Editor overview

What the editor produces and how it differs from Notion or Word.

The Dalea editor is a real-time collaborative document editor built specifically for life-science work. It produces documents made of structured blocks — paragraphs, protocol steps, plate maps, charts, code blocks, callouts. Every block is a typed, schema-validated unit, which means everything you write is also queryable, embeddable elsewhere, and amenable to AI tools.

If you've used Notion or Word, the operating model is familiar but the toolset is domain-specific.

How Dalea differs

vs Notion: You can author scientific protocols, plate layouts, dose-response curves and equations natively — without database hacks. Permissions are role-based at workspace level, not page-level.
vs Word: Real-time multiplayer; permanent version history; structured blocks instead of opaque rich-text; AI assistance grounded in your workspace.
vs Benchling: Open data formats and no per-assay licensing. Your schemas are yours; you can clone them across studies, workspaces and even programmes.

Inside any document, type / at the start of a line. The slash menu opens. Categories you'll see:

Text — heading, paragraph, list, quote, divider, section
Data — registration table, lookup table, data form
Compute — local spreadsheet, Python code, code block, chart
Lab — protocol step, protocol group, 96-well plate, reagent, equipment
Media — file embed, image, equation, callout

Multiplayer and conflict-free sync

Every keystroke syncs to anyone else with the document open. You'll see their cursors and selections in real time. When two people edit the same paragraph at the same time, both edits land — there is no "merge conflict" notion to interrupt your flow.

There is no save button. There is also no auto-save delay; it's instant.

Comments

Hover any block; click the speech bubble. Comments live in the right margin, anchored to the block. They support threaded replies. Use them for review feedback, questions, or tagging colleagues with @.

Version history

Every document has an automatic version log. Snapshots are created on disconnect, and you can also create named manual snapshots ("Submission draft v3"). The diff viewer shows added, removed and modified blocks side-by-side. Restoring a version is non-destructive — it creates a new version on top.