

Ask HH: Does this app exist? (robust virtual scratch paper) - eavc

I'm looking for the best of two worlds: sketching thoughts on paper and typing, but I'm not talking about an iPad app. I'm talking about something for use with a full keyboard and a mouse.<p>1) I love to scratch out thoughts on paper while rotating the orientation so that multiple thoughts are all in one place but distinguished by their orientation.<p>2) At the same time, I also love the convenience of typing on my keyboard.<p>The key benefits are:<p>* Able to organize and visualize many thoughts in close proximity without wasted screen space<p>* Convenient to the workflow of laptop users (ie. no paper, fast typing)<p>* Liberating -- no imposed structure, no pressure to do something clean, easy to trash<p>* Fast<p>* Fun/attractive/natural<p>I'll describe my deal app to give an idea of what I'm looking for (and because it's fun to conceptualize apps).<p>As I see it, the salient features would be:<p>* Able to change text size very quickly (i.e. mouse scroll wheel)<p>* Able to rotate paper very quickly and smoothly to any degree while the text is maintained<p>* Able to rotate cursor orientation very quickly and smoothly up to 45 degrees above or below the horizontal<p>* Super-easy to shift into low-res drawing mode (bonus points if jankety mouse movements are averaged into something that looks like a confident stroke with a pen/pencil - this doesn't need shape and line and curve tools etc, just render what the mouse traces)<p>* Easy to strike through text (not via formatting, via a slightly different drawing tool -- I imagine you pick the strike out tool, select the area, get a zoom in, and then use the normal drawing mechanism only at the more granular level)<p>* crumple up the sheet of paper in a really satisfying way to get a new sheet<p>-----------------<p>In short, it's a more robust facsimile of virtual pen and paper.<p>I would love an app like this for thinking, but I would use it just as much as a teaching/communicating aid.<p>Does this or something with similar functionality exist?<p>If not, how hard would it be for the right person to build? (just out of curiosity)
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jmatt
I was searching for a page and came across this. I thought I'd respond since
no one else has. Hopefully this helps.

A few sites come to mind that fit this idea in one way or another.

<http://balsamiq.com/>

Balsamiq - This app was not purpose built to take notes, sketch and
brainstorm. That being said, almost everyone I know that has bought it uses it
for that purpose sometimes. I know I do. It is still limiting important ways.
Dense or complex textual content just doesn't work. Though it works well for
diagramming such information. It doesn't have any dynamic behavior like
checkboxes. It can't track the history of a document. And it doesn't support
sharing. But I have used it in meetings in lieu of pencil and paper. And it
kicks out diagrams that impress customers and would be a nightmare to create
in gimp or photoshop.

<http://writeboard.com/>

writeboard - In a minimalist perspective this could work. A big plus is it
works with most 37s products.

<http://workflowy.com/>

workflowy - Seems to be the new hotness right now. It's essentially an upgrade
over writeboard but without integration into 37s products.

<http://37signals.com/draft>

Draft - But it's ipad specific... /sigh. I haven't seen it in person but by
this time everyone knows what they are going to get from a 37s product.
Minimalist, consistent design targeted at a specific common business process.

<http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/>

OneNote - I don't like plugging Microsoft products let alone Office ... but it
does everything that you want. Combine OneNote with a tablet pc and it's
impressive. I used to work in the .NET world and knew a few architects that
used tablet pc 5+ years ago pre-OneNote and they could do all of this back
then... but it took time to learn tricks and teach the applications how to
read your handwriting. They completely failed at the pricepoint of the device,
at marketing it and at making any incremental improvements towards non-
powerusers.

