5 Tools For Outlining Ideas For Writers And Artists (MakeUseOf)

Posted by MadaboutDana
Jun 3, 2013 at 10:39 AM

Have to say, I’m a little surprised by Dr. Andus/Steve’s dismissal of OneNote as a serious outliner - this does suggest you haven’t played with - or perhaps have forgotten - the powerful outlining features in OneNote, that enable you to (for example) keep multiple outlines on a single page, incorporate tables, embedded links/files etc. etc.

People do tend to forget that OneNote is not just an outliner by virtue of its file/folder/subfolder structure, but also because it can turn any piece of text on any part of a page into an outline. This function has not been emphasized in reviews (Microsoft themselves make very little mention of it), but it’s actually extremely powerful and has not been deprecated (yes, I too have seen reviews that suggest this feature has been dumped, but as a matter of fact, it’s very much alive and well - at least, it is in OneNote 2010. I don’t know about the 2013 version…).

In many respects, OneNote is a vastly more powerful outliner than many “dedicated” tools. The trouble is, like most Microsoft software, it goes about what it does using a higgledy-piggledy, multi-method approach that looks increasingly old-fashioned next to modern apps with their streamlined user interfaces and single-method functions.

But then I have to say that as somebody who’s tried and - alas - failed to get along with The Brain, I find the latter a good deal more confusing!