http://bitsdujour.com/software/notecase-pro/

The promotion is for the all OS lifetime license. I've written about Notecase Pro in various threads in recent years so I won't repeat myself here. I'll just say that this is probably the most powerful multi-platform outliner out there (not counting TheBrain), and that it's a steal at this price, especially with the Android version included.

Go ahead: repeat yourself. What's it like?

::

It's available today, Oct. 29 2012

Yup, CRIMPed that up straight away! I love all the Linux support in particular, plus the Android support could be very useful.

I've used the basic (free) version of Notecase for years, and always been favourably impressed (although my very favourite simple notebook is and continues to be The Guide: I live in hope that somebody will pick this up again, someday - especially now that it's a Sourceforge project - and turn it into the superior offering it always promised to be!).

But Notecase Pro is really quite powerful.

For those seeking a relatively cheap 'n' cheerful equivalent for Windows-Android outliner synching, try Vault 3 (also available on Android). Now that's an oldie but goldie...

razorboy wrote:

Go ahead: repeat yourself. What's it like?

As I will in all probability forget many interesting points about NCpro, I suggest to anyone interested to check out the full list of features here http://virtual-sky.com/features.php

I first learnt of NCpro from this thread http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/645 Since then, the program has grown by leaps and bounds. The features below are the ones I am personally most interested in:

- As cross-platform as can be: BSD, Linux, Mac, Solaris, Windows and now Android
- Imports just about anything from Psion 5 CSV (!) to Mind Manager
- Can work with OPML transparently, i.e. you can use it as if it were a native format
- Multiple documents support
- Multilanguage support (even at this day and age, this is not evident)
- Node clones (think of it as nodes with multiple parents)
- Nodes can be labeled as Tasks and all pending tasks listed separately with one command
- Search results can be displayed as a list (an alternative to finding entries needing attention)
- Tagging and tag cloud

When you first work with NCpro you are likely to find its interface rather dated: it depends on the GTK framework for its interface and looks. It is thans to GTK that it is cross-platform though, so I cannot complain. That said, the Android version was apparently developed from scratch as GTK does not support Android.

Don't let the looks discourage you. It is extremely powerful, to the point of being scriptable. If there's something it can't already do, in most cases you'll be able to do it via Lua scripting. Miro, the developer, is ready to help you via the Google Group.

The usual disclaimer applies: I have no affiliation with the developer other than being a happy customer. The only reason I am not purchasing the license at today's sale is because I already have it. I bought it last year, when I realised that the pace of development was so fast, that the perpetual license was a bargain compared to the regular one. And we are talking about genuine development here: each 'minor' release includes more changes than Firefox puts in its 'major' ones (there, I've said it, I had to get that off my chest...)

Always tempted by cross-platform programs but wary of ones that don't work on iPads. For a user of Evernote,TheBrain, and SimpleNote/ResophNotes, is there anything about Notecase Pro that really stands out? I'm not a power user, so scripting capabilities aren't meaningful to me.

Thanks for any guidance.

I like the easy Bonsai import. I could see this as a companion to Bonsai, for doing some more sophisticated ordering of an outline using the "mark and gather" function (which sadly I can't test in the trial version), cloning etc.

But is there a way to display some icons in a column to show which outline items have notes? I poked around in the column settings but couldn't find anything.

exatty95 wrote:

Always tempted by cross-platform programs but wary of ones that don't work on iPads.

I don't expect Notecase Pro to be available for the iPad anytime soon. Already the Androis app has been a major challenege for Miro and it still has a long way to go to get the functionality one would expect.

For a user of Evernote,TheBrain, and SimpleNote/ResophNotes, is there anything
about Notecase Pro that really stands out?

What stands out is that it is a "classic" two-pane outliner, with most of the strengths and weaknesses this tool format entails. None of the programs you mentioned are really outliners, which would make me suspect that you probably don't miss such a tool, otherwise you would already have chosen one out of the multitude of Windows offerings available. I would say that TheBrain can cover most of the uses of NCpro, even if the organisation looks very different visually. So if you are happy wth TheBrain, which is also cross-platform, there's probably not much reason to look further.

Dr Andus wrote:

But is there a way to
display some icons in a column to show which outline items have notes? I poked around in
the column settings but couldn't find anything.

In reality, all outline items ('nodes') have notes, even though they may be empty. As far as I know there isn't a way to show on the outline/columns which nodes' notes actually have content.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

In reality, all outline items ('nodes') have notes, even though they may
be empty. As far as I know there isn't a way to show on the outline/columns which nodes'
notes actually have content.

Thanks for that. I'm a bit surprised as I would have thought that with all those formats that can import items with notes (especially OPML and Bonsai), some existing users would have come across the need to see where the notes are in a very large imported outline.

It seems that such a function might be more common in one-pane outliners (such as Bonsai) than in two-pane outliners. I just noticed that WhizFolders doesn't indicate either whether a note is empty (although Scrivener does).

Would you have any specific suggestions as to how NC could be used as a companion to Bonsai (or other one-pane outliners that can export OPML)? I'm getting a vague idea that NC could be inserted in the writing workflow somewhere between Bonsai and Scrivener as an intermediary, to organise the outline further and add some more meat onto the skeleton?

Dr Andus wrote:

Would you have any specific
suggestions as to how NC could be used as a companion to Bonsai (or other one-pane
outliners that can export OPML)? I'm getting a vague idea that NC could be inserted in
the writing workflow somewhere between Bonsai and Scrivener as an intermediary, to
organise the outline further and add some more meat onto the skeleton?

I don't think that NC could add much to the workflow you suggest. Here's why:

- NC has tags, but so does Bonsai
- NC has columns, but so does Bonsai
- NC has attachments and embedded media files, but so does Scrivener (I think)

In short, Notecase between Bonsai and Scrivener is like a viola in a string quartet. The cello can play its lows and the violin can play its highs, so you don't really need it. That doesn't mean that there isn't beautiful music for viola, just that it shines mostly when not placed among other more specialised instruments.

The only thing I can think of that NC could add is the power of clones, i.e. managing content items that are mentioned in more than one places in the outline, so that your notes on these remain consistent. But I believe that this is probably a marginal benefit, which doesn't in itself warrant the use of a separate tool.

Thanks for the clarification, Alexander. (Although I didn't get the bit about the violin, I'm rubbish at music ;)

@ "But is there a way to display some icons in a column to show which outline items have notes? I poked around in the column settings but couldn’t find anything."

As mentioned, all nodes have notes whether the notes have any content or not. But it would be a trivial script to write that assigns a particular icon to all notes that have no content. Likewise, to set a special color combination for the note title and its background. Here's the script to set all empty notes to the "help" icon, a question mark. The function portion to process all notes in the current document has been used in many a script. There are only 6 lines of new code here:

function Process_All_Notes(nDocID)
nNoteCount = Nc_Doc_NoteCount(nDocID)
assert(nNoteCount > 0, "ERROR: the target document contains no notes.")
for i=1,nNoteCount do
-- get the note's ID and decrement count
strNoteID = Nc_Note_ID_GetByIdx(nDocID, i-1)
-- inject string from parent script and execute
assert(load(strProcessNote))()
end -- for i=1,
end -- function

-- get current doc ID
nDocID = Nc_Doc_ID_GetCur()

-- assign code to string to be be processed by function
strProcessNote = [[nCharCount = Nc_Note_Content_GetSize(nDocID, strNoteID)
if nCharCount == 0 then
Nc_Note_Icon_SetValues(nDocID, strNoteID, 1, "help")
end -- if nCharCount]]

-- execute function
Process_All_Notes(nDocID)

Marbux wrote:

@ "But is there a way to display some icons in a column to show which outline items have
notes? I poked around in the column settings but couldn’t find anything."

As
mentioned, all nodes have notes whether the notes have any content or not. But it would
be a trivial script to write that assigns a particular icon to all notes that have no
content. Likewise, to set a special color combination for the note title and its
background. Here's the script to set all empty notes to the "help" icon, a question
mark. The function portion to process all notes in the current document has been used
in many a script. There are only 6 lines of new code here:

function
Process_All_Notes(nDocID)
nNoteCount = Nc_Doc_NoteCount(nDocID)

assert(nNoteCount > 0, "ERROR: the target document contains no notes.")
for
i=1,nNoteCount do
-- get the note's ID and decrement count
strNoteID =
Nc_Note_ID_GetByIdx(nDocID, i-1)
-- inject string from parent script and
execute
assert(load(strProcessNote))()
end -- for i=1,
end -- function

-- get
current doc ID
nDocID = Nc_Doc_ID_GetCur()

-- assign code to string to be be
processed by function
strProcessNote = [[nCharCount =
Nc_Note_Content_GetSize(nDocID, strNoteID)
if nCharCount == 0 then

Nc_Note_Icon_SetValues(nDocID, strNoteID, 1, "help")
end -- if
nCharCount]]

-- execute function
Process_All_Notes(nDocID)

Marbux, thank you for that.