If the point is to have a note taking and sharing application for Dropbox fanatics, then why aren’t Paper notes kept with other Dropbox files? If it’s a new way to collaborate and work, then why is it so similar to Box Notes and Evernote? Is it minimalism for the sake of minimalism? It can’t compete for collaborative content creation with Quip, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word. More than anything, it’s not clear why we need Paper or why Dropbox would put so much effort and money into it. Quip doesn’t something similar but you can always access the toolbar via a right-click. In either case, a toolbar pops up with mostly different but some overlapping functions. Sometimes you hover over the empty space and see a circle with a cross in it. It isn’t obvious how you access formatting features.
#HACKPAD DROPBOX PAPER ANDROID#
How can a major company launch into Beta without an Android app? It boggles the mind. There may be an iOS app comign since there was a Hackpad iOS app but there certainly is no Android one. Exporting to a common format and putting it into your Dropbox folders seems obvious.
#HACKPAD DROPBOX PAPER PDF#
Sure, cut and paste works and one can always print to a PDF using a printer driver but this is not the most user friendly way to do this. If a note needs to be turned into a formal document such as a PowerPoint deck, Word document, or even a PDF, there’s no good way to export the note into those formats. If a team is just pushing ideas around then Paper is perfectly adequate. There doesn’t seem a way to turn Paper notes into formal documents.Why would anyone want to keep Paper notes separate from other files, especially project files? It doesn’t make sense at all. This is unique to Paper and not in a good way. The Paper folders are not synced with the desktop either.
All of an end-user’s files may be stored in DropBox folders but their Paper notes are in a different set of folders. Paper has its own folder system and documents are not stored in an end-user’s Dropbox folders.
Organizational tools are mostly missing.Even for a Beta product these are glaring omissions. Unfortunately, the usefulness of Paper is hindered by a number of missing features. Paper certainly follows this philosophy closely by providing an easy to use interface (primarily because there isn’t much there) and a commenting capability similar to Microsoft Office Online’s. The theory is that it is easier for teams to communicate ideas by not getting caught up in the writing and instead dropping in content that is relevant and sharing it.
There are a small amount of formatting capabilities as well as the ability to include pictures and attach files. Like Evernote and Box Notes, Paper is best used for writing quick documents and sharing them. Paper follows the model of Evernote and Box Notes more closely in that it presents a minimal and clean interface with fewer formatting and organizational capabilities than word processors such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Its competitors include Evernote, Box Notes, Quip, and even Google Docs and Microsoft OneNote and Word. Based on their Hackpad acquisition and formerly called Notes, Paper is entering into the crowded fields of collaborative writing applications. Dropbox Paper, currently in Beta, is the latest product from online collaboration company, Dropbox.