outliner software wanted: single outline with arbitrary lines marked as nodes for an overview

Posted by thomasteepe
Sep 11, 2016 at 12:59 PM

Thanks to Chris for bumping the post, and thanks for all the answers.

My question came from a writing process that I am using sometimes in a mind mapper (MindManager 6) and sometimes in a digital notebook (OneNote 2013 and occasionally 2007).

I write in ordinary outlining fashion (in MM text notes, indenting and unindenting with CTRL + M), and when the outline has reached a certain size, or when a promising new idea or an important new question has appeared, I transfer part of the outline - to a new branch in MM or to a new page in ON.

In each of the programs, this transfer has a number of pros and cons:

In MM, I have to create a new branch, highlight the relevant part of the outline, cut it, paste the text in the text notes of the new branch, reformat it and show in the outline where part of the text has been transferred - all fairly cumbersome. Moreover, I cannot highlight or tag lines in the outlines.
The overview in the map and moving groups of branches however is excellent.

In ON, I find it difficult to indicate the hierarchical structure of the pages when I use more levels than page - subpage - subsubpage.
Handling the outline itself and creating links however is simple and effective. Moreover, tagging lines in the outlines works well.

A blend between the two programs would seem great - write an outline in your text notes, highlight the section you want to transfer, rightclick and give the name of the new branch. The program would do the rest: Create the branch, paste the outline part and do some cross-referencing between the parent and the child branch in the outline itself.

(Whining over existing software and fantasizing about nonexisting one is perhaps not the coolest thing - my apologies.
At least, I’ve written a feature suggestion for one of the software manufacturers.)

The idea behind my original post was that I saw no real need for “containers” like branches or pages, just for “signposts” in the form of headings, that help to keep an overview over the entire material and allow easy access to points of interest.