Substitute for Omnioutliner

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Posted by canhoto
Nov 29, 2011 at 05:55 PM

I’ve been struggling to find an application with about the same features and powerfulness of OmniGroup’s OmniOutliner, but it seem’s there isn’t one for Linux. This application is very powerful in that it has some spreadsheet-like capabilities (like being useful for a budget-planning), for general planning capabilities and for outlining purposes.

But it only exists for Mac, and their format (.oo3) is not imported by other outliners. The OPML export/import is rather limited, especially because other outliners (like BasKet, Treeline, Notecase, etc.) don’t have the same features, with column organizing or spreadsheet-like functions, for example.

So I think it would be helpful to have an organizing and outlining tool like Omniotliner for Linux or, even better, crossplatform.

Do you know an applicaton with that features or do you know if there’s a project like that running?

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Dec 1, 2011 at 04:47 PM

From my limited understanding of OmniOutliner (I only work with Windows and Linux) I believe that nothing similar exists outside the Mac world. I hope that I am proven wrong.

In my view, outliner development seems has taken different routes in Mac and Windows—both quite innovative and interesting. It is however very limited in the Linux world, where information manager solutions mostly revolve around wikis and more traditional relational databases. The few outline solutions existing in Linux are usually based on cross-platform implementations, including Java. Of these, Notecase Pro http://www.virtual-sky.com/index.php stands out for its consistent development and broad range of features.

Some other available offerings: KeepNote http://rasm.ods.org/keepnote/ Zettelkasten http://zettelkasten.danielluedecke.de/en/index.php the ubiquitous Org-Mode http://orgmode.org/ Java Outliner http://outliner.sourceforge.net/ MindRaider http://mindraider.sourceforge.net/ TreeLine http://treeline.bellz.org/ and of course TreeSheets http://www.treesheets.com/

I may be missing a few, but probably not something that would change the general picture.

Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Dec 1, 2011 at 04:51 PM

P.S. Here’s a couple of older threads on the issue:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/846
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/1231

Posted by MadaboutDana
Dec 1, 2011 at 10:11 PM

Actually, TreeLine is enormously powerful, and can be used to produce all sorts of amazing things, but it takes quite a while to decide how best to set it up (and a degree of familiarity with HTML coding, too!). It’s probably the closest to something like OmniOutliner on Linux, but nowhere near as friendly!

Another interesting option is NixNote (formerly NeverNote), a fairly competent attempt to bring Evernote to Linux (and Windows, in fact). It’s not as flexible as OmniOutliner, but it is quite friendly and nicely designed.

You could also play with CherryTree, a much underrated outliner that’s made big strides recently (and moved in a kind of OneNote-ish direction). You’ll find it at http://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#downl

All of the above apps are free/open-source.

Cheers,
Bill

Posted by Listerine
Jun 18, 2012 at 04:14 AM

You should also add that CherryTree is probably the closest clone to TreePad that you can find. If you’re using it in Windows, use the portable version since it it includes the gtk files and circumvents some pretty nasty installation issues (CherryTree was written for Linux and has been ported to Windows). This portable version is 150mb but it is well worth the download time. CherryTree also gives you the option of creating sqlite or xml files ... on my Windows system(s), the sqlite alternative doesn’t work but the xml works fine.

I’ve tried just about every alternative for outlining available and CherryTree remains my favorite. Can’t understand why it isn’t better known.

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