ButterDocs - The Google Docs alternative for serious writers & teams

Hey all! As a writer myself, I can’t wait for all you other writers out there to try ButterDocs. I love that ButterDocs understands writing isn’t just putting words on the page; it’s figuring out *which* words to put on the page. That’s the part that Google Docs and Word are bad at, because at their core they’re basically just… typewriters. (One document, it goes up and down, and you write in it. That’s a typewriter, folks.) So whenever you try to do anything else, like incorporate your notes or research, or reference your outline, or write and edit with other people, things get messy fast and you get frustrated. And frustration is the death of creativity. ButterDocs keeps you in your writing flow by combining a notes app, an outlining app, and a great writing environment where you can easily reference the aforementioned notes and outline without breaking your focus. Check it out and let us know what you think!

@michihuber - I was surprised/excited to see ePub export. This is a pretty complex spec. How deep into ePub publishing can I get into using ButterDocs? Pretty awesome to imagine that I could create/collaborate actually sophisticated documents that can be read everywhere (eink, screens, print, etc...).

As a writer who always has dozens of documents and tabs open at once, ButterDocs offers a promising solution with some super useful tools for streamlining the writing process and all the editorial collaboration that happens behind each piece. I'm particularly excited about the "Stash" feature to save writing excerpts from the cutting room floor instead of entirely "killing your darlings" as the ancient writing advice says.

ButterDocs’ user interface is aesthetically pleasing, conducive to focused work, neat, and customizable—I particularly enjoy the ability to select whether you want the formatting bar visible at all times or only when you highlight text. The blocks feature is very helpful for outlining and documentation navigation, and the stash feature is a total game-changer. No more separate documents for temporarily discarded paragraphs, unsightly collections of verbal detritus at the bottom of the doc, or cutting and pasting only to lose work by forgetting you had something waiting for a place and cutting or copying something else! I also greatly appreciate the offline functionality—Google Docs refusing to allow offline mode in Firefox is what finally drove me off, actually, so that was a must for me. I have noticed a few bugs—the automatic m-dash feature doesn’t work on my laptop, only my phone, and the spellcheck function is broken enough that I had to turn it off—but that’s to be expected with a product this new, and for the most part it works great and provides a seamless writing experience! One feature I might like to see—or know about, if it already exists and I missed it—is the ability to move blocks from one document to another, rather than just rearranging within one document. I like to put my chapters in separate documents, and sometimes a scene I had planned for one chapter turns out to belong in another. That said, all in all, I love ButterDocs and can’t wait to see it get even better!

I'm a marketing copywriter and fiction writer and ButterDocs is the answer to pretty much all my frustrations with Google Docs. Frustrations like: randos watching as I try to make edits or an at-symbol flashing when I go to a new line or the disconnect between a main doc and its supporting notes. ButterDocs feels clean and streamlined but rich at the same time. I LOVE that I can see my notes and my outline next to the main doc, so I can backburner or call up snippets without toggling between multiple windows and losing focus. And the ability to have a private draft while collaborating with a team is a gamechanger — a smart, calming solution to the fishbowl effect that happens when a lot of (too many?) cooks are in the kitchen.

Congrats on the launch! The UI looks smooth like butter :). Personally a comprehensive UI for version control is a must when writing anything.

Been trying this for a bit and really enjoying the branching/versioning features — especially side-by-side view when comparing drafts! Well done and congrats on the launch!

Hi, is it possible in Butterdocs work with more than one identity? Meaning, I'd like to create one o two "users" with my different mail addresses, to make a full use of different drafts, of different revisions. Is it possible? The app looks to me very interesting as of now... I'm less a user of GoogleDocs than (foe example) of Ulysses for writing (and of Microsoft Word for final versions, forcefully...). Thanks!

Butter Docs is a more intuitive writing tool and well suited for a right brained person. Your work can be spread out and easily rearranged.

Amazing starting point for a new product. Looking forward to the evolution and feature development with feedback from the community. 👍😊