Re: Notemap 2.0

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 5235

Posted by 100341.2151
2006-02-13 16:37:46

Steve -

When I used NoteMap (I have now gone back to Grandview) I had the same problems as you with the export to Word. I had to do a lot of fiddly pre-export work, and more cleaning up post-export.

I can’t recall the “ESC edits” problem, but I had problems with unexpected deletions of text. This accidental deletion problem is caused by the automatic selection (i.e., highlighting) of a whole note under certain circumstances. If one then types a character, the whole note
is erased. This is part of the standard windows feature that when you mark (i.e. select) a sentence, word, or whatever, but do not immediately copy or cut it, but instead type something, what was selected is replaced by what you typed. Not what one wants in an outliner, IMO.

Other problems I had - and which I reported to CaseSoft were:

1. I found that the “Comments” feature - while very useful - has a
snag. When you merge continguous headlines, each with comments, using the merge feature, you lose one set of comments - that of the “mergor” not the “mergee”. This is quite unacceptable.

2. Another problem (or is it a feature?) with NoteMap which caused me to lose data was the ease with which it is possible accidentally to merge headlines. In GV, you have actively to choose to join headlines (aka item/notes) using Alt-J, or unjoin them using Alt-K. Headlines are not subject to accidental damage through over-enthusiastic use of the Backspace or Delete key. In Notemap, pressing Backspace at the beginning of the headline causes it to merge with the previous one. Pressing Delete at the end of a headline causes it to merge with the subsequent one. This, of course, makes it all to easy for accidental merges to occur (with lost Comments into the bargain). I think this is a design flaw, but others might disagree.

I can’t understand the enthusiasm for NoteMap. It is an interesting program, but needs a lot more development. In the same vein, Brainstorm provides a useful subset of Grandview features but needs a fully editable aerial view before I will find a great deal of use for it. Having said that, I think it is one of the few genuinely original and innovating Windows outlining programs available - which is why I bought it.

Derek

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