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Retrospective outlining
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Posted by Dr Andus
May 11, 2012 at 07:03 PM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>>Dr Andus wrote:
>>the TOC now automatically
>displays the developing outline
>>(the hierarchical structure of headings 5 level
>deep).
>
>Are the five levels a permanent limitation? I.e. does CT limit the number of
>levels it displays in the outline? As I understand, the sequence of interconnections
>itself (which would translate as a hierarchy starting from the home node) is
>essentially limitless.
Hi Alexander, I should have probably made it clear that I was only referring to the Table of Contents (TOC) headings, rather than the actual Outline tool. To my knowledge there are at least 3 ways to do outlining (i.e. creating a hierarchical structure) in ConnectedText.
1. The Outline pane, which is a dedicated outliner with unlimited levels.
2. An unlimited hierarchy of “topics” (documents) linked via the Home node (but can be developed via linking to any “topic” really, by making it the ‘home’).
3. The TOC pane that is for developing a hierarchy of headings and sub-headings within a single “topic.” This one is limited to 5 levels.
It is this third one that now has been turned into a real-time outliner, even though it’s original function was to display the hierarchy of headings just like in Word’s Navigation Pane.
I don’t actually mind the 5-level limitation. When it comes to structuring a text (retrospectively or while developing it), I find this limitation helpful as it imposes some discipline and prevents outlinititis (a condition whereby I develop such a detailed outline that I lose all sense of spatial awareness :)
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 30, 2012 at 05:05 PM
Regarding “live outlining” (having an outline created according to headings of a text as you write) and “reverse outlining” (developing an outline for an existing document retrospectively), I’m hearing through the grapevine that the forthcoming beta ConnectedText 6 (to be released in a couple of months) is going to introduce some new features to the Table of Contents (TOC) pane that can already do the above. Apparently it will be possible to rearrange headings and the text belonging to those headings directly in the TOC pane (i.e. the “outline”).
I’m interested in this development as this would mean that the TOC (and CT) can be used as an outliner that is capable of having in-line notes (the text) under each heading and then having them easily and quickly rearranged (as there don’t seem to be many outliners with in-line notes out there).
The other interesting application for this feature would be the quick restructuring of large texts.
You can already do the above in CT but it requires copy-and-paste and the manual restructuring of the header hierarchy. (Please note that the TOC is different from the “Outliner” function and pane in CT. That’s yet another way to do outlining in CT.)
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 30, 2012 at 05:08 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>The other interesting application for this feature would be the
>quick restructuring of large texts.
I’m assuming that’s what Sense might be for, though I haven’t been able to spend time with Sense yet. But it sounds like CT is developing capabilities that are similar to that of Sense (?)
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jun 30, 2012 at 10:31 PM
Indeed I find Sense unsurpassable for working on long texts, keeping track of both the overview and the detail. Sense is basically a two-pane outliner, where each paragraph, header or chapter in the detail pane (right) becomes a line in the explorer tree (left). The two views can be maintained constantly in sync, and if you want to focus on a specific area of the text, you can collapse all the rest in both panes.
For one-pane fans it is now possible to hide the tree completely and do everything in the detail pane alone.
Sense has its quirks, but I like the direction it is heading to, and the developer is very open to suggestions.
Posted by notreadbyhumans
Jul 5, 2012 at 09:03 PM
For an online solution to retrospective outlining there’s ‘The Outliner of Giants’ which allows you to upload existing unstructured document and then break it down into its component parts:
http://www.theoutlinerofgiants.com/
Further, it allows you ‘split’ paragraphs down to their component parts as well so you end up with a fully structured outline, useful if you are going back to re-write or re-structure a document..