TECHNOLOGY
Which ones would make your list?
Workflowy has always been a company that has been pretty transparent about its roadmap for new features. They share ideas on their blog, but they also have a community page where you can suggest new features and vote on suggestions from other users.
What follows are ten of the most requested features from real people using Workflowy, along with an explanation of why these features would be a great addition to the product. Let’s dig in!
Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this article.
1. Code Formatting
Code formatting is the number one, most requested feature that is not currently being implemented in Workflowy. It was first requested four years ago and has garnered a good amount of support in that time.
I think this speaks a lot to the kind of users that Workflowy attracts, but it’s also something that people have come to expect in a modern note-taking app. Craft, Notion, and many more have code formatting, but Workflowy does not. Maybe this is the next one on their list.
2. A Workflowy API
Another really popular feature request is for a Workflowy API. There is an unofficial API on Github, but an official API would allow for integration with services like IFTTT or Zapier.
Workflowy tends to attract plenty of power users, and power users like to automate things and have data flow seamlessly between apps. A public API would help with that, so watch this space.
3. Tabs, Windows, and Split View
This next request is a combination of a few different suggestions, but they all boil down to the same idea. Workflowy only lets you view one thing at a time. Many people want more than that.
Whether you are talking about tabs for the desktop app or a side-by-side view on the web, one of the central notions of productivity is being able to accelerate your workflow. This is why people like to work with multiple monitors. Tabs, multiple windows, or a split view would help with that.
4. Calendar View
Workflowy already has a date function where you can add dates to bullets and search for dates. However, some kind of calendar view would be a helpful thing to have to view all your dated bullets as an agenda.
An integration with something like Google Calendar would also be interesting. Todoist does that, and it does it well, but the best scenario would probably be something that is built-in to the app.
The good news on this one is that the Workflowy team has this firmly on their radar, as was made evident by their recent comment.
There is still a lot to do to make this better, and we need to do it. But at least we’ve done something. (Workflowy Support)
5. Quick Notes
Another popular suggestion is the ability to do some quick notes or quick entries in Workflowy. This is a common feature in other note-taking apps. Evernote, Apple Notes, OneNote, and several others already offer this.
It’s all about minimizing the friction for adding new notes. When inspiration strikes, you need a quick and easy way to record that thought before it leaves your brain forever. This is what quick notes were made for.
6. Backup to Google Drive
This one surprised me a little, but it’s not an unusual request. If you have Workflowy Pro, you can have full backups automatically uploaded to your Dropbox account each day.
However, not everyone is a Dropbox user. Google Drive would be a great additional option, as would OneDrive, Box, or iCloud, depending on what their APIs allow. It could also bring more value to a Pro subscription.
https://jonathanwylie.medium.com/should-you-pay-for-workflowy-pro-c29cc26ebe1d
7. Markdown Support
I never fail to be surprised at the number of people who use Markdown. I don’t use it much, but many people swear by it. This week, I got an email from a reader asking about Markdown support in Workflowy. If the community feature requests are anything to go by, he’s far from the only one to have asked about this.
This blog post from Frank Degenaar shows how you can hack your way to Markdown using a text expansion tool like PhraseExpress. However, it’s not the same as native support, and I know Markdown would be a welcome addition if Workflowy were to add it.
8. Strike through Formatting
This is a simple one, or so it would seem. Workflowy has many of the usual text formatting features like bold, italics, underlining, and even highlighting, but it doesn’t let you strike through text.
You might think you have seen it when you mark a bullet as complete, but that’s not the same. Marking something as complete in Workflowy adds a strike through for all the text in a bullet point.
Adding strike through formatting would let you strike through portions of text without marking it all complete. It reminds you which ideas you have already rejected or denotes a task as partially complete.
9. Table View
Next up is table support. Unfortunately, there isn’t currently a native way to do this well in Workflowy. Yes, there is Kanban View, which can be made to operate like a table, but it’s often not a suitable replacement due to some formatting issues.
Again, tables are available in rival note-taking apps. That in itself is not necessarily a good reason why Workflowy should have them, but if you are on the fence and comparing Workflowy to other note-taking tools, this could be something that ends up in the “cons” column…of a table you were working on.
10. Mind Map View
Following on from Table View is a Mind Map view. Workflowy notes are typically organized in a way that they are related to each other through a hierarchy of bullets.
Wouldn’t it be great to see a bird’s-eye view of those relationships? That’s what a Mind Map view can give you. It’s a visual way to see how your notes are connected and where they appear in the note structure that you have.
Obsidian does this really well. They call it a Graph View. Workflowy could implement something similar to show related notes and backlinks.
https://jonathanwylie.medium.com/should-you-pay-for-workflowy-pro-c29cc26ebe1d
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