Add a new format column: "the Canvas"

Today, it is currently possible to format columns within tables as:

  • text
  • number
  • select list
  • buttons
    … etc

I want to format columns as “canvas” as well so that I can use tables to read and write easily!

This is important mainly because:

  1. The way that our tables look today is very messy. Text takes way too much space.
  2. Linking to a section is not good enough because we end up having a zillion sections and because the navigation system + search experience are clunky it becomes unmanageable.

Hope this feedback is helpful!

12 Likes

I like the idea. A few months ago, I suggested a block feature on the canvas. This could fit very well with your suggestion as blocks could be referenced as well as content displayed (like links) while hovering the link on canvas column.
I personally would love blocks with free layout on canvas to be able to make basic mind maps.

6 Likes

+1.

Another “word process” (or some title) app raising nowadays, Notion, IMHO, has the only one killer-level feature, that is its blocks. Users combine blocks to build their doc, and in Notion, a page can be a block in another page, which make it easy to build wiki-like doc.

If we have canvases as components in Coda, I think we just have more complex doc level, not only folder-section architecture. (In this view, sub-folders also fit my need :smile: )

3 Likes

+1
Format a column as canvas (and/or as a section with a an embedded view in the cell) is essential

Yes +1 here as well. On the fence as to whether to go with Notion or Coda, but would prefer Coda with this one fix, as well as being able to link within Docs. Notion is weak here, as is Airtable, but I’m hoping Coda can step up and provide some good functionality here to differentiate and provide real team capabilities.

Right now I am struggling with one of my use cases, meeting notes. I appreciate that I can use Coda to create a row for each topic in a meeting. Great solution so that I don’t lose track of what was discussed. However, the meeting itself can’t have an overall note to it - Agenda, attendees, etc. - this would have to be yet another row since the Canvas as it’s currently set up is not actually a piece of any DB. So I can’t schedule it in Google Calendar, and in fact I’m not sure I can even relate the canvas anywhere to any row in a table that’s in that Canvas. Real shame as in fact, Notion, which does allow you to pop open a row and add notes at the bottom, actually treats those notes as “blocks” and they also will become sub-rows eventually. If you don’t convert them to rows, they still remain invisible in some of the more relevant views in Notion, like Table. I would like simply to be able to add a rich text area with Canvas functionality, so I could reference some of those great formulas, and I would be more or less set here. Thanks!

Interesting idea. This would basically switch coda in to OneNote mode. Fascinating.

+1 !

+1
This would almost be the last step to make the same stuff possible as notion. I am also on the fence regarding the decision between notion and coda. In many regards coda is vastly superior - but when it comes to managing content and keeping content together, notion wins easily. It is very comfortable there to keep meeting notes, agenda, participating people, related documents etc. together plus adding tasks “on the fly” and keeping track of open issues stemming from a meeting.
I guess a quick fix - which might already be partly possible - would be to expand on the automation possible with sections. I would be totally fine with a solution that allows for automatic generation of a new section (in a given folder) based on a template and named based on some properties in a “meetings master-table” which would also keep track of the reference to the newly generated section. That would allow for easy “tagging” of sections (or section references to be precise) and maybe even track tasks generated in a meeting. A lookup-option for all sections referencing a given item would also be nice.
After that for me its only about better support to deal with external files and offline capacity.
“canvas type column” might go a long way along these lines.
I dunno. Really just getting into building a comprehensive “project-tracker” since I am just now becoming responsible for more projects which are bigger, more complex and involve more people…
However: I really like coda and just want to add that I feel the developers have produced a marvellous tool. Totally willing to pay for it - hopefully your payment scheme wont push out charitable organizations like mine, where there simply isnt big budget available…
Best Sven

I wanted to jump back in here and add that commenting would be another huge benefit for this feature. You guys released since this thread started some good functionality, and in fact all I can see missing now in the rich text fields in rows is the ability to comment, which I’d like to request here!

Thanks guys!