two-pane outliner that can show more than one note at a time in the viewer/editor pane?

Posted by jimspoon
Oct 11, 2013 at 01:35 AM

We all know the standard format of most two-pane outliners - you have a tree pane that contains names (titles, subjects, etc) of items, arranged in the usual indented hierarchy. You also have an viewer/editor pane which almost always displays the content of one and only one item - the single item that is highlighted in the tree pane.

My question is - do you know of a two-pane outliner that will show the content of more than one item in the editor pane at the same time? For example, the editor pane could show the content of as many items as will fit in the editor pane; or perhaps it could show the content of multiple items if multiple items are highlighted in the tree pane at the same time.

This is part of what I dislike so much about the usual two-pane outliners. I like to divide up my items into small blocks of text - a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase, or even a single word. But in the usual two-paner, I can only see one such small block of text, and I have to move the highlight in the tree constantly to read through my items. All the extra space in the editor pane is wasted.

One program that comes to mind is Noteliner with its navigation pane. The single-pane outliner came first and the navigation pane was added later.

I think that there are many two (and three) pane outliners that could be so much better if they would incorporate this feature. It seems that the gulf between single and dual pane outliners can be bridged fairly easily, so that the resulting program would have the advantages of both types of outliners.

jim