Web Outliner?

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Posted by Tom S.
Mar 29, 2009 at 09:09 PM

OK, guys. If anyone is going to give me a good answer to this, you all will.

For a number of reasons I’d rather not get into, I’m spending most of my time in Linux now a days. I can run Windows programs in a virtual machine but I hate doing it because almost everything else is done outside of it. My search for a quality Linux outliner has proven fruitless. My favorite Windows programs by far are things like Ecco and Zoot. I’ll also give a tip of the hat to Infocube. None of these runs under Wine and there isn’t a native Linux or Java program to compare with them.

So I’ve resorted to the web. Right now I’m using Gmail, Google Reader and Google Calendar and they all fit my needs. But the task implementation in Google is totally inadequate and they don’t have anything close to an outliner. I had hopes for Google Notebook but its a pale reflection of the Windows programs mentioned above and its now defunct anyway. I’ve also tried Evernote (Web) and Zoho Notebook. These don’t cut it.

I’ve actually gone back to Lotus Agenda (running under dosemu, a DOS emulator) which is, of course, among the most functional programs around but, well, its DOS.

Any suggestions for a really good web outliner?

Thanks,

Tom S.

Posted by Jack Crawford
Mar 29, 2009 at 10:31 PM

This isn’t really my area, but I just wanted to point to the online version that Inspiration is developing at http://www.mywebspiration.com.

While it is still in beta, it looks very powerful - virtually a replica of their flagship product which includes one of the industry’s very few text and graphical outliners

I’ll let the resident gurus take over now. ;-)

Jack

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 30, 2009 at 05:55 AM

Great to hear that Linux covers most of my needs. I am still working on my own transposition; I love the OS, but there’s several Windows applications I still rely on for my daily work. Re outlining in Linux, I don’t know if you’ve tried NoteCase Pro ( http://www.virtual-sky.com ) which has been discussed here in the past; it’s cross-platform, very powerful and constantly developed.

To web outlining; the applications I remember having read about here are:
Checkvist http://checkvist.com/login
iOutliner http://www.ioutliner.com/
list.it http://groups.csail.mit.edu/haystack/listit/
Microsoft Listas http://listas.labs.live.com/

For me, none of the above comes even close to a capable PC-based outliner, but others’ opinion may differ.

However, a similar kind of webware that seems to be developing rapidly is mind mapping. If you can live with the appearance, the underlying concept is more or less the same and some of the apps are quite powerful. Examples include:
Mindmeister http://www.mindmeister.com/
Mind42 http://www.mind42.com/
Bubbl.us http://bubbl.us/
Webspiration - web version of Inspiration http://www.mywebspiration.com/ (Beta, currently closed)

There’s many more; see the whole list at http://www.mind-mapping.org/ and some reviews at http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com

By the way, the same goes for Linux; capable mindmapping applications such as FreeMind and XMind are also available there. Like it or not, it seems that ‘graphical outliners’ such as mind mappers are drawing in more interest than classic outliners.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 30, 2009 at 05:56 AM

P.S. The first line should have been: “Great to hear that Linux covers most of YOUR needs.” (I guess that was wishful thinking aloud on my part).

Posted by Ken
Mar 30, 2009 at 11:07 PM

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>There’s many more;
>see the whole list at http://www.mind-mapping.org/ and some reviews at
>http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com

Once again, Alexander, thank you for the informative link. One program that I noticed because it was supposed to have an iPhone/iPod Touch App was LooseStitch. Unfortunately, I could find no trace of it at Apple’s App Store. The program does sound interesting if it had a portable companion.

In addition, if its just task management that one needs, I have been trying out Toodledo for the past few weeks and it seems worthy of consideration.

—Ken

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