Single-pane outliners

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 19, 2011 at 08:07 AM

A couple of rare birds that IMHO fall into the broader area of one-pane but YMMV. I know that most regulars here are familiar with both but I’m describing them for reference reasons:

1. Brainstorm: it operates in a sort of permanent hoist, i.e. one only sees the level of the items one is working on, plus the item to which those items are subsidiary

[LEVEL 1 ITEM X]
- Level 2 Item 1
- Level 2 Item 2
- Level 2 Item 3
....

It’s possible to get a bird’s eye view of the outline, but this is read-only. One can however have several windows open, viewing different parts of the same outline at the time.

Brainstorm’s rather unique feature is the automatic linking of identical entries (namesakes); I have only found Zulupad to do something similar. I personally find it invaluable.

2. Treesheets; it’s a sort of two-dimensional outliner. It’s basic concept is to have everything on one page with levels being depicted in ever smaller font sizes, up to 1 pt. The number of levels is thus practically unlimited, though one needs to zoom in to view the lower levels. The logic (and the navigation keys) takes some getting used to but I am gradually finding it very useful for presenting information.