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Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 4, 2013 at 08:37 PM
Okay, I’ve now downloaded the very latest version of ConnectedText (fired by criticism of the latter in another thread) and have been sniffing at it with interest.
First of all, it is, of course, a full outliner. In fact, it allows you to maintain multiple outlines - as many as you like per project, as well as a ‘project outline’ - oh, and folding inside notes, as well, which means you can use it as a one-pane, two-pane or three-pane outliner with sub-outliner. That’s pretty powerful!
It also has extensive support for user-defined structures (topics, categories, plus the mindmap-like Navigator), and if that’s not enough, a table of contents pane as well. Not to mention revisions, history, and various other goodies I haven’t had time to glance at. Oh, and a capable (if not perfect) search engine. In short, it amply fulfills all the criteria required to be classified as an outliner.
However: with respect to earlier criticism of the markup approach - yes, I can see what you mean. Precisely because CT is capable of managing very length and complex notes, it would be nice to have a pure WYSIWYG option - editing a markup language in a lengthy note can become quite tedious. In fact, given the success of Notebooks in supporting simple text, Markdown and HTML-based rich text simultaneously (in Windows, MacOS and iOS), I can’t see any very good reason why notes shouldn’t be managed in a WYSIWYG interface. It would add another interpretative layer between user and app, but any potential slowdown would be offset by a hugely enhanced UX. Ideally, advanced users would be able to switch off this option and revert to the markup language if they wished to.
Just some more thoughts on an application that has already been extensively discussed here and elsewhere. But I must say, I’m much more impressed by this latest version of CT than I have been by previous versions.
Posted by Dr Andus
Sep 5, 2013 at 02:23 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>I can’t see any very good reason why notes shouldn’t be
>managed in a WYSIWYG interface
I see your point and may even agree with you. :) I presume there must be some technical difficulties or cost/benefit calculations as to whether to better serve existing users who are fine with markup or widen the user base who might prefer WYSIWYG.
One reason why markups need to be seen during editing in CT is because there are some powerful notations (such as properties or the new “named blocks” feature) that are only visible in edit mode. But an optional edit mode could solve that problem, as you suggest.
> But I must say, I’m much more
>impressed by this latest version of CT than I have been by previous
>versions.
Actually this version is a bit dated now, you might want to check out v.6 when it comes out. From a writing and outlining point of view the main improvements are 1) unlimited floating view-only windows, 2) ability to attach folders and files to the outline in the Outliner pane, 3) new outlining abilities in the TOC, and 4) the named blocks (for annotating text).
Oh, no, I’m talking about CT again! You really must not encourage me… I need to check myself into rehab ;)
Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 5, 2013 at 03:09 PM
Hm - it all sounds fairly scrumptious, I must say. And very outliner-y, for those who aren’t yet convinced!
I’m using Markdown in a lot of iOS apps (Editorial, Day One, Notebooks, Trunk Notes, Daedalus etc.), so I’m not averse to markup language as such - it’s a great solution for touch typists in particular (I am fortunate enough to be one).
But it’s long documents that suffer from markup language overload, especially if you want to edit a couple of words in a paragraph right at the end of a lengthy piece of text, and on switching over to ‘edit’ view, have to track down the specific bit you want in what is, to all intents and purposes, an entirely new application. Editorial and WikidPad both avoid this horrendous conflict by showing a pseudo-WYSIWYG view of the text as well as the codes; this is quite a clever compromise (Editorial also has a full preview mode, but in a completely separate screen, which is an even better idea).
I’m hoping V6 will allow you to open multiple notes/topics in separate windows - do you know if that’s the case? We translators are always thinking in terms of multi-language versions of the same piece of text…
Posted by Dr Andus
Sep 5, 2013 at 04:03 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>especially if you want to edit a couple of words in a paragraph right at
>the end of a lengthy piece of text, and on switching over to ‘edit’
>view, have to track down the specific bit you want in what is, to all
>intents and purposes, an entirely new application.
It does not always work, but there is a workaround to that problem in CT. If you highlight a bit of text in view mode, and switch to the edit mode, then generally the editor will jump to the highlighted text.
>I’m hoping V6 will allow you to open multiple notes/topics in separate
>windows - do you know if that’s the case?
Yes, that’s what I meant by “unlimited view-only floating windows.” They are “view-only” because you can’t edit them, and they are “floating” because you can’t dock them. So you can only edit one note at a time but can view an unlimited number of other notes (or the same note) in floating windows.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 5, 2013 at 04:58 PM
Deffo scrumptious, then!