Emulate Coda.io as a Desktop app

Showcase Tips and Hacks
1

For anyone looking to use the app in an environment closer to a typical Desktop app rather than with a browser, here’s how.

  1. Install Google Chrome if you haven’t already (other browsers don’t support this feature yet)
  2. Follow this Google support guide to add a shortcut to the coda.io/docs website as an app (in a nutshell: go to coda.io/docs > open the Chrome shish kebab menu > More Tools > Create Shortcut > name it “Coda” > Ok)
  3. You will now have an app shortcut somewhere to launch the Coda.io website in a new Chrome window at the “/docs” route
  4. Open a regular Chrome tab and go to chrome://apps/ (paste this in the URL bar and hit enter)
  5. Find the Coda app (should have the icon we know and love), right click on it, and select the “Open as Window” option (a little check-mark should appear beside it)
  6. Open the emulated desktop app with the shortcut Chrome created (on macOS the default path to this shortcut was home/Applications/Chrome Apps, but you should be able to find it by searching your filesystem for “Coda” regardless of your OS), and pin it to your app tray/taskbar for future use

The result (ignore the hour :roll_eyes:):

Screen Shot 2021-02-07 at 3.42.43 AM
Screen Shot 2021-02-07 at 3.42.43 AM2880×1800 234 KB

Screen Shot 2021-02-07 at 3.43.39 AM

Advantages:

  • looks and feels exactly the same as Coda in the browser (have been using it exclusively like this for about a week any have not noticed any differences)
  • genuinely feels like a desktop app
  • doesn’t have the browser UI clutter (URL bar, menus, etc.)
  • you can still use any extensions you have installed with Chrome (e.g. Dark Reader for dark mode)
  • you can still backtrack through the navigation history the same way you would in a browser
  • you can still refresh the page
  • no need to keep track of a separate browser window or tab for Coda

Downsides:

  • if you don’t usually use Chrome as your browser, then launching the Coda.io emulated desktop app also launches the Chrome app. The Chrome app being launched likely does not affect performance more than it should (I think it just indicates that a Chromium instance has been launched to host the Coda.io website in the emulated desktop app) since a browser window is not actually launched, but it does cause the Chrome app to show up in your app tray along with the Coda.io app icon.
  • you can’t have multiple tabs open in the app. You can still open links in new tabs but this will launch a new Chrome window.

(pro-tip this can be done for any of your favourite web-apps!)

16 Likes
2

Cool trick. Thank you. :smiley:

1 Like
3

I did not know about this, this is really cool. Not just for coda but for all kinds of apps

2 Likes
4

Good solution. Have applied it and am happy with that. But, it’d be great if Coda comes up with a Mac App sooner.

3 Likes
5

If you have the newer M1 macs I believe you can install the Coda iPad app as well.

1 Like
6

I dont think i can ever go back

1 Like
7

ive been doing this for my coda work for months now.
then suddenly this happened…

Coda 25_10_2021 14_27_00_LI (2)

an extra band across the top of the screen that was not there before
if i click on the x - it just closes the whole window
and i cant remember how to get rid of it!

(i know this happened to me before with another tool,
and i figured out how to fix it,
but i cant recall how)

im on chrome in windows10

help!
max

8

:point_right: :point_right: :point_right: CODA :point_left: :point_left: :point_left: causes too many problems :bomb: with browsers. in a few hours it produced more than 2400 items in the browser history.

I believe that I will not go on with CODA until they write an APP :frowning:

1 Like
9

Dear @Agile_Dynamics ,

You might want to share your doc with the Codans to troubleshoot it.
Hopefully they will be able to check the logs and identify the root cause.

Of course it would be great if you can share the outcome :building_construction:

10

Thanks! But that is probably not what was requested. If you just open coda this way in Chrome, you are actually still in the internet and don’t have your data where you want them: in a private space. Isn’t it?

1 Like
11

This is how I use Facebook Messenger on my laptop, but it didn’t even occur to me to use it for Coda! My laptop has a 16:9 display so vertical space is at a high premium here. This will help a lot!

1 Like
12

You can also use an application called WebCatalog. This does not use Chrome and also looks like it works about the same your solution (along with allowing you to easily use other Coda accounts if you have any). You can check it out here Coda - Desktop App for Mac, Windows (PC), Linux - WebCatalog. It works like a charm for me

image
image1920×1080 135 KB

2 Likes
13

On Edge just use the “install as an app” feature.

2 Likes
14

I’ve been using this feature for a couple of years but recently when I have been trying to add new docs as apps (using the same method) the option doesn’t appear any more, has anyone else had this problem?