Re: Inspiration Redux

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 1067

Posted by jellul
2001-05-07 18:45:31

tq white ii writes:

>surprised that you don’t also love the graphic mode.

Sometimes I am just not sequential. The mind-map inspired interface is totally great. Add ideas as they come, in an organization that is as idiosyncratic as you want and then, voila!, it becomes an outline.<

Hey, I never said I didn’t love the graphic mode. Heck, I originally bought the package for that purpose. The outlining
features were a pleasant, serendipitous surprise. I’m glad you
are comfortable switching back and forth from graphic mind-maps
to outlines. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for me. Translating
my graphic fancies into outlines more often than not results in random splotches of textual mud. While it may by now be a cliche, mindmapping strikes me as a right-brain type of cognition, whereas outlining is your basic rational, hierarchical left brain at work.

I use outliners strictly instrumentally - as a skeleton on which to flesh out my prose. While I do like Inspiration (in graphic mode) and also MindManager for brainstorming and as a kind of computer-based blackboard, I have never found them of much use when it comes time to formulate and organize my ideas on paper.

As usual, your mileage may vary. . .

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