I would love to see an outliner that uses plain text files as storage format, so that outlines could be readable via text editors, on other platforms, mobile devices, etc. I use Dropbox in conjunction with Mac, Windows, and my iPhone, which is why TXT files would be a good vehicle for easy synchronization (real seamless synhronization, not just ability to import and export files.)

Tabs for hierarchy, some simple layout tags, that's it. The main difference between this and a plain text editor is that you can collapse and expand items (along with perhaps some additional navigation features). The main difference between this and a regular outliner app is that documents are about as portable and cross-platform as they get (the negative would be that it would not be as fully featured as other outliners.) Another nice feature would be to have file/folder viewer, which basically gives you 'outlines within outlines' functionality.

Does such a program exist, anywhere (Mac or Windows)? The closest I've seen is TaskPaper and FoldingText for Mac, but the built-in formatting is not really outliner focused- TaskPaper recognizes headings and subheadings, but it's not the same as using a simple outliner. I don't want a 'powerful' outliner, I want something that's simple, versatile, and gets out of the way when I am creating and organizing ideas.

Another app that is reaonably close is Tree (for Mac). It has a very elegant UI and is pretty light weight, and if you don't like the 'tree' view you can use it as a regular single-pane outliner. It is very good at opening and importing plain text files (recognizing tabs to preserve outline structure), but doesn't allow you to save in TXT format, forcing you to go through a export/import rigamarole. It can open and save in OPML format which is probably the next best thing to TXT files, if I can find something in iOS and Windows that works well with OPML and synchronizes with Dropbox.

Thanks,
Steve

Funnily enough, I've been trawling the web looking for the Ultimate Text-based Cross-Platform Outliner. And have failed to find it, alas. Todo.txt, which is - for reasons that entirely escape me - extremely popular, takes the whole 'simplicity' thing to an extreme that even dedicated CRIMPers find too far (part of the CRIMPer's disease is constant vacillation from one all-singing, all-dancing app to a totally other ultra-simple, ultra-streamlined app - and back again).

There are some good efforts, however. At the moment I'm testing out TaskPaper (on iOS) with TodoPaper (on Windows). Really quite nice, and entirely text-based. The only issue I have is with TaskPaper, which doesn't do folding (TodoPaper does). A shame, since Jesse Grosjean also produces FoldingText (for the Mac), so clearly knows his way round an outliner.

TodoPaper, something of a homage to TaskPaper, is also quite expensive (USD 30.00). But nicely done, I must say, especially for CRIMPers hitting the ultra-simple, ultra-streamlined part of their cycle... ;-)

EMACS with orgmode ( the Operating System that includes a text editor ).
All files are plain text, can handle files from 1kb to multi gb in size.
Google or DuckDuckgo.com or Bing search for tips and tricks.

Plain text, multi-platform (not iOS, port on Android)

ducking for cover.

Well, that makes 2 of us so there must be a market for it, right? ;-)

Not only are we looking for the same outliner, we've tried much of the same software too. I own licenses for TaskPaper and TodoPaper (I got both on sale so the prices were better.) I used them for awhile for task management, but they didn't suit me as an outliner. FoldingText folds, but doesn't seem to be able to create proper outlines. But they are both based on the idea of using simple text files as the file format.

There are a few lightweight outliners that I like on both platforms- Tree for Mac, and Noteliner and UV Outliner for Windows. The keyboard interface for Tree is done well even if you don't use it's unique horizontal view. To be able to navigate/expand/contract/promote/demote items in plain text files in a similar manner would seem ideal. Bonus points for folder navigation, hoisting, etc. You could even have styles based on hierarchy level for example, since no underlying formatting of content is necessary.

@Arnold- thanks for the emacs suggestion. That's probably a bit beyond what I want to take on, but will take a look.

emacs - especially in Orgmode - is perfectly ghastly, and I find it perfectly astonishing, in this day and age, that anybody could conceivably WANT to use such a thing. It's like deliberately putting your leg in a mantrap, letting it slam shut, then walking around bleeding and suppurating for weeks.

I'm sure it's a wonderful programming environment. Period.

For cross-platform purposes, I'm waiting for Todoist to finalise their iPad app. Their Windows app is very accomplished. Their Android app is acceptable, as is their iPhone app. The overall outliner concept is well defined and easy to use. The only other equivalent I like almost as much is SlickTasks, a relatively new app inspired by Workflowy but actually rather nicer, although the info density isn't as good. But I've written to the nice people who programmed it, and they've promised to look at that side of things.

Meanwhile I've gone back to Carbonfin Outliner, which isn't perfect, but does work fast and well. But there's a huge opportunity for somebody with a visionary sense of text apps...

The best solution I've found for plain text outlining is to use the crossplatform (Java-based) text editor jEdit.

http://www.jedit.org/

Go to settings, click on 'Editing', then for 'Folding Mode' select 'indent'. And for 'Automatic indentation', select 'full'. That way, text folding is activated on the basis of indentation. To indent, you press tab, and then the next line will automatically be indented the same amount. A 'Folding' menu in the menubar allows for collapsing and expanding all folds.

Screenshot with 1 line folded:

http://goo.gl/NdRgn

Screenshot with same line unfolded:

http://goo.gl/tPgLW

Basic outlining is achieved in this way, although without any special features.

A far geekier but probably superior solution is this forked version of Vim Outliner:

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=4223

(Vim itself also allows for indent-based folding, as in jEdit, but Vim has more of a learning curve.)

How about Notetab?

http://www.notetab.com/text-editor.php Point number 5 talks about outlines. I have used it successfully in the past for outlines.

Just to clarify, the suggestion I posted above is for so-called one-pane outlining, whereas Steve's suggestion of Notetab is for 2-pane outlining. Both are useful, but since the OP mentioned that he wants "Tabs for hierarchy", I took that to be a 1-pane approach.

MadaboutDana wrote:

emacs - especially in Orgmode - is perfectly ghastly, and I find it
perfectly astonishing, in this day and age, that anybody could
conceivably WANT to use such a thing.

I sympathize but I am not sure I agree.
True, orgmode/emacs has a very steep learning curve, which is the reason I don't use it on a daily basis. But from time to time I fire up orgmode, marvel at the flabbergasting array of power functions crammed into a plain text framework and wonder why on earth the "other" tools feel so limited and unresponsive.
The user interface is a nightmare but the combination of functionality and snappiness is really amazing because usually one comes at the expense of the other .

I can think of at least two quite capable tools, both in Windows:

Insight
http://www.dataomega.com/insight/index.htm
It's been around for years; I believe I first heard about it in the original outliners.com forum. It's basically a two-pane outliner relying on text files for content and Notetab-compatible catalog files for the outline (I think). I don't know about actual development, but it says that it is compatible at least with Windows 7. I've never actually used it myself. I think that the reason is that it is not Unicode-capable.

EmEditor
http://www.emeditor.com/modules/tutorials4/index.php?id=23
It's a modern and continuously updated, Unicode text editor with some very nifty functions, for both programming and text-oriented work, handling even .CSV files. Its outliner plug-in (included in the basic installation), shown in the above link, is very capable and flexible. Among others, you can use it both as one- and two-pane, concurrently if you want, and you can customise the character or regular expression which will be used to mark the outline levels. I use it often and find it lightning fast.


In respect to the discussion on EMACS org mode, I must say that if I had learned it at a more tender age, I'd probably still be using it. I personally don't need the fancy GUIs and enjoy the DOS-like writing environment of Brainstorm, WriteMonkey and the like. But nowadays I doubt that I would find the time or patience to tame the beast.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far! I am primarily Mac but am interested in both Mac and Win, and hopefully Win users find some useful suggestions here. Many of these applications look very good, and are pretty close. Some feedback (not for sake of nitpicking the suggestions, but for sake of discussion):

I think the closest so far is jEdit- I am indeed primarily think of a 1-pane outliner.
Insight is very interesting as a true 2-pane outliner, not 100% plain text but I think that would be impossible to do with a 2-pane outliner that spans multiple text files.
NoteTab looks like an 'almost outliner', in that there is only a top level hierarchy, but still very nice that everything is contained in a single text file.

jEdit functionally does everything I asked for (plain text file format, singe-pane outlining, cross-platform). I only wish it had a proper modal outlining interface (is 'modal' the right term here?), with a navigation mode (easier for expanding/contracting and moving items) as well as a text editing mode.

Thanks again!

Sorry forgot to add 1 more- EmEditor's Outline plug-in looks very good. It's basically a 2-pane outliner, but since it's all in a single text file that's close enough to me.

@Lucas: Thanks for the heads up on Jedit; it's just what I needed to take the place of Emeditor in Linux!


@Steveylang:

EmEditor's Outline plug-in looks very good.
It's basically a 2-pane outliner, but since it's all in a single text
file that's close enough to me.

You don't need to use (or even show) the tree pane--the "custom bar" in Emeditor terminology. You can do all your outlining in the text content pane, by enabling "outline as a guide".

Earlier in this thread I mentioned jEdit as a solution for outlining (tab or indentation-based folding) with a text editor. I can now recommend Sublime Text (Mac/Windows/Ubuntu) as an even slicker solution to achieve the same:

www.sublimetext.com

or the latest beta (that's what I'm using)

http://www.sublimetext.com/3

With Sublime Text, I didn't have to adjust any settings after downloading the program --- the tab-based folding seems to work automatically. Just note that the default behavior is that the folding arrows, which appear in the "gutter", only show up when the mouse is hovering over the gutter. Also, since this software is designed for developers, it's a little confusing at first to figure out how to adjust basic settings (to hide line numbers, for example). Basically, you have to open the default settings file, find the setting you want to change, and then write that change in the user settings file. A little cumbersome for non-developers like me, but it's a nice program. Not free, but the beta is free for now, and of course there's no lock-in with a text editor.

I should clarify that jEdit is actually a bit smarter with indentation-based folding: Unlike Sublime, jEdit also does hierarchical folding based on indentation with spaces, as opposed to only with tabs. (There may be a way to configure Sublime to do the same, but I'm not sure.) In general, anyway, Sublime is a slick program, so potentially useful to have in one's toolbox.

Lucas wrote:

I should clarify that jEdit is actually a bit smarter with
indentation-based folding: Unlike Sublime, jEdit also does hierarchical
folding based on indentation with spaces, as opposed to only with tabs.

Emeditor also does this. You can configure it to use any character, even a regular expression, for indentation. It can actually be very useful to use a visible character, like a middle dot.

Thanks for the heads up on Sublime Text. It's been mentioned here before a couple of times, but I didn't check it out at the time. Now it seems as if it could be an ideal cross-platform solution for me, in Windows and Linux.