ConnectedText versus Ndxcards

Posted by sracer
Oct 23, 2007 at 02:48 AM

Manfred wrote:
>But I have come to
>believe that Outlines should not be the basic or primary organizing principle in
>note-taking and writing of drafts. I write, come upon another idea, and create a new
>entry for that idea; concentrate on that idea, and if it leads to something else, voila
>... I enclose the word with double square brackets and there is another topic.It’s a
>bit like Brainstorm that way.
> >Later I can worry about how it may fit in the larger
>picture. And I can make an outline at this point.
> >Hoping this helps,
>Manfred
I never viewed outlines as an organizing principle in note-taking or writing of drafts. One of the reasons why many DO view outlines that way probably has something to do with the lack of thought given to the design of early PIMs. You basically had “electronic version of a paper organizer, ala Lotus Organizer and Borland’s Sidekick. True outliners like PC-Outline came down with a fatal case of featuritis. Feature upon feature were added to once-great outliners to the point where they were no longer outliners, but PIMs using a hierarchical structure that resembled an outline.

I view an outline as the structure… the skeleton of a document. As the “meat is put on the bones” the outline should disappear. Unfortunately I haven’t found any modern outliners that can do that. They all suffer from PIMs-masquerading-as-outliners.

I’ll probably have to bite the bullet and fire up PC-Outline and get reacquainted with it.

I’ve been guilty myself of indulging in hierarchical, tree-like PIMs. KeyNote has been invaluable and is a prime example. But lately I’ve been tinkering with Wikidpad and find it to have the right mix of features to help ween me off outliner-style tools.