Yes, IĀ“m hoping, too!! One reason less to move to Roam Researchā¦ 
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Itās a top candidate but they havenāt committed yet:
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Hi,
I logged into the forum to post an idea that has been on my mind for Dynalist for some time and I think this is pretty much it.
I would like to be able to display a clone of another item anywhere within Dynalist ā¦ but further I would like to be able to define a search and have that show up anywhere I link to it. I know it might be hard to make usable and understandable but conceptually it would be very very useful.
I track multiple projects Iām working on, it just works for my brain to have an item or document for a project, then just start to break it down, different phases, different tasks, notes, reminders. it works kinda well. Where it gets me in trouble is when I need to look for common things across projects. I donāt do GTD but along those lines ā¦ things due this week, quick emails or calls etc etc. It is possible to create a bookmarked search for different aspects ā¦ but then you have to go through and click on each bookmark. I would love to be able to create a separate document and then link in the bookmarked searches that are appropriate for me ā¦ being able to expand them and edit them in place.
I have tried Todoist for a while, itās not bad in terms of letting me enter things ātop downā or organise by project and the pick up a date or priority based view ā¦ but I just end up back on Dynalist. Dynalist lets me actually get more things down, itās easier to organise and reorganise my thoughts, so it just works better for me. But i really miss being able to create this central view that allows me to look across my projects.
Apologies if this doesnāt make all that much sense.
ā¦ but if you were do do the Clone feature, it could be useful, for me it would be really really really useful if I could ācloneā in a bookmarked search
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Yes, cloning and a second pane. So I can see p.e. on the right my projects and can move (clone) my project tasks to my ācalendarā or I have my life areas and can clone my projects to the project list and so onā¦
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I fully agree to your post!
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this would solve a LOT of problems for me!
currently i have my main todo in its own document and then every hobby gets a separate document, programming, photography etc where i will add any random idea i have for those projects. any time i actually start working on one of them i will create a [[ link in my todo list documentā¦ but i usually have another todo list inside of each project idea so if i want to see that i need to click the link which takes me away from my main todo list
really, just being able to expand and glance at whats in linked item would be enough for my use case
as for whether to delete other clones as well, im not sure actually. but if there is a reference of each clone then there could be a dialog box asking whether you want to delete the others as well. that might be a way to keep everyone happy
@Erica this is an old post, but still has life and breadth in it. Any chance of seeing this feature? (Embedding lists within lists, embedding searches into existing list).
This I feel is a big big way of making Dynalist unique from other tools and for me, as lists get larger and more spread out, a way to consolidate data into simpler views.
But now after two years and lots of discussion, it seems the idea is dead. Or is it? It would just be useful to know.
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Well, I sure hope itās not dead! Every time I see the monthly update in my inbox, I hope itās announcing cloning/transclusion.
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Agreed same goes for me.
Yes I look for the same thing. Its difficult to use as a time manager without the ability to bring various nodes together into one view. I look every month for it as well.
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Me too.
Not dead, but requires a lot of work to be implemented. Would be much easier if we considered this from the very beginning, but based on the current architecture, the codebase needs to be majorly rewritten.
I wouldnāt say itās dead, this rewriting is still blocking both transclusion and split screen. Will report back when we have an update.
Side question: do you guys think itās fair to consider this a power user feature and thus make it Pro-only?
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Side question answer: I think the free version is extremely, possibly too generous IMHO. I (re)subscribed because I got too much use out of it to use it for free, and I wanted the keystroke mapping for ācopy linkā! Cloning - and backlinks - are both things that would have also convinced me to pay out for, but maybe you need to consider that most Pro features are functional rather than the behaviour/content of the lists themselves, like cloning would be.
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Side question answer: transclusion is absolutely pro. I would consider extending the pro trial to 30 days, because such kind of features and the overall adoption of Dynalist takes some time to be fully appreciated in my opinion: one needs the time to try something else and understand the value of your product.
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@Erica I can fully understand that these concepts are hard to add to a data model after. For being an outliner and list manager, Dynalist has really hit the mark with perfection and few can touch it. What is even more amazing is its done by a small team of proās. So respect! I think this is a question if you want to continue to be just a GREAT outliner, or if you want to really extend into a new class of tools people are looking for that help them think. Not just capture notes or make lists, but THINK. This is where Dynalist comes to a halt. I say this becauseā¦
I have been using Roam now for a month. As an outliner, its inferior. But its functional. However, for knowledge capture, linking and thinking, its a very powerful model. It changes the way you think about capturing information, connecting it, mixing it and reusing it. What is the point to capture info if you canāt reuse it. I really like this concept (linked to Evergreen notes).
So the editor/outliner is weak, but the underlying database, with transclusion (embedding/linking) and back linking is years ahead of the document centric model used by Dynalist (and to an extent Workflowy). This is not meant as a criticism of Dynalist, but just a statement how the models are different.
I donāt think people are going to be just looking for an outliner anymore (which is what let me to Dynalist), but looking for tools that help them think. (Obsidian is breed of this new tool, but lacking outlining and also is desktop centric).
Dynalist UI, with Roam engine, that would be a match made in heaven.
I wish you would also open-source dynalist UI but we donāt get everything we want in life.
For transclusion, backlinks and a plugin API I would very happily pay a pro price, and even a more expensive pro price.
I think your development efforts would have been better spent on Dynalist than obsidian. Dynalist could be extended to be a hybrid of dynalist and obsidian key features, and being a real competitor to roam. Outliner is the secret sauce that makes te roam database and its advanced features so approachable.
Your team has done great work. Sorry if any my observations sound negative, but after being a long-time dynalist user and short-term roam user, I can say it will be hard to stick with Dynalist if it remains an outliner.
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Iāll respectfully disagree with Chris. Iāve briefly tried Roam, and whilst I wouldnāt say Iāve had that āahaā moment which Roam devotees seem to have had, I understand the differences in its concepts and how itās used. Itās powerful but an outline fits my mental model better for some reason. Maybe itās because I just know where everything is in an outline.
Iād be cautious of trying to make one great product be a bad imitation of another, in an attempt to overcome the weaknesses of a competitor (the UI) experienced by its users. Thereās room for both, and whilst a large overlap in target users and uses exists so Dynalist will lose some customers to Roam along the way, it doesnāt mean thereās āone true wayā that both should be converging towards. I can create tables with numbers and sums in MS Word, but it doesnāt make it MS Excel.
So for things like cloning I can see a huge benefit of this in an outliner application, not just to try and copy Roam, and not that it should be part of a move away from an outliner model.
I do kind of agree with Chris on Obsidian: it could be a breeding ground of ideas that make it into Dynalist, but thereās a huge amount on the Dynalist roadmap that would be great to see, and you can only spread yourselves so thin.
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+1
This is exactly how I felt. Actually, I came to Dynalist to help me think. I secretly was looking for something like Roam.
In fairness, Roam is not even perfect. Something is missing.
That where Remnote offers something quite interesting. It is not only about āthinkingā but ālearningā which may fit more with my mental model.
Side question: yes should definitely be a pro feature.
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What if (because the alternative is out of reach for the current program architecture) transclusion was implemented as simply a display option like in Obsidian where the embedded document/section is just shown in the same way you currently show a picture. The rendition would be expanded collapsed as it would look if you followed the link.
Only features needed are to open the link, and to hide the content. And interestingly if this was implemented, you might not even need a special kind of link. Just a tool to preview(expand) the link in-place.
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As Jamie1 brought up in another thread, workflowy just launched the feature, if you want to try it out in action. https://workflowy.com/feature/mirrors/ . It was being discussed on their forums too.
I am not going to jump ship for it, to be clear. I love dynalistās features that workflowy doesnāt have.
It does pique my curiosity, since any node thatās an internal link jump, can instead be a mirror you drill into, in place. It transforms the finite tree into an infinitely looped fractal tree, just like the old game nested. If someone was bored, they could completely remake that game in workflowy mirror bullets. I recall in other outliners the concept is called clone nodes. The workflowy forum was referring to it as transclusion, for a while too. I am not sold on it being useful, it seems to just be a UI paradigm of how the travel between internal links renders. I canāt imagine my workflow or productivity getting a boost by it. It is certainly neat though, and Iād give it a try if it ever came to dynalist. I havenāt really found a use for backlinks either yet, though. It takes me a while to wrap my head around anything new.
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