Promising app

Based on Mac Power User recommendations, I tried inShort out. At almost $40, “tried” really amounts to a non-trivial gamble, but happily, inShort appears promising, and I believe it can ultimately scratch my itch, which is primarily to create various process charts, with supplementary information, to educate others in basic process analysis and improvement. That said, I agree with those who suggest the tutorial would benefit from some tweaks, and probably most importantly, the app almost begs for some video tutorials. (I understand and appreciate the developer’s purpose for the tutorial - to make us familiar with the structure of the program as we read the tutorial; I just think it’s not quite “there” yet, and video support would be extremely helpful.)

Another issue that could fustrate users (it did me) is unexplained compatibility glitches. Here’s an example: I created a basic four-step process flow chart, and tried to copy it to Word, to include it in a quick process improvement writeup as part of my “educate others” use case. It didn’t work. At all. After 15 minutes of searching—including the forums, which assured me I could do so—I couldn’t do it. Im reasonably capable on my Mac, and I was stumped. It turns out, I had been using the 2011 version of Word (arbitrarily open at the time) and I needed to use the 2016 version. How did I learn this? Trial & error. If my workplace hadn’t just upgraded Office very recently, I would’ve not had the newest version, and would’ve been stunned by the misimpression that the app couldnt do something so basic.

In closing, before I block your view of the forest with these probably smalller trees, the feature set seems very solid—I especially appreciate Theory of Constraints—and offers some nice complements to my trusted primary project management apps.

-Bryan- about inShort, v1.4.2