SENSE Editor recent updates

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 28, 2014 at 03:28 PM

I use SENSE quite regularly; it is my tool of choice for long and complex texts.

It is the only editor I know that can display a full hierarchy in its left pane, right down to the paragraph level (one line per paragraph). I can switch from overview to detail seamlessly. It is a two-pane outliner which can be used as one-pane too: the tree navigator can be hidden and full control of level expand/collapse etc. is available in the text pane via keyboard shortcuts.

In addition, the Viewpoints feature effectively turns it into a ‘relational’ text editor, much like Brainstorm, as you can be working on various parts of the same document in separate windows while still maintaining another with the overview.

I’m sure I’ve written more about SENSE’s benefits several times elsewhere, so I will write here a bit about its weaknesses (some of which may be strengths too from another viewpoint): it is not WYSIWYG, its handling of images and tables is quite rudimentary, it can import/export RTF but not MS Word. It is Windows-only; I would use it more often if I could make it run on Linux (I stress the _I_ part; someone more knowledgeable in Linux might be able to do it already).

Last but not least, it is licensed by PC, not by user. A license entitles you to one year of free updates and development is continuous, so you’ll probably want to pay again next year. Notwithstanding, given its functionality I find the price quite reasonable, even without the current promotional reduction.