Sense editor vs Writing Outliner
Started by Cassius
on 5/16/2011
Cassius
5/16/2011 10:28 pm
The Sense editing program ( http://www.silvaelm.co.uk/ ) was just mentioned in this forum. For anyone who has used it and used Writing Outliner, I have two questions.
1. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each as compared with the other?
2. What advantages, if any, does Sense have over the better two-pane outliners?
Thanks!
1. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each as compared with the other?
2. What advantages, if any, does Sense have over the better two-pane outliners?
Thanks!
Alexander Deliyannis
5/17/2011 10:18 pm
In summary, I think that they are two very different beasts:
- Writing Outliner is in its own words, a tool for "writing book-length documents in MS Word". Each node in a WO project is a different Word document. See here http://writingoutliner.com/writing-software/blog/tag/mind-map/ for WO's positioning as described by its developer.
- By contrast, Sense provides excellent micro-editing functionality without losing the perspective: e.g. each paragraph in the (right) editing pane is represented in the (left) content explorer.
In the ideal world, I would use Writing Outliner to organise a major book project, and Sense to maintain structure and flow at the chapter level. However, in both programs I miss interconnectivity: in Sense an easy way to export to Word in proper formatting, and in WO an easy way to import an existing structure.
- Writing Outliner is in its own words, a tool for "writing book-length documents in MS Word". Each node in a WO project is a different Word document. See here http://writingoutliner.com/writing-software/blog/tag/mind-map/ for WO's positioning as described by its developer.
- By contrast, Sense provides excellent micro-editing functionality without losing the perspective: e.g. each paragraph in the (right) editing pane is represented in the (left) content explorer.
In the ideal world, I would use Writing Outliner to organise a major book project, and Sense to maintain structure and flow at the chapter level. However, in both programs I miss interconnectivity: in Sense an easy way to export to Word in proper formatting, and in WO an easy way to import an existing structure.
Edwin Yip
5/18/2011 8:44 am
@Cassius,
I haven't noticed Sense before, just looked at it's screenshot, my first impression was - was it a wiki-like local text editor? I might be wrong.
@Alexander,
Thanks. I have to agree with you, importing documents from external sources is what should be improved in the future for Writing Outliner.
---
Edwin Yip
Turn MS Word into a full-featured outliner software for long document writers.
http://WritingOutliner.com
I haven't noticed Sense before, just looked at it's screenshot, my first impression was - was it a wiki-like local text editor? I might be wrong.
@Alexander,
Thanks. I have to agree with you, importing documents from external sources is what should be improved in the future for Writing Outliner.
---
Edwin Yip
Turn MS Word into a full-featured outliner software for long document writers.
http://WritingOutliner.com
Alexander Deliyannis
5/19/2011 2:54 pm
Edwin wrote:
Actually no; it's basically a two-pane outliner especially built for writing. You can think of it as an object-oriented text editor. On the left you have a tree of placeholders representing textual objects (paragraphs, titles, bullets etc) and on the right you have the actual text.
The main difference with a classic two-pane outliner is that you can see the full text flow on the right, not just the one corresponding to the placeholder selected on the left. So you have the document overview and the detail both available in front of you. Something like an MS Word document with an (editable) document map.
Great!
I haven't noticed Sense before, just looked at it's screenshot, my first
impression was - was it a wiki-like local text editor?
Actually no; it's basically a two-pane outliner especially built for writing. You can think of it as an object-oriented text editor. On the left you have a tree of placeholders representing textual objects (paragraphs, titles, bullets etc) and on the right you have the actual text.
The main difference with a classic two-pane outliner is that you can see the full text flow on the right, not just the one corresponding to the placeholder selected on the left. So you have the document overview and the detail both available in front of you. Something like an MS Word document with an (editable) document map.
importing documents from external sources is what should be improved
in the future for Writing Outliner.
Great!