Hi, crimpers out there.

Is there no way to store Dynalist or Workflowy files locally?
I will give a workshop in a government agency in November and intended to use one of these two tools for collecting and organizing participant input. But I will not be permitted to access the internet there.

And yes: I know I can use a bunch of tools to do exactly what I need to do (outliners, mind mapping tools...). I just wanted to use the opportunity to learn more about Dynalist or Workflowy.

I don't know about Workflowy, but Dynalist storage is all cloud based -- including documents in the "upload manager". Except that Dynalist Pro can be configured to backup a .zip of all documents daily to Dropbox or Google Drive, or both. And that of course can be synced to the desktop -- depending on security, etc. The Dynalist apps are wrappers around the web instance.

... forgot to mention that documents can be exported in various formats. I think Export is also a Pro feature.

Thanks Paul.

I know the Export feature but I cannot re-import a saved file in Dynalist. Same with Workflowy.
Seems, they don't want me to work offline.

An exported file can be opened in Notepad or TextEdit, copied, and the contents pasted into a new note or an existing note. Plain text export works best.

Franz Grieser wrote:

I know the Export feature but I cannot re-import a saved file in
Dynalist. Same with Workflowy.
Seems, they don't want me to work offline.

Paul Korm wrote:

An exported file can be opened in Notepad or TextEdit, copied, and the
contents pasted into a new note or an existing note. Plain text export
works best.

Yes, I know. But I wanted to open the file in Dynalist/Workflowy. And the fact that they won't allow me to do and that they don't let me work offline that tells me clearly that I shouldn't spend any more time with them.

Franz Grieser wrote:

the fact that they won't allow me to do and that they don't let me work
offline that tells me clearly that I shouldn't spend any more time with
them.

I often use the Workflowy app offline (both free and pro mode). Perhaps it's a beta feature? I have that box checked in settings.

There used to be a WorkFlowy Chrome app in the Chrome Web Store that would also work offline (as long as you had Chrome installed on your machine).

It looks like it's been discontinued but it is still possible to install somehow. I can't vouch for the safety of this, but more here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Workflowy/comments/ctlwds/workflowy_chrome_extension_gone/eyhqi7r/

The other option might be to use the Android version, if your computer can run it (e.g. a Chromebook):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.workflowy.android

BTW, you got the right idea: WorkFlowy is great for taking structured notes at a meeting. I do it all the time.

If I didn't have access to the Internet, I suppose I'd fire up my Natara Bonsai. But sadly that's no longer available for purchase, AFAIK.

The Dynalist application lets you work offline as https://dynalist.io/download

Once connected to the Internet it can sync everything again.

I used the Workflowy Chrome app for a long time, but recently discovered they have a proper MacOS app now and IMO it's better: https://workflowy.com/downloads/mac/

Beck wrote:

I often use the Workflowy app offline (both free and pro mode). Perhaps
it's a beta feature? I have that box checked in settings.

Thanks.

It must be a Pro feature. However, I do not find it mentioned on the "Pro membership and features" page, just a mention in a 2013 blog post.

Dr Andus wrote:

BTW, you got the right idea: WorkFlowy is great for taking structured
notes at a meeting. I do it all the time.

I didn't want to use it to take lecture notes - I am the instructor :-)
I plan to collect input from the participants and use a projector to display them.

Instead of Dynalist and Workflowy, I will either use Brainio or Xmind - both do work offline.

Franz Grieser wrote:

I didn't want to use it to take lecture notes - I am the instructor :-)

Oh, I use it for delivering lectures as well. It's just a lot quicker for communicating textual information than having to create a PowerPoint. It's easy to zoom in and out, navigate, collapse etc.

And the added bonus is that all the content I want to communicate to the class can be within a lesson plan that only I can see and which will stay in place and organised until next year's repeat.

And it's easier to call up WorkFlowy as a web page than needing to navigate into multiple hierarchies of folders to look for a PPT on some networked drive or a USB drive. But you do need the internet... ;-)

I realise though you need it for a sligthly different purpose.

Yep. I've worked offline with Dynalist's macOS version and Dynalist's iPadOS version. Works great offline.

ruudhein wrote:

The Dynalist application lets you work offline as
https://dynalist.io/download

Once connected to the Internet it can sync everything again.

Paul Korm wrote:

Yep. I've worked offline with Dynalist's macOS version and Dynalist's
iPadOS version. Works great offline.

ruudhein wrote:
The Dynalist application lets you work offline as
>https://dynalist.io/download
>
>Once connected to the Internet it can sync everything again.

Thanks Paul and ruudhein. When I set up the notebook for the workshop, I'll test the offline mode.