Listacular for Dropbox Review
Posted 05/31/2013 at 7:00am
| by Michael Simon
To make a great task manager, three criteria need to be met: Simple list creation, easy gestures, and effortless syncing. With a clean, flat design and versatile text options, Listacular for Dropbox hits every note and then some. Listacular sports a minimal interface subtly influenced by a sheet of loose-leaf paper, but what it lacks in color and pizzazz, it makes up for in intuitiveness.
There's virtually no learning curve here; once you sync your Dropbox account and name your folder, you're ready to go. As you create lists and folders, a to-do counter at the bottom of the screen keeps track of your uncompleted tasks. Lists can be as simple or robust as you need. When adding items, Listacular offers an array of formatting options, from mini checkboxes and bullets to full-fledged notes, all within the same list. Text can be styled in various ways, and tasks can be nested for better organization. You can set due dates and times by swiping left to access the calendar, and Listacular even automatically formats pasted text based on returns.
Once a list is created, it's synced to your Dropbox folder by pulling down on the screen. As its name suggests, there's no iCloud support, but as long as you share the folder containing your lists, you'll be able to edit them within Listacular on any device. Interacting with your items is done via a series of simple gestures: A short swipe to the right checks it off and a longer one deletes it, while tapping and dragging reorders tasks. A swipe left on the main screen lets you share a list or move it into a folder.
We were extremely impressed with Listacular, but we encountered an infrequent bug that wiped out items in our list as we were creating them. And the increasingly popular long-swipe-to-delete gesture is no easier to use here; we accidentally checked off many items that we really wanted to remove.
The bottom line. Listacular for Dropbox may be new to the game, but its slick interface and powerful tools make it stand out amongst the crowd of competitors.
Requirements
iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 6.0 or later
Positives
Slick, intuitive interface. Robust text options. Easy gestures. Excellent Dropbox syncing.
Negatives
Created lists can't be organized into folders. Annoying deletion bug. Long swipes can be difficult to complete.