The ultimate outliner

Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 15, 2013 at 11:11 PM

What would be the features and benefits of your ultimate outliner? I’m thinking of “outliner” in the stricter sense as a writing tool, rather than an all-purpose PIM (calendars, addresses and the lot). “Outlining” in this sense though could still span the entire writing process, from brainstorming, note-taking, organising, analysis, to synthesis, outlining, drafting and writing up, perhaps even word processing, if you insist.

Imagine, you have the ears of the world’s foremost outliner developers. What would you tell them? Try to provide an example, if a feature like that already exists.

To kick it off, for me this would be a composite picture of BrainStorm, Natara Bonsai, Outline 4D, ConnectedText, Freeplane, myInfo, possibly with some NoteMap and Maxthink thrown in for good measure.

It would have to be modular like ConnectedText, so that panes can be detached and split across two or more monitors, while their functions continue to be related.

It would have to be flexible like Bonsai, so that one could change it from a single-pane outliner to a 2- or 3-pane outliner.

It would have to be a good list sorter like BrainStorm or Bonsai, with the ability to categorise/label/prioritise each item, and then be able to set up a range of columns easily, like in MLO, with custom-columns, like in myInfo. It should have some quirky shortcut to throw selected items quickly in a “bag”, like on BrainStorm, Maxthink or NoteMap.

It would need to function as a single-pane outliner with inline notes, with all the outline views that Outline 4D currently supports (gradation from skeletal view to full text view with several interim views).

It should be possible to switch between an outline view and a mind map view with a single click.

It would have an improved version of Outline 4D’s “timeline view,” to be able to view the outline in index card form.