workflowy
Workflowy review A representative outliner app. An app with a plethora of features as you use it more.
One of the apps that carve out its niche in the plethora of writing apps is the Outliner format app. As you can see in the screenshots below, this app elevates what is typically a basic feature in writing apps, the bullet points, to a primary function, enhancing its related features significantly. As a result, while it’s a great app for those who enjoy listing and jotting down ideas, it can be somewhat divisive as a writing app, catering to a specific niche of users. And among those outliner apps, the most representative one would be Workflowy.
Table of Contents
- Workflowy review A representative outliner app. An app with a plethora of features as you use it more.
- Workflowy appears very simple, but it’s a highly sophisticated app.
- The free version also allows for some usage to a certain extent. The paid version also offers decent value for money.
- Workflowy is a highly polished app, but aesthetically, it’s somewhat a matter of personal preference.
- Workflowy Conclusion
Workflowy appears very simple, but it’s a highly sophisticated app.
Actually, there wasn’t much beyond being an outliner in the past, but upon closer inspection, it’s packed with features.
Honestly, at first, I didn’t think this outline format was anything special. Because almost every app out there converts ‘* with spaces’ into a list, making it usable. The WordPress platform I’m currently using naturally supports this feature as well. So I thought there was no unique merit to Workflowy. Of course, if you find it tedious to manually add bullets, you might find it useful…
However, upon revisiting, I realized that while the app maintains a simple framework, Workflowy offers more than just simplicity and listing. It seems like they’ve packed in as many features as possible within the confines of this simple interface. For instance, each bullet point isn’t merely a list item; they’re also referred to as nodes. These nodes function as notebooks within a note-taking app. You can create nested nodes within nodes, allowing you to delve deeper, akin to sub-items or notes within a notebook. Additionally, even without bullet points, if you create a separate “paragraph,” it doesn’t turn into a list format, allowing for conventional writing app usage.
As simple as Workflowy is, its speed is fast, and its characteristics as an outliner have become a sort of personality.
Adding pictures or changing the color of items within the nodes is considered basic functionality. However, what surprised me again is that it’s also possible to view the format in both the standard bullet format and the board format. The board format allows viewing documents like a Kanban board, and creating nodes within nodes as mentioned earlier can resemble creating sub-items in a Kanban board.
저는 칸반 보드를 매우 좋아해서 이 앱이 많이 좋아졌습니다. 제가 트렐로나 todoist를 제법 오래 사용했던 이유도 이 칸반 보드 성능이 좋아서 그랬던 것이었거든요. 이렇게 보면 생긴 것만 아웃라이너지 이 형태는 일종의 개성으로 유지하는 것이고, 거의 반쯤은 종합 할일 앱처럼 되어버렸습니다. 물론 아웃라이너 형식의 장점은 그래픽적으로는 좀 부족할 지 몰라도 매우 단순하면서도 알아보기 쉽다는 점이기 때문에 성능도 기능도 개성도 어느 정도 잡지 않았나 싶습니다.
However, there isn’t really a tutorial within the app itself (although there is one on the website), so as you use the app, you gradually realize the app’s true value by discovering features like “Oh, it can do this too.” As a result, you might initially think of it as just another ordinary app, as I did. So, you might wonder if the app is a bit lacking in intuitiveness…
The free version also allows for some usage to a certain extent. The paid version also offers decent value for money.
Originally, I thought it was expensive, but compared to competitors, especially Evernote’s pricing…
Workflowy offers a decent level of functionality even with the free version. One peculiar aspect here is that they limit the number of notes you can set up on a monthly basis. However, from my brief usage, I didn’t notice the monthly limit number being depleted rapidly. If used casually for light task management, it seems there shouldn’t be much of a problem for typical usage. Even with the free version, device syncing is available. I would say it’s a pretty cost-effective app.
한편 유료 버전은 연간 49달러입니다. 이 가격이 객관적으로는 비싸다고 생각됩니다만 최근 글쓰기 앱들, 특히 이 분야 본좌 에버노트가 가격이 인상되어서 이 앱의 상대적 가성비가 더더욱 올라가게 되었습니다. 유료 결제를 하게 되면 앞서 말한 리스트 개수 제한이 없어지고, 파일 업로드 용량도 무제한이 되고, 드롭박스에 백업이 가능하고, 여러 폰트나 테마 등을 설정할 수 있다고 합니다. 사실 어지간한 헤비 유저가 아니라면 유료 버전만이 갖는 이점은 크진 않다고 볼 수 있겠습니다. 물론 이 말은 그만큼 기본적인 가성비가 좋다는 뜻이기도 하지요. 다만 할일 앱들과 비교하면 조금은 비싼 가격입니다. Any.Do 정도의 가격대입니다.
Workflowy is a highly polished app, but aesthetically, it’s somewhat a matter of personal preference.
It looks like a writing app, but it’s actually a to-do app. It’s good to see them maximizing their creativity(?), I suppose…
I thought it might be possible to use it like a writing app since it’s an outliner, but unfortunately, it lacks some of the statistics features that I consider crucial in writing apps. Despite its appearance, it’s still primarily a to-do app, so there are some limitations when using it as a writing app. Still, as a to-do app, it’s excellent. It has its own personality compared to other writing apps, and its outliner-like structure makes it easy to grasp at a glance, which I think makes it quite a good app. Since its appearance is so simple, the fast speed is an added bonus. Workflowy is undoubtedly commendable for continually developing features beyond the inherent limitations of the app. I look forward to seeing how much the app’s character will be maintained while continually expanding its features in the future.
Workflowy Conclusion
Good point
- The app is quite fast.
- The more you use it, the more features and depth it has.
- It’s cost-effective for simple data organization tasks.
Bad point
- The outliner format itself can be a matter of personal preference.
- As a writing app, it falls a bit short.
- The app is clean but not flashy.
