Dear Heptabase User,

In the past few weeks, we've rolled out our new backend, which has led to faster initialization speed and more stable sync performance. We appreciate all the bug reports and feedback you've sent us!

If you still encounter any sync-related issues, please feel free to contact us for support!

Use case: Distill a 1000+ page technical programming book into big picture thinking

This week's use case comes from one of our Discord community members, BigSnipes.

BigSnipes shared the whiteboard “Python in a Nutshell” in the Discord channel. Even though the whiteboard is big, you can still understand its structure because the section names become larger when you zoom out.

At Heptabase, we encourage you to use sections to group content within a whiteboard. You can name and color sections thoughtfully to make them easy to find and use as the whiteboard expands. You can also add subsections into sections for more advanced use. If you haven't tried using sections much, we recommend you give it a try!

Dear Heptabase User,

We've recently added a new way to update the mobile app. Starting from v1.16.7, when a new update is available for the mobile app, you'll receive a prompt upon opening the app, allowing you to update it immediately. This allows us to ship features and fix bugs faster than before.

Use case: Managing card databases with tags and properties

This week's use case comes from one of our Discord community members, John.

John was using a whiteboard for content writing and creation preparation. It was literally his first hour using Heptrabase, and he loved it. He used cards, mind maps, images, and different types of connection lines, including solid and dashed lines, to lay out his thoughts and then convert them into writing.

According to John, “I hope I've seen this app when I was in college, starting out with my content creation journey. I like how this fits my personality. You can freely read my whiteboard screenshot to know more about how Heptabase is so helpful for me.”

It’s great to see how Heptabase is useful to John, and we recommend checking out the screenshot he shared!

Dear Heptabase User,

To ensure better support for our users around the world, we've relocated half of the team to London in recent weeks. We are now officially a globally distributed team, and our engineers are active 24/7!

Regarding the Heptabase app, we’ve been focusing on upgrading our backend in the past two week to improve its performance and stability.

If you've experienced slow syncing in the past (especially for the mobile app), please upgrade to the latest version for both desktop (v1.31.9) mobile app (v1.16.7). The initialization of sync should be much faster now, and you should be able to take note immediately after opening Heptabase without the need to wait for data syncing.

Aside from the backend upgrade, you can now enlarge images by pinching them on the mobile apps. We'll continue making these small but important updates in the next few weeks!

Use case: Managing card databases with tags and properties

Alan just posted the third video in the Heptabase Fundamentals series. In this video, he discusses how to manage card databases with tags and properties. If you've been wondering when to use a tag instead of a whiteboard, and how to use Table and Kanban View with tags and properties, we strongly recommend checking this out!

Dear Heptabase User,

We hope you are doing well!

Recently, we have been upgrading the backend system and actively conducting internal tests.

Additionally, we are about to publish Heptabase Fundamentals 103. If you haven't watched the previous episodes, take this opportunity to review them!

• Heptabase Fundamentals 101: Sense-making with whiteboards
• Heptabase Fundamentals 102: Organizing topics with nested whiteboards and tab groups

Use case: Share your whiteboard with us!

Since last September, we've shared 13 different ways to use Heptabase in our newsletters, to help you discover the capabilities of Heptabase. It brings us joy when users tell us they have learned something new from these use cases.

We believe this approach is worth expanding. If you are proud of your whiteboard and willing to share it with other users, please email us at team@heptabase.com to share your whiteboard (link or screenshot) with us, and include the following items in your email:

• How do you want your name to appear?
• What's your job and profession?
• Is there any additional information you'd like to add? For example, why you want to share this, what tips you applied on the whiteboard, etc.

We thank you for sharing your work with us!

Dear Heptabase User,

In the past two weeks, we have spent most of our time fixing bugs and enhancing system stability. The good news is, we are about to finish the most challenging backend tasks of the past year, providing better infrastructure for syncing and collaboration-related features in the future.

Use case: Read and break down "The Art of War" by Sunzi

This week’s use case comes from one of our Discord community members, insight97.

In the Heptabase Discord, insight97 provided his steps for breaking down "The Art of War" by Sunzi:

1. Use the right side of mindmaps to break down the content of each chapter.
2. Use the left side of mindmaps to take notes on each chapter.
3. Use multi-layered sections to organize chapters and highlights.
4. Summarize and synthesize personal thoughts and insights into a separate mindmap.

Insight97 stated that the process helped him visualize the entire book as a connected graph, rather than a linear article. He could see how different words, paragraphs, or chapters related to each other, thus understanding things and gaining insights more quickly than before.

We really like this use case. It shows a creative way to use a mind map: grow and take notes on the right side, and summarize on the left side. We hope you also find this use case helpful!

Dear Heptabase User,

We hope you are doing well!

Recently, we have spent a lot of time working on optimizing performance and fixing bugs. We've improved the sync speed of the mobile app and the performance of the whiteboard. In the upcoming weeks, we will also address bugs related to PDFs.

If there are any other bugs you'd like us to prioritize, please let us know through our support system!

Use case: Conduct and present professional reports using Heptabase

This use case comes from one of our Discord community members, DannyET.

In the Discord channel, Danny said: “One of my areas of work is providing expert medical opinions to lawyers in different areas of the country. I often need to work through over a thousand pages of medical documentation and questions within the brief. Heptabase is excellent for categorizing the material, drawing out essential aspects of care, uploading reference documents and drawing conclusions.”

In addition, after completing the whiteboard, Heptabase's visual representation allows for easy presentation of the results to others.

As Danny stated, "When I have Zoom calls with legal teams to discuss individual cases, they are universally impressed by my screen share, including my Heptabase whiteboard, the relevant connections, and fast access to brief materials, references, and images to explain concepts and help them formulate their understanding and plans."

We hope you find this sharing experience enjoyable, as it allows others to understand your context easily and facilitates further discussions based on that context.

Dear Heptabase User,

We hope you are doing well!

Last month, we released 5 major updates with new features and improvements. As the Lunar New Year is approaching, we will be taking a short break from February 8-13. During this time, we may not be able to respond to messages immediately. However, if you come across any urgent bugs, please let us know through our support channels so that we can promptly address and resolve them.

We wish you a happy Lunar New Year!

Use case: Plan your trip within Heptabase

A few months ago, we shared a use case called "Plan a trip and write travel journals by Heptabase" with you. This time, we would like to share a similar use case with some different tips that you will enjoy.

This use case comes from a Discord user named Kat. She mentioned that she visited Chiang Mai and Bangkok two weeks ago and found Heptabase to be very useful for organizing her trip.

We found her approach very easy to understand, helpful, and also appealing for other travel partners! You can grasp the plan in just a minute!

You can find more information about this use case through the following link.

Dear Heptabase User,

We want to share with you that Heptabase has won the Product Hunt's 2023 Golden Kitty Award in the Personal Productivity category! We sincerely thank you for your support and votes!

In the previous newsletter, we shared the first episode of our new video tutorial series: "Heptabase Fundamentals 101: Sense-making with whiteboards," and many users have found it very helpful. If you haven't watched it yet, we highly recommend you check it out!

This week, we want to share the second episode with you.

Use case: Organizing topics with nested whiteboards and tab groups

In this tutorial video, Alan went through his own whiteboards to share real-world examples of how to organize different topics with nested whiteboards and tab groups. If you have a lot of cards and want to learn how to organize them, we highly recommend checking this out!

Dear Heptabase User,

We hope you are doing well!

Since we released Heptabase 1.0 in September of last year, many new users have joined Heptabase and asked us if we have any video tutorials for the latest version of Heptabase. Therefore, we have decided to create a new series of tutorials, and we just released the first one: "Heptabase Fundamentals 101: Sense-making with whiteboards.”

Use case: Sense-making with whiteboards

In this tutorial video, Alan explains the most important thing that Heptabase can do: using the whiteboard to make sense of a topic that you care about by breaking down large reading notes into atomic knowledge cards and synthesizing them with sections, arrows, and mindmaps. We hope you find it helpful!

Dear Heptabase User,

We hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

Since we sent our last newsletter, we conducted a survey within our app and received thousands of ratings and feedback. We appreciate all the compliments, encouragement, and feedback.

We greatly appreciate your feedback, and as a result, we have reprioritized certain tasks based on the input we received from you. If you have any additional feedback or suggestions to share, please do not hesitate to provide them through our in-app support system.

Use case - Review your past year in Heptabase​

This use case is from one of our Discord community members, Chase.

Chase has made a whiteboard for each month of 2023. Inside the whiteboard, she puts daily journal cards and writes about daily life and thoughts.

Every week, Chase will look at what was written during the week and plan for the next week. She will also change the color of the cards based on how she feels each day. This helps Chase see how she has been doing over the past few weeks all at once.

By consistently recording and reviewing every week, Chase will have a complete annual record by the end of the year.

Chase shared in the Discord channel, “In the past, I would write my plans as lists, but now I can lay out the entire year’s plans at once, visually reviewing the year and each month. I’ve discovered that I can quickly make connections and recall memories in my mind!”

We think that using a whiteboard to organize monthly, weekly, and daily records is an effective method for reviewing everything. We highly recommend giving it a try as we approach the end of the year and prepare for a fresh start.

If you’re interested in this method, we recommend you read Chase’s complete tutorial article. It offers both Mandarin（中文） & English versions.