Quick Add to Inbox (mostly app support)
It would be great if a person could have a quick add to inbox function. I have seen this done 2 ways. A simple widget text input like IFTTT's note widget or a direct connection to Siri or google assistant. That way if I say, "Add Milk to my Workflowy" It will go into my inbox or just to my main page. That way I can organize it later.
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If you have the iOS app... would you mind checking out the Starred pages menu via the Star icon on the bottom toolbar.... if you had an inbox list in your starred-pages list, you'd be able to tap on the plus to the left of your list and it would create a bullet in your inbox and you'd also jump there. Is this close to what you envision?
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I didn't even know there are plus buttons next to the bullets - I had the left sidebar enabled on Android since the setting apparently carried over to the mobile app. Disabling it on mobile also gets me the Home button and bottom right corner plus button back, which are good design ideas, left sidebar or no.
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Here's an example of the Quick Note UX on OneNote Android, one of the most fantastic capture tools I've ever seen: https://imgur.com/a/E1TbgZC (the button on the home screen is from the long-press menu, not a widget from OneNote itself. It has its own Quick Note widget, but the widget takes up two squares for some mysterious reason, so I dragged the long-press menu button to the desktop, which you can do on Android)
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Such a feature would be highly useful for your desktop apps as well! How about a keyboard shortcut, such as Cmd/Ctrl + Q, to quickly add an item to a predefined inbox without leaving the current page/app? The pop-up window could be similar to the jump window (when you hit Ctrl + K).
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Hi Stephanos, how about this script via the WFx Chrome extension?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZRFDsq1Z1E&list=PLgi2Y4JImXPhCPhtAILbNRzci-X4w1MKT&index=8&t=1s
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Hi Stephanos, I definitely hear what you're saying. A native solution would be the ultimate. We're just now ramping up with multiple features that will be released over the coming months. We certainly want to make it easy for people to get their thoughts into WorkFlowy with a minimum of fuss!
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@Frank
So I know there is an unofficial API... Is there documentation on that somewhere? If the API is robust enough it's possible we could add this by targeting it through something simple like IFTTT/Zapier/Integromat + Google Assistant.
Once set up you could just say "Ok Google, add 'Send Frank an email about making a my little pony theme for WorkFlowy' to Inbox".You could, theoretically, specify different nodes if the API supports it. Maybe this is more of a @rawbytz question?
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Alfred, the existing API is client-side only, meaning a user can access it once authenticated and looking at WorkFlowy. What is needed is a "server-side" API, which would allow you to authenticate and communicate with WorkFlowy servers from the outside. Once we have that, you will be swimming in quick add tools. :)
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For those who don't mind using a custom script, and are looking for a way to quickly add to an inbox from within workflowy (as opposed to ifttt or similar) I made a quick add button that works similar to the requested feature here: https://github.com/mivok/workflowy-userscripts#workflowy-quick-create. It's intended to let you quickly add under several places (e.g. meeting notes) as well as an inbox, and will pre-fill the title of the new item with today's date.
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I use workflowy for many things, but mostly my to do lists (which I process using Mark Forster's "Get Everything Done" techniques).
My workaround for this at the moment, so I can have ubiquitous capture, is to dictate into reminders as I go throughout my day ("Siri, remind me to buy milk") and then once a day transfer the reminders to my workflowy inbox. It's not elegant but it works. But it would be so great to skip the step and be able to dictate directly!
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Another plea to get the ability to add items into an Inbox via some form of ubiquitous capture. In my case, I would love to be able to dictate items via Google Assistant and Amazon Echo.
I've used Workflowy on and off for a few years, and was a Pro member for a while. I've found that I keep coming back to Workflowy because I like the workflow and design. However, it seems every time I get back in to Workflowy, a couple of months pass and I again realize how how difficult it is to get things in to Workflowy. I'm not in front of my computer all the time, and even with my phone on me most of the time, I find it too cumbersome on the mobile platform to add entries by having to open an app, navigate to a spot and then type out the note, especially when there are good voice recognition options now.
I'm currently evaluating Checkvist, although I have to admit that I don't like the interface compared to Workflowy. However, it has the option to add items to a list via email. That may win me over if I can leverage the email entry feature to work with Google assistant and Alexa.
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In a nutshell, what WF needs for this is an external API. I know they have an internal one but with an external API tools like IFTTT, Zapier, Integromat, etc. have the potential to make WF extraordinarily powerful. I'm not sure if Siri would work with IFTTT but Google assistant and Alexa do, not to mention a billion other things.
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