I know what Markdown is and yet this turned me off:
"Ability to format posts with Markdown"
If that's a differentiating factor from CL then you have ways to go. Sorry to be negative - I just don't think any CL user would care. This is a feature worthy of a footnote.
Ryan, that's great. I have been working on something similar for many of the same reasons you mentioned. Check this out: http:/www.pdfamigo.com I think you may find it interesting.
In all seriousness, I think you should pick something other than a pig for your logo. I realize you are going for "piggy bank" but most people will think "H1N1." Or, perhaps it's just me :) Good luck anyways.
No offense but the first thing I thought was: what a terrible site design; large clickable quadrants to move between sections, that resize. I've never seen anything quite like it. :)
Hmmm, good question. I think my target audience may be a bit too broad (I hope!) to define... but I am sure there is a lot of companies that produce PDF forms all the time. So, in a sense, I am mostly targeting businesses rather than individuals.
In any case, form examples, screenshots, etc are an absolute necessity so thanks for pointing that out.
This might be nitpicking but I feel like the "Clear" button is misplaced. There must be another position for it that allows me to quickly reset and start drawing another character. Come to think of it, it would be great if there was a key for it. Click and drag with the mouse, reset with a keystroke. Almost like playing a first person shooter!
Just an update: I have fixed this and your PDFs should work with Preview now. I had accidentally commented out a fairly crucial line of code residing very close to a not so crucial line of code... ugh.
Having said that, Preview is not the best in rendering PDF forms unfortunately...
Thank you patio11. That's a great tip (starting non-empty) - more so given that it's backed by actual data from your site.
[I have edited the following paragraph a few times revising my understanding of the definition of live-preview as I go along]
With regards to the live preview: by live-preview do you mean editing the text in rich-text editor fashion within the actual page? Or, just applying attributes as they are changed in the attribute editor without the user having to click the "Apply" button? The former would be hard I guess. The latter should be easy.
Regarding element placement, it can be confusing right now. You might be scrolled down all the way, add a text field and not even notice because it's placed in the top-left corner. Drag and drop would be the way to go.
Thanks, these are subtle yet crucual points you're making - your experience is invaluable.
These are all really great points you are making. I am indeed working on adding UI features like the ones you mentioned. I just want to make sure that they are built on solid foundations and that's why I asked for feedback at this point in time.
As for the 1 vs 100 lines in a text field, good observation. It is an omission on my behalf as I forgot to enable multiline text fields. I will fix it asap.
A year is hardly enough time to gain perspective on grad school. Give yourself some time. Eventually you will find a research project that interests you. In the meantime I'd suggest you continue cultivating inter-departmental relationships, eg, by working on the project you mentioned.
Also, worth noting, most people find the first couple of years of grad school the most frustrating because they don't align with their expectations. Once you are past that and you have a well defined research project things get better. Finally, regarding "finding elegant solutions to difficult problems that have wide-reaching implications": you'd be surprised to discover that incremental work can also be elegant and make an impact. Especially is CS that's how most research is done. So, don't set yourself up for disappointment. Pick a small problem that interests you and start reading on it...
I am sure you can come up with a better description than this.