OmniOutliner, a second look at story grids

Posted by Amontillado
Oct 4, 2025 at 07:01 PM

I was enthusiastic about OmniOutliner, then uninstalled it in a fit of pique.

OmniFocus graduated beyond the OS I could run on my 2015 iMac and OmniGroup seemed to be sidelining what I think is their greatest app.

So, to the ash heap with OO. And then I got this spiffy little Mac Mini with powers and abilities far beyond any system I’ve had before. OmniOutliner has had recent updates, a good proof of life, and OO 6 is in OmniGroup’s roadmap.

OO is now installed on my Mac Mini and I’m reminded why I liked it so much.

It’s an outliner, it’s a to-do list, it’s a poor man’s Scrivener, and today I realized I could outline in plot grid mode.

Hardly original research, but it’s cool. Add extra columns for story threads, characters, or whatever you want to watch in evolution.

For each such column, add a filter selecting rows where that column isn’t empty. You don’t need quote marks or anything, just leave the criteria value empty.

Each filter appears in the Filter tab of the Sidebar, where you can flick between filters with single mouse clicks.

The only downside I see is I don’t actually use story grids. But maybe I should give them a try. I sure know a spiffy way to put them together.