Well, I haven't given up yet. I did try ConnectedText a few days ago, but it didn't pass the test. Can't remember exactly why, it's all a blur of ThisNote and NoteThat... maybe because of the markup. I could do markup, but I don't want to. I've tried dual-pane applications, but usually the tree editing is just too basic, not intuitive. I did test Scrivener, but... no.

Still downloading, testing. Next: Brainstorm, Whizfolders. Thanks.

(by the way, by "clone" I meant the ability to have several live copies of a headline/note/item anywhere in an outline. Editing any clone changes all its "twins".)