What a good Outliner should have

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Posted by grendizer
Mar 5, 2010 at 11:01 PM

Hello, I’m new to this board :) I’d like to start a discussion about what a good Outliner should have. In my opinion:
* It should have 2 panes: Tree View and article content.
* It should be possible to edit the file on different devices, not only on a PC (running Windows 7) , but also on a smartphone running Windows Phone Series 7.
* It should be possible to synchronize the file between the PC and the smartphone.
* It should be possible to export the whole tree, or a branch of this tree, as a HTML web site.

Currently, my outliner of choice is MyBase. It has great features such as 2 panes, tree view, viewing and editing on Windows Mobile 6.X, export branch to HTML. I?ll see what comes in version 6, which will be released sometime in 2010.
But do you know if another Outliner offers these features or will offer them in the future?
Thanks
Gz

Posted by Cassius
Mar 6, 2010 at 10:09 PM

What you are describing is a PIM, A true outliner is a single pane application in which one can outline what one intends to write and then (hopefully) add and edit text to create the final document. GrandView was the best PC outliner ever, but was never successfully ported to Windows.. No Windows outliner matches its outlining capabilities. Inspiration (http://www.inspiration.com) is a reasonably good outliner with good diagramming capabilities. NoteMap appears to be a god outliner, but as we discovered, it has fatal flaws/bugs.

I, too, use MyBase. A new version is under development. Other, similar PIMs that have the ability to save Web pages include Web Research (http://www.macropool.com/en/products/webresearch/index.html) and Surfulater. InfoQube and UltraRecall Pro are other possibilities.

If you search the archives of this site, you will find extensive discussions of what constitutes a good PIM.

Posted by Glen Coulthard
Mar 6, 2010 at 11:44 PM

May I ask you both for your reasons re: choosing myBase? There seem to be many, many options—MyInfo, MyNoteskeeper, Treepad, KeepNote, WhizFolders, InfoQube, etc. etc.

I am also looking forward to seeing the new version of myBase, but wanted some opinions as to which features currently stand out for you. What competitive advantage does myBase have over these other products?

Glen

Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Mar 7, 2010 at 12:16 AM

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.

———————————————

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

—————————————

HTH

Posted by Pierre Paul Landry
Mar 7, 2010 at 12:24 AM

Formatting is difficult here and my previous post is difficult to read. So, I’ve posted this same summary of “what is an Outliner” here:

http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/1506

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