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looking for Dynalist alternative, for JUST outlining
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Posted by Tiggerlou
Mar 4, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Thanks for assembling this list!
Notion appears to be specifically designed for fiction writers. I don’t need features about character development or multiple columns, with lots of cutesy icons bouncing around. Call me a purist ;-)
Logseq doesn’t use folders. Instead, it uses completely different—and rather complicated—features for its organization, which I admit, look intriguing. But I’m wary of taking on a really sharp learning curve, especially if this means manually translating the tree structure of my hundreds of documents into a whole other organizational structure. Not sure it’s worth that much trouble.
It looks like Obsidian requires setting up hotkeys to perform basic outlining functions to make it behave like other outliners. It also looks like there’s an extra fee for syncing across devices. I need to look further into it, because there appears to be much more here than just an outliner.
Wondering if Capacities’ outliner mode is similar to the outliner mode in Word (not a fan). In other words, is outlining just an optional way to view the text, instead of its native mode?
Cyganet wrote:
Some options to consider:
>* Notion allows you to outline and nest pages inside each other (where a
>page acts as a folder) or create database pages (no outline)
>* Logseq is an outliner with separate pages
>* Obsidian supports folders and notes, and you can add an outliner
>plugin since its normal mode is paragraphs
>* Capacities has an outliner mode
Posted by Tiggerlou
Mar 4, 2026 at 11:02 PM
The website says “no cloud”, that the data never leaves your computer. I’m guessing that means it doesn’t sync with other devices.
Cyganet wrote:
And one more that is literally a plain text outliner: Innovation
>Dilation’s Indigrid
Posted by Tiggerlou
Mar 4, 2026 at 11:18 PM
I just added a bunch of notes about each of these options into Dynalist. It went through the laborious spin-spin-spin cycle, supposedly syncing / saving. But by the time it let me see the document again, all the edits were gone. Vanished.
This does not inspire confidence.
Posted by Tiggerlou
Mar 4, 2026 at 11:26 PM
To be perfectly honest, what I really want is a version of Dynalist—without the bugs.
A nested folder structure with the same fairly simple editing capabilities. No complicated organizational structures to learn how to use. No hotkeys to memorize, no sophisticated brainmapping, or cutesy bouncing icons.
Just a version of Dynalist where the saving / syncing actually WORKS, instead of randomly losing important data. And a folder pane window that stays put, instead of occasionally disappearing.
I would love to keep using Dynalist if it wasn’t just so bleeping buggy.