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GrandView - Still at it
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Posted by Backbutton
Apr 8, 2012 at 10:50 PM
Still looking to get Grandview or a workalike. Unending quest.
How difficult would it to duplicate Grandview? So many people still think GrandView was the best outliner, and I don’t understand why nobody can recreate something just like it. I don’t have the technical capability to do so, or I would.
I finally got it installed and running on VMWare7, but cannot share the documents I created in the VM with Windows.
Is there an outliner that works just like Grandview out there?
patsaison@gmail.com
Posted by Cassius
Apr 9, 2012 at 06:36 AM
I know of three, none of which matches GV’s outlining versatility:
1. NoteMap - had hopes for it, but even simple bugs weren’t fixed and development stopped. When it permanently lost lot of material I had typed into it, I stopped using it.
2. NoteLiner: Relatively new and free (for now). Relatively simple.
http://www.noteliner.org/i/Main.html
3. Inspiration: Best one-pane outliner I’ve found for current Windows environments. Some of the commands are a bit quirky, but I’ve grown accustomed to them. So far, I’ve found no bugs. It can also be used to diagram and it will automatically convert outlines to diagrams.
http://www.inspiration.com
I’ve given up on using GV in Win XP. (It did work pretty well in Win 2000.) Also, without the paper manuals, it might be difficult to learn.
============================================================
Backbutton wrote:
>Still looking to get Grandview or a workalike. Unending quest.
>
>How difficult would
>it to duplicate Grandview? So many people still think GrandView was the best
>outliner, and I don’t understand why nobody can recreate something just like it. I
>don’t have the technical capability to do so, or I would.
>
>I finally got it installed
>and running on VMWare7, but cannot share the documents I created in the VM with
>Windows.
>
>Is there an outliner that works just like Grandview out
>there?
>
>patsaison@gmail.com
Posted by Cassius
Apr 9, 2012 at 06:43 AM
P.S. If you can convert GV documents to Word, you can convert them to rtf which Inspiration can then do a pretty good job of putting them into an Inspiration format. If you decide to use Inspiration and want the conversion details, post request here and I’ll post procedure.
Posted by jimspoon
Apr 11, 2012 at 03:06 AM
For me Ecco Pro was a complete replacement for Grandview. Official development stopped in 1997, but there is an active community and “Slang” has developed an Ecco Extension which greatly extends the capabilities of Ecco.
Download this, unzip, and run:
http://forums.eccomagic.com/forum/Attachments/pre-release-Manual_Install_001.zip
Posted by Backbutton
Apr 14, 2012 at 08:09 PM
I have the paper manual, in case anyone needs. I have the complete package, and even bought an extra set of disks on eBay.
Thanks for the tips, will look into Scrivner.
GV runs fine on VMWare (under Vista 64 host—just don’t have nouse), but I just can’t get the documents created on the VM (Virtual Machine) seen on Windows—when I look at the folder I created to store the GV outline documents via Windows, the folder is indicated as being blank, but I know I put the document there while using the VM. If I go back to the VM, I see the document in the indicated folder and location.
If I am able to subsequent access the outline documents I write using GV on the VM, under Windows, whereby I can take the outline and convert to WordPerfect and subsequently to Word, then my problem would be solved.
I would have no problem writing the outline in GV, and when I am done, go to Windows, and access the outline, and convert it to WP and then into MS Word, to work on it further.
The value of GV, or rather using GV, is to help me in my thinking and organization of the subject matter, and the drafting of a full-bodied outline, which I can then convert and flesh out.
Using MS Word to outline is too tedious, and not conducive to clear thinking. My best writing was done using GV—I am not talking about minor documents, but major business documents, as much as 100 pages, such as investment proposals, business plans. (I am not a fiction writer).
Readers have applauded my writing in my GV days—as cogent, very clear, concise and understandable—this I attribute to having used GV to organize my thoughts.
Using MS Word, as I have been doing since, has been quite difficult, and laborious, and when I use MS Word, I keep thinking how nice it would be to have GV at my disposal.
It someone could port GV over to Windows, that would be “eriter’s nirvana”—I would do it if I could, but I do not have the technical expertise, or know where to start.
All these other outliners may have some elements that are good. What we need is an exact clone of GV, with minor adjustments and enhancements—definite improvements, tweaks, but nothing that impairs its basic functionality.