Re: A Taxonomy for Knowledge Management

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2276

Posted by zeoli
2004-10-17 15:28:08

I think my writing style may be why I have not been satisfied with the typical two-pane outliners. It sounds like you are able to create writing in distinct stages, beginning with the outlining process. For me, the outline is just a starting point. As I compose the writing, I continue to shift the organization, create new topics, change directions entirely. The two-pane outliners force you to first create a topic, then shit to the editor to write about that topic. If you suddenly want to branch to a new topic, you have to get out of the editor, create a new topic, then jump into the blank editor. Okay, this isn’t the worst experience in the world, but I don’t find it conducive to the way I write.

In a program like GV, you can create a basic outline, begin your writing, spill off into new areas, then easily turn any paragraphs into new topics with a simple keystroke.

With current software, my writing process is basically this:

1. Create an initial outline in BrainStorm.
2. Collect supporting data in Zoot
3. Do the actual writing in a wordprocessor, which provides a more transparent environment

This is a good system that works well, but I continue to hope for a one-stop solution, like I had with GV.

Steve Z.

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