Michal Marek
Dropbox came up with big news this week. He introduced competition for Google Docs or Quip and brought a simple text editor designed for comfortable work in a team. The novelty, which was promised by Dropbox under the name Note in April, is finally called Paper. It is currently in beta and is accessible by invitation only. But it should reach a larger group of users relatively quickly. In addition, you can get an invitation at official website of the service you can simply apply and Dropbox should let you into the beta quickly. I got it after a few hours.
Paper offers a truly minimalistic text editor that focuses on simplicity and doesn't overdo it with features. Basic formatting is available, which can also be set by typing in the Markdown language. Images can be added to the text using the drag & drop method, and programmers will be pleased to learn that Paper can handle entered codes as well. Ty Paper immediately formats the code in the style it should have.
You can also create simple to-do lists and easily assign specific people to them. This is done by means of mentions using the "by" in front of the user's name, i.e. in a similar style as is used, for example, on Twitter. It goes without saying that it is possible to assign a file from Dropbox. But in any case, Paper does not try to be a comprehensive text editor in the style of Microsoft's Word. Its domain should be the ability to collaborate on a document with multiple people in real time.
Dropbox Paper could become an interesting service and a big competitor to Google Docs. Work is already underway on an iOS application that would bring Paper from the web to iPhones and iPads. And it is precisely from Paper's iOS application that people make a lot of promises. The advantage of Dropbox products is that they follow the design and conceptual principles of iOS, which cannot be said about applications from Google. In addition, Dropbox integrates new features into its applications at lightning speed. This was last seen with instant 3D Touch support. But this is a long-term trend.
