Gingko Desktop – An Update

Hi all!

The Desktop version of Gingko is nearly ready to be launched!
You can find it on the new homepage, here:
https://gingko.io

Here are some of its features:

  • Downloadable desktop app for Windows, Linux, and Mac
  • Work entirely offline, and save to files, by default
  • Full undo/version history (not navigable yet, though)
  • Drag and Drop
  • Syntax Highlighting
  • Import/Export JSON files from/to web version (manually)
  • Export Markdown

And here is some of whatโ€™s still missing:

  • Automatic sync or backups
    (but you can save files to a Dropbox folder to achieve auto backups)
  • LaTeX support
  • Card-splitting
  • Search
  • Import OPML or Markdown
  • Export to Word, or any other format besides plain-text and JSON.

It’s been a long road, but I’m happy with how it’s turned out. It might not be much different to look at, but it’s been rewritten in such a way as to allow much more powerful features to be built in the future.

Check it out, let me know what you think, so I can iron out the last few bugs before announcing it to everyone on the full mailing list.

Thanks!
Adriano

14 thoughts on “Gingko Desktop – An Update

  1. I’d love updates from within the app, but that can come after a good search/replace (maybe even with ‘ticks’ in the scrollbar showing matches, a la Chrome!). App is fun to play with but I can’t do anything extensive with it without search. ๐Ÿ™

    Suggestion: to follow Mac app conventions, the Gingko menu should have Preferences and Quit (not ‘Exit’) and Hide_Gingko and Hide_Others, and there should also be a File menu next to the Gingko Menu for creating & closing windows & tabs, for Save/SaveAs options, for Page Setup, and for Print.

    1. Thanks for the comments. Updates from within the app are now working (as of version 0.8.5). Search will be coming.

      Mac conventions are very useful for me to hear about from you. I have never used a Mac extensively, so these details tend to be missing from my designs. Thanks!

  2. I initially could not install the desktop version on Windows 10. I had to disable my Windows Defender App and Browser Control temporarily.

    1. Thanks. This seems to be an issue for some, but it might have gone away. The code signed with a digital certificate, but for new apps, there’s a period where you might get warnings until enough people have installed it.

  3. I have loved the concept of Gingko. Web Ginko is very useful – I can write anywhere I have access to the Web. My one concern is that web Ginko does not translate well to a landscape Android device (too much wasted space top and bottom). Now my worry is that a desktop version will, once more, lock my work up on a specific machine type and my Android workhorse will be completely out in the cold. Does Elm make it possible to port desktop Ginko to Android?

    1. Eventually, I’ll be using the same codebase (Elm etc), and pair it with something like Cordova to get it to work on Android devices.

      I really don’t want your work to be “locked” into any one device… will try my best to support as many as I can.

  4. I am currently using the desktop version of Workflowy for a work project and love the fluidity AND the new color scheme.

    What I am running into, however, is difficulty with exporting my work in a usable form as only Text and JSON exports are currently available. I am looking forward to future export formats!

    Do you plan on also including the “Content to Export” feature [allowing you to specify what to export: whole tree, current card & sub-cards, columns, etc.] along with the different export formats in future versions?

    Thank you!

    1. Hi Katsumi

      Export current card, column number X, or whole tree has been added to Gingko desktop.
      I plan to support all the options that are available in the web version, and more as well.

  5. Hi,
    I am looking for a decent way to use it on my iPad Pro.
    Any plans for a native app?
    Or a fullscreen webkit wrapper?
    How is the security (encryption) handeled for the Web Version?

    1. Currently the best way to use Gingko on iPad is to login to the online version with Chrome. No concrete plans for a native app, but the technology decisions I’ve made were in part to make that possible in the future.

      Encryption is standard HTTPS, so everything you send to/receive from the servers is encrypted and can’t be read on route.

  6. I am greatly looking for forward to Latex support and hope you can successfully implement it. Also like being to save locally rather than to the cloud, I still like having my work securely kept off the cloud storage. Thanks for providing a fun useful application.

  7. Hi Adriano,

    I’ve been using gingko extensively, both the web and the desktop version. I think what I miss the most is the full window editing mode of the web one.

    Will we see something like that on the desktop version? I really hope so ๐Ÿ™‚

    Thanks for your time!

  8. Hi Adriano,

    an old thread but I didn’t find a more recent place to post this.
    * Do you plan to develop Gingko Desktop further ?
    * Will there be an interface from Gingkowriter-online to Gingko-desktop that allows for uploading/downloading data (including trees)?

    Cheers

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