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p/clover-3Work visually with the all-in-one notebook for creatives.
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Tom Giannattasio

Clover - Work visually with the all-in-one notebook for creatives.

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Clover is the all-in-notebook designed for creatives – featuring a powerful markdown editor that can explode traditional, linear documents into a "surface" for a more intuitive, visual way of note-taking, brainstorming, mind-mapping, and managing tasks.

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Tom Giannattasio
Maker
Hey there fellow hunters of product!  We're Clover and we're building a new notebook specifically for creative folks like you.  We've been building design tools for most of our career (Apple, Macaw, InVision) and have always wanted a tool that combined the fluid, expansive nature of a design tool with the power and capabilities of a markdown editor. So, we built it!  Our aim with Clover is to unlock the power of visual thinking for more intuitive – and fun – note-taking, brainstorming, mind-mapping, and task management.  Here are some of the features we're currently working on:  • Traditional and Surface docs - Clover is built on a new type of text editor. It's a streamlined markdown editor that lets you work with traditional linear documents or with our fancy pants surface documents – which allow you to arrange text and images on an infinite, zoomable canvas. • Agenda - A blank document for every day. Fill it with tasks, meeting notes, journal entries, or anything else that's date-related. It's a great way to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. • Quick Capture - Ideas can strike at any time. We added a Spotlight-like command line that can be pulled up with a simple keystroke so you can quickly jot down ideas or schedule tasks without rummaging around through the app. It'll even parse plain English commands to help with scheduling and organizing. • Customization - Notebooks are a personal thing and we believe you should be able to tailor it to fit you. Clover's style engine lets you fully customize your experience – colors, fonts, icons, etc. • Nested Pages - Build out your own hierarchy by nesting documents within other documents. • Document Outline - Quickly jump to major sections of your document or to pages nested within the current document.  We're currently in alpha and hope to open the beta to our waitlist soon. We'd love to have you help test and shape the product.  What would you hope to see in a product like this? Let us know in the comments!
Jared Latimer
@attasi Where does collaboration fit in? Live multi-player editing of docs?
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@latimerart Hey Jared! We're focused heavily on nailing the individual experience first though we've built it such that we can deliver a multiplayer experience similar to that of other collaborative notebooks when the time is right.
Ryan Stone
@attasi A few other features I would be looking for: - Tags for quick searching - Smart copy/paste controls (i.e. Dropbox Paper recognizing when you paste a Paper URL and automatically renaming URL link to Paper title) - Hover previews of docs (desktop) - Collaboration with others (comments) - Multi-tasking (allowing docs to open in new windows) - Smart embed links for different media types (MP4, YouTube, PowerPoint, Figma, Word, Airtable 😀) - Text formatting (really needs to support bulleted/numbered lists & bold/italic/strikethrough for optimal note-taking, otherwise it's too rigid) - Share links for specific docs - Ability to add a new doc to a category by right-clicking category (Evernote is terrible and requires you to open the "notebook" to be able to add a new note) - Easy drag & drop reordering and nesting of docs - Doc templates
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@ryan_stone Thanks for all of this! I'd love to chat at some point if you'd be interested. Learning from other folks with strong opinions about these products is invaluable to us!
Joshua Richey
This looks exactly like what I am looking for. I signed up but am curious when I'll be able to try it?
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@joshuar We still have a few big things in motion, but are hoping to start releasing to our waitlist within the next couple of months.
Joshua Richey
@attasi Can I start using it now please?
Allen Wang
Much way better design than all the note-taking apps on the market!!!
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@creativewang Thanks Allen! We put a heavy emphasis on a fresh, clean, and lightweight UI so you can better focus on your work.
Robin Good
I am a bit surprised that for a tool that has many positive votes and reviews that there is only a waiting list available, no free trial or possibility to test it. *If I was PH grandmaster I would not allow listing of tools that are not publicly available for testing, trying or buying. Look forward to be able to test and try, otherwise why did you list yourself here?
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@robingood Hey Robin, as I'm sure you know, finding early users is critical for a startup. Being able to show off a product in an early state to connect with potential early users is very valuable for both the startup and the community, in my opinion. The startup gains a pool of early adopters to release the product to and the community gets to have a real effect on the development of the product. Happy to chat at some point!
Robin Good
@attasi That's all fine and good Tom, but my experience as an early potential user of your tool is a pretty negative one to start with. I read the profile of the tool here, I see positive review and comments but when I click to check and try it out there's nothing I can actually see, test or have a feel for. I respect your strategy but I just wanted to politely share my disappointment with not being able to try what you promote.
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@robingood Fair enough. We're cranking hard, so hopefully we can get it in your hands soon! Thanks for the feedback.
Ranganaut
I am a day late to this party, but like what I see. Two things that are missing in the demos (might be there in the app itself): First, a visual way of connecting ideas. There's so much interest in Roam Research and other tools that help people connect their notes with wiki style links and backlinks, but it would be great to see a visual way to do so - perhaps dropping one note (or even word!) on top of another to link the two. Many visual applications I like and use such as Milanote deploy arrows for that purpose, but the arrows are primarily for connecting images. A visual way to connect text would be an interesting technique to create a story or build an argument. Second, there should be a visual way to string together a series of notes to boil them down into a linear document - which is still the default mode of professional communication unfortunately. In other words: explode into a network of notes while brainstorming and then connect them in a sequence to create a linear narrative. Doesn't even have to be everything in the brainstorm. Signed up and I am looking forward to getting my hands on the app.
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@rkasturi Love these ideas! We've been discussing ways to build connections across data and think we have a few interesting things that you'll appreciate. Connecting things back into a linear fashion is a really compelling idea. There are some UX wrinkles to iron out there, but we'll see what we can come up with. Thanks for the feedback!
Adrian Boncan
Hey, this looks slick! Just 2 questions to understand how it works: 1. Can you nest a page under 2 or more different "parents"? 2. Surface and liniar - are views on the same document or distinct types of documents?
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@adrian_boncan Great questions. 1. No, docs live in one spot right now to keep things as simple as possible. 2. We have the ability to make it a toggle, but we're concerned the UX may be strange when moving back from surface to linear. It's something we're experimenting with! How would you like those things to work?
@attasi 1. Having one parent for a document is exactly how folder system works. The hierarchy starts shining when there are multiple parents possible. Strongly recommend to implement this. 3. How is (inter)document linking implemented?
Adrian Boncan
Thanks for answering. Well, I was hoping for a toggle, but I realize the implementation is complicated (tbh, I was hoping for magic, really :). The thing is, you have to have a way to go from one to another...you start in diffuse mode (surface/canvas/spatial thinking/map making/joyful drag and drop), which works incredibly well for the creative. But then you might need to switch to focus mode (liniar, outline, structure, the satisfaction of everything in its place), especially if you need to show your work. If not a toggle, maybe drag and drop (seeing the surface doc and the traditional one side by side and dragging blocks) or maybe a toggle with the possibility of adjusting with drag and drop in a second step. Just guessing here, when designing Clover how did you guys saw the relationship between surface docs and liniar docs?
Christopher Leach
This could be a really powerful tool, I think implementing some templates for things like Eisenhower Boxes and Tim Lee lists would be great for managing your day in a glance. From there you can flesh out the work on the space
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@leachy114 That's a great idea!
Michael Doucette
It is quite similat to the Notes on IOS, but your promo is great!!
Ryan Stone
This looks so clean and perfect for my day-to-day UX note taking. I mostly depend on a mix of Evernote, Apple Reminders, and Figma right now, and this looks like a combination of all three. Will it include push notifications for to-do's? That would be a major factor for me jumping on board.
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@ryan_stone Thanks Ryan! Notifications are something we're working on. How would you like your notifications surfaced? How often? When?
Ryan Stone
@attasi Good questions. Both in-app and native push notifications would be most effective for me. I prefer to set notifications for specific dates, times, and recurrences, and wouldn't expect them to go off outside of those settings. Otherwise, I would get annoyed at my lack of control over the notifications and likely stop using the product.
Rita Santa
great
Rita Santa
lol
Maxim Geller
How do you guys anticipate to position yourselves next to Notion (for personal users?). This looks really great; the command line idea is something I've been thinking about for a while now, but I wonder if Clover is something I can use in tandem to Notion
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@maximgeller Great question. While there's certainly some overlap with Notion – which is an incredible product – Clover is solving different problems in some pretty different ways. Here's one way to think about it: We think some people will prefer Clover because of the visual, more lightweight workflow, while others might prefer Notion because of how it it handles complex, relational datasets. There's probably no reason you couldn't use them together, but I assume some folks will just pick the one that fits their needs and style of thinking.
Tom Giannattasio
Maker
@maximgeller Oh… would love to hear any thoughts you had about the command line too! What would you hope for?
Maxim Geller
@attasi makes sense; RDB's are by far the most powerful feature behind Notion. It's not too shabby as a notes app either but that's definitely not the finest use case for it. However, when you already have lots of records tied up in a database, it's easier to just make notes there rather than another platform
Maxim Geller
@attasi re. command line, I love the idea of being able to type a todo/calendar item/meeting/anything actionable and be able to push a button and have it be sent to or created on whatever platform I want it to go onto
Sofia Sedano
Interesting! Will try for sure!
María Simon
Looks very good! Congrats on the launch
Ivan Entusiasmado
seems cool
Victoria Teasdale
As an app geek and artist I’ll admit i was asking myself ‘how is this different from others’. But then I saw ‘happy little trees’ and you had me. I have no shame.
Ganesh Raam Ramadurai
I just signed up on your site. Looks promising and waiting to play with it.
Ayush
I've been waiting soo loooong for clover