Spreadsheet & text processing docs haven’t changed much since the dawn of the PC era 40 years ago, & yet we still use them to run our businesses. ‘Coda’ is putting a new face on the old docs by combining their versatility, with the utility of apps, into a “single new canvas.”
As is pointed out in the Coda product page, spreadsheets were 1st built in the 70s for accountants & we haven’t done more than pile new features on them since. Likewise for word processing docs.
We’re now in an age where we are using a lot of productivity tools, including tools for streamlining workflow, that actually serve to silo it. So most of us opt for actually resorting to the old paradigm & employ docs & worksheets. They’re light & flexible & anyone can make them & adapt them to their needs.
Coda’s aim is to modernize docs & obviate the need for going back & forth between spreadsheets & text docs, keeping all your data in 1 place. It boasts a clean interface, starting with a blank page & a blinking cursor like any other document.
That’s where the similarity with legacy docs starts to diverge. As is stated in a blog entry from 1 of Coda’s co-founders & ex Googler, Shishir Mehrotra,
“Coda docs are built to erase boundaries, combining the flexibility of writing words on a page with rich, structured data formed on tables. We built it so everyone can work together, in their own way, off the same data. We engineered it like a programming platform & built a new formula language. The goal was to enable these documents to grow with people’s creativity. One of our early users referred to it as “Minecraft for docs.”
The Silicon Valley, USA-based startup has been developing Coda for the last 3 years & just finished their Alpha test stage. Testers, including the startup itself, have used Coda for things like bug & customer tracking systems, brainstorming sessions, hackathons…
If you want to participate in the Beta test that’s just getting under way, just sign up at the Coda site here & request an invite.
– This is a startup profile based on publicly available material & not a review –
Image Credit: Coda
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