Rant: tried them all...

Posted by ChristianRR
Dec 13, 2012 at 12:46 PM

...well, almost! and I didn’t find what I’m looking for.

Newbie in this forum, I’m an old hand at outliners: I bought More the month it came out (1984? V1.0?), then graduated to Think Tank, Think Tank 512 (best outliner ever), then had to switch to Windows and used Agenda for a while (out of this world), then Word (:, then NoteMap 2…

I’ve been looking for… NoteMap 3! I mean, a single-pane lean, mean outliner, with
- Clones
- Mark and Gather
- Hoist
- URL links
- Minimal + and - headline “bullets” (+ = something below, - = nothing below… Why oh why isn’t this used everywhere?)
- Click the + for collapse/expand
- Drag’n'drop the headline by drag’n’ dropping the + (includes children) or the -
- Sensible multi-headline and text selection (dragging outside text = select headlines, dragging inside text = select text. Again, why o why…)
- Undo, multiple undos for any action (can you believe the number of rather decent programs discussed here that have NO UNDO?)
and…
PICTURES. .png, .jpg. Just one headline = one picture taken from disk and displayed right there in the outline. No need for a database, image editing, or kitchen sink neural networks. Collapse/expand/select/cut/copy/paste/drag/drop just like text. No need for text and picture in the same headline.

This would allow me to use the program as always, to develop texts from brainstorming to final version (formatting can be done somewhere else, just give me csv/tab delimited export), PLUS storyboard frames, thumbnails, reference pictures, doodles, etc.

Thanks to the great people on this website (and other sources), I must have tested about 20 different programs in the last few days. Over the years, I kept track of developments and tested anything that came along. I’m working now with OneNote 2010, but I hate so many things about its UI (I never could swallow the ribbon) and the lack of minimal +/- signs, visible at all times, in front of headlines, the containers, “click-anywhere-and-just-start-there”... This is DECADENT. I want old school. On top of that, I should abandon XP in order to be able to even test OneNote 2013? (Two censored words here to Microsoft).

Inspiration 9 is almost there, but the rendering engine or whatever is from the Middle Ages and text looks incredibly ugly; it also sure feels more like Expiration as far as the future is concerned.

Thanks again for all the links in previous posts, but… suggestions welcome!