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Thoughts on the new release of Dropbox Paper
This idea was already suggested many years ago and closed for inactivity.
The old Dropbox Paper was easy to use, simple and was "what you see is what you get". The new Dropbox Paper introduces lots of new concepts that don't necessarily align I think with how many people have used Dropbox Paper in the past. It could just be me, but seems unlikely.
Paper was a useful tool for me to organize my thoughts, write notes, journal ideas, etc... I don't usually like tools in general that try to push me to organize my life into someone else's perspective of how one should operate. I realize that other users may like that, I don't. I don't want "to-dos", "alerts", "notifications", "channels", etc... I like the "sharing" capability, and perhaps some very basic "collaboration", but to turn Dropbox Paper into a complete "Team" solution for ideating is way way beyond what I want to use it for, and I feel a little like the new version of Paper is intended to force users into a way of journaling and writing that maybe isn't what or how they are comfortable operating. Maybe these features could be useful, but on an as-needed basis, without taking away the simplicity that existed prior.
It would be great if we could just have something that gives us the old Paper capabilities, with the advantage of treating a "Paper" document just like a dropbox document (which is what I thought the new implementation was all about and I was excited for).
Here's the new Dropbox Paper UI.
How is this intuitive? "Sections" on the left. "Create new doc" on the main page. Shouldn't I be navigating documents on the left, and each document have sections? Where am I right now? Where are all my paper documents? How do I get to them? What is a section? When I click on "My first section", nothing happens, it doesn't go anywhere. "Brainstorm: Add a topic". What's a topic? I don't brainstorm in Dropbox paper, why is that important? How would you then browse topics? Or is topics part of brainstorming? Is that a document or a "thing" thing in the new Paper application. Do the icons mean each thing on the left is a type of thing, or is it just a clever emoji you can prefix your titles with. What is "Starred" for? If I have 1000 paper documents, why am I starring them like that? Or should it just be maybe "Recent documents". Is "Starred" going to be a new virtual directory tree or a list of starred documents.
I feel like it's a bit of a mess of ideas and concepts and terminology. Besides "Create new doc", nothing else makes sense to me.
Maybe I am the wrong user. Maybe it was never intended to be used as a simple repository of notes, journals, etc... What's the grand old vision for Paper? Where is it heading and trying to take us as users?
I really don't know how to suggest a better idea without a better understanding of what Dropbox Paper is meant to accomplish for users going forward. Is it for the enterprise going forward? Who is Dropbox Paper trying to compete with, because I thought it was pretty unique before in its simplicity. I noticed there's a slack integration? Is the product management group for the application taking their cues from businesses, or are this going to also still be for regular retail-ish consumers. Maybe that can be explained clearly. And then I can decide if it's for me or not, but as-is, I'm not sure how this is going to work for me.
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- Walter
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hi there mjc - thanks so much for taking the time to share your detailed thoughts on the new version of Dropbox Paper and its current interface.
From my side, I will make sure to log your feedback internally, and if there's something you'd like to expand further on, please don't hesitate to reach back out.
Apart from that, I wanted to share with you these tips when it comes to posting ideas. Essentially, if you want to see specific things implemented, it'd be best to create separate posts with specific details for each request.
Cheers!
I'll definitely use those tips when I can come up with something succinct. It's just that right now, as I describe in my post, I don't "get" it, and how the new Paper format is intended to be used and the roadmap for the product into the future. Until then, I'm not sure how to go forward, and I'm realizing maybe the new Paper product is just not intended to be for someone like me. The old one was perfect for what I used it for.
Could you please add more details on where to request the new features mentioned above to MJC?
For example, it would be nice to have a way to find paper-related folders with one click rather than having to dive into the "migrated" folders with several clicks.
Sorry to say this the new version of Dropbox is almost unusable for any person who have used the previous version. It used to be a pretty useful simple tool. Now it is not.
- Walter
Hey ubu - thanks for the feedback on this.
As for navigating your Dropbox Paper folders, have you tried clicking on the dotted icon on the upper right corner of your page and then on the Paper option?
Otherwise, you can find the folder that contains your Paper docs and bookmark it for quick reference.
Let me know if you have anything else to add.
mjcI agree, the new experience is confusing. I've been using Paper since it was originally launched and this update seems like a huge step in a weird direction (not even backwards because the original version was better than this). It feels like Dropbox did not consult current users at all. Also, most platforms that have big redesigns like this have some sort of transition period in which you can try the new version (and give feedback) and revert to the old version. Dropbox just launched this without any notice or documentation and support is giving instructions on how to use it that don't make any sense. I've been a paying customer for over 10 years but not sure I want to stay on after this.
I found this post after struggling to figure out how to use paper now and even panicking that my documents had disappeared before noticing the "Migrated Paper Docs" folder. Like others have mentioned, it was originally a fantastic tool for me to organize my notes and share them with others when needed. I considered it an online notebook that was very intuitive to use. Now I am extremely confused about how to use it and feel like I missed a product announcement or any sort of communication about this change. That's perhaps my fault and I may have deleted some email, but at this point I would love an explanation/tutorial of how legacy users are supposed to use it today so I can decide if it no longer suits my needs or if I just need to relearn how to use it. Is there a walkthrough video or something that explains how it is intended to be used now?
My Paper app suddenly updated to this new UI and this is just awful. I've used Paper daily for maybe 5 or 6 years and all my files are gone. I didn't know they were moved and converted to .paper files until someone mentioned the migration here. I will need to find an alternative because this is just unusable
This is what my app looks like now. It previously listed folders for each project I kept notes for. Now blank. Not sure even what to do at this point so I'm just gonna complain then probably move on to another tool.
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