EccoPro: Why has nobody developed a clone so far?

Posted by sracer
Aug 28, 2007 at 11:10 PM

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>I suspect if we were to poll everyone on this forum, we’d get a lot of different answers
>as to what constitutes the Holy Grail of outliners. My definition is based on
>functionality. For me the Holy Grail would be software that allowed me to manage the
>entire process of writing anything from start to finish—finish being the export to
>Word to put the fancy formatting touches on the manuscript. To do this, it would
>require the following functions:
> >1. Nimble outlining capability… preferably
>in a single pane.
>2. Full-featured word processor so that actual composition would
>not be hindered by sluggish editing controls.
>3. Easy capture of content from other
>sources.
>4. Sophisticated data categorization to organize, and slicing and dicing
>of my information.
>5. Powerful search to locate information quickly.
> >What is not
>included in my idea of the Holy Grail of outliners is contact or calendar
>management.

My definition of the HG of outliners is nearly identical to yours:

1. Simply be an outliner (w/word processing engine)...single pane, no contact management, no calendaring.
2. Intuitively create/recognize outline structure based on context (think indentation).
3. Ability to “fold” (“hide”/“collapse”) context subtrees.
4. Ability to easily move/demote/promote subtrees.
5. Support “tagging/titles” of outline entries and optionally hide/display those tags.

The idea here is that an outline is the “skeleton” of a document and that once the meat is on the bones, the skeleton is still there, but no longer visible.