Love the Left Bar!

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Mark A Ruzicka

I just want to say that I love this feature! I have no idea when it came out but just stumbled on it in the settings.. so really recently? This feature mostly solves my long distance moving problem.

 

Much appreciated feature!

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Mark! Yes... this is a very recent experimental feature. We are still polishing it before we announce :-)

    It certainly resolves the challenge of moving tasks "long distances"!

     

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    Earl N. Richardson

    Frank, 

    You've tantalized me with your post -  what will that new feature do?  How will it work?  Any idea how soon it might be 'unveiled'?   And is this something the beta testers are working on? 

    Thanks! 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Earl,

    The left bar is an experimental feature that is available to everyone now... you just need to activate it under Settings > scroll down to Experimental features. 

    Take a look and see if it makes sense to you! Also try moving tasks into a Starred Page (only on desktop) :-)

    ~ Frank

     

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    Earl N. Richardson

    Frank, thanks!  I found that feature you mentioned.  I really like it.  It's very convenient but not obtrusive, and still keeps the clean interface of the Workflowy display. And I think that's yet another great feature of Workflowy.  

    I'm having a little trouble with your second suggestion -  move tasks or bullets into a Starred Page.  It doesn't appear to be working for me yet on my Desktop.  But I'll keep working with that.

    Thanks again!  -  Earl 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Earl,

    You can move items from WorkFlowy into the left bar by dragging the bullet in just as you would within any outline. If you have pages that have been starred, you'll see those at the top of the left bar.

    There are 2-3 situations where you would not be able to drag:

    1. Into embedded lists that others have shared with you

    2. Saved searches (starred pages)

    3. Dragging into the exact same list title

     

     

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    Earl N. Richardson

    Frank, 

    Thanks for your patience, I think I understand this now.  I'll continue this conversation, for anyone else who may have been humg up on the same thing as I was. 

    On the new experimental left bar, we can now see our Starred pages at the top of that left bar, and below our Starred pages we see a duplicate of our Home Page.  I was confused because I was trying to move a bullet into my Starred pages. 

     We can now move any bullet that's buried anywhere in our Workflowy file into that display of our Home Page on the left bar, but not into our Starred pages.  

    Thanks again - 

     

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Earl,

    You should be able to move lists into your starred pages in the left bar... as long at they are not shared lists you have embedded in your account or if they are saved searches. Could you confirm? 

     

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    Earl N. Richardson

    Frank, thanks again for your patience. 

    Now it appears to be working for me.  It appears to me that just the way I've used Workflowy, almost all my Starred pages always have resulted from saved searches.  And I had been just trying to move bullets into those particular starred pages.

    So now, I clicked on some sub-bullets in my file to create a page without searching for anything (my Search bar was blank) and then I starred those pages.  And after doing that, I'm able to move other bullets into them with no problem. 

    This is intriguing to me, because I don't think I've ever starred a page without first doing a search for something.  And to me this gets into some philosophy of effective uses for starred pages.  Usually, I wouId star a page because it has some unique, perhaps one-time use of a combination of items (perhaps contacts, appointments, notes, etc.) so that finding that unique combination in the first place would require me to do a search.  So I'll also think through my Starred Pages a bit more, as well.  

    But it's now working for me, and I definitely see its value through the ease of moving items around your entire Workflowy file. 

    I'll definitely play with this some more ..  (... I also have fun with Workflowy, too...!)  -  Thanks again!  -    Earl 

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Earl,

    Yes... I can easily see how one might be puzzled at not being able to move to a saved search in the left bar... I also tried until I realized that a saved search is not a specific location :-)

    As you now see... instead of expanding your home-page hierarchy in the left bar to the place you want to drop items to... you can create a starred page item which gets you immediately closer to your destination and you can expand from there.

     

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    TiâuUî Lâu

    Hi, is left bar has any keyboard shortcut?

    Thanks for this killer feature!

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi!

    We don't yet have a keyboard shortcut... BUT... you can minimize the left bar by clicking on the arrow to the top right... and when you hover over the left margin, the left bar will appear again. You can also drag lists to the left bar when it is minimized and it will appear when you drag items to the left margin.

    Very soon we will also be able to drag the left panel to adjust... and you can drag it to the limits of your screen to the left so that it disappears... and then drag it back out again. 

    I think one of the above 2 dynamics might diminish the need for a dedicated keyboard shortcut!

    ~ Frank

     

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    Alexander Aldrich

    The left bar is an absolute GAME CHANGER. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    You're welcome, Alexander!

    There are going to be small changes/ improvements from time to time... I believe that the next release will allow us to drag to adjust the left bar width :-) 

     

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    Rich Carlson

    The left bar has dramatically improved Workflowy for me.  Thanks for adding this feature.

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Thank you for the love, Rich!

     

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    BEN CROWL

    Fantastic addition to an already fantastic product! Well done, team.

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    Thomas S. Algeo

    Hi Frank,

    The left panel feature is great on my desktop! When I open the left panel on my iPad it completely covers my (left justified) list. Any ideas?

    Thank you.

    (And, btw, your book is great.)

    Tom

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    Frank (Workflowy Support)

    Hi Tom, yes... it will do this. There is currently nothing that you can do simultaneously in both your outline and the left bar on mobile (as you can do on desktop when dragging lists into the left bar to relocate). 

    ~ Frank

     

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