If you've been wondering what happened to Hackpad, here it is in its new incarnation as Dropbox Paper:

https://www.dropbox.com/paper?_tk=email&oqa=novan2euv2&oref=e

Has anyone got any experience with this?

Steve Z.

Ah. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I have had a play. Believe it or not ;-)

It's quite cool, and is steadily progressing. Unlike some of its naffer competitors (Box Notes, I'm looking at you), it has a search function and some very powerful formatting functions (tables no problem, nice copy-and-paste from web pages). It's also got versioning, word counts, and sharing (you can share it with pretty much anybody). It's very similar, in fact, to Google Docs, but actually rather more elegant.

What I like most is that Dropbox clearly has a team working on it who are trying to incorporate all the best aspects of e.g. Slack, Quip, Google Docs etc. without going overboard and making it unmanageable. So far, they've done a pretty good job (although I'd love a more sophisticated search function with e.g. highlighting of found terms within listed documents - but maybe that's on its way).

And there's an iOS app, too.

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks for the feedback, Bill.

I was fond of Hackpad, though I didn't really find a use for it. I'm glad Dropbox is developing it into a useful app. I've just started playing with it, and it seems impressive. I'm going to test it out by organizing two upcoming talks I have to give.

Steve Z.

Has it been updated at all? When it first launched, it looked like all they did was re-brand Hackpad without any real changes. I felt a little underwhelmed.

Also, the always the cynic, I can't help but think of Mailbox and Carousel.

Underwhelmed is my impression too. I've really wanted to like Dropbox Paper and have tried it out a bunch of times. I do like the iOS app and I like the idea that my $100/yr for dropbox could be leveraged with another service. But:

- it's not super fast or easy to take a note on the PC. I need a notetaking solution that is there when I answer the phone. Paper seems to always be a half-dozen clicks and a few spinning icons away. For browser solutions, Quip is way better. And Quip has a better ios app too.
- I need something that makes it super easy to get content in. Paper doesn't even have the basic things everybody offers: you can't mail notes in! There's also no web clipper and no Outlook plugin.

But the main reason it doesn't work for me is harder to pin down: I have tried it for a full day three or four times. And each time, I end up just not feeling like it's working for me. After 3 or 4 college tries, it will take some serious changes to get me back again. [No it won't! Who am I kidding? I'm a crimp-er: I'll be trying it again in a week. :)]

My biggest problem with Paper is that it requires internet access. I tried the iOS app and it wouldn't let me edit a document when I was offline. Considering that Dropbox's greatest strength is sync, it seems odd that they have a product that can't sync offline changes...

One nice thing about Paper is presentation mode. It is very easy to throw up a quick presentation from a text file...

Luhmann wrote:

One nice thing about Paper is presentation mode. It is very easy to
throw up a quick presentation from a text file...

This got me to take another look, as I really like the idea of text-based presentation tools, though most of them feel more complicated than they should be.

Paper is simpler, but still a bit underwhelming. Also, it seems that you need to be logged into Paper with an internet connection in order to show the presentation. Still no PowerPoint export, which, in fairness, is missing from all the other text-based tools, too.

Dropbox is pitching this as a collaborative space more than anything. I see how you could use it to keep notes, but (without playing with it) I don't see how you'd organize them. I've co-written stuff using Google Docs, which *does* have an offline mode, but it doesn't have any good way beyond folders to organize a large document consisting of multiple chapters. Does Dropbox Paper manage larger docs better, or it is geared toward presentations and the like?

Not sure what "manage ... better" entails -- do you mean separate storage locations for chapters, research, related files, etc.? Paper is Folders, Favorites. Nothing more. I wouldn't use it to write a book, but I *would* use it to collaboratively track an agenda or moderately complex task plan.

Is there a collaborative space that works well for co-authoriing publications?


@Larry Kollar wrote

Does Dropbox Paper manage larger docs better,

Been using Dropbox Paper again for a project and noticed that it has some basic folding. Headings can be folded. I know that is a big thing for some group members! Also, the paragraphs can be dragged around and re-ordered making it work better than some other apps that have basic outlining....

Guilty as charged! Thanks, Luhmann.

Yes, Dropbox is turning into an interesting alternative to The Big Boys. The Business account in particular has some very nice feature, notably its special web presentation mode, which allows you to build micro-websites based on specified Dropbox documents, using a set of simple templates. It's a lovely way to share work with clients.

Cheers!
Bill

On Android and Chromebook, can also get the official Paper app as well as the Dropbox app.

Also am a long time user of Dropsync (Pro) by a Czech Dev, he also has a free version and other cloud sync apps for Google drive and Microsoft onedrive etc. Syncing local folders to your free or subbed cloud accounts.