Dabble V3: a major improvement

Dabble is the software I use for writing. For a variety of feature reasons, Word and Google Docs don’t work for me.

Some of Dabble features that are useful to me are:

• Write anywhere. I switch between a laptop, a chromebook, and my phone. All my writing stays sync between the devices. Standing in line somewhere? Pull out the phone and write a few lines.
• Write first, format later. When writing, the first and only job is to get the story written down. Any formatting actions (font, margins, etc.) that makes things pretty are a distraction for me. I have lost more time in Word formatting things over my career because I can. Dabble keeps all that stuff out of the way.
• It is cloud-based so the official version is kept in the cloud. I also download a backup on a regular basis.

They just did a massive rewrite and came out with Dabble V3. This is a major rewrite of an already awesome piece of software.

1. There is full versioning available. There has always been versioning for everything, but now that is exposed. You can create named versions, revert back to an old version, or just see the progress you have been making. The Time Machine is a very cool way to explore your history.
2. There is full change tracking. Others can access your Dabble projects (for free) for review and editing purposes. Track changes work like all the other software. You can either track changes for your own editing or track changes for others. When others review or edit your work, it happens outside your main branch so you can review their changes as you wish.
3. Managing all your writing projects got a full rewrite. The dashboard is more flexible for what you might need. I used this feature the first day I got it.
4. There is a unique IDEAS project that acts as a dumping ground for all those sudden ideas. Write down a quick note. Expand them as you want over time. Convert them to a full-fledged writing project when you are ready.
5. The whole thing looks more modern. They have continued the “if you don’t need a feature, make it invisible. As soon as you need a feature, you have it” design approach and they did an even better job than the first time around.
6. A lot of backend changes (new Help system, better synchronization, etc.) and a bunch of changes that will make it easier to expand in the future. While no software is ever future proof, the Dabble team made changes that will carry them into the foreseeable future.

The one caveat about Dabble is that it takes a moment to understand the overall feel. While it is much easier than Word, Docs, Scrivener), there are a few things that you wonder about, especially navigation. But once you learn then, it is trivial to remember. Check out the help or take five minutes and click around on things and you will figure it out. The learning curve is very small, but there is still one.

One little thing is that they added a bunch of formatting in. Sections, headers, etc. My personal opinion is those things detract from the writing (which is job #1). If you are worrying about how the words look, you are avoiding writing the words. But the Dabble team did a good job of keeping them out of sight so they don’t distract me.

Overall, an excellent release and one I am already appreciating.

Disclosure: I am a beta user for Dabble and have been playing with V3 for several weeks.