Have we discussed HyperClip before? If so, I apologize for bringing it up again, but I tried it out today and found that it had a couple of interesting features that seem fairly unique to me. The navigation pane on the left has three tabs: 1. The outline view in which you create your organizational hierarchy; 2. An index view, which flattens the outline and puts the topics in alpha order; and 3. A search view. The index view is a handy feature, especially when combined with the simple filter which allows you to see only those topics that you've tagged with a specific symbol (chosen from among a dozen or so... tags like "to do," "address," "note," etc...). So it would be easy to keep a hierarchical organization of projects, for instance, and tag "to do" items along the way, then use the index and filter to see your complete to do list. Not sophisticated, but easy and effective.

The other feature I like is the editor itself. It is the only editor in a program of this nature that I've found that has full editing control and the ability to embed OLE objects. What I mean by full editing control is this: the ability to select pieces of text most conveniently by double-clicking a word to select the whole word, then scoop up adjacent words by keeping the final click depressed and sweeping forward or backward. Select a whole paragraph by triple-clicking within the paragraph. This may sound trivial, but the way I write and edit, I find this makes my life so much easier. Most of the editors that allow OLE objects don't do anything when you triple click on a paragraph, and don't select complete words on double-clicking, so they require a more precise, distracting use of the mouse as you need to place your the cursor exactly at the start of a word and then drag exactly to the end... I know this seems silly, but I find it distracts me from my writing.

Anyway, HyperClip is the exception. And it is only $23US, a good deal. It won't replace an ADM or a Zoot or any of the more sophisticated PIMs, but it does a nice job for a low-end alternative.

URL is http://www.risksoftworks.com/hyperclip/index.html

Steve Z.

I had mentioned hyperclip as an example of the accelerating level of competition, even at the low-price end, but you cover it much more thoroughly.

Your comment about the ergonomics of editing control incited me to check my installed programs. Not surprisingly, most of the programs I have been actually using permit extending selections and recognize triple clicks; ADM, Idea!, ActionOutline, OneNote, and ndxCards. Even BrownBag MemoryMate, which I haven't yet uninstalled, allows this. BrainStorm, however, doesn't, but BrainStorm does a lot of things unconventionally, and it might be hard to implement. Maybe I'll inquire.

A couple of surprises though. General Knowledge Base, which would appear to have the most sophisticated of editors, does NOT provide these editing controls. And InfoRecall, which has a sophisticated mult-document writing environment, doesn't allow it, a failing that I think accounts for my disinclination to use it, although I hadn't noticed the reason.

[ An index view, which flattens the outline and puts the topics in alpha order ... The index view is a handy feature, especially when combined with the simple filter which allows you to see only those topics that you've tagged with a specific symbol ]

This is absolutely brilliant; it's just what I've been looking for! Do you know of any other outliner having this feature (Idea! has something similar but without the filter as far as I can tell).

Now if I only can get Hyperlink to accept Greek characters in titles in Win 2000...

alx