Having used Coda for quite a while now but I still find myself looking elsewhere. The reason for this is, I find the layout messy and to be blunt, horrible to use on a mobile and having come from Airtable which felt nice to use, coda feels ‘meh’ but I can’t really put my finger on it. The reason why I chose Coda over Airtable is basically due to Airtable not allowing integrations between docs where as I feel I don’t need this in Coda due to the sidebar and the ability to have multiple tables on each.
Anyway…
1: I would like to be able to customise the look and feel of my docs, could we have the ability to override the CSS and use our own styles. The reason for this is I want to make it feel more like an app while staying within coda. For the users without CSS knowledge, maybe custom fields where they can increase the size of a select box, change the colour etc.
2: On a select box, if one choice is available, auto select it rather than the user having to go in and manually select it, i find this irritating.
3: Ability to change the column name based on a previous columns selection. I know this may not be an option but it would be cool.
4: Due to the layout on a mobile, I created a form using single controls with a submit button at the end. This works fine but after I submit, my results stay selected, there must be an option to reset the options back to default!!!
Regarding your first point, I have been using the following workaround for now.
I have been using the Stylus chrome extension for custom CSS on Coda for a while now. This allows me to change font families, colors, font-sizes, spacing and a lot more.
Give it a try and let me know if you need any help setting it up. I really hope, Coda can have this built in, since it can break anytime if there are changes in the web app. But it works great so far.
With respect for your input, and your points are valuable, we should not forget that Coda is still free. Although not officially stated, Coda does not target medium sized and multi-national businesses.
Shishir’s intention is that everybody should be able to create a doc as an app! I am still learning from the input of enthausiasts / professionals in communities like this one. I am very thankful for that.
Next to Coda, I am also using Airtable and even Notion depending on the needs and preferences of my client / user.
In general all the above mentioned tools have their place in the market as it will support the business and development to learn to understand each other better and to be able to roll out much more easy updates meeting quality standards and without violating internal policies
Success with what you are doing, and hopeful you will stay with the interessting journey Coda has started
I appreciate Coda is free but at some point in time Coda will need to charge for it’s service, maybe from an add on point of view or a subscription but it won’t sustain itself being free, this we can guarantee or it will fade away like may others out there.
I am investing hours and hours creating docs to help people use within their businesses so I feel it’s my duty to help and advise now so when it does come to the point of paying, others including myself won’t jump ship.
Coda certainly is on the right track otherwise I would not invest my time into it, we just need to keep moving forward and tweak certain areas.
There are also a lot of modifications with controls should be done. E.g. you can’t apply the item chosen from the dropdown to all selected cells at this moment. The lack of Disable If option, normal default values, ability to use subfield in lookup (when it is needed) etc…
Here and below I explain why column names should not be any kind of dynamic.
Hi all,
Nathan from Coda here. This is a great discussion, and we love and value the input from our community. Indeed, feedback and suggestions here are really helpful as we prioritize what we improve next.
On improving the look and feel of docs, we’re currently exploring a new visual direction and have a prototype that we’re collecting feedback on. Let me know if you’re interested in trying it!
Beyond this, we also want to offer more ways for you to customize the look and feel of your docs. We have a lot of exciting ideas around this that we’re eager to get to soon. @Juanmata, I love the way you phrased this as “I want to make it feel more like an app while staying within coda”. We want to enable that too
We also have some ideas on improving controls, and the specific suggestions here are great. We also want to simplify adding items both on desktop and mobile.
Please keep sharing and discussing ideas, we’re always taking a close look here.
I second points for many technical feature requests, however, I would like to point out one more awesome “feature” - it is Coda’s customer support. It is excellent from what I have felt so far. Same is the community here. To be honest, that is what kept me in with the product despite the intitial (and sometimes continuing) struggles with the technical features. I am testing one prototype feature now that I have been asking around for several months and it is great. I love the fact that Coda team follows up on their promises. Especially Kudos to @Krunal_Sheth.
