Shorthand Reviews

What do you like best about Shorthand?The ability to collaborate, and to look to other users for ideas on how to use the platform to avoid a cookie-cutter looking product. The product support is also outstanding. We are working on our first project but we are excited to come up with new uses once we wrap on thisWhat do you dislike about Shorthand?The initial pricing was a bit hard to sell internally until we had proven use cases. There are some small features, like the way hyperlinks look, that we didn't love.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?For our annual report, we used to have to work with both a design team and developers for every small change, even a typo, and now we have more control and it is less time consuming to make changes.

What do you like best about Shorthand?Shorthand allows us to drastically increase the number of immersive articles we are able to publish. Editors and the art department can work together without needing a developer to assist in order to publish pages independently. Being able to publish directly to Google Cloud will make this even easier.What do you dislike about Shorthand?Because we publish content purchased by universities it is important that all our content meets the WCAG 2.2 accessibility requirements. Unfortunately not all of Shorthand's features are compatible, so there are some features that we have to tell people not to use and/or add customised fixes. It is also easy for an editor or designer to make accessibility mistakes, such as having low contrast between text and background images or forgetting to add alt text.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Previously to publish any special pages, outside of the abilities of our normal CMS we would have to wait for web development resources to be made available. This is becoming increasing hard but with Shorthand we are able to publish independently.

What do you like best about Shorthand?I am a university instructor and multimedia journalist. I was looking for a user-friendly interface for my students who are learning multimedia. Shorthand has been a GREAT resource for them. They find it easy to use and have built several beautiful projects.What do you dislike about Shorthand?I really can't think of much I don't like. Perhaps the ability to upload videos directly -- or at very least -- to add thumbnail/cover images to YouTube or other video links. But overall, I think Shorthand is great.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Shorthand provides an easy way for students to make professional multimedia presentations, using photos and video they've shot and produced, as well as text. The links, once published, also allow them to easily offer their work to student media.

What do you like best about Shorthand?I love that even though I don't have much technical, digital skills, I can produce professional looking, rich designs to promote our fundraising at a really good price. A much cheaper option than hard copy publications that we had traditionally used.What do you dislike about Shorthand?Some of the design options were not that intuitive, I had to really search for them or find them in 'help'.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?An easy and cheap way to get professional-looking publications to our database.

What do you like best about Shorthand?My work is primarily focused on analytics, so I found Shorthand really helpful for building reports for our mini site. The designs we’ve been able to publish through Shorthand are brilliant, and we’re genuinely very happy with the results.What do you dislike about Shorthand?I’m afraid I don’t use the builder in Shorthand specifically, so I don’t think I’m best placed to go into detail about it.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?We wanted to bring our online magazine development in-house, and Shorthand has allowed us to do this usefully.

What do you like best about Shorthand?I like how user-friendly the interface is, and I also appreciate being able to add many dynamic modules to stories.What do you dislike about Shorthand?It still needs some improvement to properly support right-to-left languages, such as Arabic.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Our organization’s website doesn’t have mobile-responsive dynamic modules, so we use Shorthand to create stories that highlight our organization’s impact worldwide.

What do you like best about Shorthand?What I love about Shorthand is how easily it lets us create stunning, interactive 'scrollytelling' experiences. The visual output looks incredibly professional and high-end, all without needing to write a single line of code.What do you dislike about Shorthand?While I love the platform, I wish it offered a wider selection of built-in fonts and standard color palettes to choose from right out of the box.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Before Shorthand, making those cool, interactive pages with scrolling effects took forever and usually required a developer. Shorthand completely fixes that. For me, the biggest benefit is that I can build and launch beautiful, mobile-friendly stories all by myself in no time, and they always look super professional.

What do you like best about Shorthand?Incredibly powerful and amazing visual storytelling tool. I use it to create film pitch decksWhat do you dislike about Shorthand?Nothing. I love it. I rave about and recommend it to colleagues and leadershipWhat problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Uniting visuals, sound and development research

What do you like best about Shorthand?I find Shorthand very easy, accessible, and creative. It's interesting how it allows me to add amazing features to my stories, transforming what could have been just a PDF file with text into an amazing story with little effort. I love how Shorthand makes my stories more interactive and immersive. It elevates the whole experience by bringing together text, video, and audio to tell an important story. I think it cuts a lot of work and has definitely made things efficient in our team. The initial setup was very easy and accessible as well.What do you dislike about Shorthand?One of the biggest issues is that it's expensive for startups or small institutions like us. While big institutions are using it and it's incredible, there should be a way for smaller institutions to integrate it into our website without paying a lot of money.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?I use Shorthand to turn boring reports into interactive, immersive stories. It brings together text, video, and audio, creating a unique storytelling ecosystem and elevates the experience while making our team more efficient.

What do you like best about Shorthand?What I like most about Shorthand is how it allows complex stories and data to be presented in a clear, visually engaging, and narrative-driven way without requiring technical or coding skills. It helps turn reports, research, and implementation insights into immersive storytelling that feels accessible to a broad audience, including non-technical readers, funders, and policymakers.What do you dislike about Shorthand?One limitation is the learning curve in fully optimizing layouts and interactive elements, especially when trying to balance aesthetics with dense content. Additionally, collaboration features and version control could be more intuitive when working with multiple contributors, particularly in fast-paced or multi-stakeholder projects.What problems is Shorthand solving and how is that benefiting you?Shorthand addresses the gap between complex content and effective communication by transforming dense reports and data into engaging, accessible visual narratives helping users increase clarity, engagement, and impact with their audiences.