Introduction

Notion and Dropbox paper share a fundamental feature; creating documents. Since these tools at their core are for creating content, I expect them to excel in this area. Notion has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. In the words of Marie Kondo, Dropbox Paper "Sparks joy". Notion is the cluttered closet that I toss trash into before company arrives. I close the door and hope I never have to open it again. Why do I feel this way? Well, let's examine six simple features that make Dropbox Paper my go to tool for document creation.

First we have to acknowledge a few details. The first is that Notion and Dropbox Paper are apples and oranges. Dropbox paper has an intentionally restricted feature set. Notion gives you the kitchen sink, including all of the leaks. They are at face value not solving the exact same problems. However I do have to ask myself... do I really want my document storage tool to also manage my epic planning?

Google docs barely even earns a mention - however they did announce support for markdown this year, better late than never, right?

Overview

• What is Dropbox Paper
• The six reasons Dropbox Paper is better than Notion

What is Dropbox Paper

Paper is a free product offered by Dropbox. It offers a document editor with a small feature set that is beautifully executed. It never gets in the way, but lets you instead focus on creating the content.

Some features that I love: Dropbox Paper only offers header 1, header 2, and header 3 sizes. The only formatting allowed is bold, strikethrough, and underline. Images are easy to embed. Code has first class support. Markdown is supported. Tables, calendars, checkboxes, mentions, and comments. Autogenerated table of contents. That's pretty much the whole feature set. This is one of Dropbox Papers biggest strengths. The limited feature set lets creators focus on creating.

You are obligated to improve your writing when you are limited to these tools. Documents that communicate complex concepts should be boiled down to be simple and concise. Dropbox paper is your best friend for this. The interface is also incredibly clean. No clutter anywhere. Just your beautiful document.

Six features Dropbox Paper does better than Notion

Line level information on author (See initials to the left of line)

Every line with a new author has the authors initials next to it. If you have multiple lines in a row with the same author, the initials only appear on the first line. This makes seeing who edited a document as simple as a glance. It's fantastic.

Text folding under headers, also known as collapse and expand

The ability to collapse and expand headers gives you the ability to concentrate on information as it becomes relevant. This single features increases the readability significantly. If I want to get an idea of the high level ideas I can fold all the content under the headers. This allows me to get a high level view of what the key ideas in a document are. Cleverly authored articles in Dropbox Paper maximize the value this feature offers. It's legitimately brilliant, and also so simple. Losing this capability in other editors is crippling once you have experienced the value it provides.

In my picture below all headers are folded except Grep, because I only want to look at grep right now. It's like expandable file folders, in a document.

Assignments and reminders

Dropbox paper has first class support for checkboxes. If you @mention a user next to a checkbox, it becomes a todo for that user. You can even put a date. They have a section in dropbox with all of your todos, and it will also remind you via email to complete todos. Why is this important? For my role I have to review product specs and tech specs. Every product and tech spec gets a Stakeholders section where each key stakeholder is mentioned. This fixes two problems that I have seen companies struggle with:

1. Getting sign off on a document that people should review, but don't. No more chasing people down. It completely automates away sign off and approval of documents that require cross functional collaboration.
2. No more surprised stakeholders saying "But I never agreed to this!" or "I didn't know this was coming". My response? "Oh really? You put a check in the box", or even better "We asked you to put a check in this box by this date and you didn't do it".

Email updates with file diffs

Another one of my favorite features is that when you are assigned as a stakeholder, you get an email feed of diffs as the document changes. The dropbox backend is magical about combining these in logical ways. I am always happy to see what is removed, and what is added in a doc. Push notifications are a proven way to ensure that people stay up to date when collaborating. Without this feature I'm stuck going to a doc history page to see what has changed. That's a lot more effort than opening a single email thread and reviewing the items that have changed.

Wider screen support for tables

The attention to detail in UX is what makes Notion a literal nightmare for me. For example, the tables don't center properly. Dropbox paper makes sure that tables always render beautifully. Considering tables show up in almost all of my documents this feature while minor, makes a huge difference on my quality of life. I shouldn't have to hunt and scroll to be able to see all of the details. I want to use my whole screen and I want it to look beautiful, thanks.

Present mode

Dropbox paper offers a legitimate presentation mode. It's actually a button, and it makes the document significantly larger for when you are presenting to stakeholders. This is another tiny quality of life UX feature that makes a huge difference. Light mode and dark mode supported, as well as full screen.

Number seven, beautiful document editing

I said six, but now I'm fired up and I can't help but sneak in a seventh item. The document editing is absolutely perfect in Dropbox Paper, and ultimately this is what matters the most to me. I can write in markdown, but it's not required. Everything goes exactly where it should. My cursor is never lost. I don't have to dig through menus to find my elements.

When I contrast this to Notion my palms literally start to sweat. Notion jumps my items around. I have to remove them and re-add them all the time. It's actually so bad that I craft my documents in dropbox paper, and I copy and paste them into Notion. Shouldn't the document editing be the strength of a document editing tool? The menu below is the only thing you see in Dropbox paper. It's intuitive, not invasive.

Number eight, amazing search

Dropbox already has directory structure with beautiful permissions. It works just as you expect. Simple. The bottom line though is that in 2022 I don't want to use directories. I want to search and have my result come up instantly. Dropbox Paper has me covered here. The search is easy to access, and it works perfectly every time. Sometimes I only remember a snippet of a document I wrote 3 years ago. I put that snippet in and POW, my result comes up. I have never lost a document in Dropbox Paper. The search box in Notion is tucked away in the corner with almost no screen real estate. It makes me want to scream.

Conclusion

All of these seemingly tiny features add up to a tremendously better user experience in Dropbox Paper. Notion may offer additional features, but the clumsyness of the implementation and the constant NQS (Non quality signals) make it a tool that I avoid. Consider using Dropbox Paper. Use a tool that works for you, not against you, and experience the difference it makes. Do you agree or disagree? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about which tool I missed, and what I got wrong. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your content production in the tool of your choice. All that matters is that you can express your creativity in the way that works best for you.