https://workflowy.com/feature/mirrors/

I like 'mirrors' as a term for this. A list of synonyms:

For transcluding 'in-line' content:

Work Flowy = Mirrors
Roam Research/Obsidian = Block Reference
Notion = Blocks?
RemNote = Portals
Dynalist = Does it even do this?


For transcluding at the page/note level:
Evernote = Nested Tags (I realize this isn't real transclusion like with UltraRecall but it's a way to emulate)
Connected Text = Outlines (I know that's not quite right)
InfoQube= Transclusion (Sorry if I got this wrong Pierre)
UltraRecall = Transclusion?
MyInfo7 = Perspectives (really cool description)

Please add or correct my list.

I'm not sure that 'backlinks' and transclusion are quite the same, though much overlap. It's all just different perspectives of directed graph magic, right?

nathanb wrote:

InfoQube= Transclusion (Sorry if I got this wrong Pierre)

Transclusion is not specific to outlines, but is the action of including a document inside another: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion

In the context of an outline:
1- We say an item has multiple parents (because that's how it is). It also makes it clear that it isn't a "clone", but the "same" item
2- All parents are equal except for one which is referred to the main parent and is used to show context (in outlines)
3- Parents are shown in the Properties pane as an inverted tree
Details here: https://infoqubeim.com/drupal5/?q=node/115

Regarding "true" transclusion (re: Wikipedia def.) IQ implements it with grids (and other UIs) where:
1- Items can be shown in multiple grids, and
2- Each grid is capable of showing a different list of items (sub-set of all items in the database)


Pierre
IQ Designer

I like the word "mirrors," too, and the diamond symbol as a visual representation.

Wow! It took them an entire year to come out with one new feature...

I've been pretty loyal to WorkFlowy and I keep renewing my subscription, but I have increasingly fewer reasons to use it, given what nimbler competitors such as Roam and Dynalist have to offer.

Maybe the first-mover advantage has worked for them for a while, but they are really falling behind feature-wise.

Still no tag pane? Come on, seriously...

ConnectedText transclusion is called "inclusion". You can include a whole topic or a named section inside a topic. When you edit the included topic the original item is edited as well. You can include topics across projects if you want to.

The syntax is super-simple: ((topicname)) will include the topic and ((topicname==sectionname)) will include the named section. So you can have block addressing provided you have named the block.

Forgot to mention: Backlinks and transclusion are not the same. ConnectedText shows lists of forward links, backlinks and inclusion links (what it includes, and where it is included) as separate lists in the summary pane.

It doesn't show "unlinked mentions" but it does have a "like this" list where it lists topics deemed to be similar based on topic content. It also has an "Auto Link" feature where it scans the text and adds links to topics that match the text.

All this excitement about Roam is good for getting attention for outliners, but in terms of features ConnectedText already has it covered.

I have to agree – I abandoned ship after completing my evaluation of Dynalist and haven’t looked back.

Dr Andus wrote:

Wow! It took them an entire year to come out with one new feature...

I've been pretty loyal to WorkFlowy and I keep renewing my subscription,
but I have increasingly fewer reasons to use it, given what nimbler
competitors such as Roam and Dynalist have to offer.

Maybe the first-mover advantage has worked for them for a while, but
they are really falling behind feature-wise.

Still no tag pane? Come on, seriously...

Thanks so much for the great reply Pierre! My apologies for mislabeling your amazing work.

Pierre Paul Landry wrote:

nathanb wrote:
>InfoQube= Transclusion (Sorry if I got this wrong Pierre)

Transclusion is not specific to outlines, but is the action of including
a document inside another: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion

In the context of an outline:
1- We say an item has multiple parents (because that's how it is). It
also makes it clear that it isn't a "clone", but the "same" item
2- All parents are equal except for one which is referred to the main
parent and is used to show context (in outlines)
3- Parents are shown in the Properties pane as an inverted tree
Details here: https://infoqubeim.com/drupal5/?q=node/115

Regarding "true" transclusion (re: Wikipedia def.) IQ implements it with
grids (and other UIs) where:
1- Items can be shown in multiple grids, and
2- Each grid is capable of showing a different list of items (sub-set of
all items in the database)


Pierre
IQ Designer

Agreed, I was excited to try their demo and it's been a while but Roam has really spoiled me. Workflowy feels limiting in comparison.

Dr Andus wrote:

Wow! It took them an entire year to come out with one new feature...

I've been pretty loyal to WorkFlowy and I keep renewing my subscription,
but I have increasingly fewer reasons to use it, given what nimbler
competitors such as Roam and Dynalist have to offer.

Maybe the first-mover advantage has worked for them for a while, but
they are really falling behind feature-wise.

Still no tag pane? Come on, seriously...

Agreed, Roam didn't come up with a new idea. Just helped popularize it. I'm so relieved that after all these years transclusion and backlinking are finally considered a necessary feature for PKM software.


Cyganet wrote:

Forgot to mention: Backlinks and transclusion are not the same.
ConnectedText shows lists of forward links, backlinks and inclusion
links (what it includes, and where it is included) as separate lists in
the summary pane.

It doesn't show "unlinked mentions" but it does have a "like this" list
where it lists topics deemed to be similar based on topic content. It
also has an "Auto Link" feature where it scans the text and adds links
to topics that match the text.

All this excitement about Roam is good for getting attention for
outliners, but in terms of features ConnectedText already has it
covered.

Is anyone still using workflowy as a main workhorse?

Simon wrote:

Is anyone still using workflowy as a main workhorse?

Yep. Why do you ask?

Mark wrote:

Simon wrote:
Is anyone still using workflowy as a main workhorse?

Yep. Why do you ask?

For all the fully featured Obsidian/Roam/Craft/Dynalist etc. I realise I miss the simplicity of what Workflowy was 5 years back when I last used it. I'm increasingly finding I need one place for all my text and have been reconsidering Workflowy, so I wanted to ask how it's going. How does it work with a lot of text and how good is search?

To be honest the whole backlinks/forward links thing doesn't really work for me. They may tell me that my mind works like that but in practice it doesn't. My mind likes outlines!

Simon wrote:

Is anyone still using workflowy as a main workhorse?

Yes. I keep coming back to use Workflowy after all those years.The latest one I tried is Obsidian.

I have to say that the introduction of Mirrors solved my main complain about Workflowy - a node can’t belong to multiple parents.

Of all the products, Workflowy still has the smoothest user experience. Everything is well thought through and there are some clever decisions that makes it both simple but powerful. I really like how it blends the side pane with starred pages and the whole document to make it easy to move things around. If one has a well structured front page, the categorization is shown on the side pane.

Simon wrote:

been reconsidering Workflowy, so I wanted to ask how it's going. How
does it work with a lot of text and how good is search?

The pace of development has picked up in recent years, so it's definitely an improved service from some years ago.

But Workflowy has always been good at the basics, such as speed or finding things.

If your WorkFlowy file is very big (such as mine, after many years of use), it will take a a few seconds to load the initial page after logging in the very first time in a browser, but after that in regular daily use it's super fast.

So if you're looking for a workhorse, you can't go wrong with WorkFlowy. It's good value for money.

I have moved on to RoamResearch as my daily information management system, but I continue to use WorkFlowy for some specific things, and it also continues to be my archive.

I'm using Workflowy (which I've used off and on for a decade) as my main workhorse the last few months because I needed something online-only with a decent iOS app. It has made great strides recently if you haven't tried it in a few years and continues to evolve at a good pace.

I've always liked minimal, thoughtful design. I like that it's fast (compared to, say, Notion) but as Dr. Andus noted, it is slow on start-up. The sidebar added a few years ago made it a lot easier to move items around and get to favorites. The recently added capabilities to add images, upload docs, and use colors make it even more useful. Mirrors are especially helpful for the way I work. Backlinks are good too but I'm less excited by them than others. The way it automates dates and makes items searchable by date works well for me but you won't like it so much if you want reminders, a standard calendar, etc. I like the simple but flexible tagging system. I like that I get a backup in my email every day. They've added two factor authentication so it's more secure. I like that it keeps working if the internet goes down.

There are things that irritate me. It doesn't make exporting items to other formats as easy as it should (can't I please just get an export without bullets and proper paragraph spacing paste into Word?) I find cutting and pasting from other apps into it wonky at times compared to Dynalist and other apps. They are slow to add some seemingly obvious things (Can I please have a shortcut to hide the sidebar? Why don't you put all of your existing shortcuts into your Help doc? Why haven't you updated your automated backups to Dropbox, etc, so it includes links, pictures, docs, etc.? Why did you have to screw with the backward and forward browser history shortcuts so they don't do what I would expect?

I've been using Workflowy quite a bit for general notes. The mirror feature is extremely well implemented, as are dates, attachments, and boards, all of which are relatively now. Of the online outliners, I think the two I keep going back to are Checkvist and Workflowy.

Does anyone store personal or sensitive information in Workflowy?

Would that be a concern?

https://workflowy.com/privacy/

It's encrypted at rest, but devs can decrypt it with a subpoena or to to look if they believe some ToS violation has taken place.

Can they do it secretly too? Possibly. That said, its privacy not much different from Google Keep or a dozen other notes apps. Including Dynalist.

The company's sole customer support rep addressed this question a couple of years ago on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/Workflowy/comments/d5a57w/how_secure_is_workflowy_data_privacy_security/f0mzv9r/

Thanks for that.

I've been using Workflowy for some things, but would ideally like more info in one place. The major block currently is personal and sensitive information for which GDPR reuires that I take "reasonable precautions" to secure the said data. Is placing it in Workflowy exercising reasonable precautions?