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Cloud Outliner 2 for OS X
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jan 19, 2016 at 03:24 PM
You’ve summed it up perfectly, Bill.
One suggestion that may be unpalatable for many, but might also work is to rely instead on a mind-map-style program. Applications like Simple Mind and iThoughts have done a great job, I think, bridging the iOS and OSx worlds. (Why it would be easier to build workable diagramming applications on both platforms than it is to build outliners is a mystery, at least to me.) You can export them to OPML to import into a dedicated outline application, if need be.
Anyway, that is just a consideration.
Steve Z.
Posted by Jan S.
Jan 19, 2016 at 03:56 PM
i think the shortage is due to the fact that people buy 1000$ phones but then expect every app to be 1$ (of which 30% go to Apple and because you can only sell iOS apps on the AppStore there is no way around it). nobody can make a living doing that – this is why a lot of applications disappear suddenly. at the same time outliners are not sexy enough to attract venture capital (unlike task managers). all in all this seems to leave power users unsatisfied (because they cannot use the abilities of their 1000$ phones, but casual users very happy because they get a lot of new apps for 1$ all the time. it’s a vicious cycle.
Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 19, 2016 at 11:45 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
>The
>fact that Carbonfin Outliner is still one of the more capable products
>is a bit bloody sad.
On the other hand how sophisticated or complex does a tablet or mobile phone outlining app really need to be? Outlining in itself is quite a simple and straightforward concept and activity.
I don’t use iOS apps for outlining any more (other than glancing at my WorkFlowy app once in a while on my iPod Touch), but could it be that these phone and tablet apps get too complicated for their own good, and then leave users inevitably dissatisfied?
I do wish though that the WorkFlowy app in iOS and Android was more straightforward to use.
Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Jan 20, 2016 at 06:44 AM
Hasn’t it almost always been the case that the best outliners seem to be task managers? Thinking all the way back to Ecco Pro, here.
Anyway, I feel like this discussion more highlights the value of open file formats. I don’t think passing plain text or OPML files back and forth between apps via Dropbox (though, I wish iOS developers would consider other sync options outside just one cloud provider and iCloud) is the worst thing in the world.
I also agree with Dr. Andus, how complicated does a tablet-based outliner need to be? This reminds me, I should probably play with iThoughts some more. I never really got into the mind map format, but perhaps it’s a better way of working on tablet? It does export to OPML, so I could pull something made in there into a “proper” outliner for further work.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jan 20, 2016 at 04:29 PM
I agree about open file formats - very much, in fact.
But not so sure about “complicated”. I don’t need complicated, but I do look for a few things:
- modest rich text support (bold, italics, ideally underline, strikethrough, ideally colours)
- tags (or contexts)
- notes are nice (but not essential)
For me, those are the basic things required in a competent outliner. Why rich text? Because in a large/complex outline, it helps to be able to highlight/emphasize certain things so they immediately spring to the eye. That’s why I quite like Todoist, actually (although I’m currently using Trello - which supports Markdown, I’m gratified to find, plus team sharing).
I don’t give a monkey’s about file attachments etc., but can see why some people might like them.
Columns are always cool, too (or horizontal trees, a la Tree 2 or Gingko). But hey, that’s getting “complicated”!