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Is there an outline program that allows tagging text with different layers?
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Posted by Tall Guy
Sep 23, 2012 at 10:35 PM
I would like to find an outline program that allows me to associate text with different layers. Then if I want to format a particular layer of text with a certain attribute (say a color, size, or even delete it) then I can simply modify the entire layer all at once, while leaving the other layers as they are. Does anybody know of a good software to do this? I’ve tried outlining in Microsoft word, and have tagged text with “styles”, which seems to work ok. But, I’m wondering if there is a program specifically built with a layering function that is similar to engineering drafting programs like AutoCad. Thanks.
Posted by Franz Grieser
Sep 24, 2012 at 07:23 PM
Hi.
If you’re talking about stylesheets that allow quick reformatting of headings, etc., then Word, LibreOffice/OpenOffice Writer, Scrivener, Papyrus, Latex (and all the editors based on TEX) come to mind.
I am, however, not aware of any outliner supporting stylesheets (stylesheets are not really necessary - an outliner is a thinking and organizing tool not a formatting tool).
If you’re talking about the ability to add certain portions of your text to the final document, Scrivener’s Compile (for export or printing) feature might be what you’re looking for. I am not sure but I think other “writers’ wordprocessors” such as Whizfolders, Storybook or IdeaMason should have comparable features.
Franz
Posted by Jon Polish
Sep 24, 2012 at 08:59 PM
Unless I am misunderstanding you, Ecco Pro allows you to create styles for different levels. I think NoteMap does too.
Jon
Posted by Cassius
Sep 24, 2012 at 11:48 PM
Notemap is dangerous. *I once recommended it…until it permanently lost several paragraphs of text I had just written. Also, it is no longer being developed and the developer failed to make a very simple fix when it introduced version 2.
Jon Polish wrote:
>Unless I am misunderstanding you, Ecco Pro allows you to create styles for different
>levels. I think NoteMap does too.
>
>Jon
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 26, 2012 at 05:33 PM
Tall Guy, if I understand well your post, you are indeed talking of overlapping ‘layers’ on a plane and not of hierarchical ‘levels’ in an outline. If this is a case, I can’t think of any such software of the kind discussed here, though it is a common feature in design programs as you mentioned, but also GIS (Geographic Information Systems).
I expect you can achieve indeed the desired effect with such specialist software, but I imagine that you are probably looking for something more handy than a ‘sledgehammer’.
An alternative are presentation applications like PowerPoint; you can have multiple text boxes one on top of the other, and re-arrange them and enable/disable them at will (by making their text opaque or transparent respectively). As long as you keep the text boxes without a background colour, they will happily overlap. Not the most convenient thing to do, but it works.
May I ask what kind of application you have in mind? It does sound like quite an original idea in the world of personal information management.