An Offline, Desktop App for WorkFlowy

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December 18, 2013

Screenshot 2013-12-18 10.45.12

Offline. That magical word. We’ve been promising it for years, and now, finally, you can use WorkFlowy in a plane, train or automobile. In the subway, under the ocean, in the desert. With a frog, in a bog, on a log. And so forth.

We’ve been using the desktop app internally for several months. I personally use it almost exclusively now, and am really happy with it.  There’s one caveat, though. We built the desktop application on top of Google’s Chrome browser. You don’t need to use Chrome to use the app, but you do need to have Chrome installed. Hopefully that isn’t too much of an annoyance for you. If it is, we’re looking into launching a desktop app that doesn’t require Chrome, but we can’t say exactly when we’ll get to that.

Oh, and one more thing. Offline is free. We’ve been saying offline would require a WorkFlowy Pro account, but we decided it was too important a feature and that everybody needed it. So, you are welcome. And also, you should still pay us, because, otherwise how will we feed our families? How will we keep WorkFlowy going?

So, what are you waiting for?

Install WorkFlowy Desktop

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Jeremy Petzold
6 years ago

I would really like a Workflowy app in the windows 10 store.

J.Dumit
J.Dumit
6 years ago

Hi, i have been a longtime Workflowy user and been using the desktop app for a couple of months now. There is a weird bug when i enter @ tags but not #. That is, when i start typing @cal for @Calendar and then the choice for @Calendar is offered and i hit [tab], the @Calendar is inserted but then the “cal” is still there after a space. So now it looks like: @Calendar cal
this is only true for the desktop app, not for the browser.
Thanks

Jay Gamel
Jay Gamel
6 years ago

I messed up and removed several files from Google/chrome trying to fix another problem. Now, Workflowy doesn’t display on my desktop (mac, 0sx 10.12.5) I can see it online. How can I fix this?

Jerud
Jerud
6 years ago
Reply to  Jay Gamel

Migrate to Dynalist. I got tired of dealing with Chrome bogging down my system with helper tasks, just so i could run Workflowy, And Workflowy hasn’t shown any sign of sorting this out for years. Dynalist has an OSX native, web, and mobile apps, and will import your Workflowy documents automatically. The developers are also super-responsive and transparent.

Rohov Dmytro
6 years ago

Is it possible to add «automatic text replacement» on Mac? This feature is sooo crucial for me. If it’s real — my Evernote will be sooo deprecated.

What do you think?

Jesse Patel
Jesse Patel
6 years ago
Reply to  Rohov Dmytro

That would definitely be cool!

Marlo
Marlo
6 years ago

1. Launch your WorkFlowy using your Google Chrome for the “first time” because you don’t need to do it again if you follow my instruction.

2. While your WorkFlowy is running, right-click the WorkFlowy icon on your Taskbar and hit “Pin this program from Taskbar” or something like that.

3. You can now launch your WorkFlowy without opening your Chrome.

You’re welcome 🙂

Marlo
Marlo
6 years ago
Reply to  Marlo

Or alternatively…
1. Hit your start button
2. Search for “WorkFlowy”
3. Right-click and click “Open File Location”
4. Copy the icon and paste it on your desktop.
5. You’re welcome 🙂

Jerud
Jerud
6 years ago
Reply to  Marlo

Sadly this approach does not work for Mac. Although Workflowy can be ‘pinned’ to the dock, Chrome will still launch when you launch Workflowy and stay in the dock. “Alt+Tab” switching to Chrome switches to Workflowy instead of the browser, and there’s no keyboard shortcut to switch to a Chrome browser window instead (or even subsequently). So quickly toggling between *any* app and the Chrome browser is impossible without Workflowy getting in the way. Frustrating.

Max Herzl-Betz
Max Herzl-Betz
6 years ago

I love using Workflowy, but my company doesn’t like having data stored outside of our local hard drives. Can the offline desktop app be configured to not sync with my internet task list and just store and retrieve data from my hard drive?

Jesse Patel
Jesse Patel
6 years ago
Reply to  Max Herzl-Betz

No, unfortunately :/

Romain Thiebaut
Romain Thiebaut
2 years ago
Reply to  Jesse Patel

Same need here!

Ole Sturm
Ole Sturm
7 years ago

This is great but I can’t figure out how to launch the app without going through the Chrome Web Store – are you able to point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

Jesse Patel
Jesse Patel
7 years ago
Reply to  Ole Sturm

Yeah, this is the big downside of the Chrome app system. I launch it on mac with a keyboard shortcut command+space then search for “WorkFlowy” and hit enter. There may be a windows equivalent. In Chrome itself, there’s an “Apps” section in the bookmarks bar, at the left, and it is in there. Or you can find it in “Extensions” within the “Window” menu.

Andre Scholich
Andre Scholich
6 years ago
Reply to  Ole Sturm

In case this is still relevant: on Windows you can go to Extensions -> Workflowy -> Details -> Create Shortcuts to pin the app to the Taskbar.

Best

Andre
Andre
6 years ago
Reply to  Ole Sturm

In case this is still relevant: on Windows you can go to Extensions -> Workflowy -> Details -> Create Shortcuts to pin the app to the Taskbar.

Best

Alexandre Santos (@alsantos123)

I would be very happy with native OS X App =D

Richie
7 years ago

Me too. I’m a big fan but I’m looking for an alternative service with native client just for that. I don’t use Chrome and I hate to have it open. Besides, Chrome process is using too much resources for my taste.

Josh
Josh
8 years ago

I just installed the desktop app on Windows and I’m trying to find out whether it is using a local copy of my WF list on my harddrive.

I want to be able to:

– work locally if I want to when no connection is available (no need to log into the server

– have all my changes sync up to the server when I connect again

– have a local copy of my WF list locally on my drive so I can back that up here on my RAID. Dropbox backups are nice, but they are dependent on being connected.

Does this do all that? Thanks

Jesse Patel
Jesse Patel
8 years ago
Reply to  Josh

It does everything except the last, because your WF isn’t stored in a particular file that is easy to back up, but in a database that is built into the application.

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