Frames – an interesting idea with some unique features

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Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 18, 2021 at 12:41 PM

Frames is an app I stumbled across in the Mac App Store – at its most basic a multi-pane outliner, but capable of extensive cross-referencing and transclusion, complete with a neat implementation of backlinks that can also function as a kind of tagging mechanism.

It’s also capable of embedding PDFs in “frames” (frames are more or less equivalent to notes), and you can create new frames from selected text in PDFs.

Like any outliner, it uses indenting/outdenting to create outlines, but the support for transclusion means you can drag notes into an outline to automatically make them part of your outline structure. You can indent/outdent transcluded notes, too.

The more I’ve played with it (the basic version is free), the more intrigued I’ve become by the possibilities. What it doesn’t yet have is a full-text search function – the search box, like nvALT, acts as both note (name) filter and new note creation field. But the amiable UK-based developer tells me that search is on his roadmap. Meanwhile Frames is quick and easy to use, and good fun to experiment with!

macOS only at the moment, I’m afraid.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 18, 2021 at 12:41 PM

For those who want more details without necessarily installing the app, there’s plenty of info on the Support pages of the developer’s website: https://exploreandcreate.com

Posted by Luhmann
Oct 18, 2021 at 12:42 PM

Which region store do you use? I don’t see it in the US app store…

Posted by Luhmann
Oct 18, 2021 at 12:43 PM

Oh, OK. I’m able to link to it from their page. Apple’s search feature for their own store is really terrible…

Posted by Luhmann
Oct 18, 2021 at 12:45 PM

I didn’t install the app, but it seems to me that you can do similar things with the PDF reader in Logseq.

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