from Hacker News

Show HN: Papier – Open a new tab and trap your best thoughts

by calyhre on 3/8/16, 12:07 PM with 50 comments

  • by dpflan on 3/8/16, 2:20 PM

    There is a clever and simple code snippet to convert a tab into a notepad:

      data:text/html, <html contenteditable>
    Copy and paste into your browser address bar. Just bookmark that and you have a notepad with content that you can italicize, embolden, print, export, etc. I'm sure someone here can tweak this code to be even more feature-rich yet still compact. Or check the comments from the original web page.

    This snippet was shared a while ago on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5135194

  • by joelg on 3/8/16, 6:59 PM

    Feature request: through force of habit, I obsessively mash Ctrl+S whenever I'm in a text editor - browser or not. Most web editors override this to prevent the giant "Save page as..." dialog from jumping up all the time. I know it's ridiculous, but I literally can't handle typing without Ctrl+S-ing almost every paragraph.

    Edit: couple other thoughts: I just now realized how much I depend on the "New Tab" tab title to find new tabs in the tab bar. I realized that making the page name "Papier" is good marketing, but it makes it feel like a separate app instead of a better new tab page, and also harder to find if I open it, leave, and try to come back. Also, the page - even with no text on it - is about 150% the height of my window, and I despise unnecessary scrollbars (Chrome on Ubuntu). And it's "0 characters", not "0 character".

    I'm only nitpicking because I will use this every day for the rest of my life.

  • by KMuncie on 3/8/16, 3:17 PM

    Very nice, love the simplicity. Full syncing is going to be key though.

    The biggest "complaint" I have after 5 mins is having a quick way to jump to a new line at the bottom. You wouldn't want to override the default of the omnibar having focus, but a simple keyboard shortcut would be nice. Currently it seems I need to tab down into the page, but then that still leaves my cursor at the beginning of the document.

  • by criddell on 3/8/16, 2:20 PM

    A couple of the unicode characters on that page don't render in Firefox on Windows:

    * the character after "Choose Day"

    * the character before "About"

    I know character isn't the right word for unicode. What is? Code point?

  • by macu on 3/8/16, 4:56 PM

    I suggest loading Papier on the new tab page only if it isn't yet open. If it's already open, the new tab page could show frequently visited, bookmarks, and search as before.

  • by roadnottaken on 3/8/16, 5:55 PM

    This is nice, but you can lose notes if you write in multiple Papier tabs. One has to be careful that they don't have another open Papier tab before they start note-taking.

  • by teddyh on 3/8/16, 9:32 PM

    If you live in the web browser, I guess this is what you use. Here’s a nickel, kid, get yourself a better program. Yes, I’m one of those condescending Emacs users. We have org-mode.

    … — …

    I’m not really that condescending, I hope, but it annoys me slightly that the web browser, of all things, is expanding to be the single one program that everybody lives “inside”, when Emacs has been more suited for this task for decades. Emacs takes its role as a framework seriously (if a bit ancient in its design), but web browser developers seem to insist that browsers are for web browsing only, and even seem to be more and more hostile towards plugins and extensions, and only allow them begrudgingly; each day edging closer to being a walled garden.

    Even if Emacs is not to your liking, another consequence of the web browser being the “framework” is that the programs that people use from within it are not programs, but web sites – web sites that are under the control of third parties and can change for the worse or disappear at any time. (Not to mention the lack of privacy; even with HTTPS the server operator have all the logs.) Contrast this with runnning programs in a desktop environment; the only downside there is the lack of automatic updates, and the lack of automatic access to large shared data sets. However, far from all programs can really benefit very much from these things, and even in the cases where they do benefit, at least the privacy concerns often make it worth it to do without those benefits.

    Sorry for the unexpected rant.

    (For those who didn’t recognize the reference: http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-06-24)

  • by spiderfarmer on 3/8/16, 7:28 PM

    Offtopic, but has anyone an idea how the demo video is made? Is this a simple tool like LICEcap or do you need a bigger production app like AfterEffects?

  • by sholanozie on 3/8/16, 5:49 PM

    This is awesome, I absolutely adore the idea and implementation. Couple of small points in terms of feedback:

    * A new tab with no notes has a height greater than 100% of the browser window, and adds a scrollbar. Small point, but annoying for people like me :)

    * There are some issues with links: clicking could be more intuitive, and highlighting is inconsistent with certain characters. (Try pasting a YouTube link.)

  • by eddywebs on 3/8/16, 4:26 PM

    Shamelesly plugging one my apps here, very identically: save your thoughts or a todo list without installation of any extension or signups >> http://www.doit.eddywebs.com/ When you come back on same browser it remembers everything.

  • by ianstormtaylor on 3/8/16, 7:04 PM

    Really nicely executed. I noticed that the editor uses the new Draft.js from Facebook under the hood? If the authors are around, I'd love to hear how Draft.js has been treating you so far, and how much you've been customizing it.

    Good luck!

  • by benwikler on 3/8/16, 7:33 PM

    My use case: I use Papier to write down the single thing I'm (trying to) work on. That way if I idly open a tab in order to start getting distracted, I have a reminder of my actual top priority staring back at me. Magic.

  • by destroyer954 on 3/8/16, 12:49 PM

    Love it. I'd like to see something like this with markdown capabilities.

  • by fiatjaf on 3/8/16, 2:12 PM

    I never try these todo/organizing apps that are just another burden, but this seems different. The fact that it has no accounts its simplicity feels very good. I'll use it.

  • by buckbova on 3/8/16, 6:19 PM

    I like the simplicity.

    Been happily using workflowy for some time. It has the ability to drill down and makes lists of lists of lists. I like to map out all my projects with it, can cross them off or add descriptions.

    If you try it here I get free space:

    https://workflowy.com/invite/5f5e43d.lnx

    Otherwise:

    https://workflowy.com/

  • by NetHuntCRM on 3/9/16, 10:15 AM

    So many services use the New Tab today, so you have to prioritize what you actually need. For me, such service would better work as an online tool/service, not an extension. A similar concept has been implemented in idonthaveadamnpen.com which sends your notes to your email address.

    Anyway, thank you for a nice note-taking service. Keep it up!

  • by rolyatyasmar on 3/8/16, 6:50 PM

    I tried to copy and paste code into the note. Indentation doesn't translate over. Otherwise a useful tool.

  • by Quasimoto3000 on 3/8/16, 9:12 PM

    Feature Request - Dots! The deputy loves Dots! Seriously though, I want bullet points and enumeration please.

  • by namtrac on 3/8/16, 12:37 PM

    Very nice! Hopefully it'll support syncing to google user account too.

  • by yitchelle on 3/8/16, 2:20 PM

    Is the data sync to any cloud services? Looks good by the way!

  • by lostmypassword2 on 3/8/16, 7:38 PM

    Is there a way to export in order to backup somewhere else?