were possible in any dynalist quick add feature to save manually adding multiple tags that are used in combination frequently) - I think their approach to providing 5 or so default lists you can send an item to (rather than to ANY list) is a good approach too
Hello Stephen,
Some of the forum discussion for the future of iOS development can be found at this link: iOS App Discussion. The Trello site has the initial discussions and discuss plans for a hybrid type iOS app at this link: Trello iOS
In order for a native iOS app to be released, the Dynalist team would have to add an iOS programmer and invest thousands of dollars to make it happen. With such a small team doing amazing things already, this would be difficult and risky.
To better understand the differences between a web app, hybrid app and native app, take a look at this article: http://www.mrc-productivity.com/blog/2016/06/the-mobile-app-comparison-chart-hybrid-vs-native-vs-mobile-web/
My recommendation to every iOS user on this forum to become Pro users so that development continues and plans can be made for hiring more staff. Hybrid apps are not so badâŚthey have tradeoffs like any other platform. The Dynalist team is committed to the Hybrid app for now but we can encourage them to consider a native app as they grow.
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