Writam
Questions about Writam
Including the awkward ones. Where an answer is not yet confirmed, it says so rather than being vague at you.
Getting started
- What is a spatial canvas, in plain terms?
- A surface much bigger than your screen that you put things on and move around by dragging. Instead of one note after another going down a list, you have two directions and you place things where they make sense to you. If you have ever laid pages across a desk to see them together, that is the idea.
- Do I need to plan a structure before I start?
- No, and doing so tends to work against you. Put things down roughly where they feel like they belong and let the arrangement firm up as you understand the material better. Naming a cluster is something you can do later, or never.
- Is there a right way to use it?
- Not really. People end up with very different canvases — some by chronology, some by argument, some by rough zones that only make sense to them. Since position is yours to assign, the app has no opinion about what your layout should mean.
What it does and does not do
- How is this different from a notes app with folders?
- A folder makes you decide where something belongs before you understand what it is. A canvas lets you record a relationship — these two things go together, this one is off on its own — without naming it or committing to it. The difference shows up at a few hundred notes, when the folder tree has become a thing you maintain rather than a thing that helps.
- Can I use it as a to-do list?
- You can put tasks on a canvas, but you will be fighting it. Writam has no due dates, no reminders and no notion of chasing you, and that is deliberate rather than unfinished. Swaya is the product built for the planning half of the problem.
- What happens when the canvas gets crowded?
- Zooming out is the intended answer: at a distance you stop reading individual notes and start seeing the arrangement, which is when dense and empty areas become informative rather than messy. {{TODO: Is there a practical size at which a canvas starts to slow down, and is that worth stating? — CONTENT-TODO #9}}
- Does it rearrange my canvas for me?
- No. Nothing moves unless you move it. An automatic layout would be telling you something about your own material that you never said, which would undermine the one thing the canvas is for.
Capabilities still being confirmed
- Does Writam sync between devices?
- {{TODO: Does sync exist today, and between which devices? — CONTENT-TODO #8}}
- Can I put images, PDFs or links on the canvas?
- {{TODO: Which media types can go on a canvas, and can items be linked to each other? — CONTENT-TODO #8}}
- Is there search?
- {{TODO: Does search exist, and does it search inside items as well as titles? — CONTENT-TODO #8}}
- Does it work offline?
- {{TODO: Does Writam work fully offline, and does any part of it require a connection? — CONTENT-TODO #8}}
Your data, and what happens later
- Can I export everything I make?
- {{TODO: Does Writam support a full export, and in what format? This is the answer the longevity question depends on, so it matters more than most. — CONTENT-TODO #11}}
- What happens to my work if Anahadh stops building Writam?
- This deserves a real commitment rather than reassurance, and the commitment depends on export. {{TODO: Once export is confirmed, this answer should state plainly what a user keeps if development stops. — CONTENT-TODO #11}}
- Why iPad rather than everything?
- The canvas is built around a large screen you drag directly with a finger or a pencil, which is what makes it feel like a surface instead of a document. Supporting a small screen well is a different design problem, not a smaller one. {{TODO: Does Writam also run on iPhone? — CONTENT-TODO #2}}
Deciding whether to bother
- I already use a canvas app. Should I switch?
- Probably not, if it is working for you. Writam is aimed at what a canvas looks like after six months — whether you still open it, whether the arrangement still means anything — rather than at how good it feels on the first afternoon. If your current canvas became a wall you stopped visiting, that is the reason to look.
- Is Writam finished?
- No. It is in development, not in beta, and there is nothing to download yet. The pages on this site describe what it is being built to do, with open questions marked as open questions.