Using Craft for Note-Taking and Project Management

[@MaiElizabeth]

Unfortunately very few people talk about Craft on KZbin. This is my favourite app I can’t live without. It suits my aesthetic. Please Chris, do more videos on Craft especially new tips or tricks.

[@christ0phr]

I second this!

[@lias.hyperfixation]

I third this!

[@Pameliux23]

I’m out of blocks already and found it’s a pay monthly app :( so sad I was really enjoying it. I don’t if it justifies to pay

[@frankienesarajah]

@@Pameliux23 if you’re a student u can get the pro for free now!

[@Pameliux23]

@@frankienesarajah oh thanks!

[@andymo1984]

Craft has been a remarkable change for how I take notes, create content, and stay organized. One of my favorite apps that have launched in years. Great video Chris!

[@sean2532]

I started using Craft about a year ago after seeing your original videos, I can’t live without it now. I pinched your idea for a dashboard document and have it as a widget both on my iPad & phone, also a widget that takes me into Today for quick notes.

[@user-gh7kc2qn6r]

Please don't stop what you are doing! you put out some amazing content on KZbin! Also very detailed oriented and I enjoy watching your content. 90% of all items you put out I either buy or download because I know you actually use the stuff you promote. Keep on putting out amazing content.

[@cvnis957]

You make me want to stop what I'm doing and customize my iPad

[@itschrishuerta]

and that’s how I got here lol

[@fatherotis]

More Craft content! Love it. Thanks for this one, Chris!

[@martinmichniak]

This was really awesome walkthrough! All my thumbs up, it made me to install craft on all my devices (work, personal, phone, tablet) and start using it extensively! Thank you and keep up the great work you are doing

[@greggodwin781]

Enjoyed this video! I went all-in on Craft about a year ago, and there's a lot to like about it. Once their organizational hierarchy clicked, I found a nice flow when working with it. When possible, I prefer to create a single document with subpages (or cards) to organize everything, instead of a folder with a bunch of disparate documents. It keeps the sidebar navigation cleaner, and it's easier to share one link with someone rather than a whole folder of stuff. And I'm glad you mentioned the ease of importing/exporting. It's the main reason why I'm not nearly as concerned as others are with their recent round of funding and accompanying moves. If Craft stops working for me at some point (which I don't foresee!), I know that I can get my data out and move to another app with very little difficulty.

[@yerald_a]

If you prefer to create a single document and branch subpages off of it (definitely my preferred way of using Craft too), beware that those don’t export in a great format. If you create separate pages from scratch and just interlink them, it’s fine, but embedded subpages and cards all get mushed into one single file when you export, and it can be a lot of work to clean them up for use in another markdown app. I imagine that an automated crawler that would re-chop them into separate files and re-interlink in the syntax your new app uses actually wouldn’t be that hard to creat, but AFAIK it doesn’t exist yet. I moved to Obsidian about a year ago, which I love, but I’ve been considering coming back to Craft so that I can make use of the web app to access my notes from work computers (Obsidian only has desktop and mobile apps). But the hassle of moving from Craft to Obsidian was so hard (probably 25 hours of manually separating my files, switching custom MD syntax, and recreating links for my notes that probably equal about the equivalent of 2,500 pages) that I’m wary about moving back since I never want to have to do all that again if I ever want to leave Craft again.

[@ebonymachelle4086]

I love this app. I am in the process of transferring all my notes and documents over from evernote to this. It has been a life saver. Easy to use and navigate. And it’s easy to style and make pretty with it being over complicated.

[@katyparrygg]

This video is SO helpful! There’s so much I learned. I had no idea I could reference previous documents - I was hoping this would be a feature I could work around, but it actually exists! :D

[@Akella1986]

Love your content. It is different from the other KZbinrs and definitely has it’s own style.

[@j.d.5709]

You turned me onto Craft from Notion a year ago haven’t looked back since. I main an iPad Pro as my on the go PC and a m1 mini at home the experience is so consistent I even use it for my business now. So thanks for your videos keep it up. 👍

[@MaiElizabeth]

Same here! Chris was the reason I dumped Notion for Craft.

[@bujotaduran8245]

Beautifully summarized. Thanks for helping me decide if I needed to migrate my workflow notes.

[@zollotech]

Thanks for the walkthrough. Super helpful.

[@ChrisLawley]

Anytime! 😊

[@rebeccaw9656]

I think it was you who introduced me to Craft, but it was when they had the calendar, daily note update that I fully got on board. It’s become my second brain, for sure, causing me to leave Notion. Also what cemented it for me as a mature aged student, was the ability to imbed pages within a table, which makes it incredible for creating multiple landing pages within tables, within pages and cards… and it just works with my non-typical brain.

[@FinsRideMC]

Chris, great video, looking forward to the teased process/workflow/shortcut you teased in the video and on twitter.

[@barelycontainedstupidity9249]

This looks great. I used Notion for a while, but left it because It didn't have offline access. Tried a couple of other note apps, but never found one quite like it. I will have to give this a try once they have a android app. Thanks for the video.

[@Theaal4life]

Craft is by far the best organization app. Love this piece of software

[@rmrny]

You breezed over your task workflow. Look forward to seeing how you are handling tasks in Craft. It’s one of my struggle points and I am always changing my workflow with the tasks.

[@knutvonheim3838]

Yes! Task management and collaboration in teams would be great! Calendar views for teams? Shared notes after a sales call, for example

[@JamesAnson]

With you on this Bob. I love so much about Craft but it's Task Management is lacking. There doesn't seem to be a commitment to strengthening this side of the app. I've currently commiting to using an up and comer NOTE app called REFLECT. Got some real clever guys working on it and is super, super fast. It lacks some of Craft's aesthetics but has a very strong roadmap (including task management) that it is working towards.

[@rmrny]

@@JamesAnson I’ve tried many other apps that have better task management, but none that come close to the way Craft handles pages and building documents. I changed the mindset and revamped all my documents. Now I have a main page of backlog tasks linked to their associated project. Then just the move to daily note feature to keep a log of what gets done that day.

[@jeffhale1189]

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate knowing how you use your iPad. Blessings on your day 👍🏻

[@GoADHDGo]

I looooooove Craft. It’s buttery smooth. It’s like a pretty Notion… without databases.

[@ChrisLawley]

YUP!

[@JezzLundkvist]

Did you read my mind? I recenlty saw your older videos about this app last night. And now you giving us this. Must be mind reading 😄

[@DavidFaulk]

Great video. Really enjoyed it and agree with your position on Craft.

[@benmills3929]

Amazingly helpful - after searching different apps, this looks like the one for me! Subscribed 👏

[@markg7852]

Wow, great video. I am learning to use this app more and more. Your video shows me that I am not using it, to its potential. I need to get to work. Thanks again. Look forward to more of your videos.

[@MadLadsAnonymous]

Craft is probably the most slept-on app among its peers. The iOS UI is crazy slick. First app in ages that I subscribed to.

[@yerald_a]

That is one big thing I like about Craft. I use Obsidian now, which has a solid iPad app and an /okay/ iPhone one, but it’s nothing on Crafts amazingly good iPad app. It’s desktop quality, but does a great job supporting touch and keyboard/mouse interactions equally.

[@TolmachLegal]

Thank you indeed for your videos - informative and exciting 🚀

[@keepproductive]

Yes Christopher! ✨

[@netwatcher2049]

Great video! Do you still use Drafts as your note taker? How do you balance between Drafts, Things and Craft?

[@TDefton]

This feels like a better version of Notion! I'll definitely give craft a try!

[@AivarsMeijers]

Very interesting. I'm jumping between Notion and Obsidian atm. Perhaps I should give a try to Craft 🤔

[@reddysatyajeet7]

is a fantastic app. I started using it and I just love it

[@VitaminB3TA]

Great Video! Moved to craft some weeks ago and also wonder why not more videos about it on youtube. 💡

[@yerald_a]

I love Craft, particularly for long form writing. I switched to Obsidian because I like the fiddly/techy customizability, I like exposed markdown, and I found it easier to fit my preferred note taking style, but honestly I kinda miss Craft for two reasons: it has a web app, so I would be able to use it natively on my own computers but also access it online from work devices where I can’t use Obsidian, I really like the way it embeds notes within other notes. All that said, exporting from Craft to Obsidian or another traditional Markdown app is /rough/, and I’m hesitant to move back and lock my stuff into their system. They use Markdown, but the custom approaches they use for embedded notes lead to separate pages being combined (in my case a few collections of 50+ pages ended up getting merged into single files) in really strange ways when you export them to MD, and they are filled with custom MD that needs to be cleaned up. I like Craft now, but don’t want to lose the freedom to leave, or destine myself for weeks of work making my notes usable if they ever shut down. If they improved their exporting, I’d seriously consider returning.

[@93hothead]

dang i was looking around for something good and you just gave the best option

[@andricheli]

I am struggling with exactly the same thing. I used Craft for a year and loved it. I primarily only use Apple devices and it's a fantastic app for the iPhone and iPad. BUT, I switched to Obsidian because I didn't want to be locked in, wanted a more secure solution, and wanted more flexibility. It was such a pain to move from Craft to Obsidian and I feel a lot better having all my notes in plain markdown files. But I definitely miss the aesthetics of Craft. The only thing Craft doesn't have that I really need are tags. I really wish Craft could work on top of a folder, just the way Obsidian does. at the end of the day, I do not want to go back to having my information locked in any way in an app, even if I technically can "export" it. There's something about having all my notes in a Markdown file on my computer that just seems safer.

[@SeanMcKendall]

Where does your Dashboard document reside? I've been thinking about creating something similar and your approach would work perfectly for me. Based on the navigation, it doesn't appear to be located in a folder. I'm still new to Craft (having moved from Notion) and I may not be understanding how the hierarchy works. Thanks for another great video!

[@REChief]

Ah, man. If Notion didn’t already have its hooks in me I would totally switch to Craft. Seems like it’s just Notion but more polished and user friendly.

[@ChrisLawley]

It's so worth the jump. I've tried both, and Notion just doesn't have a good iPad experience.

[@MostafaAhmedAhmed81]

I played with Craft for some time. Its native experience wins over Notion. However, l can’t give up databases of Notion. I built a complete system with related databases that can only be done within Notion.

[@MelissaNoelleAnderson]

@@ChrisLawley I was having problems with some settings on my Notion and it was only because those settings were only available on desktop and not iPad or iPhone apps. It was frustrating especially when I'm trying to integrate as much iPad use as possible!

[@andricheli]

I would say it’s like Notion but better file ownership. Not as much as obsidian or logseq but way better than Notion.

[@MostafaAhmedAhmed81]

@@MelissaNoelleAnderson I don’t have an iPad, but I think you can use the web browser instead of the app. Not ideal I know, but as I know Safari in iPadOS uses desktop features by default. It will like Safari on the Mac. I hope they give more attention to the iPad app.

[@soyyo5260]

I love using Craft. However, I do have an issue when exporting to Markdown. It exports the text but with links to Craft in all the pages/tags I created in the note. Is there a way to just export the text as markdown without the links? I haven’t figured that out and then just clean up the file afterwards.

[@jamiexmn]

You just sold me on Craft! Been looking for a “second brain” system and they have all seemed too complicated or too barebones. Craft seems to have a nice friendly balance to it all.

[@clintonelliott340]

I’ll give this app a go and see how I like it. Thanks!

[@Vicncoffee]

Hi Chris, great video as always! Just a quick question, how would you compare Craft with Evernote?

[@brianwalsh288]

Dozens of pages on mechanical keyboards might be the dorkiest thing I’ve heard in a while. Bravo Chris 😂

[@dazgllghr]

Great video Christopher! Have been a big user of Craft myself since your introductory videos on it. Quick Question: What theme are you using for Craft? I’d imagine System Dark Mode, but in your B-roll footage Craft’s theme looks more blue than black (similar to the Twitter app background colour). Just curious if you changed it somehow. Love all the videos and can’t wait for more!

[@ChrisLawley]

It's the system dark theme. When I color grade I lighten up the video so it's easier for people to see what's on the screen.

[@fletcherbrown728]

Another great informative video. You never disappoint. NOW - Is there an /Ask AI or equivalent in Craft similar to Notion?

[@igorchichkin509]

Cool 😎 im a big Craft user : love it 💓💓💓🎉👍☀️⭐️👏🥇🌟🙏

[@rodrigoruiz1988]

Big fan (and longtime user) of Craft 🎉

[@Night.02]

Is the free plan 1gb enough for student who only takes note?

[@bkdooz]

This looks like a nice seamless step up from some of the things that are a little clunky with Onenote and Notion. Does it have any kind of integration with shared tasks, Gantt charts, or other projects management tools like that? It drives me crazy to no end that MS has all of these tools but absolutely no way to seamlessly link them together. An app that could do all of that plus knowledge management would be so powerful.

[@TheBardsCorner]

Great review! What PDF editor do you use on your iPad? I use PDFs for teaching, need a folder for each student or class, possibility to open multiple documents at the same time, easily export annotated pages. Thanks

[@singltw]

How do you manage tasks on different pages such as your meeting note example? Do you review that right after the meeting and move it to your task manager?

[@devarni]

How do you track the status of projects in Craft? I have always used Notion for this, it works very well there, e.g. in the board view. In Craft (but actually in all note apps) you have to implement this differently.

[@knutvonheim3838]

Craft is very useful and on many of my devices. I am an individual subscriber now, and would like to explore using it on our team at work. Are you planning on another video for this? 😁 Perhaps with the Craft team? 👍🏼

[@willhelliwell]

Oh man. I'm using Obsidian as my journal and note taking app. ClickUp is my task manager. And Notion? I've fallen a bit out of love with it. The problem is, people happily pay me to build Notion templates and workspaces for them (not a bad problem to have 😂) And now there's Craft which looks like it could replace Notion for me.

[@ChrisLawley]

Totally get that! I like Craft over Notion because the app is native and work really well.

[@kingkirby563]

love this app

[@Gaa31]

Hi, thanks for the video !! Ahhhh I’m really hesitating to switch from Notion (where I’ve already built my Uni organization) to Craft… I’m afraid it would take too much time building everything again … Can you turn a page or card typed on Craft into a PDF A4 format file ?? And custom the font size ? If so, that would be a major point… because on Notion, when I type a document, I can print the PDF, but can’t change the font size nor center the text properly, so the text is printed either in gigantic letters or tiny tiny ones…. Thank you so much for your help !!

[@deadringer-cultofdeathratt8813]

I’m free from the monotony of Todoist and things 3. This is what I’ve been looking for.

[@bamssecret]

ohhh I need to look into this one ... similar to notion

[@alexossan2829]

The only problem I see with Craft is how expensive it is. The free tier gives only 1000 blocks which is really only viable for trying it out quickly. At $60 per year, that's a hefty price to pay if you don't need the collaboration and online publishing features. They're really missing out on the single-person market. The only online feature I need is sync between devices, and I feel that under $20-30 per year is something I'd pay to get the pretty Craft feel.

[@adammorra3813]

60 a year? Damn thats a lot

[@be1684]

50% off right now!

[@angellozanosantos8552]

Thanks for your video. I learn a lot of with your good explanations and ver well recorded videos. Only one stupid question. I can watch on the video, on the side bar, the icons of All Documents, Starred, and bla bla bla, that you get those in colors. How did you get it? Thanks!!

[@KL-uu7mb]

I really am into this app recently Atm, craft is much better in Mac than Ipad I think. I hope the ipad version also has all the editing features on the right hand side bar instead of having to swipe for editing mode.

[@josephmclord]

I can’t see any page preview in search like the one in your video? I’m on the latest version on my m1 iPad Pro. What’s wrong? It would be so helpful because just to combat this issue I’ve to name every page differently. For example there are many “this week” but I’ve to name them with date in the title.

[@ChrisLawley]

What is your favorite feature about Craft? Download Craft here: try.craft.do/christopherlawley

[@aidilrazak]

Im very much interested about the Daily view. How do u manage your todos in relation to your projects?

[@estefanylouie]

thank you sm

[@TonyTylerDraws]

I’m adapting some of what you’re mentioning to my Apple Notes setup, and I really wish they had Templates and back linking

[@jcepri]

What does this have that Notion doesn't, or vice versa? It will take a lot for me to give up on Notion after investing so much time with it.

[@dragonrain3343]

If only it had ‼️relational Database features ‼️ like NOTION - I would make the move to Craft!

[@Halfhoff]

So you stopped using Drafts or are you using both? And Obsidian?

[@alexandrumacedon291]

can you put text in rows like in a newspaper ? like 3 columns on a page and then the text going down

[@apparentlydesign7712]

SO do you recommend this over obsidian? and why hasnt craft intergrated with readwise yet? this steer me away.

[@MostafaAhmedAhmed81]

I wish it has related databases like Notion. I tried to switch to it, but could not.

[@krakatoasundra]

i’ve use Sharepoint for work. for personal, i been using Notion and Obsidian. i used to have Airtable.

[@chillwavemusic5024]

After this review you want to use Craft )) Thanks a lot! About app - simple but useful tool, which just work and has own way to do things better )

[@RedTick2]

Will they bring it to Android? I like and would use it on windows and iOS, but if I am honest, I would also get a good bit of use from an android version.

[@Airship56]

It broke my heart to say goodbye to Craft but I really need PKM features like a web clipper, content search, OCR, etc. Last I checked, the Craft folks stated they weren't going to add those features. I can support that philosophy (it is, after all, a note-taking app) but the app just doesn't meet my needs for content capture and search. Yes, I'm a Librarian. Sadly, I'm still tethered to that old elephant.

[@rohanm7695]

I think part of they issue is they can't actually make up their mind what Craft actually is ... a note taking app, or a writing app, or a knowledge management app, or productivity app. It does very well as a writing app, but users are wanting more and they can't seem to make up their mind on which way to go, or how to be more things for more people without ruining the core experience (a challenge for sure!)

[@danielaguilarbenitez1076]

craft vs notion what you prefere and what its your opionion

[@themaddrummerofficial]

Hey Chris. Have you moved from Things 3, to Apple Reminders? Couldn't help but notice your toolbar. Thanks for all the great content. 👍

[@ChrisLawley]

Just for the summer for my OS walkthrough videos.

[@Harvester88]

I was hesitant to really lean into this since to get the most of out of it, I needed to subscribe. It really is my favorite note taking app, I hope they do a native windows app as well but I love using it for my iPad and MacBook, and then reference on my phone.

[@thilke86]

I like craft and would like to try it more. But the free version is not enough for me to work enough with it to decide, that I want to pay for it. I need to see how it works when I have a small data base of informations in it. If they would add a good handwriting ability I would definitely try it. Hope they increase the free blocks much more

[@reaperc]

I have been looking for the perfect notes app for years, and this looks so good! But there isn't any Android support. dealbreaker for me.

[@ExplicitPublishing]

It's a seventeen minute ad... and so much more!

[@devarni]

I find the new support for formulas and simple operations like summation extremely helpful! The limitation to 1000 blocks in the free version and the limitation even in the pro version to 150.000 blocks per space could be a problem. That sounds a lot at first... but each line is a block, each image, etc. You quickly reach a high number of blocks. That should be changed! Unlimited blocks in the Pro version and a much higher number in the Free version would be better, I miss tags and I wish the direct embedding of websites e.g. the display of a KZbin video in the page! Evernote can do that better! The nested pages make it quite cluttered and I wouldn't go deeper than one level. But I try to avoid them whenever possible and use the collapsible sections for longer content. Some features are missing in the Windows app and the web app, e.g. the calendar to create notes for events (but that is still to come). Overall a great app but not perfect ;)

[@tangoblueyt]

Free version now has unlimited blocks :)

[@chillwavemusic5024]

@@tangoblueyt eventually. Hope it’s not be restricted

[@mau81]

Where you find you ipad stickers? :)

[@rokko_hates_japan]

if one is an android user... does the webpage version work offline?

[@SJDPS]

Thank you, I keep using LogSeq

[@NS-kg9rp]

Did you quit the Mindnode application? Or do you use Craft and Mindnode together?

[@paulmaad]

Craft is such an amazing tool. imo Notion is really great when you use datase a lot. I’m more into note taking and showcase some document, for this purpose Craft is way ahead of Notion.

[@NaimAlwan]

So this is a Notion alternative?

[@thilke86]

It would be great if it would work better with drafts. Do you use drafts to send notes to craft? Would love a video for that

[@ChrisLawley]

Right now I'm all in on Craft, but you can use shortcuts to send stuff back and forth.

[@Dr.Kyriazidis]

So no more Things 3? My feeling says that Things 4 will be greater but where this app switch will end to?

[@Dr.Kyriazidis]

Having said that I want to say that I am already a craft user because of its great functionality but this video talks about so many things I didn’t know. Still bit difficult to digest the subscription plan but I do understand how important this is for the devs.

[@legeekduweb_mtl]

Question not into the subject, but where did you get your Mario Bros Sticker I love them

[@ChrisLawley]

Amazon! Just search Nintendo sticker pack.

[@basvh666]

Since youre using an Ipad, can you handwrite in this app ?

[@ChrisLawley]

Yep!

[@ekanastone]

This kinda looks like Obsidian. I highly recommend people try that out. Everything in obsidian is a markdown file offline so that you can be sure that you always have access to your personal notes and can even take all that data to another service. And best of all, its all free!

[@tessloggins8485]

Chris- I need a shortcut to help with my Thanksgiving dinner that works with Things 3. Please please please

[@RedTick2]

Are you a shell head? ; ) Cool.

[@tomaszberanczykowski5291]

I thought it would be good, because it looks like notion+google calendar, but it's strange it's all public notes? why?

[@rincewind2828]

I also find craft a great app apart from untrustworthy iCloud syncing .. I struggled a little trying to follow a linked notes setup that I liked but Craft has I think some unique offerings namely easy bulk block manipulations and pages/ sub pages etc and once I got my head into this frame then things started freeing up … anyway one question I have for you or anyone else here. Have you tried using craft on an iPad mini 6 at all ? My suspicion is that it may be too small to be practical and comfortable .. but I may well be wrong? Just curious as I have a Mac and an iPad Pro 12 inch and as I seem to use the ipp with a keyboard 95% of time I’m thinking of downsizing it to something more mobile that I will use more .. but I’d want Craft working on it in a fluid way. Interestingly I have not seen any vids of ipad minis being used with any of the popular PKM apps ..

[@Moosekeys]

I use an ipad mini with this app and it works well. I use it portrait and type as if im on a phone or i'll just use voice chat

[@slee5666]

Can you record without leaving the app and have it embededded in a note?

[@slee5666]

I mean audio recording

[@sallycooper8109]

Really cool. The only reason I don't use it is the lack of auto correct. I spend too much time backtracking and correcting. Do you have any tips?

[@ChrisLawley]

You can turn on auto correct in the settings.

[@sallycooper8109]

@@ChrisLawley I found spell check which is not the same thing. Yes, it indicates when I've misspelled but then I have to manually go in and change it. Auto correct does just that. Fast and efficient. This is why I left Craft months ago and why I'm hesitant to return. Auto correct works right here. What am I missing. I don't have the auto correct option in my settings. Perhaps that's a subscription thing? Thanks Chris.

[@alexandrumacedon291]

i never get it why some ppl dont hold the pen from the tip @3:30

[@rohanm7695]

I've come to expect tags in a modern note-taking app ... does it have tags?? (spoiler, it doesn't, and they won't give any timeframe for implementation - or at least hadn't done so the last time I checked). And no, "links" don't cut it - they serve different purposes.

[@rebeccaw9656]

You don’t actually need tags in Craft, because it works based on key words if you’re a subscriber. Enter a key word in search and it will bring up documents with that key word. Early on I used to create my own tags at the top of each document, but over time I realised I didn’t need them.

[@adamklar7935]

Is this Notion?