iPad Mini and outlining

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Nov 5, 2012 at 11:12 AM

For the first time in my life, I bought a new Apple gadget as soon as it went on sale. Some how I feel a little ashamed of this, but I’ll get over it. Anyway, my iPad Mini arrived on Friday (actually, because of the lingering effects of hurricane Sandy on Newark airport in New Jersey, the FedEx plane arrived too late to get my package on the delivery truck, so I took myself to the FedEx facility to pick it up).

I had always been intrigued by the iPad, but thought that it was too big—really not all that more portable than my MacBook and without the keyboard. But the Mini seemed to be the right size, and it is proving to be just that.

Of course, the first thing I did with it was scour the App Store looking for the right outlining and information apps. I had experience with some of these with my iPod Touch, but I also found some new options unavailable for the iPod.

Two in particular stand out so far:

- iThoughts is a mind mapping application that I’ve found really easy and fun to use. It exports outlines in OPML directly into the other app that impresses me so far.
- Outline Pro is focussed on building old-fashioned outlines. That is, each outline you build with it is a stand-alone document, such as an article or an essay. I have not used it a lot yet to see if it works as I expect, but I’m hopeful.

One thing that disappoints me is that so far is that I am unable to get into using Notebooks. This is an application that looks very promising and has a great reputation. I like the idea of it, but somehow it just hasn’t inspired me. I had the same problem with the iPod version, but thought the larger screen of the Mini would alleviate that. Maybe my feelings will change with use.

Cotton is also very nice on the Mini, as is TaskPaper.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I love the Mini and have found myself already being more productive. It isn’t outliner nirvana, but it is a step in that direction.

Steve