Forum Posts Feed
Been there, done that. Now I am doing it again, and I know better.
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 11, 2013 at 08:16 AM
Magenda wrote:
>Anyone know if Sense will output presentable reports?
Sense is brilliant for organising, reorganising, reusing and editing, but I don’t think it’s ideal for producing reports. In particular, it has some significant inconveniences in integrating tables and images; the developer is aware of these issues and their improvement is on the roadmap (note that I have not tested the very last version, so I may have missed something).
If you want to work on something that will be easily turned into a presentable document, my suggestion is to use one of the mainstream mind mapping products out there. MindView is by far the best in terms of creating beautifully formatted output. MindManager is the most popular, and MindGenius is probably the most affordable of the high-end solutions (note the high-end). There is also XMind, whose export options I have not tried.
They should all be able to import tab indented text outlines, which notepad2 should be able to provide.
It is almost embarrassing to conclude that the majority of outliners we discuss here are quite under-featured in terms of providing well formatted output for sharing further. In particular, most two-pane outliners cannot even print the outline tree.
Posted by Dr Andus
Feb 11, 2013 at 09:22 AM
Magenda wrote:
> I will go back to Notemap2
Well, if you like Notemap, then Outline 4D should work for you, as it’s based on the same principle: single-pane outliner with inline notes. Check out my review for the different visualisations available:
http://drandus.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/outline-4d-for-drafting-and-reverse-outlining/
>“4D” looks garish, but if it would let me pop my Notepad outlines in and
>manipulate them better, I would go for it. Does it give a good printed
>output, formatted presentably?
As you can see in my review, 4OD interface is highly customisable, so how “garish” it is will depend on you. You can have it in all black and white, if you prefer.
As for printing, it can do pretty much everything and more than your usual outliner. It can print all the views above, and a wide variety of settings are customisable. It can do stuff that even MS Word can’t do. But you can always export it to Word as RTF and format it further.
Beware that Write Bros only give you 5-day trial. Also, they are they most expensive. You can get the box for less from private sellers on Amazon USA or the download edition from http://www.writersstore.com/outline-4d/
Posted by Dr Andus
Feb 11, 2013 at 09:26 AM
P.S. and ignore all the marketing hype about the “Timeline View.” The outliner can be used wholly independently from the Timeline View, no knowledge of the latter is necessary to use the former. It’s like having two separate software packaged into one: outliner + timeline view.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Feb 11, 2013 at 02:01 PM
Another option, if you’re looking for a clean, simple interface is ActionOutline:
It’s an older app that lacks some common info management features such as tags, but it handles text nicely, and out puts it to a decent RTF file.
Steve Z.
Posted by Listerene
Feb 11, 2013 at 02:32 PM
Scrivener is way-overkill for what (it seems) you need. For a one-pane outliner, I’ve got the big love for UV Outliner (think the old DOS GrandView, updated). For a two-pane outliner, take your pick of the dozen or so freebies; CherryTree (portable) for instance (it’s basically a freeware version of Treepad, the granddaddy of them all). The Guide, Treedbnotes free, Rightnote Free, All My Notes Free, yada, yada, yada are other choices.
Basically, Scrivener is a glorified 2-pane outliner with a few more bells & whistles designed for (mainly) novelists. Not that it isn’t good (it’s my main choice for fiction writing) but for most uses it’s an unnecessary expense.