Airtable

Pluspunten

As an early adopter of Airtable, I've seen the program grow from a more functional and intuitive version of Excel to a full fledged application that can do anything from spreadsheet management to producing a CRM or project workflow. Initially, I used the application for QA and bug tracking, but now I use it for inventory for art I collect (I can even include photos for visual reference), lead tracking and generation, and a few other practical things. The more I use Airtable, the more I'm impressed with how much potential the application has to positively impact any business, organization, or individual.

Minpunten

For first time users, it can be a bit intimidating, especially if checking out the application, casually. One great resource that Airtable introduced is Airtable Universe, which highlights and demonstrates working and real examples of how companies and industries are using Airtable to track deadlines, scheduling, and a slew of other use cases. I would recommend that as the starting point for any novice of the application or anyone interested in giving it a try.

Pluspunten

Airtable brings actual structure to our working environment. We use for a team of 15 to track tasks, projects, and even for lightweight documentation of work done or where stuff is. I really like the flexibility and the ability to create just about anything with it and still make the finished product look nice. The UI is what people first comment on when I invite them to our shared set of bases--either "it looks great" or "this is easy" or something like that. I especially love the integration with Zapier so that if you need to go outside an Airtable base, you probably won't have to do manual entry--it can sync with your other app.

Minpunten

With the free version, you will hit the record limit will pretty easily. I wish they had a lower-priced plan that was above the free version, but below their much more expensive tiers.
A second huge miss is that there was really no way to do rich text. That severely limits the usefulness for using Airtable as any kind of repository for content or anything like that. Basically you convert everything to HTML markup and store it as plain text in Airtable, but like I said they have promised to fix this . . .

Pluspunten

Airtable is fantastic for project management, especially if you need to share your work with others. I recently used Airtable for a week-long event at my workplace with many moving parts - several events per day, many catering contracts, many chaffeurs and cars to keep track of, etc. I love that Airtable gives you the option to categorize entries and sort by category. Using Airtable helped me keep track of all my tasks involved in coordinating the events.

I also like how easily you can share it with others and work on it with others. The interface is clean and works well for me both on my desktop and tablet.

The last thing I like most about this software is the ability to have an attachment field. When coordinating travel for myself and others, I appreciate being able to attach our flight itineraries, travel approvals, and any other important documents directly to the table. It's a great way to keep it all in one place.

Minpunten

Airtable does have a bit of a learning curve that took me a while to navigate. I did not find their introductory templates or videos as helpful as I would have liked, so it took me longer than anticipated to get used to the software and really start using it on a daily basis.

Lastly, I really wish Airtable was FERPA compliant. I work in higher education and so I cannot manage ALL my projects and tasks in Airtable, just the ones that don't involve student data. This splitting of softwares depending on which project I'm working on is kind of a pain and interrupts my work flow.

Pluspunten

When I first started to use Airtable, I came away deeply frustrated with it's usability. It's sometimes slow, straightly obtuse to use and has many "pending features" that would be extremely helpful for some of the simplest of tasks.

However, there came a time when I had to organise a league table for a tournament over the internet, and all of sudden, Airtable clicked.

What Airtable is good at is creating a database of entries for a specific use, so for example, making an internet registration form where a user can enter data and "register" their interest in a particular thing is so quick and easy to do.

I created an application form which auto stored the data into a highly organised table that I could then use however I wanted (I created a league table from the registered users with ease and shared the results of the league as the scoring progressed) - all via the internet, I don't know of a way that I could have achieved this without AirTable, Google Docs would have been a possible solution, but Airtable allows you to add attachments easily (so images, etc) as well as allowing you to manipulate (And hide) data in any way you can think of using Rollups and Lookups - two of it's most powerful features.

Once you get used to it, Airtable becomes useful, and I can see myself using it again and again when I want to organise a very specific and distributed task on the internet.

Minpunten

Don't think this is Excel in a different disguise, it's not, it's not as adaptable and not as powerful as Excel. You couldn't use it to track a project or manage a holiday system or anything like that, but creating a full customer list for a newsletter? Yep, easy, that's the kind of thing it DOES do really well.

It could use a few more features on the free tier of the software (the paid tier unlocks "blocks" - which is a strange name for plugins, which allow you to view the data in different visual ways but ultimately it's not as well integrated as it should be and therefore has a limited use)

Another thing is that Airtables mobile interface is woeful compared to it's desktop version, and for some reason you can't access the desktop website via mobile. I have no idea what compelled them to make this decision but it's something they need to address in the future. The mobile layout is next to useless.

Pluspunten

Works as an pre-post app creator to streamline workflow internal/external processes.

Minpunten

Editing Row is not clearly distinguishable from Non-Editing Rows.