inShort for Android

inShort is a clear, beautifully-cut gem in a sea of sand — a gift of programming and design, a work of such exemplary sophistication that a beginner can get started within minutes, and a project designer or programmer will find new insights in every diagram. We all deal with processes. inShort will teach you to describe them, understand them, use them, and ultimately design them well. Start with the User Guide which delightfully educates you about the interface and the concepts, screen objects, and skills you'll develop using the program itself. From there, leap into this rigorous, flexible world of diagramming processes. Very highly recommended 👏 👏 👏 .

I've owned inShort for at least 3 years and have attempted to get my arms around it more than a few times. Project management is one of those topics I aspire to learn but I allow my normal work to consume any good intentions. I work as an engineer at a company that has lofty goals but lacks in process. It’s exhausting trying to second guess what priorities should be when everything is pressing. I can’t just cruise and let someone above decide what should be done. Covid has made communication difficult and there is a labyrinth of complexity to navigate with many players involved. Work is mostly Windows centric so I was also reluctant to do a Android solution. All that aside, I spent a couple of days going through the tutorial this week and feel like the lights came on. I was so inspired by what inShort brings to the table I purchased the recommended book, “The Goal”. I read the first chapter last night and feel like there’s hope to understand some of the blunders I’ve made over my career that I don’t want to repeat. For me it’s about clarifying what the steps need to be by first understanding the choices. The price was right and the functionality offers the depth needed. One issue I have noticed is the cloud sync seems flawed. I’m willing to work on my Android but it would be nice to have the phone sync correctly with it. There are a few non-compliant issues as well like not being able to tab through different settings. This is minor though. I’m pleased the developer has been committed to keeping the app updated. Thank you for this jewel that took me so long to appreciate.

This is a very mature and feature-rich application that makes diagramming of processes a breeze. I first downloaded this application in 2015 for use in diagramming processes at a hospital / clinic when they were customizing an EMR. It enabled me to communicate processes easily and clearly. I have also noticed impressive automation of routine tasks. For example, when you create a new project, you put down any goals and resources, and this software package There is an affordable "Pro" subscription that adds Layers and other diagramming features that are extremely useful to me. It annoys me that this is a subscription instead of something I can purchase, but I am sure there is a reason for that. Potential Areas of Improvement 1. Blocks in the middle tab of the navigator are unnecessarily huge, demanding extra scrolling. I would like the option to "Zoom In" or "Zoom Out" on this pane to adjust these building blocks to my liking. 2. User interface for Property Section is confusing and disorganized. Is there a reason for the huge amount of "white space" below the upper section of this pane. I don't feel like this meets Google UI design guidelines in that the appearance of these tabs (for example, bringing the bottom section upward ... more in the middle of the field of view). Yes, I'm very detail-minded, but it really is suboptimal. 3. Layer visibility is not intuitive - I would like check boxes for layer visibility to be present all the time to turn layers on or off. The layers can be "checked" or "unchecked" at certain times but not other. Anyway, the bottom line is that this is a superb process flow diagramming tool that I have used. I have used several project management and diagramming products (such as Visio, for example). If you need a tool like this, I'm sure you will be very happy with this product.

This is one of the best flow chart/prog management packages available, with one very large caveat - NO WINDOWS SUPPPORT! I am in the process of reluctantly transfering all my inShort work to Microsoft Visio (inferior to inShort on so many levels). An unfortunate shame that the developers are Android-centric. This is the primary reason inShort is not used by the masses.

As several others have pointed out, inShort is an incredibly powerful tool once you actually learn how to use it. It has been around for a long time and Jury seems like a committed developer--adding new features and fixing bugs. It is almost a one-stop tool for process modeling, project planning and concentrating information. But you have to be willing to invest the time. Once you get over the learning curve, it's great.