- The synchronization remains … cumbersome (to be polite).
- The annotations are flattened.
- The synchronization is limited (no Google Drive, Dropbox, Onedrive …).
The biggest innovation in MarginNote is not that it gives one place to annotate, research, and create study cards. I can do this sequence already. Granted, I must use two or three different apps, and granted by combining the three into one tool, MarginNote has overcome a technological hurdle. But that is not innovation.
The biggest innovation in MarginNote is that annotations can be tagged. AFAIK, this is only also possible in LiquidText. Interestingly, LiquidText also suffers that its annotations are flattened on export (and that it plays even worse with importing standard annotations from other apps).
The minute that an annotation app appears that allows tagging on its annotations and that overcomes the three limitations (stable sync, open export to other apps, and multi-cloud support), MarginNote and LiquidText will become two lone-standing apps on their own island. By example, with the new app, I will be able to annotate with tags, export to DevonThink, and compile the tagged annotations there. Or I can export to a mind map format, import to MindNode, and play with the tagged annotations in an app that is designed from the ground up as a well-structured mind mapping tool.
I applaud this effort. However, you have a product that cannot talk consistently, robustly, and routinely to the rest of the outside world (i.e. it does not sync well) in all its various languages (i.e. it can only access one of the wide range of cloud storage formats that exist), and what it says when it does talk cannot be understood by anyone else (i.e. its exported annotations are flattened). How far will your vision really take you looking ahead in the real world?
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JJW