let's look toward the future
Posted by sgenco
on 8/16/1999
sgenco
8/16/1999 11:51 am
I was pleased to come across this site today. Thanks Dave for putting it together. I began using ThinkTank in the late 80s, then got totally hooked on MORE throughout the first half of the 90s. In fact, the main reason I'm still working on a Mac as my main machine is because I have 500 documents in MORE and its too hard to translate them all to Word. I still outline almost everything I write (or think) but I try to use Word, which is painful because of the lack of WYSIWYG in in the outliner, and the lack of flexibility for Heading formats. I hold my breath everytime Mac OS is updated. So far, so good - MORE still bops along for me in 8.6!
But how long can our luck hold out? I'm always looking for a decent outliner that runs on Windows, preferably one that can read and translate MORE files. Has anyone found anything that does the job? Here's some of my own findings:
Inspiration has some good features. It's basically a "mind-mapping" tool, but has a decent outline view. Not nearly the degree of topic-by-topic formatting that MORE has, though. It does run on both Mac and Windows. Available at www.inspiration.com.
I think the outliner in ClarisWorks has real promise. Its only problem is when you mix text and outlines. Unlike MORE, which can put text paragraphs inside the outline, ClarisWorks insists on putting the outline inside the text. So, for example, if you have three numbered outline points and then want to put a text paragraph under the third one, the next outline point starts at 1 again. You can manually override this, but its an unsatisfactory kludge. I've suggested to Claris a preferences override (ouline in text vs. text in outline) but haven't seen the feature appear. I haven't checked in awhile, don't know the fate of ClarisWorks since Claris became Filemaker.
I hope this becomes a forum where we can identify a reasonable migration path from the glory days of MORE on the Mac.
But how long can our luck hold out? I'm always looking for a decent outliner that runs on Windows, preferably one that can read and translate MORE files. Has anyone found anything that does the job? Here's some of my own findings:
Inspiration has some good features. It's basically a "mind-mapping" tool, but has a decent outline view. Not nearly the degree of topic-by-topic formatting that MORE has, though. It does run on both Mac and Windows. Available at www.inspiration.com.
I think the outliner in ClarisWorks has real promise. Its only problem is when you mix text and outlines. Unlike MORE, which can put text paragraphs inside the outline, ClarisWorks insists on putting the outline inside the text. So, for example, if you have three numbered outline points and then want to put a text paragraph under the third one, the next outline point starts at 1 again. You can manually override this, but its an unsatisfactory kludge. I've suggested to Claris a preferences override (ouline in text vs. text in outline) but haven't seen the feature appear. I haven't checked in awhile, don't know the fate of ClarisWorks since Claris became Filemaker.
I hope this becomes a forum where we can identify a reasonable migration path from the glory days of MORE on the Mac.
nubuckaroo
8/16/1999 6:02 pm
ClarisWorks is AppleWorks v5.0. The outliner is good, but as you indicated, it has weaknesses.
Some of the weaknesses may be able to be addressed by macros and bookmarks.
I'm thinking of spending a little time one weekend and developing a macro which can emulate "hoisting" by copying a topic to a new page, selecting the "Text" format (i.e. turn off the outlining features) and then turing control over to you. You execute another macro to copy the resulting text back into the outline structure.
There are some other possibilities using bookmarks as links to things like tables which aren't handled gracefully by the outliner.
There is also greater Applescript functionality built into AW 5.0 than the previous versions of ClarisWorks, though there are some gaps in that as well.
Dave Rogers
Some of the weaknesses may be able to be addressed by macros and bookmarks.
I'm thinking of spending a little time one weekend and developing a macro which can emulate "hoisting" by copying a topic to a new page, selecting the "Text" format (i.e. turn off the outlining features) and then turing control over to you. You execute another macro to copy the resulting text back into the outline structure.
There are some other possibilities using bookmarks as links to things like tables which aren't handled gracefully by the outliner.
There is also greater Applescript functionality built into AW 5.0 than the previous versions of ClarisWorks, though there are some gaps in that as well.
Dave Rogers