Hello everyone. I'm glad to get in this forum at last, after visiting it many times before. I have been looking for the best 1-Pane Outline long time ago, since I moved to Android, and my beloved Bonsai has died within my old Palm. I've tried many, many programs but non of them can give me the features I did find in Bonsai. Not together, at least. Tired to go in and out in each app I found interesting, without satisfaction, I ask to the experts, what software would you recomend which gather next feature?:

1. One-pane outline for Windows & Android (sync)
2. Hopefully RTF (WYSWYG)
3. Rather portable
4. No need special project features (note taking is my primary need)

The closest program I have found until now is Notliner, no sync though, but I can copy-paste the notes I need to Evernote. I liked a lot Noteliner. I wish it has an Android version to sync with.

Alex - welcome to the forum. I don't know anything about Android - though you may want to check out this recent suggestion:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4845/0/android-single-pane-outliner

However, as a fellow-Bonsai fan, I feel it's my duty to point out that if you install an OPML export template in your Bonsai directory on your PC, then you might be able to carry on using Bonsai if you find an Android app that can import/export OPML.

Instructions and export template courtesy of Carbonfin Outliner (http://carbonfin.com/faq.html

How do I export an outline from Bonsai

1. Download the export template: http://carbonfin.com/opml.oxt.zip
2. Extract the opml.oxt file to e.g. C:\Program Files\Bonsai
3. Open the Bonsai outline
4. Select File | Export | opml from the menu

Alex, welcome; did you take a look at this outliner to Linelo recently suggested by Rick here?
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4845/0/android-single-pane-outliner

It seems to be ideal for Android (if your version can support it). I believe you should view the video on their Facebook page to find the link to the Windows version.

Thank you, Dr Andus and Alexander! I appreciate your comments. I took a look at Linelo, but at first sight I found it very elemental. I want something simple, but no so simple.

The OPML export/import way is a good alternative for keep working on Bonsai, actually I have tried it once with Outliner for Android, but I felt it a little complicated and left behind that option while looking for something more practicle. Anyway I'll give it another try.

In the other hand Notliner is getting me more and more pleased, I think I like it now more tha Bonsai. Maybe it's not so powerful but it has some better features than Bonsai, like RTF, real time find, insert tables, etc... So, I'll keep on using it, combining with Evernote to bring my notes to my Android, although it is not obviously a sync proccess substitute, but it's useful.

Rather embarrassingly, I just realised that Dr Andus had already pointed to Linelo in his post which I read much later :-$

Anyway; Alex, depending on your screen and internet connection program on your Android you might want to test Fargo http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4815/5

It's an HTML5 app which syncs with Dropbox; you should be able to use it both on Android and your Windows PC.

Admittedly it is simplistic too; frankly I cannot think of any modern one-pane outliner I've seen that I have not found simplistic.

If you were looking for a two-pane outliner, I would probably point you to Notecase Pro, Vault 3 or several others; see http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4432

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Admittedly it is simplistic too; frankly I cannot think of any modern
one-pane outliner I've seen that I have not found simplistic.

Just for reference, here is a list of single-pane outliners that seem to be out there (though UltraRecall probably doesn't really fit the bill):

http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/2520/20

The key word here seems to be "modern." Most of these are ancient, or half-dead, or resurrected zombies :) Which is not to say they are not good. Probably the older the better, though they won't sync with anything automatically... (well, there is actually SplashNotes that syncs with Windows Mobile v5...)

Well, another possibility might be to use a mind mapper on Android that saves in .mm format and syncs with Dropbox.

Then on the PC you can just use Freeplane to open the same file. Freeplane **is** a single-pane outliner with inline notes, when that view is enabled.

Two other two-pane outliners for Android in addition to those Alexander mentions:

Android Outliner and Halna Outliner. Both are very capable. I find Halna a little more user friendly but Android Outliner has the capability for both inline editing and inline notes.

Alex wrote:

Hello everyone. I'm glad to get in this forum at last, after visiting it
many times before. I have been looking for the best 1-Pane Outline long
time ago, since I moved to Android, and my beloved Bonsai has died
within my old Palm. I've tried many, many programs but non of them can
give me the features I did find in Bonsai. Not together, at least. Tired
to go in and out in each app I found interesting, without satisfaction,
I ask to the experts, what software would you recomend which gather next
feature?:

1. One-pane outline for Windows & Android (sync)
2. Hopefully RTF (WYSWYG)
3. Rather portable
4. No need special project features (note taking is my primary need)

The closest program I have found until now is Notliner, no sync though,
but I can copy-paste the notes I need to Evernote. I liked a lot
Noteliner. I wish it has an Android version to sync with.

Have you looked at Notelynx Pro for Android?

http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4409 for some comments.

Thanks xtabber, I didn't know NoteLinx, I think I have passed it by thinking it was for Linux :) It looks great, so far, and do the Bonsai import process, though I got a problem with some special characters. My Bonsai files are in spanish, and when open in NoteLinx they appear as a strange squared character. Do you know if this can be fixed?

"Grapevine" is another new outliner recently released for Android you may want to take a look at. (Full disclosure: I'm the developer.) It does not yet have a Windows counterpart for sync, but has a broad feature set including the ability to import Bonsai outlines (exported in CSV format) and SplashNotes outlines (in native format) and will also export in CSV format. The other Android outliners I've tried to use are very tedious when entering a lot of data because each entry is added through a separate "add element" dialog transaction. Grapevine has a continuous entry mode (much like Bonsai) that lets you keep typing line after line until you're finished. Gestures are used to control indentation and deletion. External keyboards are supported, including the use of tab and shift-tab to indent and unindent.

I would much appreciate any feedback. I created this because I came to depend on Bonsai professionally and haven't seen a decent replacement since I had to abandon the Palm and PocketPC platforms. I know desktop sync is a high priority.

I'll leave this here: http://www.fannsoftware.com/DesktopTreNotes.html

as close to Bonsai as I've found

Sno

Snoshrk wrote:

I'll leave this here: http://www.fannsoftware.com/DesktopTreNotes.html

as close to Bonsai as I've found

Thanks for sharing. Have you tried it? How does the usability compare with Bonsai (ease and speed of use)? What I'm wondering about if it is more fiddly to use or is it good for quick outlining.