Two new tools recently joining my favorites

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Mar 8, 2007 at 09:25 AM

1. I now generally prefer mind mapping tools to more classical outliners for many operations, not all. What I would really like is a recursive mind mapper—something bearing the same relation to mind mapping as BrainStorm (which I still use a lot) bears to classical textual outlining. Well, it’s arrived, at it’s called GoalEnforcer. (http://www.goalenforcer.com). It’s features are yet rudimentary; there’s a Pro version to be released in the near future. How much larger, I have no idea. As of yet, only use it for one of its main intended purpose—task planning. For more complex outlines, I wouldn’t want to give up the reorganization features in mindmappers, even when they’re a bit blunted as in VisiMap.

2. I think hierarchical clip managers are outliners in the broadest sense we tend to speak of them. If a pim with a tree counts as an outliner, certainly ClipMate should too. I like clip managers a lot. I pay more attention to them than to a general text database; clipmanagers are closer to the manipulation rather than storage of data, the former being more of what I’m into than the latter.

I have at least found a clip manager that’s clearly superior to the alternatives for most of my purposes. This makes life easier than constantly switching between clip managers, which has got to be one of the stupider things I do. The ideal clip manager, I find however, is more dubiously an outliner at all. Do you count 3 hierarchical levels as an outliner?

You get the idea. I think for most clip manipulation purposes, you want breadth, not depth. You want to see a lot of clips at once. Or at least I do. But until I tried Spartan Multi Clipboard (by the developer of m8Clips - http://www.m8software.com), I didn’t have this simple insight. And I guess the developers of clip managers didn’t either, because it has taken a long time for the idea’s implementation. When you first look at Spartan, it seems just too Spartan. You wonder why you would pay $30, when m8clips, which seems to have a lot more “to it,” costs ten dollars less. The improvement in Spartan goes further, however, than the bright idea. The clips manipulate much better. The program has an extremely precise feel.

Time’s been scarce. Just something to keep you all going.