"Dear Santa Coda..." Our wishlists for Xmas 🎅

Hi all,
Christmas is approaching and maybe it’s time to ask for some useful presents.
Let’s see if our beloved elves at Coda would collect our kind requests…

Dear Santa…
Please have a look at my three wishes (prioritised):

  1. A direction. I asked many times (Release Notes, Public Roadmap) something that let us better understand work and vision for Coda evolutions. I’m spending significant time with Coda and I’m doing it with enthusiasm. But it’s a quick shifting world… if priorities are in the formatting area rather than in the charts enhancements (for instance), I might search - sadly - for alternatives. Better sooner than later.
  2. GDrive Pack Integration. Along with the excellent GMail and Google Calendar, this would dramatically help my administrative and strategic processes.
  3. Charts: I use charts a lot and I’m fond of data driven visualisation. Enhancing this area would help a lot both reporting and analytical insights. Having an easier way to formatting charts in a single page (and maybe some more charts types) would be a dream.

Well, thanks for listening!
I’ll be waiting… :grimacing: :christmas_tree:

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There’s something magical about Coda that quickly becomes apparent when you have a canvas that effortlessly blends text, data, and visuals. As such, user expectations run high because – well – we always want more. But this opportunity to seamlessly blend these three elements is super-charged with formulas - a pervasive ability to apply business and process logic in the context of the blends we create.

Text
Nailed it! Especially with the recent formatting enhancements. Sure, there are many areas to innovate, but the vast majority of text-related requirements are generally and enthusiastically addressed.

Data
Pretty much nailed it! Like text, nearly every essential aspect of data integration into Coda documents is provided. Room for improvement for sure.

Visuals
Nailed up, but only with tacks. :wink: BUT!!! Let’s be fair; visualizations – unlike text and data itself – is an expansive, complex, and growing segment. On this product axis Coda will NEVER be able to say it’s 90 to 95% complete. Furthermore, no user intent on creating that perfect visualization will ever be fully satisfied.

Vernacular

I purposefully do not use the term “data visualization” (in this rant) because gaining a deeper understanding sometimes requires things like text analytics, image analytics, and even video and audio analytics. Imagine text analytics that show word counts by section, word and phrase frequencies, entity extraction, link extractions, etc. My point - visualizing information is big. It’s vast. And it’ll never be finished.

Visualization is a Different Beast Altogether

Achieving broad visualization capabilities, in my view, falls into a class of features that must lean on deep integration with D3, Vega, etc. And then there’s the AI wildcard - finding patterns in a Coda document that reveal new perspectives or embracing data science integral with Coda narratives.

Rendering text and data are pretty straightforward and there are many innovative aspects that Coda has already proven - these are the essential things we love about the platform.

In contrast, visualizations are about the interpretation of information (data, text, etc). As such, the universe of possibilities is massive and no single person, team, or company can ever meet every challenge. If you decide to tackle the art and science of visualizing information - as Coda has certainly done - I believe you must accept the reality that for each dollar invested in your own visualization technology must be significantly discounted as compared to the same investments directed toward visualization integration.

My suggestion - for every dollar spent enhancing the existing charting capabilities, spend two dollars making it seamless to leverage visualization libraries. Just sayin…

I love it! It’s freakin’ Christmas Day and I can’t stop admiring this platform.

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