A few months ago, a bunch of us OutlinerSoftware had this discussion on Google Wave. Unfortunately, Wave does not have any kind of print/export feature, so here is a copy of the first blip (which served as a summary). Those interested can participate in this wave.

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What is an outliner ? (or what are outliners ?)

1-pane, 2-pane, 3-pane, with or without custom fields displayed or not as columns, as pure outliners or as full-featured PIM... a first wave on outliners.


Outliner types are:


Pure 1-pane (with or without rich-text) : Examples: Inspiration outline view, Natara Bonsai, Notemap, StoryView, UV Outliner, Word outline mode

1-pane with custom fields (or attributes) : Examples: B-liner (?), TreeSheets (?)

1-pane with custom fields displayed as columns in the outline : Examples: ADM, EccoPro, Excel outline mode, InfoQube, ListPro

Pure 2-pane (Simple tree-view in 1st pane, 2nd pane for rich text) : Examples: Jot+, MindSystems Amode, MyBase, NoteCase Pro, Surfulater, Treepad, WhizFolders

2-pane with custom fields : Examples: MyInfo, UltraRecall Pro

3-pane : Examples: Evernote, Normfall Manager, Sycon IDEA!, Zoot, most e-mail programs

Hybrid 1-pane / 2-pane (works as both 1-pane and 2-pane) : Examples: InfoQube, MaxThink (?)

Visual Representation : MindMapping: FreeMind, iMindMap, Inspiration, MindManager, MindGenius, MindPad, MindView, VisualMind, Xmind

Dynamic: ConnectedText, MindRaider, PersonalBrain


With PIM features : Examples: do Organizer, EccoPro, InfoQube, InfoSelect, PersonalBrain, UltraRecall Pro

With automation / agents : Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Notecase Pro, Zoot

With Cloning (i.e. multiple parents) (same item may appear in several locations) : Examples: ADM, Brainstorm, MyInfo, Notecase Pro, Surfulater, UltraRecall, PersonalBrain, InfoQube

With Tagging (item can be labeled with several keywords) : Examples: Evernote, Surfulater, UltraRecall


Oriented towards:

Text, itself can be sub-divided into specialized types for:

Writing : Examples: MaxThink, PageFour, Scrivener, StoryView, SuperNoteCard
Capturing : Examples: Brainstorm
Organizing : Examples: Brainstorm. MaxThink

Numbers (hierarchy database) : Examples: B-liner, Excel outline mode, MindPad, InfoQube

Dates (Tasks/Projects/Schedules) : Examples: Achieve Planner, ListPro, MyLifeOrganized, InfoQube

Documents, i.e. organising data files that are already there : Examples: InfoRapid Cardfile System, X2net OneStore

Rich Note-taking : Examples: Evernote, OneNote

Web collection : Examples: Evernote, ScrapBook (Firefox add-in), Surfulater, Web Research

Publishing (web or other) : Examples: InfoHesiveEP, WebIdeaTree

Miscellaneous Information snippets, usually captured from the clipboard : Examples: ClipCache, ClipMate


Behaviour

Static: you create an outline, and it will always appear that way : Examples: Brainstorm, Excel outline mode, WikidPad, Word outline mode

Dynamic: display options allows you to arrange parts through:

Filtering : Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Opal, Surfulater

Hoisting : Examples: Opal, UltraRecall Pro, InfoQube

Sorting : Examples: EccoPro, InfoQube, Surfulater

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HTH