Can do beta for more feedback for more cards.
+ Doesn’t have to work w/ all cards.
Before buying, users can have trial version to see if it works with their spec.
+ Can also have two v3 releases:

Yes, I will probably let people with v2 licenses use v3 free of charge for a month or so, so I can get feedback.

--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Ps/ Got some data that needs cleaning, merging or manipulating? Try our new product:
https://www.easydatatransform.com/

washere wrote:

I don't think I'm giving up Excel for this purpose though, it's just
getting started and there's no end to what's possible.

Just don't put in anything that looks like a date!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates

--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

Well, you asked about Excel, specifically. When I was doing that DoD work, they actually were using a column-relationship plugin to build these graph visualizations they were doing, to get everything to line up right, to do all kinds of tree & graph displays.

Lots of these things exist...the bottom-line point is that Excel, by itself, is primitive enough, yet richly-formattable enough, to get away with things that LOOK great, but the issue with Excel and many of these plugins is the up-front, very heavy requirement of properly tracking references. IN such plugin systems, that usually relates to extra sheets with special cells and other such jazz for storage purposes.

There is nothing that currently specifically exists to close that gap, as a stand-alone tool. Yes, you can get by with many others, using plugins and extra enhancements. Even a board system as absurdly primitive as Trello, has a custom "Butler" thing that lets you plug in other apps to fill the gaps missing in Trello that you need.

It's an unfortunately kinda BIG gap to fill, as I'm discovering.

Can i ask about some real numbers of how many cells we are talking here.

It's easy to design stuff for 1000 items even if some programs like Mindmanager for $500 already unable to handle this well.

But with 10k or 100k items its all different from the way the data needs handling to the GUI you need to structure that comfortably enough.

Some separate points, in brief:

1,000 isn't that much, 32 columns x32 rows gives just over that.

However most apps can't even do that.

Third, Excel is the best for that anyway, why? Because the cells can be resized to smallest, to fit more. Or any other defined size.

Excel also has tabbed worksheets, many apps don't. So 4 tabs can be thought of as 4 Caro walls. Good for system performance & memory Management too.

The problem of navigating large boards applies to any app, not just Excel. In fact most apps won't be able to handle large numbers, unless they're also heavy spreadsheets like Calc, Numbers etc. Or at least not as good as these.

How a cell resizes, has many potentials. Can be expanded or show popup hover detail. Or other ways too. Again few or none of these possible with most apps. Takes a bit of know-how or research though.

I've been mentioning sub-grids a few times. This is where one can customize parts of a large sheet. Then anything is possible. Huge area. I've been collecting tips etc on customizing this big aspect of Excel.

Another area I've mentioned was browsing sub-grids. Again many ways. This is what is possible after moving to a sub-grid in a large sheet. Then ways of browsing & inspecting rows and columns, in various ways from scrolling to more.

Views on an area (browsed to) can change. Like a mini-map in an advanced text editor/ide. Again can use shortcuts scripts, macros etc.

Basically, one can have an overall large view within a sheet like a map (eg Google map). Then zooming in and out on grids, like they're separate cities. Think of separate chunks of notes on a wall. Different clusters. Then browsing & editing data, like a whole section in a website-map (chart of a big website).

The thing is, unlike any other limited app, almost anything can be hammered out and is possible. Nothing comes close.

Andy Brice wrote:

Just don't put in anything that looks like a date!

That's actually something I have to look out for, date formats, $ signs, etc. in importing notes. The extra engine can be a lunatic.

Also if releasing hp with Free-Form, you can disable it as default, then if enabled in settings or better via a top toolbar icon, a message_box can pop-up with usual disclaimer about loss of data, own risk, cards, experimental feature etc.

> extra engine

Excel engine

washere wrote:

Also if releasing hp with Free-Form, you can disable it as default, then
if enabled in settings or better via a top toolbar icon, a message_box
can pop-up with usual disclaimer about loss of data, own risk, cards,
experimental feature etc.

Hyper Plan never changes your text (and never will!), only how it is interpreted. I think the cons of 'helpfully' changing someones text (ooh, looks like a date) greatly outweigh any pros.

--
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com

With prices of large curved monitors falling regularly, anyone can have cheap electronic walls showing large visual Boards using Excel, specially if you use more than one large monitor.

This simple link shows what typically springs to mind when we think of an Excel sheet has nothing to do with what is possible as a Visual Board as I said a few times:

https://www.google.com/search?q=excel+kanban&source=lnms&tbm=isch


This short video shows ways we can browse smaller grids or sections within the larger grid of a sheet. Just using basic simple menu/toolbar commands. More is possible w/ plugins etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuhsUNBeNHw


Beyond use as a Visual board, simply creating one's own app is possible with dashboards:

https://www.google.com/search?q=excel+interactive+dashboard&source=lnms&tbm=isch


https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Interactive+Excel+Dashboards

I'll confess the use of spreadsheets for outlining was quite interesting, yet initially not for me. I still think my use case for outlining is different than Washere's, but that's a good thing because it promotes discourse and introspection.

This morning I awoke thinking of curious discussions in Apple support forums for Apple Numbers, secure in my superior understanding of spreadsheets - and then realized with horror I couldn't remember how the offset function works. In fact, my confidence in Numbers is based more on pleasant Dunning-Krueger than demonstrated performance.

And so I hied me to my Mac.

In my self-rescue from the mysteries of offset(), I ended up with something along Washere's ideas.

Imagine two sheets (tabs, in Excel-speak).

The first tab has a character roster, which is a table of names in one column and a column for character notes.

It also has a plot points table, e.g., "Curly cooks pancakes, mistakes laxative for chocolate morsels."

Each character in the character roster gets a happiness value in the plot points table. The row for Curly's pancakes is 2 for Curly, because he's moderately happy, and 1 for Moe, because he's just started to smell fresh pancakes.

The row for Moe eye-gouging Curly after breakfast is 3 for Moe (ecstatic) and -3 for Curly (very unhappy).

That's where the second sheet (tab) comes in.

It has a selector for what character to reference.

A Story table below that shows one line per plot point from the first sheet (tab), and one column per happiness value (tragedy through triumph).

Each plot point from the plot point table is distributed horizontally to happiness columns as appropriate for the selected character.

Adding a character semi-automatically adds a column to the plot points table with happiness sliders per plot point for the new character, and the new character to the character selector for the Story table.

Adding a new plot point semi-automatically adds a row to the Story table.

I got the idea thinking about Kurt Vonnegut's lecture on the shape of a story, https://youtu.be/oP3c1h8v2ZQ (mild cuss-jar terms used).

His GI/BE graph isn't the same for every character in a story, and this was an attempt to reflect that.

And to learn the offset() feature in Numbers, but that doesn't matter much. I could have just read the documentation.

I don't know if I'll use the template I created, but I might. Could be useful for mulling.

I'd seen that Vonnegut clip before, iirc he declared 8 types, since him, a whole industry of books has arisen in that little genre. A visual board or wall, digital or actual, can be used for Fiction, non-fiction (Caro etc), thesis, any type of project outlining or management, schedules ..... any sort of planning. Last year I extracted the audio from this clip for my phone, has many uses:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZSyGCIBDEs

Before taking Vonnegut’s plot suggestions too seriously, look up the meaning of the word “gibe.”

Vonnegut’s brand of humor, which could be very funny indeed, was based in sarcasm, another word to look up in connection with his GI/BE comedy routine.

I found Vonnegut’s insights on the beginning/electricity axis rivaled the insight of Einstein, that day in later life when he postulated a theoretical justification for barbers. Alas, the revelation came too late for Einstein.